Wandboard SATA boot in yocto

Hardware modification

For SATA boot, we need to change boot mode of hardware from SD to SATA.

Follow the guide on official wandboard website to hack your wandboard:

http://wandboard.org/?start=29

Verify your Hardware modification

Download image "Yocto 1.5 armhf with Qt5" from wandboard website:

http://wandboard.org/index.php/downloads

The image with SPL u-boot can detect your boot mode and boot from SATA without modifying the code.

But the u-boot environment can't save into SATA storage, we just use this image to verify hardware modification.

Flash this image to SATA storge:
(You can put the source image to usb storage)
dd if=yocto-1.5_qt5_wandboard.img of=/dev/<your SATA device> bs=1M
sync

After boot into u-boot prompt:

setenv bootcmd 'sata read ${loadaddr} 0x800 0x1a00;bootm'
setenv bootargs 'console=ttymxc0,115200 root=/dev/sda1 rootwait rw'
run bootcmd

Then, it can boot into rootfs in SATA storage.

It verifies that your hardware modification works.

Add SATA boot support in Yocto u-boot

Download File:Wandboard quad sata boot.patch

cd <yocto_directory>/sources/meta-fsl-arm/recipes-bsp/u-boot
mkdir u-boot-fslc
cp Wandboard_quad_sata_boot.patch u-boot-fslc

vim u-boot-fslc_2013.10.bb

Add SATA boot patch into SRC_URI.

SRC_URI_append_mx6 = " \
   file://Wandboard_quad_sata_boot.patch \   
"

Then bitbake new image with SATA boot support.

bitbake fsl-image-gui

Flash new image into SATA storage

Flash this image to SATA storge:
(You can put the source image to usb storage)
dd if=fsl-image-gui.sdcard of=/dev/<your SATA device> bs=1M
sync

In u-boot prompt: Modify default bootcmd from mmc to sata.

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
=> setenv bootcmd 'fatload sata 0:1 ${loadaddr} uImage; setenv bootargs console=${console},${baudrate} root=/dev/sda2; bootm'
=> saveenv
Saving Environment to SATA...
Writing to SATA(0)... done

Then, SATA boot works.