Installing Linux on the external Flash modules for STMP157-BASE-SOM-EVB

The new external Flash modules Flash-e16Gs16M and Flash-e32Gs16M add eMMC and SPI Flash to the boards which supports them:

• STMP15x-OLinuXino-LIME2 and its variants;
• STMP1(A13)-EVB + STMP15X-SOM and its variants;
• STMP157-BASE-SOM-EVB + STMP157-BASE-SOM-EXT;
• A20-OLinuXino-LIME2 (Rev.L and up);
• S3-OLinuXino;
• iMX8Mplus-SOM-EVB.

The latest OLIMAGE Linux distribution supports these two modules, so this is how you can install linux on the Flash-e modules:

1. Install the module on the board while no power is applied;
2. Download the latest image from images.olimex.com;
3. Burn the downloaded image to SD card, we suggest to use BalenaEtcher;
4. If you use STM32MP157 board make sure on-board jumpers are set for boot from the SD card (see the picture below);
5. Apply 5V DC power supply to the power jack. Notice that first time boot takes longer than usual so wait patiently to reach the login prompt. Login with user root and password olimex;
6. You can check if eMMC is visible now with fdisk. Then execute the script for SD to eMMC transfer: $olinuxino-sd-to-emmc
7. Wait until it completes. Then turn off the board with command “poweroff”. Wait until the board powers off then remove the power supply;
8. Remove the micro SD card and configure the jumpers for boot from eMMC. In the BASE-SOM board that I use I change the state of BOOT_SW1 from default positions “ON, OFF, ON” to “OFF, ON, OFF”. The fourth switch is not connected.
9. Apply power supply and board will boot from the eMMC image.

The advantage of the removable eMMC is that you can easily scale your project and change between different Flash sizes, or if Flash got damaged you can easily exchange it.

STMP157-BASE-SOM is system on module which exposes all STM32MP157 SOC features, STMP157-BASE-SOM-EVB is open source hardware reference design for STMP157-BASE-SOM

STMP157-BASE-SOM-EXT contains:

• STM32MP157DAA1 Dual Core Cortex-A7 + Cortex-M4
• 1GB RAM
• AXP209 PMIC, LDO, DCDC power management
• 24 Mhz oscillator
• Linux configuration EEPROM
• User LED
• 6 x 40 total 240 pin connectors with 1.27 mm/0.05″ step

STMP157-BASE-SOM-EVB is KiCAD reference design and allow these features of STM32MP157 to be explored:

• Flash module connector
• Gigabit Ethernet with TSN
• Two USB 2.0 hosts
• USB-OTG
• Two CAN
• HDMI
• RGB LCD
• MIPI LCD
• CSI 2Mpixel Camera
• micro SD-card
• Microphone 3.5mm connector
• Headphones 3.5mm connector
• RESET button
• POWER button
• UEXT connector
• EXT1, EXT2 connectors
• PWR connector
• LiPo charger and battery connector
• PWR LED
• DBG connector
• Boot configuration slide switch
• optional JTAG connector (not populated)

STMP157-BASE-SOM-EXT is supported by Olimage Debian distribution. with Linux with Kernel 6.x

RK3328-SOM Linux module now have 4GB LPDDR3 version

RK3328-SOM is popular SOM module with Quad Core Cortex-A53. Now we offer it beside 1GB and 2GB RAM version also with 4GB LPDDR3 RAM

ESP32-S3-DevKit-LiPo is Open Source Hardware EUR 12 board with JTAG and LiPo charger capable to run Linux kernel 6.3

ESP32-S3-DevKit-LiPo is small EUR 12 Open Source Hardware board which is capable to run Linux Kernel 6.x and MicroPython.

The board has these features:

• ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N8R8 8MB RAM 8 MB Flash
• Green Status LED
• Yellow Charge LED
• pUEXT connector
• USB-C power supply and USB-Serial programmer
• USB-C OTG JTAG/Serial connector
• LiPo charger
• LiPo battery connector
• External power sense
• Battery measurement
• Automatic power supply switch between USB and LiPo
• RESET button
• USER button

Running Linux with kernel 6.3 on Open Source Hardware board with ESP32-S3!

Few days ago I spotted on Twitter that there is possible to run Linux on ESP32-S3.

It was good timing as our new EUR 12.00 ESP32-S3-DevKit-Lipo board just hit the mass production, so I got one board and try to replicate the results.

• ESP32-S3-WROOM1 with 8MB RAM and 8MB Flash
• Reset and Boot buttons
• USB-C port with USB-OTG for JTAG debugging and programming
• USB-C port with CH340X for serial UART for programming and debugging
• LiPo charger and battery connector
• pUEXT connector for connecting UEXT modules
• GPIOs available on dual row connector 0.1″ step

I used clean freshly installed Ubuntu 22.04LTS on small box and try to reproduce the script here.

I had to run it dozen of times and it always ended with this or that missing, then it seems to complete, but didn’t program anything to ESP32-S3.

Later I try this with the same result!

I asked on Twitter for help and Rudi (@eMbeddedHome) quickly built binary file just for flashing on ESP32-S3-DevKit-LiPo.

This time everything went smoothly and the board boot normally.

So I will have to keep digging what I do wrong.

$ free -m 

reports 3MB free for user apps out of total 7MB

The access to the GPIO is possible via devmem direct write to ESP32-S3 registers:

devmem 0x60004020 32 1  
sleep 0.5
devmem 0x60004020 32 0
sleep 0.5
devmem 0x60004020 32 1
sleep 0.5
devmem 0x60004020 32 0
sleep 0.5

Also it seems micropython has “unix” version which could be run on this device!

https://github.com/micropython/micropython/tree/master/ports/unix

Our most complex OSHW board – the iMX8QuadMax Tukhla project first prototypes are assembled and they boot!

The Tukhla project was completed in April 2021. However, due to the COVID-19 semiconductor madness, we were unable to assemble prototypes because of the lack of semiconductors. The development of this project is financed by Ignitial SAS, a company based in France.

Finally we got enough chips to complete the first three prototypes and we assembled them last week before the May’s Holidays.

Tukhla has these features:

MIMX8QM5AVUFFAB 8-core processor:

• x2 Cortex-A72 running at 1.6Ghz
• x4 Cortex-A53 running at 1.2Ghz
• x2 Cortex-M4F running at 264Mhz
• 8 GB LPDR4 64 bit @1600Mhz

Connectivity:

• 1× PCIe (2-lanes)
• 1× USB 3.0 with PHY
• 1x USB 3.0 dual role with PHY
• 1× SATA 3.0
• 2× 1Gb Ethernet with AVB
• 1× CAN/CAN-FD
• 1x HDMI Rx

GPU:

• 2xGC7000 XSVX
• 16× Vec4 shaders with 64 execution units
• Dual independent 8-Vec4 shader GPUs or a combined 16-Vec4 shader GPU
• OpenGL 3.0, 2.1
• OpenGL ES 3.2, 3.1 (with AEP), 3.0, 2.0, and 1.1
• OpenCL 1.2 Full Profile and 1.1
• OpenVG 1.1
• Vulkan

VPU:

• H.265 decode (4Kp60)
• H.264 decode (4Kp30)
• WMV9/VC-1 imple decode
• MPEG 1 and 2 decode
• AVS decodeMPEG4.2 ASP,
• H.263, Sorenson Spark decode
• Divx 3.11 including GMC decode
• ON2/Google VP6/VP8 decode
• RealVideo 8/9/10 decode
• JPEG and MJPEG decode
• 2× H.264 encode (1080p30)

Display:

• Supports single UltraHD 4Kp60 display
• or up to 4 independent FullHD 1080p60 displays
• 2× MIPI-DSI with 4 lanes each
• 1× HDMI-TX/DisplayPort
• 2× LVDS Tx with 2 channels of 4 lanes each

Camera:

• 2× MIPI-CSI with 4-lanes each, MIPI DPHYSM v1.

Security:

• Advanced High Assurance Boot (AHAB) secure & encrypted boot

Operating temperature:

• Automotive AEC-Q100 Grade 3 -40+125C

We now experiment with NXP Yocto build images to verify everythings is working correctly, before we run production.

New shield for STMP157-OLinuXino Industrial grade Open Source Hardware Linux computer

The open source hardware STMP157-OLinuXino industrial grade Linux computer got new shield which adds two UEXT connectors, second micro SD card and 40 pin GPIO connector in breadboard friendly 0.1″ (2.54 mm) step format.

STMP15X-SHIELD plugs on top of OLinuXino, the overlays are already included in OLIMAGE Linux images and no need for additional setup.

A64-OLinuXino Open Source Hardware Linux computer is back in stock

All variants of the Open Source Hardware Linux computer A64-OLinuXino now are back in stock!

iMX8MPlus-SOM is alive and boots!

This board development started in April 2021 and finished August 2021 but the semiconductor shortages didn’t allow us to test the prototypes until recently. We assembled 4 boards and all theyare alive and boot.

The features are:

• MIMX8ML8DVNLZAB – Quad Core Arm Cortex-A53 running at 1.8Ghz with Arm Cortex-M7 co-processor running at 800Mhz and 2.3 TOPS Neural Processing Unit.
• 6GB LPDDR4 RAM
• Power management
• configuration EEPROM
• status LED
• LCD LVDS connector compatible with LCD-OLinuXino displays
• MIPI DSI connector
• 2x MIPI CSI comera connectors with Raspberry Pi compatible pinout
• 220 signals on 6 0.05″ step connectors with essential peripherials like:
  • PCIe-3.0
  • 2x CAN FD
  • HDMI 2.0a
  • SPDIF
  • SAI
  • 2x USB 3.0
  • 2x Gigabit Ethernet one of them with TSN
  • eMMC 5.1
  • SDIO 3.0 200Mhz
  • 4 UART
  • 6 I2C
  • 3 SPI
  • JTAG

Unfortunately we only managed to find 24Gb LPDDR4 for the prototypes so instead of 6GB they are with only 3GB of RAM.

Now is time to prepare Linux and Android images! NXP provide iMX8MPlus with Linux Kernel 5.10 and Android 11.

MIMX8ML8DVNLZAB is industrial grade -40+105C

STMP157-SOM-EXT, STMP157-SOM-IND and STMP1(A13)-SOM-EVB are in stock!

Now our first STMP1 boards can be ordered on our web:

STMP1(A13)-SOM-EVB evaluation board (requires separate SOM)

STMP157-SOM-EXT extended temperature range -20+85C running on 800Mhz

STMP157-SOM-IND industrial temperature range -40+85C running on 650Mhz