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Image Flashing Guide

note

Some parts of this guide is for SiFive HiFive Premier P550 only. See notes below.

We'll update the docs soon.

Environment​

Host System Version: Ubuntu 22.04

minicom Version: 2.8

fastboot Version: 28.0.2-debian

Preparation​

Hardware Requirements​

  • USB Type A to USB Type C cable
  • USB Type A to USB Type A cable
  • A USB drive formatted to FAT32

Image Downloads​

For bootloader, boot and root images, download from here.

  • BootFS: boot-rockos-*.ext4.zst
  • RootFS: root-rockos-*.ext4.zst
  • For SD Card and SSD: sdcard-rockos-*.img.zst
  • Bootloader for different boards:
    • ESWIN EIC7700 EVB A2: bootloader_secboot_ddr5_eic7700-evb-a2.bin
    • ESWIN EIC7700 EVB A3: bootloader_secboot_ddr5_eic7700-evb-a3.bin
    • SiFive HiFive Premier P550: bootloader_secboot_ddr5_hifive-p550.bin
    • Milk-V Megrez: bootloader_secboot_ddr5_milkv-megrez.bin
    • PINE64 StarPro64: bootloader_secboot_ddr5_pine64-starpro64.bin

After downloading, please extract the boot and rootfs files. Copy the bootloader file to the USB drive formatted in FAT32.

Flashing the Image​

Connect the board to the host system using both the USB Type A to USB Type C and USB Type A to USB Type A cables.

According to Section 3.1.6 of the official user manual:

  • Insert the USB Type A to USB Type A cable into the upper port of the dual USB Type-A connector labeled as #10.
  • Insert the USB Type A to USB Type C cable into the Type-C USB connector labeled as #15.

Bootloader​

First, establish a serial connection to the board. Once the cables are correctly connected, the board will be listed as four UARTs.

tip

This chart below is for SiFive HiFive Premier P550 only, while other boards might have different.

Following Section 2.1.1.1 of the MCU User Manual, set the ttyUSB2 as the connection path in minicom, and set the baud rate to 115200.

No.Device
00SOC JTAG (eic7700x mcpu)
01MCU JTAG (stm32)
02SOC UART (eic7700x uart0)
03MCU UART (stm32 uart3)
sudo minicom -D /dev/ttyUSB2 -b 115200

Insert the prepared USB drive containing the bootloader file.

After pressing the power button to boot, observe the minicom window and interrupt the U-Boot booting by pressing Ctrl+C or enter.

Execute the following commands to check the files on the USB drive:

usb start

fatls usb 0 / # If multiple files are present on the USB drive, please confirm the storage path of the bootloader file.

After verifying the correct files on the USB drive, execute the following commands:

fatload usb 0 0x90000000 bootloader_secboot_ddr5_hifive-p550.bin

es_burn write 0x90000000 flash

After rebooting, interrupt the U-Boot booting again and execute the partitioning command (required for the first flash to allocate sufficient space for the boot/root images).

reset
# Interrupt U-Boot startup
run gpt_partition

Boot & Rootfs​

After starting and interrupting the machine, enter the following command to enter fastboot mode. (Make sure to disconnect the USB Type A to USB Type A cable beforehand to avoid circuit or communication conflicts.)

fastboot usb 0

Open another terminal on the host and execute the following flashing commands:

sudo fastboot flash boot boot-eswin_evb-20241024-145708.ext4   # Flash boot
sudo fastboot flash root root-eswin_evb-20241024-145708.ext4   # Flash rootfs
# Ensure the file paths are correct; flashing time may take 10 minutes

Return to the minicom terminal, press Ctrl+C or enter to exit fastboot mode, and execute reset to reboot the machine.

At this point, the RockOS image flashing is complete.