phoenix-rtos-doc / quickstart / armv7a7-imx6ull.md

Running system on armv7a7-imx6ull (NXP i.MX 6ULL)

This version is designed for NXP i.MX 6ULL processors with ARM Cortex-A7 core. To launch this version the final disk image and loader image should be provided. Images are created as the final artifacts of the phoenix-rtos-project building and are located in the _boot directory. The disk image consists of bootloader (plo), kernel, UART driver (tty), dummyfs filesystem server (RAM disk), and psh (shell). Necessary tools to carry out the uploading process are located in the _boot directory as well.

Development board

The easiest way to start programming hardware targets using Phoenix-RTOS is to get some of the evaluation boards with a specified target processor or microcontroller. In this case i. MX 6ULL - EVK is the example of a board with the imx6ull processor, where the default configuration of peripherals allows to run Phoenix-RTOS.

Connecting the board

  • To provide a power supply for the board, you should connect AC Adapter to the DC socket on the board. For now, leave the SW2001 switch in the 1 position.

  • To communicate with the board you will need to connect the USB cable to the DEBUG USB port (J1901). The onboard UART-USB converter is used here.

  • You should also connect another micro USB cable to the USB OTG port (J1102). As a result two available USB ports in i. MX 6ULL - EVK will be connected to your host-pc.

  • Now you can power up the board by changing the SW2001 position to 2. The D2003 LED should turn green.

  • Now you should verify what USB device on your host-pc is connected with the DEBUG USB (console). To check that run:

ls -l /dev/serial/by-id

If your output is like in the screenshot above, the console (DEBUG USB in the evaluation board) is on the USB0 port.

  • When the board is connected to your host-pc, open serial port in terminal using picocom and type the console port (in this case USB0)

picocom -b 115200 --imap lfcrlf /dev/ttyUSB0

How to get picocom (Ubuntu 20.04)

sudo apt-get update && \ sudo apt-get install picocom


You can leave the terminal with the serial port open, and follow the next steps.

Uploading the Phoenix-RTOS system image to RAM

In order to place the disk image on the board, psu (Phoenix Serial Uploader) and the imx6ull-ram.sdp (Serial Download Protocol) script should be used.

  • Make sure, that the SW602 switch is in the following configuration (serial downloader mode):
D1/MODE1 D2/MODE0
OFF ON

If it was in a different position you have to restart the board after the change and connect to the serial port a second time.

  • Change directory to _boot and run psu as follows:

sudo ./psu ../phoenix-rtos-hostutils/psu/imx6ull-ram.sdp

  • If everything has gone correctly, Phoenix-RTOS with the default configuration and the psh shell command prompt will appear in the terminal.

Using Phoenix-RTOS

To get the available command list please type:

help

If you want to get the list of working processes please type:

ps

To get the table of processes please type:

top

See also

  1. Running system on targets
  2. Table of Contents