How to send boot files over uart

Question

I have a beaglebone black board. A host with 64 bit ubuntu14.04 I wanted to transfer uImage file over uart to beaglebone. So I stopped at u-boot and type

U-Boot# loadb
## Ready for binary (kermit) download to 0x80200000 at 115200 bps...

Now it is waiting for the file. What I have to do in order to send the uImage from pc to board.

Apparently you're using somekind of terminal emulation program on the host PC. Are you using minicom or TeraTerm or ??? There should be a built-in capability to transfer a file using various protocols, e.g. a file send or transfer command menu. — sawdust

SRK SRK · Accepted Answer · 2018-11-20T08:56:49

After the loadb command prints "Ready for binary download", exit from the terminal(minicom, putty etc). Note down the serial device (eg: /dev/ttyUSB0). Install kermit or its variants (eg: gkermit and ckermit are available in Ubuntu).

Assuming that /dev/ttyUSB0 is your serial device, baudrate is 115200, and no flow control is used, provide the following parameters to kermit

$kermit
kermit> set port /dev/ttyUSB0
kermit> set speed 115200
kermit> set carrier-watch off
kermit> set flow-control none

Now issue the command send , to send the file over serial line:

  kermit> send filename

After the file transfer is successful, exit from kermit (use exit command), and re-open minicom. Now you can issue further commands.

NOTE : You can explicitly specify a load address to loadb. If not specified, U-boot takes load address from environment variables.

NOTE-2 : Some terminal programs have built-in facility to send files over serial line using protocols like xmodem or kermit.

How to send boot files over uart

1 Answers