Get ZedBoard original factory booting (to restore default booting).

[mvernengo]

I recently posted the below request for assistance for restoring my ZedBoard's original default booting, but even though I did receive an answer, there was no solution. The problem is that my ZedBoard is no longer showing the Digilent brand image in the OLED display and I want to restore this default behavior when booting.

As I had no solution, I looked in ChatGPT, and the robot answer was that I needed to get the "original boot image for the ZedBoard". Is this the correct answer? (I am not sure that I can rely on ChatGPT). Does anybody know how I can get the boot image?

My previous post:

The following is the complete ChatGPT answer:

Restoring the Zedboard to factory booting typically involves re-flashing the board's boot image with the original factory image. Here are the general steps to do so:

1. Obtain the original factory boot image for the Zedboard. This might be available from the manufacturer's website or by contacting their support.

2. Connect the Zedboard to your computer using a USB cable, and ensure it is powered on.

3. Use a flashing tool or software provided by the manufacturer to flash the original boot image onto the Zedboard. Follow the instructions provided with the flashing tool to complete this process.

4. Once the flashing process is complete, disconnect the Zedboard from your computer and power it off.

5. Power on the Zedboard and it should now boot using the factory settings and configuration.

It's important to note that flashing the boot image will erase all existing data and settings on the Zedboard, so ensure you have backed up any important data before proceeding. Also, always follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer to ensure a successful restoration to factory booting.

Thanks for anyone who can help.

[artvvb]

Hi @mvernengo

Apologies for the delay.

The Zedboard ships with an SD card with the out-of-box image included, and also potentially an image in flash - we're currently investigating the flash side. There is an "Out-of-box demo" ZIP file including out-of-box source files and an image for the Zedboard on its resource center: https://digilent.com/reference/programmable-logic/zedboard/start. Note that this image is quite old, and was created using Xilinx XPS 14.1 and SDK 14.1, according to the included readme, and as such, may be quite difficult to rebuild from scratch. Recreating an SD card for boot from the included prebuilt files looks to be relatively straightforward, and is documented in the readme.

As an aside, in my experience, ChatGPT results for this kind of technical topic, especially when related to specific products, tend to either be highly unreliable or not specific enough to be helpful, at least for new users. In this particular case, the output isn't the worst. SD card boot is also an option, and you should make sure to set the programming mode select jumpers to the appropriate position for the intended boot source. AMD/Xilinx's Vivado or Vitis (previously SDK) tools would typically be used to handle flashing an image. SD card prep, given the boot image, can be performed using the normal stuff intended for formatting drives and moving files around.

Thanks,

Arthur

[mvernengo]

On 2/7/2024 at 5:50 PM, artvvb said:

Hi @mvernengo

Apologies for the delay.

The Zedboard ships with an SD card with the out-of-box image included, and also potentially an image in flash - we're currently investigating the flash side. There is an "Out-of-box demo" ZIP file including out-of-box source files and an image for the Zedboard on its resource center: https://digilent.com/reference/programmable-logic/zedboard/start. Note that this image is quite old, and was created using Xilinx XPS 14.1 and SDK 14.1, according to the included readme, and as such, may be quite difficult to rebuild from scratch. Recreating an SD card for boot from the included prebuilt files looks to be relatively straightforward, and is documented in the readme.

As an aside, in my experience, ChatGPT results for this kind of technical topic, especially when related to specific products, tend to either be highly unreliable or not specific enough to be helpful, at least for new users. In this particular case, the output isn't the worst. SD card boot is also an option, and you should make sure to set the programming mode select jumpers to the appropriate position for the intended boot source. AMD/Xilinx's Vivado or Vitis (previously SDK) tools would typically be used to handle flashing an image. SD card prep, given the boot image, can be performed using the normal stuff intended for formatting drives and moving files around.

Thanks,

Arthur

Hi, Arthur, thanks for your answer and sorry for delayed answer, I was checking a copuple of things.

I must tell you that I have no issue with the SD Card. How do I know? Because I have 2 (two) ZedBoards one "faulty" and another "brand new" and when I swap the SD cards nothing changes (both continue doing the same, tha "faulty" is still faulty and the "brand new" keeps working well).

Hence it cannot be an issue with the SD Card because swapping with another ZedBoard's SD Card nothing changes.

Just in case let me explain what "faulty" means:

1) When booting with jumpers in "SD Card boot mode" (FAULTY CASE):

• The "done" LED never lights up;
• Neither Vivado nor Vitis detect the board.
• The OLED display never shows "Digilent" brand image.
• If I connect the UART cable, a strange character is being continuously transmitted. BTW, this is probably because of how the problem started: I had programmed a PS (ARM processor) application that sent some characters with "print" command and I guess this program is called by the system instead of the SD boot.

2) When booting with jumpers in "JTAG boot mode" (in this case, the "faulty" ZB is NOT faulty, it works as expected):

• The done LED lights up.
• Both Vivado and Vitis detect the board that can be programmed normally.
• The UART connection works well and a "Hello Program" in the PS (ARM processor) side works.
• The OLED display does not show the "Digilent" brand image: this is correct to happen in this JTAG boot mode, I just mention it for reference.

In case of the "brand new" ZB, with the jumpers in "SD Card boot mode" the OLED display shows the "Digilent" Brand (correct) and in the "JTAG boot mode" it doesn't (also correct).

As far as I can see, there is SOMETHING that cannot be explained that even though the jumpers are programmed to boot from the SD Card, IT STOPPED WORKING on the "faulty" ZB. However I could not find anything wrong in the QSPI Flash ROM because when I put the jumpers in this mode, the two ZedBoards do exactly the same (a 01010101 pattern apears in the 8 main red LEDs). Hence in principle, I cannot assume that any image in the QSPI Flash ROM was damaged in the "faulty" ZB. But then I cannot explain WHY the behavior is so different when in "SD boot mode".

You see: what I want is just to put the ZedBoard in the "factory default status" which means that when in the "SD Card boot":

a) At power ON, the "done" LED lights up and the OLED display shows the "Digilent" Brand.

b) The ZB can be programmed with Vivado and Vitis.

But with this "faulty" situation, I can only program the ZB putting the jumpers in "JTAG boot mode".

Why I want this? For example in order to hand out the ZB to another person in the university in the same original status that I received it (which means he or she can work normally with the "SD Card boot mode" and they can see the expected "Digilent" brand in the OLED and that they do not need to change to "JTAG boor mode"). Also, because I don't have the LEAST idea of WHY this change of behavior happened and this means that there is something about how the ZedBoard works that I should know but I don't (actually the latter is the main reason).

Many thanks.

Martin.

Edited February 16 by mvernengo

[artvvb]

Hi Martin,

12 minutes ago, mvernengo said:

If I connect the UART cable, a strange character is being continuously transmitted. BTW, this is probably because of how the problem started: I had programmed a PS (ARM processor) application that sent some characters with "print" command and I guess this program is called by the system instead of the SD boot.  THIS IS ALSO A FAULTY PART !!!

Strange characters showing up in the terminal could indicate a baud rate mismatch between your terminal and the board, I'd at least try to see if they become something intelligible with 115200 or 9600 baud, possibly some others. If there's a baud rate that works, printed statements could help us figure out what's going on.

Your JTAG boot mode behavior sounds perfectly normal. I've asked some colleagues for ideas on what could be causing the failure to boot from SD - the DONE LED not lighting up means that the bitstream is not being loaded. Since the OLED is controlled from fabric, no bitstream means that the OLED wouldn't be controllable, so there isn't necessarily damage to the physical part.

Thanks,

Arthur