Flash a Bootable SD Card for the SAMA5D27-SOM1-EK1

 Objective

This guide describes a method of flashing an SD card with a bootable image file for the SAMA5D27-SOM1-EK1 Evaluation Kit. The demonstration image file is a customized Linux® distribution created using the Yocto project. This article assumes a Linux Ubuntu-based host, though the steps are similar for Windows®, macOS® and most Linux distributions.

 Materials

Hardware

You will need an SD card reader/writer for your PC, plus:

Tool About Purchase
SAMA5D27-SOM1-EK-50px.png
SAMA5D27-SOM1-EK1
Evaluation Kit
sd-card-50px.png
SD Card ≥ 1GB
Flash Memory
TM7000B-50px.png
Precision Design Associates TM4301B
4.3in PCAP Touch Module

The TM4301B display is optional.

Software

Tool About Installers
Installation
Instructions
Windows Linux Mac OSX
etcher-50px.png
Etcher
Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives
swtool-50px.png
Minicom
ANSI and VT102 Terminal Emulator

If you are using a Debian/Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, you can install Etcher and Minicom from the package repository instead.

Files

Use your own binary image or choose an appropriate binary image file below based on the presence or absence of the TM4301B display. The procedure described in this page assumes the use of one of the demonstration images after booting, so the results of the final steps will be different if you are using your own image file.

Display Binary
None
linux4sam-poky-sama5d27_som1_ek-5.7.img.bz2 (~ 124 MB)
md5: 1d0bf403065a7ac0a9c9c15e73fa3907
Precision Design Associates TM4301B
4.3in PCAP Touch Module
linux4sam-poky-sama5d27_som1_ek_pda4-5.7.img.bz2 (~ 135 MB)
md5: 86fc9ded279585a51af27e65a9ff8de0

The files above come from the Linux4SAM website.

 Connection Diagram

SAMA5D27-SOM1-EK1-Connections.png

 Procedure

1

Download and extract image file

From the "Files" section above, download the file that matches your hardware configuration. Then extract the *.img file from the *.bz2 file.

2

Insert SD flash card into reader and then launch Etcher

You should see your flash card listed in the middle of Etcher's screen. It might say something like "Flash Reader" and display the size of your SD card.

etcher1.png
Click image to enlarge.
Etcher Screen

3

Select the appropriate disk image file for your hardware configuration

Click the Select Image button and chose the *.img file you downloaded and extracted in step 1.

etcher2.png
Click image to enlarge.
Etcher screen with disk image loaded.

4

Flash the image to the SD card

Click the Flash! button and wait for the image to be flashed and verified to the card.

etcher3.png
Click image to enlarge.
Image being flashed to SD card

5

Unmount and eject the SD card

If successful, you will see two partitions mounted on your system:

  • BOOT
  • ROOTFS

Unmount these partitions and eject the SD card from the reader.

etcher4.png
Click image to enlarge.
SD card successfully flashed

6

Insert SD card into J12 (SD card slot)

7

Connect board to PC and determine assigned serial terminal device:

Connect USB cable from J10 to PC. You will see D5, the status LED turn red. Run dmesg in a terminal.

At the end of the output, you will see the SEGGER information. The info we want is the ttyACM0 in this example (may be different on your PC).

8

Open a serial connection to the board

From the command line, run minicom:

sudo minicom -D /dev/ttyACM0

It should automatically detect the baud rate and other settings. Run minicom -help to list possible parameters.

9

Reboot the board and login

Press BP1 to reset the board. D5, the status LED, should blink blue (repeating double blinks) while booting and once the system has booted. You will see text describing the boot process begin to scroll up the Minicom terminal window. Once it has fully booted, if you have the TM4301B display connected you will see a menu as shown in the screenshot. In the Minicom window on your PC, you will see a login prompt. Enter root as the username. There is no password required.

screen.png
Click image to enlarge.
TM4301B Display Screenshot

At this point, you have a functioning Linux system on the target and can freely navigate the system using bash shell commands.

10

Exit

To end the Minicom session, press Ctrl + A to enter command mode, then press X to exit.

 Results

SAMA5D27-SOM1-EK1-Results.png
SAMA5D27-SOM1-EK1 running demonstration binary image for use with TM4301B display

Author:

Rob Ostapiuk
Microchip Technology Inc.



 References

  • SAMA5D27-SOM1-EK1 @ Linux4SAM
  • SAMA5D27-SOM1-EK1 @ microchip.com
  • FFC/FPC Cable Connector
    • Tutorial
    • FFC = Flat Flex Cable
    • FPC = Flexible Printed Circuit
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