How to boot the kernel via TFTP from U-Boot

Applicable for STM32MP13x lines, STM32MP15x lines

This page explains how to boot the Linux® kernel from U-Boot through a TFTP server installed on a host PC, based on the pxe U-Boot command.

1 Documentation[edit]

The documentation is available in the U-Boot source:

2 TFTP server installation on host PC[edit]

The procedure, to install a TFTP server on your PC host, is explained here [1].

3 TFTP server configuration[edit]

U-Boot follows pxelinux's rules to download from the TFTP server a PXE configuration file located in the pxelinux.cfg directory.
See more details here[2]

U-Boot pxe command loads a PXE configuration file in pxelinux.cfg directory of the TFTP server and parses it.

3.1 PXE configuration file[edit]

Each PXE configuration file has same format as the extlinux.conf file, generated by a standard Yocto distribution.

The format of the PXE configuration text file is explained in this chapter. More explanations on the name of the file loaded by U-Boot are given in next chapter.

For each element of the menu :

  • the LABEL is a string, for example the boot device such as an e•MMC, SD card, NAND, and so on.
  • the kernel and the device tree loaded by U-Boot are defined via KERNEL and FDT options.
  • the Linux® kernel boot arguments are defined via the APPEND option, including the rootfs to use;

For example with STM32MP157F-EV1 Evaluation board More info green.png and with the rootfs on the 8th partition of the SD card (/dev/mmcblk0p8), the PXE configuration file is:

 menu title Select the boot mode
 DEFAULT sdcard
 LABEL sdcard
 	KERNEL uImage
 	FDT stm32mp157f-ev1.dtb
 	APPEND root=/dev/mmcblk0p8 rootwait rw earlyprintk console=ttySTM0,115200

To fully boot on a network (kernel and rootfs), the rootfs to use can be defined :

  • as initramfs with INITRD command in configuration file (the file uInitrd need to be generated, it is a generic feature not explained in this WIKI).
  • or as NFS mounting point with Linux® kernel boot arguments nfsroot[3] added in APPEND command (root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=... ) and NFS server running on the PC[4].

In the configuration file, the menu can have several options (see LABEL, DEFAULT and TIMEOUT commands in README.pxe for details).

For example with STM32MP157C-EV1 Evaluation board Warning.png:

 menu title Select the boot mode
 DEFAULT initramfs
 TIMEOUT 20
 LABEL initramfs
 	KERNEL uImage
 	FDT stm32mp157c-ev1.dtb
 	INITRD uInitrd
 	APPEND rootwait rw earlyprintk console=ttySTM0,115200
 LABEL nfs
 	KERNEL uImage
 	FDT stm32mp157c-ev1.dtb
 	APPEND root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=192.168.1.1:/nfsroot ip=dhcp rootwait rw earlyprintk console=ttySTM0,115200
 LABEL sdcard
 	KERNEL uImage
 	FDT stm32mp157c-ev1.dtb
 	APPEND root=/dev/mmcblk0p8 rootwait rw earlyprintk console=ttySTM0,115200
 LABEL eMMC
 	KERNEL uImage
 	FDT stm32mp157c-ev1.dtb
 	APPEND root=/dev/mmcblk1p6 rootwait rw earlyprintk console=ttySTM0,115200

3.2 pxelinux.cfg directory[edit]

Because more than one board may be booted from the same server, the "PXE configuration file" name depends on U-boot parameters (hardware address of the board/IP address).

U-Boot searches for a PXE configuration file in the pxelinux.cfg directory in this order:

  1. UUID comes from "pxeuuid" variable
  2. hardware type and address: ARP type "1" for Ethernet and MAC address
  3. IP address of the board and each subnet mask
  4. at the end, the file named "default-$CONFIG_SYS_ARCH-$CONFIG_SYS_SOC"

You need to provide at least one configuration file on the TFTP server per board.

Each file of the pxelinux.cfg directory can have the same content (or can be a symbolic link to a default one).

For example with STM32MP1 series, when:

  • UUID is not defined
  • ethaddr=00:80:e1:01:2d:6f
  • IP =10.48.0.141 (hexa coding=0A30008D)
  • CONFIG_SYS_ARCH=arm and CONFIG_SYS_SOC="stm32mp"

U-Boot searches the configuration file is this order:

  1. "01-00-80-e1-01-2d-6f"
  2. 0A30008D then subnet 0A30008, 0A3000, 0A300 ...
  3. default-arm-stm32mp


With ethaddr=00:80:e1:01:2d:6f, the tftp directory (for example /tftpboot) may look like:

 ├── pxelinux.cfg                   directory
 │   ├── 01-00-80-e1-01-2d-6f       configuration file for MAC address 00:80:e1:01:2d:6f
 ├── stm32mp157c-ev1.dtb            device tree
 ├── uImage                         kernel

The content of the "PXE configuration" text file named "01-00-80-e1-01-2d-6f" is described in the previous chapter.

An other example with

  • different boards (identified by a MAC address)
    each pxe file selects a different device tree (ed1, ev1, dk1, dk2) or kernel file
  • fallback with the IP address submask (symbolic link to default-arm-stm32mp)
  • default-arm-stm32mp (final fallback file, name based on CONFIG_SYS_SOC)
 ├── pxelinux.cfg
 │   ├── 01-00-80-e1-01-2d-6f            configuration file for MAC address 00:80:e1:01:2d:6f
 │   ├── 01-00-80-e1-42-42-8c            configuration file for MAC address 00:80:e1:42:42:8c
 │   ├── 01-00-80-e1-42-42-cd            configuration file for MAC address 00:80:e1:42:42:cd
 │   ├── 01-00-80-e1-42-46-76            configuration file for MAC address 00:80:e1:42:46:6f
 │   ├── 0A300 -> default-arm-stm32mp    configuration file for IP address 10.48.0*.**
 │   ├── 0A30001 -> default-arm-stm32mp  configuration file for IP address 10.48.00.1*
 │   ├── 0A30004 -> default-arm-stm32mp  configuration file for IP address 10.48.00.4*
 │   ├── 0A30008 -> default-arm-stm32mp  configuration file for IP address 10.48.00.8*
 │   └── default-arm-stm32mp             default configuration file
 ├── stm32mp157c-ed1.dtb
 ├── stm32mp157c-ev1.dtb
 ├── stm32mp157a-dk1.dtb
 ├── stm32mp157c-dk2.dtb
 ├── uImage
 ├── uInitrd

4 Board command in U-boot console[edit]

You can execute the DISTRO bootcmd for PXE:

  env set serverip <the PC address>
  run bootcmd_pxe

5 Step by step example[edit]

  1. STM32MP157C-EV1 board with MAC address: ethaddr=00:80:e1:01:60:da
  2. Install and configure a TFTP server:
    • IP address is 10.201.21.107
    • directory is :
 ├── pxelinux.cfg
 │   ├── 01-00-80-e1-01-60-da
 ├── stm32mp157c-ev1.dtb 
 ├── uImage

With the text file 01-00-80-e1-01-60-da ( #PXE configuration file in #pxelinux.cfg directory) :

menu title Select the boot mode
DEFAULT sdcard
LABEL sdcard
	KERNEL uImage
	FDT stm32mp157c-ev1.dtb
	APPEND root=/dev/mmcblk0p6 rootwait rw earlyprintk console=ttySTM0,115200

In the U-Boot console:

 STM32MP> env set serverip 10.201.21.107                              set the server address
 STM32MP> run bootcmd_pxe                                            execute the DISTRO command
 BOOTP broadcast 1
 DHCP client bound to address 10.48.1.229 (19 ms)
 missing environment variable: pxeuuid
 missing environment variable: bootfile
 Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/01-00-80-e1-01-60-da
 Using ethernet@5800a000 device
 TFTP from server 10.201.21.107; our IP address is 10.48.1.229; sending through gateway 10.48.3.254
 Filename 'pxelinux.cfg/01-00-80-e1-01-60-da'.                       load configuration file
 Load address: 0xc4200000
 Loading: #
 	 105.5 KiB/s
 done
 Bytes transferred = 435 (1b3 hex)
 Config file found
 Select the boot mode                                                display menu
 1:	sdcard
 Enter choice: 1:	sdcard                                       timeout: default choice
 missing environment variable: bootfile
 Retrieving file: uImage                                             load kernel
 Using ethernet@5800a000 device
 TFTP from server 10.201.21.107; our IP address is 10.48.1.229; sending through gateway 10.48.3.254
 Filename 'uImage'.
 Load address: 0xc2000000
 Loading: #################################################################
 	 #################################################################
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 	 ################
 	 785.2 KiB/s
 done
 Bytes transferred = 5734976 (578240 hex)
 append: root=/dev/mmcblk0p6 rootwait rw earlyprintk console=ttySTM0,115200
 missing environment variable: bootfile
 Retrieving file: stm32mp157c-ev1.dtb                                  load device tree
 Using ethernet@5800a000 device
 TFTP from server 10.201.21.107; our IP address is 10.48.1.229; sending through gateway 10.48.3.254
 Filename 'stm32mp157c-ev1.dtb'.
 Load address: 0xc4000000
 Loading: ############################
 	 646.5 KiB/s
 done
 Bytes transferred = 138450 (21cd2 hex)
 ## Booting kernel from Legacy Image at c2000000 ...                    booting
    Image Name:   Linux-4.19.49
    Created:      2019-09-04  11:20:19 UTC
    Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
    Data Size:    5734912 Bytes = 5.5 MiB
    Load Address: c2000040
    Entry Point:  c2000040
    Verifying Checksum ... OK
 ## Flattened Device Tree blob at c4000000
    Booting using the fdt blob at 0xc4000000
    XIP Kernel Image ... OK
    Using Device Tree in place at c4000000, end c4024cd1
 SF: Detected mx66l51235l with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 64 KiB, total 64 MiB
 
 Starting kernel ...                                                    starting kernel
 
 [    0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0
 ....
 [    0.000000] Kernel command line: root=/dev/mmcblk0p6 rootwait rw earlyprintk console=ttySTM0,115200
 ....

6 References[edit]