Altera SoC Embedded Design Suite - Manual (Page 199)

SD Card Boot Utility
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2014.12.15
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The SoC EDS SD card boot utility is a tool for updating the boot software on an SD card.
The Preloader is typically stored in a custom partition (with type = 0xA2) on the SD card. Optionally the
next boot stage (usually the Bootloader) can also be stored on the same custom partition.
Since it is a custom partition, without a file-system, the Preloader and/or Bootloader cannot be updated
by copying the new file to the card; and a software tool is needed.
The SD card boot utility allows the user to update the Preloader and/or Bootloader on a physical SD card
or a disk image file. The utility is not intended to create a new bootable SD card or disk image file from
scratch. In order to do that, it is recommended to use fdisk on a Linux host OS.
Usage Scenarios
This utility is intended to update boot software on that resides on an existing:
• Existing SD card
• Existing disk image file
You can choose from these three usage scenarios:
• Update just the Preloader software
• Update just the Bootloader software
• Update both Preloader and Bootloader software
In the context of this tool, the term ‘Bootloader’ simply means the next boot stage from Preloader. In
some usage scenarios it can be a bootloader, while in other scenarios it could be a bare-metal application
or even an OS.
Note: The Preloader file needs to have the mkpimage header, as required by the BootROM, and the
Bootloader file needs to have the mkimage header, as required by the Preloader. Both mkpimage
and mkimage tools are delivered as part of SoC EDS.
The tool only updates the custom partition that stores the Altera SoC boot code. The rest of the SD card
or disk image file is not touched. This includes the Master Boot Record (MBR) and any other partitions
(FAT, EXT3 etc) and free space.
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