Zynq Release 14.3

This page contains information documentation and release information corresponding to Xilinx software version 14.3.

Documentation

General Zynq
http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/zynq-7000.htm
http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/user_guides/ug585-Zynq-7000-TRM.pdf

Software Developers Guide (including bootgen)
http://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/user_guides/ug821-zynq-7000-swdev.pdf

Boards
http://www.xilinx.com/zc702
http://www.xilinx.com/products/boards-and-kits/EK-Z7-ZC706-G.htm

Release Contents

FSBL
The First Stage Boot Loader (FSBL) used to generate the BOOT.BIN file is based on the 14.3 release of the IDS tools.

u-boot
The release is based on a 2012.04.01 release of u-boot.
More details about configuring, building and running u-boot are located on the Zynq U-boot page.

Linux
The release is based on a 3.5 Linux kernel.
More details about configuring, building and running Linux are located on the Zynq Linux page.

Significant Release Changes

Supported Platforms

The ZC702 and the ZC706 boards are now supported starting in 14.3.

Booting Linux Changes

There are some significant changes to u-boot as it was previously using the go command. Now it is using the bootm command which is more industry standard.
The bootm command requires a uImage for Linux rather than a zImage as u-boot verifies the image before starting it. A uImage is a kernel image that is wrapped with a mkimage (located in the u-boot tree in the tools directory) header. The bootm command also requires a mkimage wrapped ramdisk image as u-boot also verifies this image before starting Linux.
For more details please refer to Zynq u-boot.

SD File Name Changes

The environment of u-boot uses predefined file names for the files which are read from the SD card when booting Linux. The Linux kernel image is now expected to be uImage. It was previously named zImage.
The ramdisk image on the SD card is now expected to be named uramdisk.image.gz. It was previously named ramdisk8M.image.gz. It was renamed to better reflect the fact that it's a mkimage wrapped ramdisk. The name of the ramdisk is also independent of the ramdisk size so that ramdisk size can be changed easier.

Linux Kernel Configuration

The Linux kernel is now configured by default (using xilinx_zynq_defconfig) to not hardcode the location of the device tree at 16 MB. This is more industry standard and works with the bootm command in u-boot. The kernel configuration still (for now) has the ability for a device tree at a fixed location (16MB) but this feature is likely to removed in the near future.

Known Issues

Linux
When flashing images from Linux (not u-boot) most users boot from SD then flash the QSPI flash with images. On the ZC706 board, which uses dual QSPI, the quad enable bit is not getting set in the flash from Linux. This causes the board to not boot in QSPI mode. The solution is to reboot from SD after programming the QSPI in Linux, then stop u-boot and perform the "sf probe" command which fixes the issue. Now the board can be rebooted in QSPI mode.

Release Git Tags

The Xilinx Git repositories, u-boot and linux, are tagged for the release with a tag of xilinx-14.3-build2.

Release Details

Networking
The network is setup to use a static IP address of 192.168.1.10 in the release pre-built images. The network is being configured from the kernel command line rather than using a user space application.
SSH password
SSH is setup on the ramdisk to use root:root as the user:password

Files In Release

The release contains a directory for each board (ZC702, ZC706) with the following files for each board.
All of these files from a board directory can be copied to an SD card (FAT formated) and then used to boot the board. Only BOOT.BIN, devicetree.dtb, uImage, and uramdisk.image.gz are required to boot Linux.

Ramdisk Details

The ramdisk image has been updated such that there may be small visible changes to the user. Dropbear is no longer being used as it was easier to use only Open SSH.

Release Download

A gziped tar ball contains the pre-built images.


A gziped tar ball contains the source trees for the applications on the ramdisk.