New BootloaderI'm getting extremely frustrated trying to modify the RS Media's Bootloader. I'm pretty certain I have located the section that determines how many bytes to load, and it still won't load the newer kernel. So either, there is something else I am missing, or the newer kernel image I have is damaged. So I've decided to try a little something different, I'm writing my own bootloader. At the moment all it does is print a pretty menu.

Its not as large an undertaking as it sounds. The board support package contains sample bootloader code (which incidentally, is what the RS Media's bootloader is based off. Must remember to contact FreeScale and ask them what licensing the code is covered by), so most of the bootloader code will come straight from the sample code, with some modifications to fit the RS Media.

The tricky part is the NAND Flash. There is some sample code that deals with NAND, but its for different memory, that may be connected differently. Which makes writing code for it somewhat difficult. So I will have to spend more time staring at the existing bootloader, to figure it out.

The first thing to get working in my bootloader, will have to be programming itself. Two reasons for this, one, because using bootstrap mode to transfer a bootloader to memory over the serial link take a LONG time, while using the USB transfer is much faster. Secondly, because once it can program itself, I can replace the exiting bootloader with my new one and turn off bootstrap mode.

The odds of me actually creating a fully functional bootloader are slim, but hey, if I only stuck to doing think I already know how to do, I'd never learn anything.