SD Card Boot

[malcolm_locke]

Hi,

I have an Agilex 5 Modular Development Board which I can boot with the supplied SD Card.

I have tried to update to the latest image at Index of /2025.04/gsrd/agilex5_mk_a5e065bb32aes1_gsrd/,

However, after programming an SD Card with this image, as far as I can tell, my board doesn't boot. I get no output from the serial port so I don't have any way of debugging.

Please can you help with any advice how to proceed to diagnose what is going wrong?

Many thanks

Malcolm

[RolandoS_Altera]

Hi Brian

I don't think we had drop the support of these devices, but the embedded software (including U-Boot) evolves from release to release. Sometimes, there are dependencies on using the correct component versions to boot successfully ( SDM FW included on Quartus, ATF. U-Boot SPL, U-Boot, Linux). So in our releases pages (https://github.com/altera-fpga/gsrd-socfpga/releases) we include the combinations of components that we validate. For GSRD page or any other page with instructions to build binaries, we  have a version of the page for each one of the releases with the component version combinations that we know they work. For this pages, we switched from Rocketboards to https://altera-fpga.github.io/ some time ago. For Agilex 5,  I think most of the versions are already in the new site.

Thanks

Rolando 

[BrianSune_Froum]

@RolandoS_Altera 

I am confused what actually you are asking or confirming?

For Das U-Boot 2025 01 and 04 had changed the SPL detection.

While 2025 07 the stack is even changed which at this stage I can't make it boot on any Cyclone V device.

For both Altera Git U-Boot or  Das U-Boot I had confirmed 2025 01 04 and older revision all aligned excluded dts file.

Aka modifications to boot properly on SD only platform.

I had not followed any altera boot document nor the rocket forum b.c. the follow is not telling any backward compatibility.

However it is actually allow on older "hps_isw_handoff" folder to reused on new Python script.

So I am not sure what you are asking for.

As far I can tell I have no idea why the 2025 07 cannot boot properly.

There are too many patches on SPL and the stack change include start.S.

[BrianSune_Froum]

@RolandoS_Altera 

On top of your responses.

I am not pointing on the stage after SPL aka U-Boot. Only focusing on SPL aka the HPS ARM ROM detecting the SPL etc.

I cannot see this is related to component variant. b.c. as long as the HEX data on the MBR sanity is good. Then it should at least provide message on serial port.

However on 2025 01 or 04 it is not able to do so on default cyclone_V defconfig file passed along version of U-Boot.

[RolandoS_Altera]

Hello Brian

Our documentation and HPS releases are based on the Altera repositories (https://github.com/altera-fpga). Please look at our Release Notes page that shows what versions of each component we released:

https://github.com/altera-fpga/gsrd-socfpga/releases/tag/QPDS25.1.1_REL_GSRD_PR

In the case of U-Boot, the latest release is based on 2025.04. The next release will be based in 2025.07. 

We are working to push all the updates that we have in our repositories to the repositories that the community supports (i.e. https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot) but it's possible that the latest code in the Altera repos are not yet propagated to the community repos, so this is the reason why we direct our customers to use the Altera repos.

If you have any further questions about  Cyclone V, it would be better to open a new case, so we can focus in this case to solve the issues related to Agilex 5.

Thanks

Rolando

[BrianSune_Froum]

Hi @RolandoS_Altera 

I do see the github page info.

However, if you know better as internal stuff you should see Cyclone V only up to 2024.07.

The golden package links are all dead.

There are no confirmation nor test built on 2025.01 .04 etc.

There are no sanity check on SPL boot after this early year SPL boot RAW settings had changed.

I guess Altera would reduce massive support on C5 and market+support Ag5 for business purpose. 

[JingyangTeh_Altera]

Hi Brian

Is is not recommended to always grab the latest uboot branch, the latest branch has the latest updates and patch that was pushed for any on going issues.

Please refer to the last verified combination in the Altera GitHub page.

https://altera-fpga.github.io/rel-25.1.1/embedded-designs/cyclone-v/sx/soc/boot-examples/ug-linux-boot-cve-soc/

The last verified branch is :

Device	Quartus Version	U-Boot Branch	Linux Branch
Cyclone V SoC	24.1 Std	socfpga_v2024.07	socfpga-6.6.51-lts

Regards

Jingyang, Teh

[BrianSune_Froum]

@JingyangTeh_Altera 

Yes in other post you had reported 2024.07 is well tested.

However, 2025 01 04 is already released a while, not sure the definition of latest.

The most update now is 2025.10 so I am just thinking the resources are not put on C5 series not b.c. of the word of latest.

Thank you

[AlanCLTan]

Hi,

For Cyclone V, Quartus 24.1std is the latest release.

Quartus Pro releases in yearly cadence. Hence, the next release, 25.1std, will happen at the end of 2025.

Thanks,

Alan

[BrianSune_Froum]

@AlanCLTan 

Off topic. We are talking about U-Boot not EDA tools

[SueC_Altera]

Hi Brian,

This thread somehow got split.  Malcolm's original question was about Cyclone V and Alan is addressing those questions.

Sue

[BrianSune_Froum]

@SueC_Altera 

You are also misread the topic.

What this original ticket is about SD Card U-Boot booting on Ag5.

I don't understand why you guys will consider U-Boot is device dependent.

As for what the title mentioned is no device orientated.

As such I cannot understand at what points / posts / questions that are not U-Boot related question from first place.

[SueC_Altera]

Hi Brian,

It seems like there is a lot of confusion. Maybe it would be helpful for you to start a new thread that clearly states your question(s) and we can try again?

Sue

[BrianSune_Froum]

@SueC_Altera 

Quote:

"Hi,

I have an Agilex 5 Modular Development Board which I can boot with the supplied SD Card.

I have tried to update to the latest image at Index of /2025.04/gsrd/agilex5_mk_a5e065bb32aes1_gsrd/,

However, after programming an SD Card with this image, as far as I can tell, my board doesn't boot. I get no output from the serial port so I don't have any way of debugging.

Please can you help with any advice how to proceed to diagnose what is going wrong?

Many thanks

Malcolm"

According to this quote aka the first comment in this ticket.
Could you read "no output from the serial port" <----- 

Such behavior is 100% aligned with 2025.01 2025.04 U-Boot Altera github repository on C5 devices.
I don't see why all stuff comments are so confused on this same issue.

And I had already explained the issue and the possible solutions accordingly, which might not fix as inherent issue of this early year that Das U-Boot upstream had changed the SPL settings entirely.

I no expert on Uboot but undergo minor study on such.

So if there are system Engineer from Altera should know very well.

[RolandoS_Altera]

Hi Brian

So you are saying that if you use Altera U-Boot from 2025.01 and 2025.04 branches in Cyclone V, there is no output from the serial console similarly to what is being reported in the Agilex 5 Modular dev kit when using latest branch  in Das U-Boot repo?

If this is the case, I think that for Cyclone V this shouldn't be a surprise, since the latest code validated for Cyclone V uses the QPDS24.1STD_REL_GSRD_PR tag in Altera Repos as it can be seen in https://altera-fpga.github.io/rel-25.1/embedded-designs/cyclone-v/sx/soc/gsrd/ug-gsrd-cve-soc/#source-code

Cyclone V is aligned with Quartus STD releases, which occur only once a year, so it is not expected to work with U-Boot branches 2025.01 or 2025.04. 

In the case of Modular Dev Kit, this should work with Altera U-Boot branches from 2025.01 and 2025.04, but since not all the updates in the Altera repos have been pushed to the Das U-Boot repo, it possible to observe this issue, so that's why we recommend to use the Altera repo content.

Thanks

Rolando

[BrianSune_Froum]

@RolandoS_Altera 

I had mentioned again, the upstream 01 04 u-boot can work but requires modification as default cyclone V config not longer plug and play as old ones.

Again, you just repeated what I had said. Why U-Boot could be device dependent from first place.

I guess there are no point to loop in such.

I had  made my points and either stuff take action or not is a choice from Altera.