Bootlin has released the first version of Snagboot, a tool designed for recovering and reprogramming embedded devices that have stopped booting, for example, due to firmware corruption. Snagboot's code is written in Python and is licensed under GPLv2.
Most embedded platforms, in the case of firmware corruption, provide USB or UART interfaces for recovery and transferring the boot image, but these interfaces are specific to each platform and require the use of recovery utilities tied to individual manufacturers' products. Snagboot serves as an alternative to specialized, mainly proprietary, recovery and reprogramming tools, such as STM32CubeProgrammer, SAM-BA ISP, UUU, and sunxi-fel.
Snagboot is designed to work with a wide range of boards and embedded devices, freeing embedded systems developers from the need to learn the specifics of using various utilities. For instance, the first release of snagboot can be used to recover devices based on SoC ST STM32MP1, Microchip SAMA5, NXP i.MX6/7/8, Texas Instruments AM335x, Allwinner SUNXI, and Texas Instruments AM62x.
The toolkit includes two utilities for loading and reprogramming:
- snagrecover — uses manufacturer-specific mechanisms to work with code in ROM to initialize external RAM and launch the U-Boot bootloader without changing the contents of the non-volatile memory.
- snagflash — interacts with the running U-Boot to flash the system image into non-volatile memory, using DFU (Device Firmware Upgrade), UMS (USB Mass Storage), or Fastboot.
Source: opennet.ru
