[LEDE-DEV] Flashing AP148 ubi file?

[Alberto Bursi]

On 11/05/2016 11:55 PM, Christian Mehlis wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I received a Compex WPQ864, which is almost a AP148 board.
>
> Can someone document how to flash a dot ubi file (generated from lede
> build) to an AP148 (ipq8064)?
>
> I'm optimistic that this will work for the WPQ, too.
>
> I hope to provide lede board support for this "new" board.
>
> Regards,
> Christian
>
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*.ubi files generated by the build system are flashable by bootloader or 
whatever, they don't need special tools to be written to flash.
(they are NOT generic though, they are prepared to be flashed on the 
flash type used in that device, so make sure the flash chip is the same 
or has similar/same specs to the one in AP148)

You need to be sure that the bootloader can still find the kernel (i.e. 
look at the makefile in the /image folder of that architecture to see if 
the kernel is appended to the image or inside a ubifs).
*.ubi images may place the kernel inside a ubifs partition (with the 
rest of the firmware), while most stock bootloaders expect the kernel 
flashed to raw nand.

If you are testing initial support, it is usually better to use the 
bootloader's tftp to transfer the LEDE kernel image in RAM from your PC 
and then trying to boot it from RAM. After it boots fine you can try 
making a firmware image for it.

More information about ubi/ubifs here 
http://www.linux-mtd.infradead.org/doc/ubi.html
and here (a bit more friendly) 
https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=63714

-Alberto