pysamloader 0.6.4

Description:

pysamloader 0.6.4

Introduction
pysamloader is a python library for writing flash on Atmel’s ARM chips
via SAM-BA. Originally written years ago when Atmel’s standard tools were
unavailable or unusable on Linux, it has been adapted to serve narrower but
specific use cases.
Specifically, pysamloader is intended to be :


Simple, particularly for an end-user
Easily installable across platforms
Usable from within larger python applications or scripts


Currently, pysamloader seems to be reasonably stable on a tiny set of
supported devices.
If you happen to use pysamloader, or wish to use it, let me know along
with any feedback you might have to ensure the tool is stable, reliable, and
sufficiently versatile. Device support is easy enough to add, and I will do
so as the need (and more importantly, the ability to test on other devices)
presents itself. Pull requests are also welcome.
See the pysamloader/devices folder for included device support modules.
Currently supported devices are :

clearpage
tableofcontents
clearpage



Features
pysamloader currently supports the following actions :


Write device flash
Optionally verify flash after writing
Optionally set the GPNVM bits to boot from flash after writing
Read and parse ChipID
Read Unique Identifier from Embedded Flash
Read Flash Descriptor




Requirements & Installation

Attention!
You might want to take a look at the
pysamloader-gui package
as well. It provides a simple GUI. If you are using the binary packages,
it can be installed and used independent of this.

pysamloader should work on any platform which supports python. It is
best tested on Linux followed by on Windows (10 and 7).
pysamloader supports both Python 2 (2.7.x) and Python 3 (>3.5). Python 2
support is likely to be removed in the near future.
In general, pysamloader is expected to be pip-installed. It can be safely
installed into a virtualenv. As long as you have a functioning python
installation of sufficient version, installing pysamloader would be simply :
$ pip install pysamloader
If you require pre-built binaries, they are available for 64-bit Linux and
Windows. However, be aware that these binaries are not thoroughly tested,
and your mileage may vary based on your specific operating system and machine
architecture. You will also have to manually copy the included devices
folder to the correct location. (See below)
If you wish to develop, modify the sources, or otherwise get the latest
version, it can be installed from a clone of the git repository (or from a
source package) as follows :
$ git clone https://github.com/chintal/pysamloader.git
$ cd pysamloader
$ pip install -e .
The pysamloader/devices folder contains the included device support
modules, each of which is a python file with a single class of the same name,
containing device specific information about one device. This folder can be
copied into a separate location where you can safely add, remove, or modify
device configuration as needed. This step is generally optional, but will be
required if you are using the binary packages. The location is that provided
by user_config_dir of the python appdirs package, specifically :


Linux : ~/.config/pysamloader
Windows : C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Quazar Technologies\pysamloader


The current pysamloader windows .msi installer will create this folder and
populate it as a part of the install process.


Usage
The primary entry point for use of pysamloader is as a console script.
For those in a hurry, the following is a quick example of how to use the
script to burn app.bin to an ATSAM3U4E whose UART SAM-BA interface
is accessible on \dev\ttyUSB1:
$ pysamloader --device ATSAM3U4E --port \dev\ttyUSB1 -g app.bin
Script usage and arguments are listed here. This help listing can also be
obtained on the command line with pysamloader --help.


Links & Other Information

Known Issues


Writing to multiple flash planes is not currently supported. This
application will always write to the first flash plane and will start at
the beginning.
The use of xmodem send file to write flash doesn’t seem to work. Flash is
instead written using SAM-BA write_word commands, which is about 20
times slower.




Future Directions


Add support for libftdi/libd2xx/libusb based backend for cases
where the device disables ftdi_sio for its normal operation.
Add hooks for device auto-detection. Do not even bother to probe blindly
for SAM-BA - that is too dangerous. Instead rely on apriori knowledge of
signatures of device configuration, including VID, PID, Manufacturer,
Product, Serial Number, and USB endpoint descriptors.




Links
The latest version of the documentation, including installation, usage, and
API/developer notes can be found at
ReadTheDocs.
The latest version of the sources can be found at
GitHub. Please use GitHub’s features
to report bugs, request features, or submit pull/merge requests.
The principle author for pysamloader is Chintalagiri Shashank. The author can
be contacted if necessary via the information on the
author’s github profile . See the AUTHORS file
for a full list of collaborators and/or contributing authors, if any.
pysamloader is distributed under the terms of the
GPLv3 license .
A copy of the text of the license is included along with the sources.