[avr-gcc-list] Bootloader suggestions

[Ralph Mason]

Can anyone give me some advice on building and linking to a bootloader.

I have an application that I wrote using GCC about 2-3 years ago that runs
on a 103.  The hardware is being updated to use a 128 now, and self
reflashing is very very desirable.

So I need to make a bootloader that will run when the device starts up and
check if reflashing of the main application is needed, carry that out and
then call the main app. Easy enough.

The bootloader will be programed in the factory, also with the bootloader
there are some device decive specific tables of data (about 1k) that I would
like to be programmed with the boot loader into the bootloder section, they
always need to be at fixed addresses so the main application can find them.

I have seen about using a bootloader section and passing this to the linker
for a given function - but how Do I go about making a whole application a
boot loader?  How do it tell the linker that this is the function that
should be at the start address and that all other functions in the
bootloader should follow that,  Finally how can I fix the addresses of my
data tables (so they fill the last 1k of flash space).

Thanks for any help
Ralph


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