Reformatting SRAM

When using a “serial shell” connection to a JACE controller with SRAM, a special “alternative boot” option is available. A sub-option allows you to reformat the onboard SRAM (or SRAM option card) installed in the JACE.

You must be near the JACE to make this direct serial shell connection, and also be able to easily power it off and on as needed.

In most cases the following reformat procedure will never be necessary. When shipped, the SRAM option card is already properly formatted, and does not contain any stored data. However, in rare cases it may be necessary to reformat the SRAM option card using this procedure.

For details about making a serial shell connection, see “System shell” in the JACE NiagaraAX Install and Startup Guide.

To reformat SRAM option card in a JACE

If needed beforehand, backup the JACE to your PC using normal Workbench platform tools.
Power the JACE off, and install the serial shell jumper (if not already installed).

Connect the necessary serial cable between the JACE and your PC’s COM port.
On your PC, start a terminal emulation program, for example HyperTerminal, and open a previously saved setup for JACE-2,-6,-7 communications, using that COM port. Settings are listed below.
- Bits per second: 115200
- Data bits: 8
- Parity: None
- Stop bits: 1
- Flow control: Hardware

With your HyperTerminal session active, apply power to the JACE.

After some number of seconds, text should appear in the HyperTerminal window similar to below:

Wait for the prompt to “Press ESC to choose alternate boot options...”, then press ESC.

IPL for NPM 2 (PPC405EP) v3.03 ECC
Press <ctrl-c> to stop autoboot...
Autobooting...
Loading image from on-board nand flash
npm2xx startup version 6.41
launching devc
waiting for /dev/ser1
creating symlink for /dev/serconsole
Welcome to QNX Neutrino 6.4 on the NPM 2xx (ppc405)
starting /ffs0 filesystem
ETFS_FS_512
Press ESC to choose alternate boot options...

Press ESC to go to the alternate boot menu, a portion of which is shown below.
As explained in the alternate boot menu, be careful about which options you skip!
```
 9.  Skip starting niagara daemon
10.  Skip SRAM option card mount
11.  Format SRAM option card before mount

c.  continue with boot

Enter choice:
```
At the “Enter choice” prompt, type 11 and press ENTER.

The alternate boot menu repeats, only missing the selected item 11 (“Format SRAM option card before mount”).

Type c (to continue with boot) and press ENTER

You see “continuing boot...” along with other normal boot messages for TCP/IP initialization.

When the boot completes (at the login prompt), there should be entries indicating that a format operation occurred, as shown in the following:

SRAM option card detected in slot 1
Formating SRAM option card before mount
SRAM option card mounted successfully at /sramopt
starting ntpd...
MESSAGE [15:36:48 29-Jun-2010] [tid=1] niagarad:
starting, baja_home=/niagara
MESSAGE [15:36:48 29-Jun-2010] [tid=1] webserver:
web server started [tid = 4]
MESSAGE [15:36:48 29-Jun-2010] [tid=1] app
registry: station registry starting
MESSAGE [15:36:48 29-Jun-2010] [tid=7] engine
watchdog: app J202_TestW watchdog
thread started [tid = 8]
MESSAGE [15:36:48 29-Jun-2010] [tid=7] station:
station J202_TestW starting
login:

When the “login” prompt appears, power off the JACE.

If needed (and applicable), you can now remove the SRAM option card to use in another JACE controller.
If removing an SRAM option card from a JACE-2,-6,-7 controller and not reinstalling, be sure to uninstall the platDataRecovery module from the JACE controller, using the platform Software Manager.
Exit from the HyperTerminal application, selecting to Save if you wish to reuse this setup again.