Keywords: Intellon, Atheros, Qualcomm, HomePlug, powerline, communications, INT6000, INT6300, INT6400, AR7400, AR7420

Initialize a Device
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## Initialize a Device

Initializing a device involves downloading memory configuration parameters, runtime firmware and runtime parameters into SDRAM and then starting the runtime firmware to make the device fully functional. Program int6kf can be used for this purpose when the INT6000 Softloader or INT6300 Bootloader is running. Additionally, program int6kf can be used to flash blank or corrupted NVRAM once runtime firmware has started.

Device initialization is only necessary when a device that has no NVRAM or has corrupted NVRAM or has a Softloader stored in NVRAM. It is only possible when either the INT6000 Softloader or INT6300 Bootloader is running. See The Boot Process for detailed information.

    int6kf -i ${NIC1} -C ${CFG} -P ${PIB} -N ${NVM}
    if [ ${?} != 0 ]; then
            exit 1
    fi

The example above uses program int6kf to download an SDRAM configuration file (`-C`), PIB file (`-P`) and NVM file (`-N`) then start firmware execution. Symbols `NIC1`, CFG, PIB and NVM must be defined earlier in the script, perhaps in files hardware.sh and firmware.sh.

Program int6kf returns a non-zero value on error. We can check the return code and exit the script on error to avoid subsequent errors. We could, of course, suppress normal output (`-q`) and print our own error message using the Linux `echo` utility.

In some cases, we may want to flash a blank or corrupted NVRAM after the runtime firmware has started. We could use program int6k for this purpose but program int6kf can be used, as well. Essentially, it initializes the device (as above) then downloads the PIB and NVM files again and flashes them into NVRAM.

    int6kf -i ${NIC1} -C ${CFG} -P ${PIB} -N ${NVM} -FF
    if [ ${?} != 0 ]; then
            exit 1
    fi

The example above initializes a device with an SDRAM configuration file (`-C`), PIB file (`-P`) and NVM file (`-N`) as before. Once the runtime firmware has started, the PIB and NVM files are downloaded again and flashed (`-FF`) into NVRAM.

The force-flash option (`-FF`) is needed in this case because runtime firmware that has been written directly to SDRAM and started by the local host assumes there is no NVRAM present to flash or there might be Softloader firmware stored in NVRAM that must be protected from accidental flashing. Runtime firmware that has been read from NVRAM need not make that assumption.

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