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Sama7g5-EK

Last modified by Microchip on 2025/08/04 12:40

SoC Features

The SAMA7G54 is a high-performance, ultra-low power Arm Cortex-A7 CPU-based embedded microprocessor (MPU) running up to 1 GHz. It supports multiple memories such as 16-bit DDR2, DDR3, DDR3L, LPDDR2, LPDDR3 with flexible boot options from octal/quad SPI, SD/eMMC as well as 8-bit SLC/MLC NAND Flash.

The SAMA7G54 integrates complete imaging and audio subsystems with 12-bit parallel and/or MIPI-CSI2 camera interfaces supporting up to 8 Mpixels and 720p @ 30 fps, up to four I2S, one SPDIF transmitter and receiver and a 4-stereo channel audio sample rate converter.

The device also features a large number of connectivity options including Dual Ethernet (one Gigabit Ethernet and one 10/100 Ethernet), six CAN-FD and three high-speed USB. Advanced security functions like secure boot, secure key storage, high-performance crypto accelerators for AES, SHA, RSA and ECC are also supported.

Microchip provides an optimized power management solution for the SAMA7G54. The MCP16502 has been fully tested and optimized to provide the best power vs. performance for the SAMA7G54.

Kit Information

Kit Overview

The SAMA7G5 Evaluation Kit (SAMA7G5-EK) provides a versatile Total System Solution platform that highlights Microchip MPU and connectivity ICs.
The board features on-board memories, two Ethernet interfaces, three USB ports, two CAN interfaces, one SD card connector, two mikroBUS™ click interface headers to support over 450 MikroElektronika Click boards™, an RPi CSIcamera to support a camera module, an RPi extension connector to support several extension boards, and provision to solder a Microchip ATWILC3000-MR110xA Wi-Fi/Bluetooth module.

Information

Note: RPi stands for “Raspberry Pi”. Raspberry Pi is a trademark of Raspberry Pi Trading.

The Kit is supported by mainline Linux distribution as well as bare metal software frameworks allowing you to easily get started with your development.

Kit Overview

Kit User Guide

sama7g5ek-cu-detalii2.png

Access the console

The usual serial communication parameters are 115200 8-N-1 :

Baud rate115200
Data8 bits
ParityNone
Stop1 bit
Flow controlNone

Access the console on DEBUG serial port

The serial console can be accessed from the DEBUG port with the help of a TTL-to-USB serial cable (marked as DEBUG J20).

Using DEBUG on TTL-to-USB connector (DEBUG J20)

  • For Microsoft Windows users: Install the driver of your USB TTL serial cable. FTDI-based ones are the most popular, have a look to this page to get the driver: https://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm * Be sure to connect a 3.3V compatible cable and identify its GND pin. Place it properly according to the silkscreen and connect the cable to the board (J20)
    • For Microsoft Windows users: identify the USB connection that is established
      JLINK CDC UART Port should appear in Device Manager. The COMxx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.
      JLINK CDC UART Port
    • For Linux users: Identify the serial USB connection by monitoring the last lines of dmesg command. The /dev/ttyUSBx number will be used to configure the terminal emulator.
      [605576.562740] usb 1-1.1.2: new full-speed USB device number 17 using ehci-pci
      [605576.660920] usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0403, idProduct=6001
      [605576.660933] usb 1-1.1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
      [605576.660939] usb 1-1.1.2: Product: TTL232R-3V3
      [605576.660944] usb 1-1.1.2: Manufacturer: FTDI
      [605576.660958] usb 1-1.1.2: SerialNumber: FTGNVZ04
      [605576.663092] ftdi_sio 1-1.1.2:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
      [605576.663120] usb 1-1.1.2: Detected FT232RL
      [605576.663122] usb 1-1.1.2: Number of endpoints 2
      [605576.663124] usb 1-1.1.2: Endpoint 1 MaxPacketSize 64
      [605576.663126] usb 1-1.1.2: Endpoint 2 MaxPacketSize 64
      [605576.663128] usb 1-1.1.2: Setting MaxPacketSize 64
      [605576.663483] usb 1-1.1.2: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
      A /dev/ttyUSB0 node has been created.
  • Now open your favorite terminal emulator with appropriate settings

Demo

Demo archives

Media typeBoardFeaturesBinaryDescription
Yocto Project / Poky based demo
Boot on eMMCSAMA7G5-EKHeadlesslinux4sam-oecore-sama7g5ek-headless-2025.04.zip (~ 148 MB)
md5: d05a46f9a6ea5c403d0c23ad3cfed69b		Linux4SAM Yocto Project / Poky based demo
compiled from tag linux4sam-2025.04
Follow procedure: #Flash_the_demo
 
SD Card imageSAMA7G5-EKHeadlesslinux4sam-oecore-sama7g5ek-headless-2025.04.img.bz2 (~ 134 MB)
md5: 54cb468ec57c341cdbce8a3f84338ccd		Linux4SAM Yocto Project / Poky based demo
compiled from tag linux4sam-2025.04
Follow procedure: #Create_a_SD_card_with_the_demo
 
SAMA7G5-EKOP-TEE
Headless		linux4sam-oecore-sama7g5ek-optee-headless-2025.04.img.bz2 (~ 139 MB)
md5: 9304a0896e4454083e48449ae5840193		Linux4SAM Yocto Project / Poky based demo
compiled from tag linux4sam-2025.04
Follow procedure: #Create_a_SD_card_with_the_demo
BuildRoot based demo
SD Card imageSAMA7G5-EKHeadlesslinux4sam-buildroot-sama7g5ek-headless-2025.04.img.bz2 (~ 85 MB)
md5: b5a07ca40b9594bee87a41fd12c2e15d		Linux4SAM BuildRoot based demo
compiled from tag linux4sam-2025.04
Follow procedure: #Create_a_SD_card_with_the_demo
SAMA7G5-EKOP-TEE
Headless		linux4sam-buildroot-sama7g5ek-optee-headless-2025.04.img.bz2 (~ 86 MB)
md5: 6ea3f76e826ebb14a14481e6d7bd454f		Linux4SAM BuildRoot based demo
compiled from tag linux4sam-2025.04
Follow procedure: #Create_a_SD_card_with_the_demo
 

Create a SD card with the demo

You need a 1 GB SD card (or more) and to download the image of the demo. The image is compressed to reduce the amount of data to download. This image contains:

  • a FAT32 partition with the AT91Bootstrap, U-Boot and the Linux Kernel (zImage and dtb).
  • an EXT4 partition for the rootfs.

Multi-platform procedure

To write the compressed image on the SD card, you will have to download and install balenaEtcher. This tool, which is an Open Source software, is useful since it allows to get a compressed image as input. More information and extra help available on the balenaEtcher website.

Insert your SD card and launch Etcher:
etcher_sel.jpg

Select the demo image. They are marked as "SD Card image" in the demo table above.
Note that you can select a compressed image (like the demos available here). The tool is able to decompress files on the fly

Select the device corresponding to your SD card (Etcher proposes you the devices that are removable to avoid erasing your system disk)

Click on the Flash! button

On Linux, Etcher finally asks you to enter your root password because it needs access to the hardware (your SD card reader or USB to SD card converter)

then the flashing process begins followed by a verification phase (optional)

etcher_finishing.jpg

Once writing done, Etcher asks you if you want to burn another demo image:

etcher_done.jpg

Information

Your SD card is ready!

 

Flash the demo

Information

If you need to store the root filesystem on a SD Card, use information contained in StroreRootFSonSD. This is useful for Linux4SAM demos older than 5.6.

Information

use SAM-BA 3.5.y onwards. You can download it here: SAM-BA 3.x release page.

Run script to flash the demo

  • download the demo package for the board. They are marked as "Media type: Boot on eMMC" in the table above
  • extract the demo package
  • run your usual terminal emulator and enter the demo directory
  • make sure that the sam-ba application is in your Operating System path so that you can reach it from your demo package directory
  • for Microsoft Windows users: Launch the demo_linux_emmcflash.bat file
  • for Linux users: Launch the demo_linux_emmcflash.sh file
  • this script runs SAM-BA 3 and the associated QML sam-ba script (demo_linux_emmcflash_usb.qml) with proper parameters
  • when you reach the end of the flashing process (this will take a few minutes), the following line is written:
    -I- === Done. === 
  • connect a serial link on DBGU and open the terminal emulator program as explained just above
  • power cycle the board
  • Warning

    WARNING: By default, the ROM code on the MPU does not boot from eMMC device (SDMMC0). Please refer to product datasheet on how to configure the ROM code boot configuration to enable booting from SDMMC0, either by writing the OTP (one-time programmable memory) with a boot package to boot from SDMMC0, or to enable emulation mode and in emulation mode to enable booting from SDMMC0. This configuration can be achieved using sam-ba tool.

  • monitor the system while it's booting on the LCD screen or through the serial line

Build From source code

Setup ARM Cross Compiler

  • First step is to dowload the ARM GNU Toolchain:
    wget -c https://developer.arm.com/-/media/Files/downloads/gnu/13.2.rel1/binrel/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
  • Next step is to add the ARM GNU Toolchain into your system:
    tar -xf arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
    export CROSS_COMPILE=`pwd`/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/arm-none-linux-gnueabihf-

    or

    tar -xf arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf.tar.xz
    export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-linux-gnueabihf-
    export PATH=$PATH:/YOUR/PATH/TO/arm-gnu-toolchain-13.2.Rel1-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/
  • export PATH=${PATH/':/YOUR/PATH/TO/arm-gnu-toolchain-VERSION-x86_64-arm-none-linux-gnueabihf/bin/'/}

Build AT91Bootstrap from sources

This section describes how to get source code from the git repository, how to configure with the default configuration, how to customize AT91Bootstrap based on the default configuration and finally to build AT91Bootstrap to produce the binary. take the default configuration to download U-Boot from NandFlash for example.

Get AT91Bootstrap Source Code

You can easily download AT91Bootstrap source code on the at91bootstrap git repository.

To get the source code, you should clone the repository by doing:

$ git clone https://github.com/linux4sam/at91bootstrap.git
Cloning into 'at91bootstrap'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 17621, done.
remote: Counting objects: 100% (3324/3324), done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1029/1029), done.
remote: Total 17621 (delta 2465), reused 3102 (delta 2285), pack-reused 14297
Receiving objects: 100% (17621/17621), 5.65 MiB | 4.65 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (13459/13459), done.
$ cd at91bootstrap/

Configure AT91Bootstrap

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Build U-Boot from sources

Getting U-Boot sources

Dedicated page on U-Boot wiki: http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot/SourceCode

You can easily download U-Boot source code from Linux4Microchip GitHub U-Boot repository:

  • clone the Linux4microchip GitHub U-Boot repository
        $ git clone https://github.com/linux4microchip/u-boot-mchp.git
     Cloning into 'u-boot-mchp'...
     remote: Enumerating objects: 951876, done.
     remote: Counting objects: 100% (17718/17718), done.
     remote: Compressing objects: 100% (5735/5735), done.
     remote: Total 951876 (delta 12391), reused 15314 (delta 11846), pack-reused 934158
     Receiving objects: 100% (951876/951876), 164.77 MiB | 401.00 KiB/s, done.
     Resolving deltas: 100% (790362/790362), done.
       $ cd u-boot-mchp/
  • The source code has been taken from the master branch which is pointing to the latest branch we use. If you want to use the other branch, you can list them and use one of them by doing:
       $ git branch -r
      origin/HEAD -> origin/master
      origin/dev/tony/sama7g5ek_optee
      origin/master
      origin/sam9x60_curiosity_early
      origin/sam9x60_early
      origin/sam9x60_iar
      origin/sam9x7_early
      origin/sama5d27wlsom1ek_ear
      origin/sama7g5_early
      origin/u-boot-2012.10-at91
      origin/u-boot-2013.07-at91
      origin/u-boot-2014.07-at91
      origin/u-boot-2015.01-at91
      origin/u-boot-2016.01-at91
      origin/u-boot-2016.03-at91
      origin/u-boot-2017.03-at91
      origin/u-boot-2018.07-at91
      origin/u-boot-2019.04-at91
      origin/u-boot-2020.01-at91
      origin/u-boot-2021.04-at91
      origin/u-boot-2022.01-at91
      origin/u-boot-2023.07-mchp
      origin/u-boot-2024.07-mchp
      origin/uboot_5series_1.x

       $ git checkout origin/u-boot-2024.07-mchp -b u-boot-2024.07-mchp
      Branch 'u-boot-2024.07-mchp' set up to track remote branch 'u-boot-2024.07-mchp' from 'origin'.
      Switched to a new branch 'u-boot-2024.07-mchp'

Cross-compiling U-Boot

Before compiling the U-Boot, you need setup cross compile toolchain in the Setup ARM Cross Compiler above.

Warning

Latest versions of U-boot (2018.07 and newer) have a minimum requirement of 6.0 version of the GCC toolchain. We always recommend to use the latest versions.

Once the AT91 U-Boot sources available, cross-compile U-Boot is made in two steps: configuration and compiling. Check the Configuration chapter in U-Boot reference manual.

Information

Go to the configs/ to find the exact target when invoking make.

The U-Boot environment variables can be stored in different media, above config files can specify where to store the U-Boot environment.

   # To put environment variables in eMMC flash:
   sama7g5ek_mmc_defconfig
  # To put environment variables in SD/MMC card:
   sama7g5ek_mmc1_defconfig
  # To put environment variables in qspi flash:
   sama7g5ek_qspi0_defconfig

Here are the building steps for the SAMA7G5-EK board:

# You can change the config according to your needs.
make sama7g5ek_mmc1_defconfig
make

The result of these operations is a fresh U-Boot binary called u-boot.bin corresponding to the binary ELF file u-boot.

  • u-boot.bin is the file you should store on the board
  • u-boot is the ELF format binary file you may use to debug U-Boot through a JTag link for instance.

Build Kernel from sources

Required packages

You must install essential host packages on your build host. These requirements are listed in the Linux kernel documentation with the chapter Install build requirementshttps://www.linux4sam.org/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/external-link.gif. You must follow this process which includes, but not limited to, the following packages:

  • build-essential
  • flex
  • bison
  • git
  • perl-base
  • libssl-dev
  • libncurses5-dev
  • libncursesw5-dev
  • ncurses-dev

Getting Kernel sources

To get the source code, you have to clone the repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/linux4microchip/linux.git
Cloning into 'linux'...
remote: Enumerating objects: 8587836, done.
remote: Total 8587836 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 8587836
Receiving objects: 100% (8587836/8587836), 3.49 GiB | 13.44 MiB/s, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (7117887/7117887), done.
Updating files: 100% (70687/70687), done.
$ cd linux

The source code has been taken from the master branch which is pointing on the latest branch we use.

Pointing hand Note that you can also add this Linux4SAM repository as a remote GIT repositoryhttps://www.linux4sam.org/pub/TWiki/TWikiDocGraphics/external-link.gif to your usual Linux git tree. It will save you a lot of bandwidth and download time:

$ git remote add linux4microchip https://github.com/linux4microchip/linux.git
$ git remote update linux4microchip
Fetching linux4microchip
From https://github.com/linux4microchip/linux
 * [new branch]                linux-6.1-mchp -> linux4microchip/linux-6.1-mchp
 * [new branch]                linux-6.6-mchp -> linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp
 * [new branch]                master     -> linux4microchip/master

If you want to use another branch, you can list them and use one of them by doing this:

$ git branch -r
  linux4microchip/linux-5.10-mchp
  linux4microchip/linux-5.15-mchp
  linux4microchip/linux-5.15-mchp+fpga
  linux4microchip/linux-6.1-mchp
  linux4microchip/linux-6.1-mchp+fpga
  linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp
  linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp+fpga
  linux4microchip/master
$ git checkout -b linux-6.6-mchp --track remotes/linux4microchip/linux-6.6-mchp
Branch linux-6.6-mchp set up to track remote branch linux-6.6-mchp from linux4microchip.
Switched to a new branch 'linux-6.6-mchp'

Setup ARM Cross Compiler

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Configure and Build the Linux kernel

Now you have to configure the Linux kernel according to your hardware. We have two default configuration at91 SoC in arch/arm/configs

arch/arm/configs/at91_dt_defconfig
arch/arm/configs/sama5_defconfig
arch/arm/configs/sama7_defconfig
  • at91_dt_defconfig: for SAM9 (ARM926) series chips
  • sama5_defconfig: for SAMA5 series chips
  • sama7_defconfig: for SAMA7 series chips

At this step, you can modify default configuration using the menuconfig

$ make ARCH=arm menuconfig

Now, in the menuconfig dialog, you can easily add or remove some features. Once done, Move to <Exit> with arrows and press this button hitting the Enter key to exit from this screen.

Build the Linux kernel image, before you build you need set up the cross compile toolchain, check this section.

$ make ARCH=arm

[..]

  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/Image is ready
  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/zImage is ready

Now you have an usable compressed kernel image zImage.

If you need an uImage you can run this additional step:

make ARCH=arm uImage LOADADDR=0x20008000

[..]

  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/zImage is ready
  UIMAGE  arch/arm/boot/uImage
  Image Name:   Linux-6.6.23-linux4microchip-202
  Created:      Thu May 16 14:36:06 2024
  Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
  Data Size:    5221704 Bytes = 5099.32 KiB = 4.98 MiB
  Load Address: 20008000
  Entry Point:  20008000
  Kernel: arch/arm/boot/uImage is ready
make ARCH=arm dtbs

[..]

  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sam9x60_curiosity.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sam9x60ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sam9x75_curiosity.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sam9x75eb.dtb  
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d27_som1_ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d27_wlsom1_ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d29_curiosity.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d2_icp.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d2_ptc_ek.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama5d2_xplained.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama7d65_curiosity.dtb
  DTC     arch/arm/boot/dts/microchip/at91-sama7g5ek.dtb

[..]

If the building process is successful, the final images can be found under arch/arm/boot/ directory.

Build Yocto Project rootfs from sources

Note that building an entire distribution is a long process. It also requires a big amount of free disk space.

The support for Microchip MPU SoC family is included in a particular Yocto Project layer: meta-mchp. The source for this layer are hosted on Linux4Microchip GitHub account: https://github.com/linux4microchip/meta-mchp

Building environment

A step-by-step comprehensive installation is explained in the Yocto Project Quick Build. The following lines have to be considered as an add-on that is MPU specific or that can facilitate your setup.

Step by step build procedure

Note here is the README procedure available directly in the meta-mchp-common layer. This file in the meta-mchp layer repository must be considered as the reference and the following copy can be out-of-sync.

Note starting with Linux4Microchip 2025.04 release, the meta-mchp layer supports Yocto Project templates, so make sure you create a new build environment using oe-init-build-env

OpenEmbedded/Yocto Project BSP layer for Microchip's SoCs

Description

The meta-mchp-common layer consolidates common Board Support Package (BSP) components and metadata for Microchip platforms, streamlining development across various Microchip devices for use with OpenEmbedded and/or Yocto Project.

Supported Machines

The meta-mchp-common layer provides support for various Microchip platforms. For detailed information about supported machines, please refer to the documentation in the relevant sub-layers:

Prerequisites

Before starting, please refer to the Required Packages for Build Host section in the Yocto Project Documentation to install required dependencies for the build environment:

Information

Note: Make sure to install git-lfs and repo in addition to the required packages for your Linux distribution.

For instance, on Ubuntu or Debian, these packages need to be installed on your development host:

sudo apt-get install gawk wget git-core git-lfs diffstat unzip texinfo gcc-multilib \
     build-essential chrpath socat cpio python3 python3-pip python3-pexpect \
     xz-utils debianutils iputils-ping python3-git python3-jinja2 libegl1-mesa libsdl1.2-dev \
     pylint3 xterm repo

Usage

To integrate this layer into your Yocto Project build environment:

Clone the necessary repositories:

Create an empty directory to hold the workspace:

mkdir yocto-dev
cd yocto-dev

Use the repo tool to fetch all the required repositories

Make sure to install the repo utility first.

repo init -u https://github.com/linux4microchip/meta-mchp-manifest.git -b <branch> -m <target>/default.xml

Replace and with the Yocto release branch and the manifest required. For example:

repo init -u https://github.com/linux4microchip/meta-mchp-manifest.git -b scarthgap -m mpu/default.xml

Fetch all the required repositories using the following repo command:

repo sync

Initialize the build environment:

The meta-mchp repository provides sample configuration templates that help set up BitBake layers and key configuration files in the Yocto build directory.

Set the TEMPLATECONF environment variable to point to the appropriate configuration template before initializing the build environment:

export TEMPLATECONF=${TEMPLATECONF:-../meta-mchp/<meta-layer>/conf/templates/default}

Replace meta-layer above with the desired layer based on your target platform. For example:

export TEMPLATECONF=${TEMPLATECONF:-../meta-mchp/meta-mchp-mpu/conf/templates/default}

Note: Setting TEMPLATECONF is only needed the first time you will run the source command.

Then initialize the Yocto build environment:

source openembedded-core/oe-init-build-env

 

Set the target machine and build the image:

MACHINE=<machine> bitbake core-image-minimal

Each sub-layer provides several images that include demos and applications tailored for its respective platform.

For more information on the supported images, please refer to the README:

* MPU layer README

Layer Dependencies

This layer depends on the following layers:

- meta-openembedded
 - URI: git://git.openembedded.org/meta-openembedded
 - Layers: meta-oe, meta-networking, meta-python

- openembedded-core
 - URI: git://git.openembedded.org/openembedded-core
 - Layers: meta

For information on the specific revisions used, refer to the meta-mchp manifest repository.

Licensing

The contents of this layer are licensed under the MIT License. See COPYING.MIT for details.

Contributing

If you want to contribute changes, you can send Github pull requests at https://github.com/linux4microchip/meta-mchp/pulls.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for additional information about contribution guidelines.

Maintainers

  • Hari Prasath G E <hari.prasathge@microchip.com>
  • Valentina Fernandez Alanis <valentina.fernandezalanis@microchip.com>
  • Dharma Balasubiramani <dharma.b@microchip.com>

Using SAM-BA to flash components to board

Install SAM-BA software in your PC

In addition to the official SAM-BA pages on http://www.microchip.com, we maintain information about SAM-BA in the SoftwareTools page.

Warning

use SAM-BA 3.9.y onwards. You can download it here: SAM-BA 3.9.1 release page.

 

Launch SAM-BA tools

In addition to the Qt5 QML language for scripting used for flashing the demos, most common SAM-BA action can be done using SAM-BA command line.

For browsing information on the SAM-BA command line usage, please see the Command Line Documentation that is available in the SAM-BA installation directory: doc/index.html or doc/cmdline.html .

SAM-BA includes command line interface that provides support for the most common actions:

  • reading / writing to arbitrary memory addresses and/or peripherals
  • uploading applets and using them to erase/read/write external memories

The command line interface is designed to be self-documenting.

The main commands can be listed using the "sam-ba --help" command:

SAM-BA Command Line Interface Tool v3.9.1 (linux - x86_64-little_endian-lp64)
Copyright 2025 Microchip Technology

Usage: sam-ba [options]

Options:
  -v, --version                             Displays version information.
  -h, --help                                Displays this help.
  -l, --loglevel <log_level[:options:...]>  Set verbose log level.
  -x, --execute <script.qml>                Execute script <script.qml>.
  -p, --port <port[:options:...]>           Communicate with device using
                                            <port>.
  -d, --device <device[:options:...]>       Connected device is <device>.
  -b, --board <board[:options:...]>         Connected board is <board>.
  -m, --monitor <command[:options:...]>     Run monitor command <command>.
  -a, --applet <applet[:options:...]>       Load and initialize applet
                                            <applet>.
  -c, --command <command[:args:...]>        Run command <command>.
  -t, --tracelevel <trace_level>            Set applet trace level to
                                            <trace_level>.
  -L, --applet-buffer-limit <SIZE>          Set applet buffer limit to <SIZE>
                                            bytes (default 131072).
  -w, --working-directory <DIR>             Set working directory to <DIR>.
  -u, --utils <tool[:args:...]>             Launch a tool <tool> .

If you get the following error, it indicates a symbol mismatch or unresolved symbol when the sam-ba executable is being loaded

$ sam-ba -v
sam-ba: symbol lookup error: sam-ba: undefined symbol: _ZdlPvm, version Qt_5

Check for Qt libraries inside the extracted SAM-BA directory.

$ cd path/to/sam-ba
$ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(pwd)/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Additional help can be obtained for most commands by supplying a "help" parameter that will display their usage.

For example "sam-ba --port help" will display:

Known ports: j-link, serial, secure

Command that take an argument with options (port, monitor, applet) will display even more documentation when called with "help" as option value.

For example "sam-ba --port serial:help" will display:

Syntax:
   serial:[<port>]:[<baudrate>]
Examples:
   serial                serial port (will use first AT91 USB if found otherwise first serial port)
   serial:COM80          serial port on COM80
   serial:ttyUSB0:57600  serial port on /dev/ttyUSB0, baudrate 57600

Programming components into eMMC flash

Program rootfs file

With SAM-BA you can directly program SD/MMC images to the on-board eMMC. These images are named *.img or *.wic for the ones generated by Yocto Project.

# sam-ba -p serial -b sama7g5-ek -a sdmmc -c write:microchip-demo-image-sama7g5ek.wic
Opening serial port 'ttyACM0'
Connection opened.
Detected memory size is 3925868544 bytes.
Page size is 512 bytes.
Buffer is 88576 bytes (173 pages) at address 0x0022a5a0.
Executing command 'write:microchip-demo-image-sama7g5ek.wic'
Wrote 88576 bytes at address 0x00000000 (0.02%)
Wrote 88576 bytes at address 0x00015a00 (0.04%)
Wrote 88576 bytes at address 0x0002b400 (0.05%)
Wrote 88576 bytes at address 0x00040e00 (0.07%)
Wrote 88576 bytes at address 0x00056800 (0.09%)
[..]
Wrote 88576 bytes at address 0x1d4e8600 (99.98%)
Wrote 88576 bytes at address 0x1d4fe000 (100.00%)
Wrote 4608 bytes at address 0x1d513a00 (100.00%)
Connection closed.
Information

Note that programming a rootfs of several hundreds of MiB will take a few minutes to complete.

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