How to completely remove the bootloader?

Other Hardware 3rd Party Boards
1

Sup Arduino Forum

I've been using Nick Gammon's Atmega_Board_Programmer.ino to flash the "Lilypad (8 MHz) loader" to run the chip in standalone mode.

Then I use AVRdude to upload a simple "sequential LED scrolling" hex file compiled in Atmel Studio 6.1

However, this seems to leave the Arduino bootloader on the chip, is that correct? Because when I power on the IC, it blinks the LED at port 13 (pin 19) just once, (arduino bootloader) then there's a short delay (maybe 3/4 of a second), then my program starts.

I wanted to get rid of the arduino bootloader altogether to avoid the "blink port 13 & delay". I was able to do it, but now I can't... Anyone has any idea?

2

Hi

When you say you're uploading your sketch using AVRdude, what hardware connections are you using to program it? If you're using serial (via FTDI breakout or cable) then the bootloader will be invoked and it will protect itself during the upload. If you're using an ISP programmer of some sort then you're replacing the bootloader.

Cheers ! Geoff

3

ArduinoISP sketch, using the following command:

avrdude.exe -v -v -v -v -p atmega328p -c avrisp -P\.\COM5 -b19200 -D -U flash:w:led.hex

Says it flashes ok, then I power it on and always have that blink 13 and delay, which is what I'm trying to get rid of.

Then I use Nick Gammon's Atmega_Board_Detector.ino and it shows:

Bootloader in use: Yes
MD5 sum of bootloader = 27 EB 87 14 5D 45 D4 D8 41 44 52 CE 0A 2B 8C 5F

Does this seem to be the arduino bootloader?

4

How are you connected when you program? To not have a bootloader, you have to program via the SPI pins, not the serial pins.

5

I'm using ArduinoISP connected to the SPI pins on the target chip, as described in http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/ArduinoISP (bottom left, without extra components)

So strange that it was succesfully getting rid of the bootloader two days ago, and last night it never wanted to leave it again.

Here are my fuse settings as per Nick Gammon's fuse calculator:

Atmega fuse calculator.
Written by Nick Gammon.
Entered programming mode OK.
Signature = 0x1E 0x95 0x0F 
Processor = ATmega328P
Flash memory size = 32768
LFuse = 0xE2 
HFuse = 0xDA 
EFuse = 0xFD 
Lock byte = 0xEF 
Clock calibration = 0x9C 
External Reset Disable.................. [ ]
Debug Wire Enable....................... [ ]
Enable Serial (ICSP) Programming........ [X]
Watchdog Timer Always On................ [ ]
Preserve EEPROM through chip erase...... [ ]
Boot into bootloader.................... [X]
Divide clock by 8....................... [ ]
Clock output............................ [ ]
Bootloader size: 2048 bytes.
Start-up time: SUT0: [X]  SUT1: [ ] (see datasheet)
Clock source: calibrated internal oscillator.
Brownout detection at: 2.7V.

But now that I look at it, the startup time SUT0 and SUT1 bits seem to be configured, could that be related?

6

powercat:
ArduinoISP sketch, using the following command:

avrdude.exe -v -v -v -v -p atmega328p -c avrisp -P\.\COM5 -b19200 -D -U flash:w:led.hex

You are including the -D option which will not erase flash before uploading. This option will prevent the bootloader from being erased. Just remove the -D option from this command line and avrdude will erase all the flash, which gets rid of the bootloader before uploading the sketch.

7

Ohh. Ill try it tonight when I get home. I hope that's it!

I've found these commands on other sites but now the lesson learned is to check what the options do before doing it :slight_smile:

8

You may need to also disable the boot reset vector option in the high fuse byte, so that it will avoid trying to jump to the bootloader section.

You could try using this hfuse byte setting with avrdude: -U hfuse:w:0xDF:m

9

hiduino:

powercat:
ArduinoISP sketch, using the following command:

avrdude.exe -v -v -v -v -p atmega328p -c avrisp -P\.\COM5 -b19200 -D -U flash:w:led.hex

You are including the -D option which will not erase flash before uploading.

Thanks hiduino. That was it! My program loads instantly, now.

10

To "get rid" of the bootloader, you will need to change the fuse setting of the BOOTRST fuse in the High Fuse byte, so that it is "unprogrammed" (1)
For a M328, you'd want 0xDF instead of 0xDE
This fuse controls whether the chip starts execution at the beginning of the application section (0x0000) or the beginning of the Bootloader section (variable depending on bootloader size), so even if you've erased the actual bootloader, you still need to set it correctly... (Conversely, even if you have bootloader code present, it won't be executed if BOOTRST isn't enabled.)

11

If you just want to get rid of the delay, you program the fuse to jump straight to your program code (address 0) rather than the bootloader code, as westfw said.

12

Hi Nick,
I've meet tonight such a interesting problem:

I've tried to use my AVR Dragon to program a atmega328p with arduino bootloader. But it just can't get the correct ID of the chip. then I've tried the m328p on a arduino board. I works just fine (Blink a led on pin13). Then I tried my adafruit usbtiny. Avrdude told me "Initialization failed, rc = -1".

I just wanna tried some AVR with my old Arduino. But it seems the bootload stopped the programming process?

Any Tipp? ; )

13

Without more details about how you used your Dragon it is hard to say. However be aware that the AVR products (Dragon, AVRISP) do not supply power to the target board. You need to supply that yourself.

14

You are right, I should leave more detail here:

FIrstly I made the circuit following this video: AVR Programming - AVR Dragon Introduction - YouTube
And I've been confirmed with a original m328p (without Bootload fresh unboxed) the circuit works as it should be. (In atmel studio 6 I can read the target Voltage and ID) and I do check the voltage of the circuit with a Multimedia. It's correct.

May it be something about Fuses?

Thanks.

15

Any idea how to do this for an arduino leonardo?

16

vinmred:
Any idea how to do this for an arduino leonardo?

I think you can just set the fuse to not use bootloader and upload a sketch via ISP (without the -D command line option)... If there are complications, they're related to USB, but I don't think there are.

westfw:
To "get rid" of the bootloader, you will need to change the fuse setting of the BOOTRST fuse in the High Fuse byte, so that it is "unprogrammed" (1)
For a M328, you'd want 0xDF instead of 0xDE
This fuse controls whether the chip starts execution at the beginning of the application section (0x0000) or the beginning of the Bootloader section (variable depending on bootloader size), so even if you've erased the actual bootloader, you still need to set it correctly... (Conversely, even if you have bootloader code present, it won't be executed if BOOTRST isn't enabled.)

Well, if the board def you're using was meant to be used with a bootloader, and the flash was erased before you programmed it, you can get away with BOOTRST being left as it was when you bootloaded it - because the board def is leaving space for the bootloader that isn't there, so you don't run the risk of code being there (it will tell you the sketch is too big), and the blank flash will have 0xFF in it, and 0xFFFF is a no-op, so execution on reset will skid along the no-op's until it reaches the end of the flash, wraps around to address 0, the reset vector, and jump to the sketch.

17

vinmred:
Any idea how to do this for an arduino leonardo?

I'm curious as to "why". What is the problem that you're trying to solve?

A power cycle will skip the boot loader, other resets (not sure about wdt, you'll have to check) will invoke the boot loader.