BCT

Boot Configuration Table

What is it and how to get it

The boot configuration table contains information about which bootloader to boot. On the Surface RT it is stored on the SPI flash. Go to SPI flash, to dump it directly from SPI. Or do it with nvflash (recommended): sudo ./utils/nvflash_v1.13.87205 --getbct --bct surfacert.bin --configfile ./utils/flash.cfg

Decompiling and Compiling

Decompiling

To decompile your BCT into a configuration file, use the tool bct_dump. Usage: bct_dump <your-bct-file> Tip you can add > <output-file> to reroute the output to a file.

Compiling

Compiling configuration file

You can compile your bct.cfg file by using the tool cbootimage. Usage: cbootimage -s tegra30 -t 30 -gbct <input-bct-configuration-file> <output-bct-file> Example: cbootimage -s tegra30 -t 30 -gbct surfacert-custom.bct.cfg surfacert-custom.bct

Adding a Bootloader to BCT

To generate a image file with your BCT and provided bootloader, again use cbootimage. Usage: cbootimage -d -s tegra30 -t 30 <input-config-file> <output-image-file> Example: cbootimage -d -s tegra30 -t 30 surfacert.config surfacert.output <input-config-file> is a file controlling how the .img file should be created. It has the following structure:

# Refernence: https://github.com/NVIDIA/cbootimage-configs/blob/master/tegra30/nvidia/cardhu/cardhu-a05-2gb-emmc.img.cfg

Version       = 0x00000001;
Bctcopy       = 1;
Bctfile       = <your-bct-file>;
BootLoader    = <bootloader-file-name>,<load-address>,<entry-point>,Complete;

Example:

Version       = 0x00000001;
Bctcopy       = 1;
Bctfile       = surfacert-custom.bct;
BootLoader    = mtd0-bootloader,0x80808000,0x80808000,Complete;

Doing this will create a image file of your BCT and the bootloader you provided. The BCT will automatically updated with the correct sizes and hashes.