Tips to generate test hex files

[mcuee]

I have collected some srecord tips from @stefanrueger and @MCUdude here (as well as my learning). I will try to draft a Wiki page later.
https://github.com/mcuee/avrdude/wiki

@stefanrueger
Please help to take a look and add some other tips you have. Thanks. We do not need to limit with srecord even though it is the most popular.

[mcuee]

How to geneerate test hex file using srecord

• Do STK500/arduino/xbee programmers fail EEPROM r/w for some parts? #967 (comment)

Not woring under Windows MSYS2 MinGW but should work under Linux

$ head -512c /dev/urandom | srec_cat - -binary -o - -intel > /tmp/rnd.eep

Working for all OS with bash shell.

$ yes The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog             | head -512c | srec_cat - -binary -o - -intel >/tmp/en.eep
$ yes Z jagt im komplett verwahrlosten Taxi quer durch Bayern | head -512c | srec_cat - -binary -o - -intel >/tmp/de.eep

More srecord tricks

• [bug #45826] ATMEL-ICE content mismatch on Linux and OS X #391 (comment)
• megaTinyCore optiboot_x issue with avrdude git main -- FALSE ALARM #1166 (comment)
• FLASH write fails if there are odd number of bytes. #1068 (comment)
• [bug #48261] STK500V2 ISP problem with ATmega8/8515/8535, ATmega16 and ATmega32 #425

srec_cat -generate 0x0000 0x001F -repeat_data 0x00 -o zeros_31bytes.hex -Intel -obs=16
srec_cat -generate 0x0000 0x000F -repeat_data 0x55 -o hex55s_15bytes.hex -Intel -obs=16
yes "hello, world" | head -c256 | srec_cat - -bin -offset 0x200 -o hello_world_256B_offset_0x200.hex -Intel
srec_cat -generate 0x0000 0x8000 -repeat_data 0x00 -o zeros32kB.hex -Intel

• avrftdi.c: paged write can fail at addr 0 #1073

srec_cat test_202B.hex -intel -crop 0x0000 0x7FFF -offset 0x0200 -o test_202B_offset_0x200.hex -intel

$ avrdude -pm32a/At | grep flash.page_size
.ptmm	ATmega32A	flash	page_size	128

$ srec_cat ATTOBASICV234_m32-16MHZ-uart_btldr -i -output - -c_array | tr \\n " " | cut -d, -f128
 0xFF

• [bug #53703] FT232H based programmer returns all 0xFF when reading flash from atmega2560 #474 (comment)

srec_cat entest.srec -offset 0x021000 -o entest_offset_0x21000.srec
srec_cat entest_offset_0x21000.srec  -o entest_offset_0x21000.hex -intel
srec_cat entest_offset_0x11000.hex -intel -o - -c-arra dopp -Output_Word | tail -9 | head -4

Some more:

srec_cat urboot_atmega328p_autobaud_lednop_ur_vbl.hex -Intel --offset -0x0B00

[stefanrueger]

@mcuee We have come across a number of hex files that exposed problems for programming. Would be great to keep them in a separate collection for testing releases. The one from #1508 could be named eeprom-test-stk500-usbtiny.hex. There are other ones: sketch ending in pages of 0xff, sketch with holes, sketch with more than 128k, sketch with holes and exceeding 128k, eeprom with pages of 0xff, eeprom with a page starting with two 0xff (the problem in #1508)

[mcuee]

Good idea. Probably we can use this discussion to upload the hex files for testing.

[mcuee]

Now we have the test hex files in git main. I will close this one. Further test files can be added as an enhancement.
https://github.com/avrdudes/avrdude/tree/main/tools/test_files