Error: Halt timed out, wake up GDB

I'm having trouble using OpenOCD to flash the firmware on a at91sam7s512 micro-controller.

Whenever I send a halt command (via telnet) it throws the following error:

Halt timed out, wake up GDB.
timed out while waiting for target halted
in procedure 'halt'

The board is a Proxmark3 Easy

Below is the configuration file being used:

# Ports
telnet_port 4444
gdb_port 3333

# Interface
interface buspirate
buspirate_port /dev/ttyUSB0
adapter_khz 1000

# Communication speed
buspirate_speed normal # or fast

# Voltage regulator: enabled = 1 or disabled = 0
buspirate_vreg 1

# Pin mode: normal or open-drain
buspirate_mode normal

# Pull-up state: enabled = 1 or disabled = 0
buspirate_pullup 1

# use combined on interfaces or targets that can't set TRST/SRST separately
reset_config srst_only srst_pulls_trst

jtag newtap sam7x cpu -irlen 4 -ircapture 0x1 -irmask 0xf -expected-id 0x3f0f0f0f 

target create sam7x.cpu arm7tdmi -endian little -chain-position sam7x.cpu 

sam7x.cpu configure -event reset-init { 
    soft_reset_halt
    mww 0xfffffd00 0xa5000004   # RSTC_CR: Reset peripherals
    mww 0xfffffd44 0x00008000   # WDT_MR: disable watchdog
    mww 0xfffffd08 0xa5000001   # RSTC_MR enable user reset
    mww 0xfffffc20 0x00005001   # CKGR_MOR : enable the main oscillator
    sleep 10
    mww 0xfffffc2c 0x000b1c02   # CKGR_PLLR: 16MHz * 12/2 = 96MHz
    sleep 10
    mww 0xfffffc30 0x00000007   # PMC_MCKR : MCK = PLL / 2 = 48 MHz
    sleep 10
    mww 0xffffff60 0x00480100   # MC_FMR: flash mode (FWS=1,FMCN=72)
    sleep 100

}

gdb_memory_map enable
#gdb_breakpoint_override hard
#armv4_5 core_state arm

sam7x.cpu configure -work-area-virt 0 -work-area-phys 0x00200000 -work-area-size 0x10000 -work-area-backup 0
flash bank sam7x512.flash.0 at91sam7 0 0 0 0 sam7x.cpu 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 18432
flash bank sam7x512.flash.1 at91sam7 0 0 0 0 sam7x.cpu 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 18432

What steps can be taken to troubleshoot this

Two alternatives are open to you, JTAG and USB.

JTAG

The JTAG interface is disabled by default on some CPUs and needs to be manually enabled due to their Code Readout Protection (CRP).

To do this, you need to erase the chip by shorting PIN 55 (ERASE) with the 3.3V while the device is on.

After this the memory will be erased and protections off. You can then flash as normal.

Sources

Proxmark Forum

http://www.proxmark.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=6306

Official CPU Documentation, section 4.9.3

http://www.equinox-tech.com/downloads/equinox/ApplicationNotes/AN122%20Atmel%20AT91SAM7%20ISP%20Programming_V1-13_250110.pdf

USB

Alternatively, you could try the process over USB instead.

First check if the Proxmark is detected when plugged in.

Run the watch command to see if any changes occur when you plug it in.

watch ls -l /dev/ttyACM0

Hold the button on the side of the Proxmark down THEN connect via USB and check if the command output for watch changes. If it did and the file becomes present, you can go ahead with this.

Be sure to leave the button pressed until the flashing process is complete.

You are required to have compiled the Proxmark3 source found at official repo https://github.com/Proxmark/proxmark3 to get both the tool for flashing (flasher) and the flash images (bootrom.elf and fullimage.elf). If you have already continue with Flashing, if not do Compilation steps below first.

Flashing

Do NOT press Enter during the flashing process

./client/flasher /dev/ttyACM0 -b bootrom/obj/bootrom.elf armsrc/obj/fullimage.elf

Start the Proxmark Client and test if works

./client/proxmark3 /dev/ttyACM0

Compilation

Add current user to dialout group

sudo adduser $USER dialout

Log out and log back in for changes to take effect

Install necessary components

sudo apt-get install p7zip git build-essential libreadline5 libreadline-dev libusb-0.1-4 libusb-dev libqt4-dev perl pkg-config wget libncurses5-dev gcc-arm-none-eabi libstdc++-arm-none-eabi-newlib

Clone repo

git clone https://github.com/proxmark/proxmark3.git

cd proxmark3

Add Udev rules

sudo cp -rf driver/77-mm-usb-device-blacklist.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/77-mm-usb-device-blacklist.rules

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

Make

make clean && make all

Identify Proxmark3 on tty interface (usually this is ttyACM0 and this is what I'll use in Flashing)

dmesg | grep -i usb

Continue to Flashing steps

Source https://wiki.elvis.science/index.php?title=Proxmark3:_Debricking (Linux Installation)