diff --git a/board/atmel/xplained/readme.txt b/board/atmel/xplained/readme.txt
index e29a116883..63744dde9c 100644
--- a/board/atmel/xplained/readme.txt
+++ b/board/atmel/xplained/readme.txt
@@ -52,8 +52,8 @@ sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /media/rootfs
 Copy the bootloaders, kernel image and Device Tree blob to the first
 partition:
 
-cp output/images/sama5d3_xplained-sdcardboot-uboot-3.6.2.bin /media/boot/boot.bin
-cp output/images/u-boot.bin /media/boot/u-boot.bin
+cp output/images/uboot-spl.bin /media/boot/boot.bin
+cp output/images/u-boot.img /media/boot/u-boot.img
 cp output/images/zImage /media/boot/zImage
 cp output/images/at91-sama5d3_xplained.dtb /media/boot/at91-sama5d3_xplained.dtb
 
diff --git a/configs/atmel_xplained_defconfig b/configs/atmel_xplained_defconfig
index 8c06489510..087f4fa8e2 100644
--- a/configs/atmel_xplained_defconfig
+++ b/configs/atmel_xplained_defconfig
@@ -5,24 +5,22 @@ BR2_cortex_a5=y
 # Toolchain configuration
 BR2_ARM_EABIHF=y
 BR2_KERNEL_HEADERS_VERSION=y
-BR2_DEFAULT_KERNEL_VERSION="3.15"
-BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_LINUX_HEADERS_CUSTOM_3_15=y
+BR2_DEFAULT_KERNEL_VERSION="3.18.8"
+BR2_PACKAGE_HOST_LINUX_HEADERS_CUSTOM_3_18=y
 
 # Kernel configuration
 BR2_LINUX_KERNEL=y
 BR2_LINUX_KERNEL_CUSTOM_VERSION=y
-BR2_LINUX_KERNEL_CUSTOM_VERSION_VALUE="3.15"
+BR2_LINUX_KERNEL_CUSTOM_VERSION_VALUE="3.18.8"
 BR2_LINUX_KERNEL_DEFCONFIG="sama5"
 BR2_LINUX_KERNEL_ZIMAGE=y
 BR2_LINUX_KERNEL_DTS_SUPPORT=y
 BR2_LINUX_KERNEL_INTREE_DTS_NAME="at91-sama5d3_xplained"
 
-# First stage bootloader
-BR2_TARGET_AT91BOOTSTRAP3=y
-BR2_TARGET_AT91BOOTSTRAP3_DEFCONFIG="sama5d3_xplainedsd_uboot"
-
-# Second stage bootloader
+# First/second stage bootloader
 BR2_TARGET_UBOOT=y
 BR2_TARGET_UBOOT_BOARDNAME="sama5d3_xplained_mmc"
 BR2_TARGET_UBOOT_CUSTOM_VERSION=y
-BR2_TARGET_UBOOT_CUSTOM_VERSION_VALUE="2014.04"
+BR2_TARGET_UBOOT_CUSTOM_VERSION_VALUE="2015.01"
+BR2_TARGET_UBOOT_FORMAT_IMG=y
+BR2_TARGET_UBOOT_SPL=y