It is possible to flash an embedded Linux image to a target module using two methods:
Note: Legacy flashing method does not imply that the embedded Linux image is legacy. There are pre-built Toradex images that are provided in both legacy and Toradex Easy Installer formats. Consult the image releases for a list of images in both formats.
Attention: If your Computer on Module is supported by the Toradex Easy Installer, the legacy flashing method is considered deprecated and you shouldn't use it.
This article describes the legacy bring-up aka flashing resp. updating of Embedded Linux on the Tegra family of modules.
For information concerning the recovery mode refer to the following article Txx Recovery Mode.
The preparation steps need to be executed on a x86-64 development host running a Linux distribution (e.g. Fedora or Ubuntu). Please note that there is no support for 32 bit hosts.
The following host applications and libraries are a pre-requisite for executing the update script and the 64-bit host tools contained in the image tarball.
E.g. for Ubuntu 14.04 (64-bit)
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dosfstools e2fsprogs gawk mtools parted
sudo apt-get install zlib1g liblzo2-2 libuuid1 libusb-1.0-0
E.g. for Fedora 21 (64-bit)
yum install dosfstools e2fsprogs gawk mtools parted
yum install zlib lzo libuuid libusbx
On older distros (e.g. Ubuntu 12.04) the tool to create a FAT filesystem was named mkfs.vfat while the update.sh script uses mkfs.fat. If you get an error that mkfs.fat is missing then find the full path to mkfs.vfat and create a symlink by doing the following:
trdx@trdx:~$ sudo sh -c "command -v mkfs.vfat"
/sbin/mkfs.vfat
trdx@trdx:~$ sudo ln -s /sbin/mkfs.vfat /sbin/mkfs.fat
It is possible to flash an embedded Linux image to a target module using two methods:
Note: Legacy flashing method does not imply that the embedded Linux image is legacy. There are pre-built Toradex images that are provided in both legacy and Toradex Easy Installer formats. Consult the image releases for a list of images in both formats.
Attention: If your Computer on Module is supported by the Toradex Easy Installer, the legacy flashing method is considered deprecated and you shouldn't use it.
This prepares a SD card or USB flash drive for later use on the carrier board with the module which is to be flashed.
<module-type>_<image-name>_<version>.tar.bz2 where <module_type> is one of Apalis TK1, Apalis T30, Apalis/Colibri iMX6, Colibri iMX7, Colibri-T20, Colibri-T30, or Colibri-VF and <module_type>_LinuxImageVx.yz.tar.bz2 where <module_type> is one of Colibri_T20, Colibri_T30 or Colibri_VF.You can find all the latest pre-built images in Binary Images, both in the legacy as well as the Toradex Easy Installer formats, or conveniently in the tables below, only in the legacy image format:
Toradex Embedded Linux Stable Releases
| OS Image | Supported Modules/Download Link | Summary Overview | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
Linux LXDE Image | Apalis TK1 (2.8.7 | 2020-06-10) Apalis TK1 Mainline (2.8.7 | 2020-06-10) Apalis T30 (2.8.7 | 2020-06-10) Apalis iMX6 (2.8.7 | 2020-06-10) Colibri T30 (2.8.7 | 2020-06-10) Colibri T20 (2.8.7 | 2020-06-10) Colibri iMX6 (2.8.7 | 2020-06-10) Colibri iMX7 (2.8.7 | 2020-06-10) Colibri VFxx (2.8.7 | 2020-06-10) |
Angstrom LXDE desktop environment image |
 |
Linux Console Image | Colibri VFxx (2.8.7 | 2020-06-10) | Linux Image without graphical user interface |
Use any FAT formatted SD/uSD card or USB flash drive with enough free space (1GB or more recommended).
Note: U-Boot expects a partition table (MBR) on the SD card or USB flash drive and the FAT partition to be the first partition!
Find the mount point of your SD/uSD card or USB flash drive by e.g. using df or lsblk:
[user@host ~]$ df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
...
/dev/mmcblk0p1 7582228 2808272 4773956 38% /media/KERNEL
[user@host ~]$ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
...
mmcblk0 179:0 0 7.3G 0 disk
└─mmcblk0p1 179:1 0 7.3G 0 part /media/KERNEL
update.sh script with the -o argument pointing to the mount point of the SD card or USB flash drive. For example assuming the SD card is mounted at /media/KERNEL: ./update.sh -o /media/KERNEL/
At this point the SD/uSD card or USB flash drive should contain U-Boot, optionally the Linux kernel, the flashing scripts and the ext3 (for eMMC modules) resp. UBI (for NAND modules) root file system images.
EvalBoard V1.0A/V1.1A:
Ixora V1.0A:
If updating from a V2.3 Beta 2 or older BSP:
Apalis T30 # setenv board_name apalis_t30
Apalis T30 # setenv drive 1
Apalis T30 # setenv interface mmc
Apalis T30 # setenv migrate_uboot 'mmc dev ${drive} 0; fatload ${interface} ${drive}:1 ${loadaddr} ${board_name}/${board_name}.img && mmc dev 0 1 && mmc write ${loadaddr} 0x0 0x500'
Apalis T30 # run migrate_uboot
Apalis T30 # setenv board_name apalis_t30
Apalis T30 # setenv drive 2
Apalis T30 # setenv interface mmc
Apalis T30 # setenv migrate_uboot 'mmc dev ${drive} 0; fatload ${interface} ${drive}:1 ${loadaddr} ${board_name}/${board_name}.img && mmc dev 0 1 && mmc write ${loadaddr} 0x0 0x500'
Apalis T30 # run migrate_uboot
Boot to U-Boot Prompt and Start the Update:
Apalis T30 # run setupdate Apalis T30 # run update
If you updated from a V2.3 beta 2 or older BSP:
Apalis T30 # run setupdate Apalis T30 # run migrate_v2.3b2
If you updated from an older image:
Apalis T30 # printenv Apalis T30 # env default -a Apalis T30 # saveenv
EvalBoard V1.0A/V1.1A:
Ixora V1.0A:
Boot to U-Boot Prompt and Start the Update:
Apalis TK1 # run setupdate Apalis TK1 # run update
If you updated from an older image:
Apalis TK1 # printenv Apalis TK1 # env default -a Apalis TK1 # saveenv
Please consult the Colibri T20 Release Notes for detailed flashing instructions.
EvalBoard V3.1A/V3.2A:
Iris V1.1A:
If updating from a V2.3 or older BSP:
Boot to U-Boot Prompt and Start the Update:
Colibri T20 # run setupdate Colibri T20 # run update
If updating from a V2.3 or older BSP:
Colibri T20 # run setupdate Colibri T20 # run migrate_v2.3b7
If you updated from an older image:
Colibri T20 # printenv Colibri T20 # env default -a Colibri T20 # saveenv
EvalBoard V3.1A/V3.2A:
Iris V1.1A:
If updating from a V2.3 Beta 1 or older BSP:
Colibri T30 # setenv board_name colibri_t30
Colibri T30 # setenv drive 1
Colibri T30 # setenv interface mmc
Colibri T30 # setenv migrate_uboot 'mmc dev ${drive} 0; fatload ${interface} ${drive}:1 ${loadaddr} ${board_name}/${board_name}.img && mmc dev 0 1 && mmc write ${loadaddr} 0x0 0x500'
Colibri T30 # run migrate_uboot
Boot to U-Boot Prompt and Start the Update:
Colibri T30 # run setupdate Colibri T30 # run update
If updating from a V2.3 Beta 1 or older BSP:
Colibri T30 # run setupdate Colibri T30 # run migrate_v2.3b1
If you updated from an older image:
Colibri T30 # printenv Colibri T30 # env default -a Colibri T30 # saveenv
In case the module doesn't show any U-Boot boot loader output or hangs at very early stages or to transition from a WinCE/WEC installation refer to the Txx Recovery Mode article to download U-Boot directly into RAM.
Initiate the actual flashing using the 'run setupdate; run update' commands as detailed above on a per module type basis.
From the U-Boot command prompt some additional commands makes sure that the whole NAND is erased and rewritten including the Toradex config block (production data such as serial number) is stored too.
Colibri T20 # nand erase.chip Colibri T20 # cfgblock create Is the module an IT version? [y/N] y Enter the module version (e.g. V1.2A): V1.2A Enter module serial number: 04815386 Toradex config block successfully written Colibri T20 # run setupdate Colibri T20 # run update ...
Note: The cfgblock create command is available since BSP release V2.4 Beta 1 (U-Boot 2015.04). To recover the config block for older U-Boot versions use the configblock.sh script and copy the configblock.bin file to the SD card. Then use 'run setupdate && run update_configblock'.
The update scripts should cope with the standard update and upgrade cases. However sometimes things can go wrong. This section helps to recover the module in those situations.
Since V2.4 we try not to delete the UBI volume to retain the erase counters and hence proper wear levelling information. This can lead to problems when using NAND flash with incompatible ECC modes or file systems (WinCE/WEC). In this case the UBI stack of U-Boot claims an "init error":
UBI: default fastmap pool size: 200 UBI: default fastmap WL pool size: 25 UBI: attaching mtd1 to ubi0 UBI: scanning is finished UBI init error 22
To solve this issue a proper cleaning of the UBI partition is required before starting the update process:
Colibri T20 # nand erase.part ubi ... Colibri T20 # run update ...
The following warning upon boot can be ignored as it just means that the U-Boot environment has never been written to flash yet and the default environment as compiled into the U-Boot binary is therefore used:
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment
Using the 'saveenv' command one can force writing the environment to flash:
Colibri T20 # saveenv
U-Boot
Apalis TK1 # run setupdate Apalis TK1 # run update_uboot
Linux Kernel or Device Tree
Apalis TK1 # run setupdate Apalis TK1 # run update_kernel Apalis TK1 # run update_fdt
Please note that to be at the U-Boot prompt one needs to open the /dev/ttySx or /dev/ttyUSBx port with a terminal emulation program like minicom on Linux or a CoMx port on Windows with puTTY with a baud rate of 115200 baud, 8 data bits, no parity and one stop bit without any hardware/software flow control.
