Apalis iMX8 flashing u-boot

Technical Support
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1

Hello, I’m trying to flash u-boot on Apalis iMX8QM with Ixora carrier board, I’ve tried doing that using recovery mode, I’ve followed these procedures for entering recovery mode and starting recovery script:

But after starting the script the u-boot fails booting and keeps resetting (looping) CPU:

U-Boot 2018.03-toradex_imx_v2018.03_4.14.98_2.3.0_bringup+g9393e0c9bd (May 19 2020 - 21:31:12 +0000)

CPU:   Freescale i.MX8QM revB A53 at 1200 MHz at 44C
DRAM:  4 GiB
MMC:   FSL_SDHC: 0, FSL_SDHC: 1, FSL_SDHC: 2
Loading Environment from MMC... OK
No panel detected: default to IT6263
lvds2hdmi_setup: No bus 6
Display: IT6263 (1280x720)
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Model: Toradex Apalis iMX8 QuadMax 4GB Wi-Fi / BT IT V1.0B, Serial# 06506378

 BuildInfo: 
  - SCFW b929edfe, SECO-FW 27167ff2, IMX-MKIMAGE d7f9440d, ATF bb209a0
  - U-Boot 2018.03-toradex_imx_v2018.03_4.14.98_2.3.0_bringup+g9393e0c9bd 

switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0(part 0) is current device
"Synchronous Abort" handler, esr 0x96000007
elr: 000000008007ffe0 lr : 0000000080026e7c (reloc)
elr: 00000000ffeedfe0 lr : 00000000ffe94e7c
x0 : 00000000fff04664 x1 : 0000000000000000
x2 : 00000000fd67e260 x3 : 0000000000000000
x4 : 0000000000000066 x5 : 00000000fff04664
x6 : 00000000fff0e548 x7 : 00000000fda25000
x8 : 00000000fd67dfb0 x9 : 0000000000000008
x10: 00000000ffffffd8 x11: 0000000000000006
x12: 000000000001869f x13: 0000000000000200
x14: 000000000000000e x15: 00000000ffffffff
x16: 0000000000002080 x17: 0000000000000000
x18: 00000000fd68bda8 x19: 00000000fff045f2
x20: 00000000fff04664 x21: 0000000000000000
x22: 0000000000000000 x23: 0000000000000000
x24: 0000000000000000 x25: 0000000000000000
x26: 0000000000000000 x27: 0000000000000000
x28: 0000000000000000 x29: 00000000fd67e2d0

Resetting CPU ...

resetting ...

The script for recovery gets to 100% and just stays there:

Downloading Toradex Easy Installer...
[sudo] password for mlovric: 
uuu (Universal Update Utility) for nxp imx chips -- libuuu_1.3.136-0-g1ecc47f

Success 0    Failure 0                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                        
                                                                                                                                        
1:542    1/ 1 [=================100%=================] SDPS: boot -f ../imx-boot

Does anyone know how to solve this problem? Also, is it possible to flash u-boot by starting ums mode in existing u-boot and using dd command to directly write new u-boot into mmc?

2

What you are seeing may be the following recently discovered issue:

Please try the following latest nightly build of the Toradex Easy Installer which should have those new settings as mentioned in the above-linked issue integrated.

Once you are in the Toradex Easy Installer enable the CI feed and install any of our latest nightly BSP images which also should have resp. fix already integrated:

Please do let us know if this fixes the issue you are seeing.

Please contact us again should you have any further questions or comments. Thanks!

3

BTW: Please also make sure your power supply is up to the task and make sure you are using an Ixora carrier board which provides enough margin power-wise:

4

You may also find our latest nightly builds of the Toradex Easy Installer here:

https://artifacts.toradex.com/artifactory/tezi-oe-prerelease-frankfurt/thud/nightly/

5

I’ve tried both nightly builds and both fail with same error, except it resets back into u-boot that is currently flashed instead of falling into reset loop. Since I can connect Ixora board with host PC using USB OTG and starting “ums” in u-boot, could I flash u-boot.bin directly using dd command? If it is possible, what parameters do I need to use for dd command?

6

And you are absolutely sure it is not the power supply resp. Ixora carrier board? As regular Ixora V1.1A carrier board may be too weak to power an Apalis iMX8.

And no, ums can not be used to flash U-Boot.

7

Yes, we reworked the the Ixora carrier board according to errata, I’ve tried to replace “imx-boot” and “u-boot.bin” files in nightly build with ones from our custom image build, the result is that u-boot is loaded successfully via recovery script, but it throws error “can’t get kernel image”:

U-Boot 2018.03-toradex_imx_v2018.03_4.14.78_1.0.0_ga-bringup+g92d0497 (Jun 12 2020 - 07:31:05 +0000)

CPU:   Freescale i.MX8QM revB A53 at 1200 MHz at 27C
DRAM:  4 GiB
MMC:   FSL_SDHC: 0, FSL_SDHC: 1, FSL_SDHC: 2
Loading Environment from MMC... OK
No panel detected: default to IT6263
lvds2hdmi_setup: No bus 6
Display: IT6263 (1280x720)
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Model: Toradex Apalis iMX8 QuadMax 4GB Wi-Fi / BT IT V1.0B, Serial# 06506378

 BuildInfo: 
  - SCFW cb6f758b, SECO-FW d7523fe8, IMX-MKIMAGE dd023400, ATF a-20190
  - U-Boot 2018.03-toradex_imx_v2018.03_4.14.78_1.0.0_ga-bringup+g92d0497 

switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0(part 0) is current device
Detect USB boot. Will enter fastboot mode!
flash target is MMC:0
Net:   eth0: ethernet@5b040000
Fastboot: Normal
Boot from USB for uuu
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 
Detect USB boot. Will enter fastboot mode!
Starting download of 2246 bytes

downloading of 2246 bytes finished
Detect USB boot. Will enter fastboot mode!
Starting download of 106496 bytes

downloading of 106496 bytes finished
Detect USB boot. Will enter fastboot mode!
Starting download of 37476964 bytes
..........................................................................
..........................................................................
..........................................................................
...............................................................
downloading of 37476964 bytes finished
## Executing script at 82e00000
Loading hdp firmware from 0x0000000082fe0000 offset 0x0000000000002000
Loading hdp firmware Complete
## Loading kernel from FIT Image at 83000000 ...
Could not find configuration node
ERROR: can't get kernel image!
8

Hi @Martin_Lovric

Thanks for the update.

Could you go to recovery mode and install Toradex Easy Installer 2.0b5 on the module? Let us know if you see any issue.

Thanks and Best regards,
Jaski

9

Hi @jaski.tx

We erased the eMMC memory (How to Erase the eMMC Flash Memory (Linux) | Toradex Developer Center), and tried to boot up the board in recovery mode using Toradex Easy Installer 2.0b6-nightly and it worked this time, we have also successfully installed 3rd party image which contained u-boot that works for us and our custom image. Version 2.0b5 also boots up correctly now.

Thank you @jaski.tx and @marcel.tx for support.

Best regards.

10

You should really avoid mixing and matching stuff across BSP versions like that as especially with such (early) samples stuff keeps changing which might not really stay compatible like that (e.g. the U-Boot environment vs. the distroboot script).

11

Careful with 3rd party stuff as most likely this won’t use any of them newer RAM settings as of yet.