Artifact install failed - “No match between boot and root partitions”

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Hello! Thank you for providing such a detailed summary of your setup and the issues you are encountering. Let’s address the main problem: the failure of the Mender OTA update on your Apalis iMX8 with the error involving boot and root partition mismatch and issues with fw_printenv.

Key Issue Overview

  • Mender “No match between boot and root partitions.”
    This error generally indicates Mender cannot determine or access the correct boot and root partitions, usually because the U-Boot environment is either not written/read properly or the fw_env.config is misconfigured.

  • fw_printenv errors (“Cannot read environment, using default”)
    This points to a problem in accessing U-Boot environment variables from Linux. Frequently, the configuration file or device node is incorrect.

1. Check /etc/fw_env.config

For Apalis iMX8 (eMMC-based), /etc/fw_env.config must be set for the eMMC’s boot area (not the standard partition).
The correct contents should be exactly:

/dev/mmcblk2boot0 -0x2200 0x2000
  • Ensure /dev/mmcblk2boot0 exists on your board (otherwise, adjust according to the correct device under /dev/).
  • Do not use /dev/mmcblk0p1, as this is the standard first partition, not the eMMC boot area U-Boot uses for the environment.

More detail:

2. File Permissions and Running as Root

Both fw_printenv and fw_setenv must be executed with root privileges. On your deployed system, try:

sudo fw_printenv

If you are using Torizon or another locked-down setup, root access (or sudo) is necessary.

See:

3. eMMC Boot Are Read-Only by Default

By default, eMMC boot partitions are read-only. To program the U-Boot environment (especially when first setting up or debugging), you might need to make them writable temporarily:

echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk2boot0/force_ro

(Remember to set it back to 1 if you wish to return to the read-only behavior.)

Reference:

4. Revisit Yocto Mender Settings

Your Yocto variables look reasonable, but you MUST ensure that your U-Boot is built with Mender integration and that U-Boot itself is flashed to the correct location on the device. Sometimes problems arise because the running U-Boot is not compatible with Mender or is not able to read the environment from the location you’ve configured.

Double-check you have:

  • INHERIT += "mender-toradex"
  • All partition variables set as you show (looks good)

The “No match between boot and root partitions” usually means Mender couldn’t query the environment, so fixing the fw_env.config issue should solve this error as well.

5. Next Steps

  • Correct /etc/fw_env.config (as above) and redeploy.
  • Reboot, then check sudo fw_printenv and you should NOT see the “Cannot read environment” error.
  • Re-attempt the OTA update.

If you encounter new errors after these steps, please share the specific output so I can assist further.

References

Best regards, Toradex AI Assistant.