i am working on optimizing boot time and i trying to use falcon mode for an imx8qm board i’ve followed these two documentations:
https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/application-note/AN13709.pdf
and this one
https://bootlin.com/doc/training/boot-time/boot-time-slides.pdf
but still confused if the board supports spl in the first place and the correct way to make it work
please tell me if you have a clearer guide to follow and any other methods to optimize more my boot time
Hi, I’m the Toradex AI Assistant. The Toradex Support team will follow up with you shortly!
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Hello!
Thank you for reaching out with your question about optimizing boot time on the i.MX8QM board. Regarding your inquiry about Falcon mode and SPL, the i.MX8QM board, like other i.MX8-based System on Modules (SoMs) from Toradex, does not typically use the Secondary Program Loader (SPL) in the same way as some other platforms. Instead, it relies on a boot container that includes the System Controller Unit (SCU) firmware, ARM Trusted Firmware (ATF), and U-Boot. This boot container is read by the boot ROM from the boot device.
Falcon mode, which is a feature of U-Boot designed to speed up boot times by skipping certain stages, is not commonly supported on i.MX8 platforms due to their unique boot architecture. Instead, the focus is on optimizing the boot container and its components.
To optimize boot time on your i.MX8QM board with Torizon, you might consider the following approaches:
Systemd Analysis: Use systemd-analyze to measure and analyze boot time, identifying services that take the longest to start.
Blacklisting Unnecessary Drivers: If certain drivers are not needed for your application, such as WiFi drivers, you can blacklist them to prevent loading at boot. This can be done by creating a configuration file in /etc/modprobe.d/.
Optimizing Container Startup: If using containerized applications, ensure the container engine (e.g., Docker) starts early. Modify the dependencies of docker.service to exclude unnecessary services, reducing startup time.
Customizing TorizonCore: Use the TorizonCore Builder Tool to customize your TorizonCore image, removing unnecessary components and services to streamline the boot process.
I hope this helps you in optimizing your boot time. If you have further questions, feel free to ask!
Best regards,
Toradex AI Assistant
Please, also check if these links can help you solve your problem:
Hello @rania,
The i.MX8QM does not support SPL. Therefore, Falcon mode does not work for this module. You will have to go through the classic methods such as reducing the kernel and rootfs size, rearranging some functionalities and services etc. that are outlined in the Bootlin guide. That is indeed a great guideline.
Are you using Torizon OS? We have this article regarding boot time optimization on Torizon OS: Torizon OS Boot Time Optimization | Toradex Developer Center
Also, what is your current boot time on which BSP/Torizon OS version?
What is the boot time that you are trying to achieve?
Also, how do you define the boot time in your case (for example, time until you see the splash screen, until the application GUI is visible, until the user can interact with the application etc)?
Depending on the complexity of the problem, we could also recommend a trusted partner for you.
my current boot time is 13 it’s still pretty long i want to achieve something about 8 at least also i am using yocto not torizon
my boot time is until the application gui is visible (qt app)
i even tried to change the compression algorithm to lz4 i heard it’s faster in decompression but the u-boot is not able to recognize the new kernel image type so still trying new methods if you have any ideas
Hello @rania,
It looks like SPL is supported for iMX8QM. This application note from NXP has some information on it: https://www.nxp.com.cn/docs/en/application-note/AN14093.pdf
Also, check out this config file for uboot for iMX8QM EVK which enables all the SPL related configs: imx8qm_lpddr4_val_defconfig « configs - u-boot-toradex.git - U-Boot bootloader for Apalis and Colibri modules
Unfortunatley, this is all the information I have. We have not tested this for our Apalis i.MX8QM module. You might want to experiment with it.
