Flash images to Colibri iMX6

Hi all,

I have a Colibri iMX6S V1.0A and the Colibri Evaluation Board V2.1C.
I have configured buildroot and built my images. At the end I have that set of files:

imx6dl-colibri-eval-v3.dtb  rootfs.ext2  rootfs.ext4  rootfs.tar  u-boot.bin  u-boot.imx  zImage

I want now to flash my u-boot image, my rootfs and my zImage to my Colibri iMX6 board.
i can’t find any documentation about a custom OS on the board, and the documentation about flashing the official toradex’s linux version refers to many custom tools.

Is there a simple way (with dd for example) to flash data into my USB key in order to make all that stuff to work, or even print error messages?

Thank you,

Léo

I have a Colibri iMX6S V1.0A and the Colibri Evaluation Board V2.1C.

Please note that we stopped selling that one ages ago. While it should still basically work fine there may be versious considerations to be aware of (e.g. USB 2.0 high speed limitations). Depending on what exactly you are planing to do getting a more recent one may make more sense.

I have configured buildroot and built my images.

Please note that we do not support buildrooot in any way. While you may still use it it is outside our expertise and we just hope that you know what you are doing.

At the end I have that set of files:
imx6dl-colibri-eval-v3.dtb rootfs.ext2 rootfs.ext4 rootfs.tar u-boot.bin u-boot.imx zImage
I want now to flash my u-boot image, my rootfs and my zImage to my Colibri iMX6 board. i can’t find any documentation about a custom OS on the board,

Yes, sorry that we missed documenting any of them countless variants some weirdos maybe dreaming of.

and the documentation about flashing the official toradex’s linux version refers to many custom tools.

Could you elaborate some more what exactly you mean by custom tools?

As none of our tools are custom at all. There is just one simple shell update script using all standard tools like e.g. mkfs.ext3 or imx_usb for recovery.

Easiest for you may be to just start off with one of our regular BSP demo image packages and after having gotten used to how that one can be flashed to the module continue by replacing some of them parts with the ones you built. Some more usefull information about custom U-Boot/Linxux Kernel may be found here. And a complete article talking about installing a custom OS being JetPack albeit for Apalis TK1 (same basic principles of rootfs replacement apply).

Is there a simple way (with dd for example) to flash data into my USB key in order to make all that stuff to work, or even print error messages?

As discussed on this forum before you may also use U-Boot’s UMS feature.

Thank you,

You are very welcome.

Hi marcel,

Thank you for this answer.

We are using buildroot in all of our project, that’s the reason why I started using the same environment in this case. But I agree, it’s the first time I have to flash an fixed eMMC memory. I’m used to boards with external memories (SD card, HDD…).

At the end, buildroot makes the same images as OE, that’s the reason why I was asking for the custom tool (the shell script) you are using.

I finally found it and used it for my board. I can confirm that it’s my Linux image that is on the eMMC memory now. But I think it is still the original u-boot version, even if I’ve run the run update command.

Thanks,

Léo

Hi,

After many tries to build latest kernel an u-boot version, I’ve tried with the custom toradex kernel version.
Here is the buildroot configuration : BR2_arm=yBR2_cortex_a9=yBR2_CCACHE=yBR2_KERNEL_HEADERS_4_11=yBR2_TOOLCHA - Pastebin.com

I’ll give a look to make the official kernel working in iMX6 target.

Thanks,

Léo