Flashing U-Boot bricked Verdin iMX8MP board

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Understanding Your Situation

Your board is in a state where the bootloader has been corrupted or modified, preventing proper boot. The error message “Can’t found uboot image in 640K range” indicates that the ROM code cannot find a valid U-Boot image in the expected location.

Recovery Steps

1. Use Toradex Easy Installer to Restore Bootloader

The Toradex Easy Installer (TEZI) does install bootloaders when flashing complete images. From the documentation, TEZI is designed to handle complete system installation including bootloader components (2).

To recover your board:

  1. Enter Recovery Mode: Put your Verdin iMX8M Plus into recovery mode following the specific procedure for your carrier board (2)

  2. Load TEZI: Use the recovery scripts to load TEZI into RAM (2):

    ./recovery-linux.sh    # On Linux
recovery-windows.bat   # On Windows

  3. Flash Complete Image: Install a complete Torizon image through TEZI, which will restore both the bootloader and the operating system

2. Understanding Boot Partition Management

The issue occurred because you modified the bootloader in a way that corrupted the boot process. When you:

  • Modified the U-Boot binary directly
  • Switched between boot partitions
  • The ROM code couldn’t validate or execute the modified bootloader

3. Testing HAB Integrity Checks Safely

For testing HAB failures without bricking your device, consider these approaches:

Option A: Use TEZI Recovery Method

Since you can still access TEZI in recovery mode, you can:

  1. Flash a known-good image first
  2. Make controlled modifications to test HAB
  3. Always keep the ability to recover via TEZI

Option B: Modify TEZI Image for Testing

You can create a modified TEZI image for testing purposes (3). The process involves:

  1. Extracting the TEZI image components using dumpimage (3)
  2. Modifying specific components
  3. Rebuilding the image with proper signatures

Immediate Recovery Solution

  1. Download Fresh TEZI: Get the appropriate TEZI image for your Verdin iMX8M Plus from the Toradex downloads

  2. Enter Recovery Mode: Follow the recovery procedure for your specific carrier board configuration (2)

  3. Load and Flash: Use the recovery scripts to load TEZI and flash a complete, unmodified Torizon image

  4. Verify Boot: Ensure the system boots properly before attempting further modifications

Prevention for Future Testing

When testing secure boot features:

  • Always maintain a recovery path via TEZI
  • Test modifications on the secondary boot partition first
  • Keep backups of working bootloader images
  • Consider using the HAB status commands to verify integrity without modifying binaries

The key point is that TEZI does install bootloaders as part of complete image flashing, so using it for recovery should restore your board to a working state.

Best regards, Toradex AI Assistant.