How can I re-install Easy Installer on an erased flash without having any other interface as UART and USB device?
My Apalis IMX6 SOM has no external memory card, no HDMI interface and no USB OTG or host function. Only UART and USB client via OTG-port (no 5V supply!) are provided. Graphic system is connected via dual LVDS, but this is not configured at this early state. I have downloaded the Easy Installer 1.8 via recovery-linux.sh and can see the GUI when I connect via VNC (IP address 192.168.11.1). I also have access via UART to see boot messages or enter commands.
I called “Erase Flash” to remove the complete software from the SOM to simulate a severe bug in the final system. Then I reset the SOM and it is not starting (since no UBOOT and other software is present).
Now I have downloaded the Easy Installer 1.8 again, connect via VNC and see the following screen.
So the Easy Installer is waiting for the Feeds (e.g. Toradex Image Server or local server). Since I have no ethernet connection, I cannot reach the external servers. My hope is, that the Easy installer would be able to install itself and does not need to download another image. I played a little bit with the parameters ‘autoinstall’ and ‘isistaller’ as mentioned here, but this does not make any difference. I also tried to forward ethernet requests from the USB port to the internet, but failed with Ubuntu 16.04 due to less knowledge. I was also not able to install a local http server, that was recognized from the Easy Installer.
So back to my question: What is the easiest way to install an initial software again? Easy Installer or at least UBOOT would be fine.
Hello @torf_munich!
You can use the USB Client to flash a new image onto your module.
If you want install Toradex Easy Installer image again, you can download the image from here, unpack all files into a memory stick and plug it on the USB Client, after this the image should appears as an install option.
You also can install any image on the tezi format instead of the Toradex Easy Installer image, you can see a list of images here.
Best regards
Hello @daniel_m.tx ,
to clarify this: Our Apalis SOM is the USB client and must be connected to a USB host. It is not possible to connect a USB stick or memory card to the SOM since neither 5V for the USB or MMC interface are available.
Hello @torf_munich ,
Can you explain better your hardware setup with more details? Which carrier board specifically are you using?
As explained here the Toradex Easy Installer applications runs completely in memory, there isn’t a way to flash it directly to Flash instead of the memory. To accomplish this you need install other image using the Toradex Easy Installer, the mentioned image must be on one of the following options:
- On a local/online feed where you can access it through ethernet cable;
- On a USB stick or memory card plugged into the carrier board;
I believe that there is no way to forward your internet to the RNDIS interface since the module is the server.
If you don’t have access to any of the options mentioned above, your option is connect the module into another carrier board, flash the image an take this module back to your specific hardware.
Best regards
We are using a proprietary carrier board that we built ourselves. I know that I can remove the Apalis SOM board and plug it in a Toradex Carrier board, but you know, that the SOM connector is only suitable for approx. 30 plug cycles. And if we exchange the SOM in our industrial system, we have to exchange also the thermal pad or heatsink to get back a good thermal contact.
I don’t think, that RNDIS is a problem, because we can use it for a VNC connection. And we see two interfaces on the SOM that are capable to transfer ethernet traffic. So it might be necessary to disable eth0 and reconfigure usb1 to carry the complete traffic. But as I mentioned in my initial post, I was not able to setup a working NAT on my Linux host up to now. Before investing more time in this I was thinking of “if I already have some software in RAM of the SOM, I also should be able to program the flash device”. Maybe, that this has never been an issue before for you and your other customers and we have to find a solution for ourselves.
Hi @torf_munich
I think you can create NfsServer on your host at the IP 192.168.11.2 and place the file image_list.json there. Then you just need to provide this address in the Feeds as a custom server.
Note: You would need to manually type the address every time you boot Toradex Easy Installer.
Best regards,
Jaski
