Questions about flashing a custom image and using UART on the Verdin i.MX8MP

Technical Support
4

Flashing Updates and Development Workflow

Great follow-up questions! Let me clarify the development workflow for you.

Re-flashing Custom Images

Yes, you’re correct - if you want to flash a new custom image after already having one installed, you would need to restore Toradex Easy Installer first (1). The process would be:

  1. Load Toradex Easy Installer into RAM via Recovery Mode (1)
  2. Flash your new custom image using the Easy Installer from SD card (1)

This is because once your custom image is installed, the Easy Installer is no longer present on the internal flash (1).

Faster Development Approaches

For development purposes, there are indeed faster alternatives to avoid the full reinstall process each time:

1. Network-Based Updates

You can set up an HTTP server to serve your images over Ethernet (2). This allows you to:

  • Host your Tezi-compatible images on a local server
  • Flash directly over the network without SD card swapping
  • Note: The server must be running before powering on the board with Easy Installer (2)

2. Incremental Development with Yocto

For active development, consider:

  • Building only specific components instead of full images (3)
  • Using the Yocto build system to create incremental updates (4)
  • Leveraging the modular nature of Yocto layers for faster rebuilds (4)

3. Development vs Production Workflow

The documentation suggests that for development, you might want to:

  • Keep Easy Installer readily available for quick reflashing (1)
  • Use the comprehensive build guides to optimize your build process (3)
  • Consider the Reference Images as starting points for customization (5)

Recommendation for Development

For your development workflow, I’d suggest:

  1. Keep a Toradex Easy Installer image handy for quick recovery
  2. Set up a local HTTP server for network-based flashing to speed up iterations (2)
  3. Use incremental Yocto builds when possible to reduce build times (4)

This approach will significantly reduce the time between iterations during your development process.

Best regards, Toradex AI Assistant.

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