Unable to install bootloader on Apalis iMX8

Technical Support
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1

We are having problems getting UBoot to boot from the eMMC.

Our board didn’t come with Easy Installer preinstalled so we are following the USB OTG recovery method (as per iMX Recovery Mode | Toradex Developer Center).

The latest beta release of Easy Installer (v2.0b3 | 2019-10-29) fails to fully boot, see attached kernel log.
Version 2.0b2 (2019-07-16) boots and allows us to use the Easy Installer via RDP.

After flashing an image and rebooting without recovery mode, the board doesn’t produce any output on serial or HDMI.

We tried two different images:

  • Linux Console Image Beta v 3.0b2.65 (2019-08-30) for Apalis iMX8 (see attached tezi.log)
  • Easy Installer Beta v 2.0b2 (20190716)

We also tried the recovery script versions for both Linux and Windows with the exact same results.

It seems as if UBoot isn’t starting, though we don’t know how to verify that.

2

HI @fkesseler and Welcome to the Toradex Community!

Regarding your Issue with Toradex Easy Installer and PCIe, this is known. You can find the issue’s description and workaround here.

Actually if you install an image, then you reset the U-Boot Environment to default by the following commands, before setting the variables you need to set:

  1. env default -a
  2. saveenv

Best regards,
Jaski

3

Hi @jaski.tx!

Thanks for the first link, this solved the issue of not being able to run Easy Installer v2.0b3.

After installing the image and resetting the U-Boot environment (from the USB-booted U-Boot), we still get no output whatsoever, though (as mentioned before, not even U-Boot produces any output).

Is there any aditional information we can provide?

Best regards
Florian

4

Hi Florian

You are welcome.

How did you check the Console Output regarding U-Boot?
Did you make a serial connection between the carrier board and your host as shown here?

Best regards,
Jaski

5

Yes, the serial connection is working fine when running the Easy Installer (and I needed it to set teziargs when starting Easy Installer 2.0b3.

I can also access Linux’ console on the serial link while running the installer. Just after installation and rebooting, we get no output whatsoever.

Thank you for your support,
Florian

6

Hi Florian

Thanks for your Input. How are you rebooting the module? You need to do a power cycle once the flashing process in finished. The reboot button does not work if you start Toradex Easy Installer from recovery mode.

Best regards,
Jaski

7

Yes, that’s what we do. We restore the original hardware configuration (remove JP4, add JP2), power off and back on.

I should add that we have another iMX8 board which we got working without any difficulties.

8

Hi Florian

It is strange that the console output works in recovery mode but not for regular boot.
Did you install the same software on the working and non-working module?
Was there an error during installation?

Best regards,
Jaski

9

Hi @fkesseler

Do you have any news regarding your issue?

Best regards,
Jaski

10

Hi @fkesseler

If you could not solve the issue and if you think this is hardware related, then please file up a RMA and mention a link to this thread as a comment.

Thanks,
Jaski

11

Hello @jaski.tx,

we were unable to resolve the issue so far. Yes, we think it’s a hardware issue since we now have a fourth board that behaves as expected.

Thank you very much for your support so far!

Cheers,
Florian

12

You are welcome. Even after testing the Hardware errors cannot be excluded completely.
We are sorry that you experience this with our Hardware. As already mentioned, please feel free to file up a RMA.

Thanks and best regards,
Jaski