i.MX8 - Nitrogen8M - System Recovery

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Overview

This page presents a guide about how to recover your board when it is not booting. In order to recover your board, some components are required to be built in specific folders. Required components:

1. U-Boot
2. Flash Image
3. USB Loader

Define a building directory:

RECOVERY_DIR=~/Nitrogen8M-recovery
mkdir $RECOVERY_DIR

Dependencies

Install required dependencies for Nitrogen8M recovery:

sudo apt-get install crossbuild-essential-arm64 libusb-1.0-0-dev pkg-config

U-Boot

Clone Boundary Devices repository using your desired U-Boot version.

BRANCH=boundary-v2018.07
cd $RECOVERY_DIR
git clone https://github.com/boundarydevices/u-boot-imx6 -b $BRANCH

Define toolchain for building the source code.

export ARCH=arm64
export CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-

Build kernel and device tree.

DEFCONFIG=nitrogen8m_defconfig
cd $RECOVERY_DIR/u-boot-imx6
make $DEFCONFIG
make -j4

Building Image

In order to generate the final flash file, imx-mkimage tool is required. Download imx-mkimage tool as follows.

cd $RECOVERY_DIR
git clone https://github.com/boundarydevices/imx-mkimage.git

Define required variables.

UBOOT_PATH=$RECOVERY_DIR/u-boot-imx6

Create the flash image.

cd imx-mkimage
./make_boundary.sh

At this point, a flash.bin file should be created under $RECOVERY_DIR/imx-mkimage/iMX8M.

USB loader

Before flashing the board, build the flashing tool imx_usb as follows.

cd $RECOVERY_DIR
git clone git://github.com/boundarydevices/imx_usb_loader
cd imx_usb_loader
make

Flashing Board

Finally, under RECOVERY_DIR you must have 3 directories:

1. imx-mkimage: Image to flash.
2. imx_usb_loader: Flashing tool.
3. u-boot-imx6: U-Boot used by image to flash.

Set your board to Serial Download mode, set the boot switch position as follows.

Boot switch on Nitrogen8M

Now, connect the board to a host machine using the OTG port. Check with lsusb if your board is detected.

Output example:

 
user@laptop:~$ lsusb | grep NXP
Bus 001 Device 047: ID 1fc9:012b NXP Semiconductors

Before flashing, check mx8mq_usb_work.conf in RECOVERY_DIR/imx_usb_loader which contains the required files. As example, the Nitrogen8M with 2 GB RAM requires the file bl31_2g.bin in mx8mq_usb_work.conf.

See the table below in order to set the conf file according to your board's available RAM.

RAM	File
2 GB	bl31_2g.bin
3 GB	bl31_3g.bin
4 GB	bl31_4g.bin

In order to flash the board, run the following command:

sudo ./imx_usb

Output example:

config file <.//imx_usb.conf>
vid=0x066f pid=0x3780 file_name=mx23_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x004f file_name=mx28_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x0052 file_name=mx50_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x0054 file_name=mx6_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x0061 file_name=mx6_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x0063 file_name=mx6_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x0071 file_name=mx6_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x007d file_name=mx6_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x0080 file_name=mx6ull_usb_work.conf
vid=0x1fc9 pid=0x0128 file_name=mx6_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x0076 file_name=mx7_usb_work.conf
vid=0x1fc9 pid=0x0126 file_name=mx7ulp_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x0041 file_name=mx51_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x004e file_name=mx53_usb_work.conf
vid=0x15a2 pid=0x006a file_name=vybrid_usb_work.conf
vid=0x066f pid=0x37ff file_name=linux_gadget.conf
vid=0x1b67 pid=0x4fff file_name=mx6_usb_sdp_spl.conf
vid=0x0525 pid=0xb4a4 file_name=mx6_usb_sdp_spl.conf
vid=0x1fc9 pid=0x012b file_name=mx8mq_usb_work.conf
config file <.//mx8mq_usb_work.conf>
parse .//mx8mq_usb_work.conf
Trying to open device vid=0x1fc9 pid=0x012b
Interface 0 claimed
HAB security state: development mode (0x56787856)
== work item
filename ../imx-mkimage/iMX8M/flash.bin
load_size 0 bytes
load_addr 0x00000000
dcd 1
clear_dcd 1
plug 1
jump_mode 3
jump_addr 0x00000000
== end work item
No DCD table

loading binary file(../imx-mkimage/iMX8M/flash.bin) to 32c10000, skip=1c00, fsize=18000 type=aa

<<<98304, 98304 bytes>>>
succeeded (security 0x56787856, status 0x88888888)

loading binary file(../imx-mkimage/iMX8M/flash.bin) to 007e0bd0, skip=19c00, fsize=29800 type=aa

<<<169984, 169984 bytes>>>
succeeded (security 0x56787856, status 0x88888888)
jumping to 0x007e0fd0
failed (security 0x56787856, status 0x3311cf00)
HAB security state: development mode (0x56787856)
== work item
filename ../imx-mkimage/iMX8M/u-boot.bin
load_size 0 bytes
load_addr 0x40200000
dcd 0
clear_dcd 0
plug 0
jump_mode 0
jump_addr 0x00000000
== end work item

loading binary file(../imx-mkimage/iMX8M/u-boot.bin) to 40200000, skip=0, fsize=a82f0 type=0

<<<688880, 688880 bytes>>>
succeeded (security 0x56787856, status 0x88888888)
HAB security state: development mode (0x56787856)
== work item
filename ../imx-mkimage/iMX8M/bl31_2g.bin
load_size 0 bytes
load_addr 0x00910000
dcd 0
clear_dcd 0
plug 0
jump_mode 2
jump_addr 0x00910000
== end work item

loading binary file(../imx-mkimage/iMX8M/bl31_2g.bin) to 00910000, skip=0, fsize=b858 type=aa

<<<47192, 47192 bytes>>>
succeeded (security 0x56787856, status 0x88888888)
jumping to 0x0091b818