Qualcomm Robotics RB5/RB6 - Generating Image and Flashing

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In this section we show the steps to generate an Image and flash it in your Qualcomm Robotics RB5/RB6, this is done by the SDK Manager that allows to do these steps in an easy way from our host computer[1]. To follow the next steps, you must have done everything in the Installing SDK Manager section, if not, please visit that section first.

From the Installing SDK Manager section, we chose the RB5 board and chose between two platforms: LU (Linux Ubuntu) and LE (Linux Embedded). Recall that the LU platform is an image based on Ubuntu and LE bases in Open Embedded. For this reason, we will divide this section in two parts, one for the steps needed for the LU platform, and the other part for the LE one.

LU (Linux Ubuntu) platform

1. From the Installing SDK section, we ended with the following output:

--------------------------------------------------------
SDK has been successfully set up and is ready to be used
Type 'help' for commands
--------------------------------------------------------
> help
commands:
help = Show usage help for LU platform
1 = Download LU resources and generate system.img with current release
2 = Flash full build (require system.img generation first)
q = exit sdk manager
>


2. We first need to download all LU resources and generate the image we are going to flash. Please choose option 1 and click enter. It will output the following:

===================================================
Generate system image to complete full build
The image repack process will take about 40 minutes
Current image version to be generated: QRB5165.UBUN.1.0-220711_debug
===================================================

Enter 'y' to continue, 'q' to main menu:


3. Choose 'y' as in yes to continue, it will start downloading the files. You should start seeing something similar to this:

Note
Note: This process takes about 40 minutes in an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz.
Enter 'y' to continue, 'q' to main menu: y

Downloading resources ...
QRB5165.UBUN.1.0-220711_debug.zip           100%[========================================================================================>] 764.06M  3.87MB/s    in 3m 48s


4. When it is finished, you should see the following output:

Moving sparse images to full_build ...

Move sparse images to full_build ...done
You may proceed to flash full_build to your device


5. Now that we have our image built, we need to set up our board in EDL mode. To do this, please check our section Setting up board in EDL Mode and when you are done, come back to these steps.

6. With our image built and board set in EDL mode, we are ready to flash. If you type "help" again, you will see the following output:

> help
commands:
help = Show usage help for LU platform
1 = Download LU resources and generate system.img with current release
2 = Flash full build (require system.img generation first)
q = exit sdk manager


7. Choose option 2 to start the flash full build. The output will be similar to the following:

==================================================
Flash full build to Robotics device
The flash process will take about 5 minutes
Current image version to be flashed: QRB5165.UBUN.1.0-220711_debug
==================================================

Enter 'y' to continue, 'q' to main menu:


8. Choose 'y' as in yes to continue, it will start flashing process. You should start seeing something similar to this:

Note
Note: This process takes about 30 minutes in an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz.
Enter 'y' to continue, 'q' to main menu: y
Device found: /dev/ttyUSB0
SDK manager flashing full build...
Initializing flash ...


9. When the flashing process is done, you will see something similar to this:

Flashing image ... done
Waiting for device to reboot ...
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 10s
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 20s
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 30s
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 40s
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 50s
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 60s

========================================================================
Robotics device is ready to use.
Open another terminal and enter 'adb shell' to interact with your device.
========================================================================

10. The board will reboot automatically. You can exit the SDK Manager by entering 'q'. Now, you can access the board with adb. For this, please check our Using ADB section.

LE (Linux Embedded) platform

1. From the Installing SDK section, we ended with the following output:

--------------------------------------------------------
SDK has been successfully set up and is ready to be used
Type 'help' for commands
--------------------------------------------------------
> help
commands:
help = Show usage help for LE platform
1 = Download LE resources
2 = Flash full build
3 = Download LE SDK toolchain
q = exit sdk manager
>

2. We first need to download all LE resources and generate the image we are going to flash. Please choose option 1 and click enter. It will output the following:

===================================================
Download LE resources including full build, cdt and non-hlos
Current image version to be downloaded: QRB5165.LE.1.0-220721
===================================================

Enter 'y' to continue, 'q' to main menu:


3. Choose 'y' as in yes to continue, it will start downloading the files. You should start seeing something similar to this:

Note
Note: This process takes about 5 minutes in an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz.
inflating: /home/hostPC/SDK_prueba/QRB5165.LE.1.0-220721/full_build/ufs/userdata_100.img  
inflating: /home/hostPC/SDK_prueba/QRB5165.LE.1.0-220721/full_build/ufs/userdata_141.img  
inflating: /home/hostPC/SDK_prueba/QRB5165.LE.1.0-220721/full_build/ufs/userdata_719.img  
inflating: /home/hostPC/SDK_prueba/QRB5165.LE.1.0-220721/full_build/ufs/userdata_514.img


4. When it is finished, you should see the following output:

Extracting files ...done
Download LE resources ... Done
>


5. Now that we have our image built, we need to set up our board in EDL mode. To do this, please check our section Setting up board in EDL Mode and when you are done, come back to these steps.

6. With our image built and board set in EDL mode, we are ready to flash. If you type "help" again, you will see the following output:

> help
commands:
help = Show usage help for LE platform
1 = Download LE resources
2 = Flash full build
3 = Download LE SDK toolchain
q = exit sdk manager
>


7. Choose option 2 to start the flash full build. The output will be similar to the following:

==================================================
Flash full build to Robotics device
The flash process will take about 5 minutes
Current image version to be flashed: QRB5165.LE.1.0-220721
==================================================

Enter 'y' to continue, 'q' to main menu:


8. Choose 'y' as in yes to continue, it will start the flashing process. You should start seeing something similar to this:

Note
Note: This process takes about 5 minutes in an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1065G7 CPU @ 1.30GHz.
Enter 'y' to continue, 'q' to main menu: y
Device found: /dev/ttyUSB0
SDK manager flashing full build...
Initializing flash ...


9. When the flashing process is done, you will see something similar to this:

Flashing image ... done
Waiting for device to reboot ...
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 10s
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 20s
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 30s
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 40s
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 50s
Waiting for boot up, time elapsed: 60s

========================================================================
Robotics device is ready to use.
Open another terminal and enter 'adb shell' to interact with your device.
========================================================================


10. The board will reboot automatically. You can exit the SDK Manager by entering 'q'. Now, you can access the board with adb. For this, please check our Using ADB section.

Note
Note: If adb does not recognize the board, try unplugging and plugging again the USB type-C cable.

Troubleshooting

In this part, we will cover possible issues when flashing your board.

  • If you try to flash full build either on LU or LE platform, and receive this message:
Could not find a Qualcomm device in QDL mode
Please follow the README and reconnect your device

Please check again our Setting up board in EDL Mode section. This issues is because something went wrong when setting your board in EDL mode and the host computer doesn't recognize the board.

  • If after flashing is done and board is rebooting you get the following message:
There is something wrong happened in Boot up process
Please restart your device manually or check out Troubleshoot in README

You need to open a terminal in your host computer and run the next command before flashing the image:

adb kill-server

Also, you can reboot your board manually and check if it is now detected by adb. Please check the Using ADB section to se the steps.

References

  1. Qualcomm® Robotics RB5 Development Kit Quick Start Guide, Flash Images. Retrieved January 18, 2023, from [1]


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