AGX Orin Dev Kit: not able to enter UEFI setup

[bnstr]

Hi everybody,

I just received my NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin Developer Kit yesterday. Now I am trying to follow this Setup Guide, but I cannot.

Steps

1. Connect USB Keyboard
2. Connect mouse
3. connect PC monitor
4. connect ethernet cable¹
5. power device via power adapter that came with it (it was an USB-C cable, I plugged it in above the DC power supply)
6. device will automatically power up
7. repeatedly press ESC

When I do this, nothing will happen. I will not see the mentioned NVIDIA Boot Screen, nor will I be able to enter UEFI. What does happen is that I will eventually see white text, then the device will boot into Ubuntu.

I have tried this countless times now. I have tried different USB keyboards, and I also tried different USB ports on the Dev Kit. It does not make any difference.

I have tried without connecting the ethernet cable, I have tried without USB mouse, all with the same result: no UEFI setup menu screen.

After ESC, I also tried F11, because this seems to be an alternative mode (as you can see here (timestamped) in the video).

But that does not work, either.

The monitor stays blank, then eventually boots Ubuntu. It does not matter how many times I press ESC (nor F11), neither is there the splash screen or UEFI setup menu, nor does anything other than booting into Ubuntu will happen.

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¹ I had previously connected the device to my network, so I can ssh into it. That’s why I used ethernet even though it isn’t mentioned in the linked guide. I thought was hoping as last resort, that, perhaps hitting ESC at just the right time (for example, while it switches from not pingable to pingable) might work, but it doesn’t.

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• uname -a > Linux AIermann 5.10.120-tegra #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Aug 1 12:32:50 PDT 2023 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux
• cat /media/<myuser>/L4T-README/version/nv_tegra_release > # R35 (release), REVISION: 4.1, GCID: 33958178, BOARD: t186ref, EABI: aarch64, DATE: Tue Aug 1 19:57:35 UTC 2023 (so I guess we know that I’m below UEFI firmware version 36…)
• cat /media/<myuser>/L4T-README/version/nvidia-l4t-core.dpkg-s.txt >

Status: install ok installed
Priority: standard
Section: libs
Installed-Size: 16928
Maintainer: NVIDIA Corporation
Architecture: arm64
Version: 35.4.1-20230801124926
Replaces: nvidia-l4t-ccp-t186ref
Depends: libc6, libegl1, libexpat1, libgcc1, libstdc++6
Conflicts: nvidia-l4t-ccp-t186ref
Conffiles:
 /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/include-docs 4b37ef2acf3cc32d4ce880597851e673
 /etc/ld.so.conf.d/nvidia-tegra.conf 02aa77e2cd20b35a97c3390a12ccd593
 /etc/nv_tegra_release 2d34ad45af041fad593b505ccbaae033
Description: NVIDIA Core Package
Homepage: http://developer.nvidia.com/jetson

• cat /media/<myuser>/L4T-README/version/chosen/bootargs > root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rw rootwait rootfstype=ext4 mminit_loglevel=4 console=ttyTCU0,115200 console=ttyAMA0,115200 console=tty0 firmware_class.path=/etc/firmware fbcon=map:0 net.ifnames=0 nospectre_bhb
• cat /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf>

TIMEOUT 30
DEFAULT primary

MENU TITLE L4T boot options

LABEL primary
      MENU LABEL primary kernel
      LINUX /boot/Image
      FDT /boot/dtb/kernel_tegra234-p3701-0005-p3737-0000.dtb
      INITRD /boot/initrd
      APPEND ${cbootargs} root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rw rootwait rootfstype=ext4 mminit_loglevel=4 console=ttyTCU0,115200 console=ttyAMA0,115200 console=tty0 firmware_class.path=/etc/firmware fbcon=map:0 net.ifnames=0 nospectre_bhb

• cat /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf.nv-update-extlinux-backup (I did not modify the original extlinux.conf file, but noticed that there was this backup version, so I thought I’d include it here) >

TIMEOUT 30
DEFAULT primary

MENU TITLE L4T boot options

LABEL primary
      MENU LABEL primary kernel
      LINUX /boot/Image
      INITRD /boot/initrd
      APPEND ${cbootargs}

• jetson_release >

Software part of jetson-stats 4.3.2 - (c) 2024, Raffaello Bonghi
Model: Jetson AGX Orin Developer Kit - Jetpack 5.1.2 [L4T 35.4.1]
NV Power Mode[3]: MODE_50W
Serial Number: [XXX Show with: jetson_release -s XXX]
Hardware:
 - P-Number: p3701-0005
 - Module: NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin (64GB ram)
Platform:
 - Distribution: Ubuntu 20.04 focal
 - Release: 5.10.120-tegra
jtop:
 - Version: 4.3.2
 - Service: Active
Libraries:
 - CUDA: 12.4.131
 - cuDNN: 8.6.0.166
 - TensorRT: 8.5.2.2
 - VPI: 2.3.9
 - Vulkan: 1.3.204
 - OpenCV: 4.5.4 - with CUDA: NO

• sudo nvbootctrl dump-slots-info >

Current version: 35.4.1
Capsule update status: 0
Current bootloader slot: A
Active bootloader slot: A
num_slots: 2
slot: 0,             status: normal
slot: 1,             status: normal

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Can you please help me figure this out? How do I continue from here? How do I access the UEFI setup menu? Even though (I believe that) we have determined that I am below UEFI firmware version 36, I cannot just skip the “check the version” step, as I cannot boot from an SD card without being able to access the boot manager, right?

I do have an SSD that I’d like to use, however, I do not have an x86 PC running Ubuntu 22.04 or 20.04. I can provide any additional logs or any other terminal output obtainable via ssh, just let me know what’s required.

Thank you in advance for your help :)

[bnstr]

Little Update:

I installed sdk in an Ubuntu VM and installed everything. It seemed to work fine, but it won’t flash.

I mean, I can install all the packages. They were downloaded, they were seemingly installed, and now, when I connect the device to my VM, the all show as “installed”.

However, flashing won’t work. I had to pass through a specific hardware USB port to my Ubuntu VM so that they device will be connected constantly (opposed to just forwarding the device to the VM, because it disappears when the Orin reboots).

But I keep getting a message about the device not being connected, or that there is something wrong with the USB connection.

I am using the USB cable that came with the device, I am using the USB port next to the header PINs, and I forward the physical USB port on my computer to the Ubuntu VM. When I lsusb in that VM, I even see the Orin.

But flashing does not work.

[ryanmiale15]

Hey, I had the same issue. My Jetson Orin NX doesn’t have a microSD slot, and I only had a Mac, so I tried using a VM. I got to the point where the VM could see the Jetson, but it kept saying the wire was incompatible no matter which one I used or other similar issues. Eventually, I just went to Best Buy, bought a Windows laptop with a Ryzen 5 (an Intel i5 or better would also work), wiped it, and installed Ubuntu from a USB stick. After that, the flashing worked perfectly. You can even return the laptop within 14 days — they don’t ask any questions, even if you completely wiped the original software. Hope you figure it out!

Summary: 90% sure it’s just because VM’s are a pain in the butt and are very picky. Installing ubantu on a computer works best.

Edit: laptop is like 400$ full money back after you return it too

[kayccc]

VM is not supported by SDK manager, but you may refer to below sharing from other developer to see if able to get device flash completely.

Jetson Orin Nano (Super) boot from NVMe - using a VM to configure this

With the price drop and the the popularity of this devkit there will be many new users (like me), many of whom will want to boot from NVMe, but who don’t have a Linux computer to run SDK Manager to make that work. I wanted to share what I have learned in succeeding to flash everything to the Jetson from a Virtual Machine (VM). Make sure you are on the latest firmware, as per the instructions here. Do not use VirtualBox, but use VMWare Player. You can get that here. Only use Ubuntu as the OS fo…

[bnstr]

Thanks everybody.

I managed to borrow a laptop running Ubuntu 22.04 and flashing worked. Now I can access the UEFI menu as well, and it is on the correct version :) yay