If we use NFS boot (without RCM), then the AGX Xavier wont fall back to EMMC (if say Ethernet link was not available, or if EMMC was set to top in boot devices in UEFI boot menu).
If we use RCM NFS boot, we require USB-C connection each time we want to do RCM boot.
Is it possible to boot from Ethernet interface with a fallback option to EMMC? Additionally, is there a way that achieves this without requiring the USB-C connection each time?
Our requirement is to find a way to boot from Ethernet or EMMC (both should be available) without having to connect USB-C cable again and again. Is there a way to achieve this? If there is, I would appreciate some link to documentation/forum post which shows how to do this?
Which jetpack release are you using ? Is that still rel-35.2.1? Just want to suggest using something new.
If we use NFS boot (without RCM), then the AGX Xavier wont fall back to EMMC (if say Ethernet link was not available, or if EMMC was set to top in boot devices in UEFI boot menu).
@WayneWWW , I am using Jetpack 5.1 (which is 35.2.1 release I think). I am open to trying something new.
I did not try NFS boot because my understanding is that the Xavier bootloader would not fall back on EMMC if it fails to boot from NFS. Is my understanding correct?
I didn’t test NFS on such old release, so I cannot comment. I would suggest you just move to new release first and check if booting from NFS is fine. We can discuss your problem after that.
Would booting from NFS fall back to EMMC boot if it fails to boot NFS? As I said earlier, I am willing to try as long as there is an option to boot from EMMC as well without having to re-flash the board again or using the USB-C interface frequently (as in the case of RCM NFS boot).
Is there a way to achieve this in a newer release? I am willing to upgrade if it resolves this issue. If not, then I don’t want to upgrade just now.
Ok. I’ll try that and check it out. My initial understanding was that you couldn’t boot from EMMC without reflashing once NFS boot was set up. However, I’ll try it out and test whether the EMMC option from boot menu works or not.
@WayneWWW , Update: I successfully managed to setup NFS boot. However, in this case, the Xavier boots from EMMC, with the kernel image and device tree residing in the EMMC. After booting, it mounts the file system from the network host (NFS host).
As mentioned earlier, our requirement is to have the internal EMMC boot method intact, while having an alternate method using Ethernet interface, which can be used parallel to the EMMC boot (through the boot menu perhaps, or some other similar option). We should have the option to boot both using Ethernet interface and the internal EMMC interface.
Is there any method other than RCM NFS boot that can achieve this?
NOTE: I understand RCM NFS boot will achieve exactly this, but it has the problem that we require a USB-C connection in place everytime we need to boot from NFS.
@WayneWWW , is TFTP boot supported on Jetson AGX Xavier in release 35.2.1? I found some documentation for it in 32.7.5 version’s documentation. If the TFTP boot is supported, are the steps mentioned there valid for 35.2.1?
EDIT: It seems that 32.7.5 uses CBoot to specify the boot order and the TFTP server address. What would be required for the new EFI bootloader?
NFS boot is fine on rel-35.6 after our local test. But the resutl might not be what you want. NFS boot is basically mounted the rootfs from NFS server. The extlinux.conf is still read from the emmc. Thus, it is not possible to do the switch back to eMMC.