Booting from GPT formatted SD card not possible on Orin AGX DevKit

Robotics & Edge Computing Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson AGX Orin
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Hello, I try to boot my Jetson AGX Orin 64GB from an inserted, GPT formatted SD card on which I have put a Linux ext4 partition.

For first tests, I extracted the standard Tegra_Linux_Sample-Root-Filesystem_R36.4.4_aarch64.tbz2 root file system on it and I just copied the files in /boot from the delivered Ubuntu 20.04 to folder /boot.

I have access to the UEFI BIOS on serial console and see the SD card displayed as a selectable boot device, but when I hit ENTER the BIOS flashes shortly and suddenly returns into the same BIOS menu.

I read in the docs that a SD card can be made bootable by “flashing a JetPack Linux image” on it but I can not find a suitable ISO image for download. I come from an rather lowlevel embedded linux background with mostly U-Boot experience, and I have read that the T4Llauncher plays an important role here.

Do I have to prepare the SD card further by writing some special first stage bootloader on it ?

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*** Please note that this reply is generated by LLM automatically ***

To boot your Jetson AGX Orin 64GB from an SD card, you’ll need to prepare the SD card with a special first-stage bootloader. The T4Llauncher (also known as the Bootloader) is responsible for loading the operating system from the SD card.

The SD card needs to be formatted with a specific partition layout, and the bootloader needs to be flashed onto the SD card. The bootloader will then load the Linux kernel and root file system from the SD card.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to prepare your SD card:

  1. Format the SD card: Use a tool like gdisk or fdisk to create a GPT partition table on the SD card. Create a single partition with a size of at least 4GB (recommended 8GB or more). Format the partition with a Linux file system (e.g., ext4).
  2. Extract the root file system: Extract the TegraLinuxSampleRootFilesystemR3644aarch64tbz2 root file system onto the SD card partition. You can use tar to extract the files.
  3. Copy the boot files: Copy the boot files from the delivered Ubuntu 20.04 image to the boot directory on the SD card. This includes the boot.img, dtb, and kernel files.
  4. Flash the bootloader: You’ll need to flash the T4Llauncher bootloader onto the SD card. You can use the flash.sh script provided with the JetPack SDK to do this.

To flash the bootloader, follow these steps:

a. Download the JetPack SDK from the NVIDIA website.

b. Extract the SDK to a directory on your host machine.

c. Navigate to the Linux_for_Tegra directory.

d. Run the following command to flash the bootloader onto the SD card:

$ sudo ./flash.sh -k A_cpu-bootloader jetson-agx-orin-devkit mmcblk0p1

Replace mmcblk0p1 with the actual device name of your SD card partition.

e. Once the flashing process is complete, remove the SD card from your host machine and insert it into your Jetson AGX Orin device.

f. Power on your Jetson AGX Orin device and enter the UEFI BIOS setup.

g. Select the SD card as the boot device and save the changes.

h. Exit the UEFI BIOS setup and your Jetson AGX Orin device should now boot from the SD card.

Note that you don’t need to download an ISO image for this process. The JetPack SDK provides the necessary tools and files to prepare the SD card for booting.

As you come from a low-level embedded Linux background with U-Boot experience, you might find it helpful to know that the T4Llauncher bootloader is similar to U-Boot in that it provides a first-stage bootloader for loading the operating system. However, the T4Llauncher is specific to NVIDIA’s Tegra processors and provides additional features and functionality for booting Linux on these devices.

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1 Like
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Thanks very much! this looks like the kind of procedure description I was looking for. Indeed I meanwhile did find that JetPack 7.1 ISO file and dd’ed it onto the SD card. Now I see a reaction, namely a GRUB style boot menu, but that one seems to be for the successor board Thor. But in general you confirmed what I suspected regarding the 1st stage bootloader. Will try this out and let you know, thanks!

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Is this still an issue to support? Any result can be shared?