Cannot change APPSIZE in partition XML file

Autonomous Machines Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson Xavier NX
#1

I am trying to implement A/B partition scheme in NX. So I tried to reduce the APP partition size to 8 GB

-- a/bootloader/t186ref/cfg/flash_l4t_t194_spi_sd_p3668.xml
+++ b/bootloader/t186ref/cfg/flash_l4t_t194_spi_sd_p3668.xml
@@ -522,7 +522,7 @@
         <partition name="APP" type="data">
             <allocation_policy> sequential </allocation_policy>
             <filesystem_type> basic </filesystem_type>
-            <size> APPSIZE </size>
+            <size> 8589934592 </size>
             <file_system_attribute> 0 </file_system_attribute>
             <allocation_attribute> 0x8 </allocation_attribute>
             <align_boundary> 4096 </align_boundary>

I tried to flash the images, but it throws the following error.

[ 321.3500 ] Writing partition APP with system.img
[ 321.3563 ] 0000000074740204: E> NV3P_SERVER: Accessing offset 15032385536 after boundary partition size 8589934592

I also tried to change the value in Linux_for_Tegra/p3668.conf.common, where the flash.sh gets the APP Size, but still the same result.

#3

hello mohamedhusain1303,

are you going to have implementation of root file system A/B redundancy?
that’s out-of-boundary error while you’d define APP size as 8GB, could you please have confirmation of your system.img file size.
thanks

#4

Hi
Yes I am going to implement root file system A/B redundancy.
The system image size is 4.9 GB.

#5

hello mohamedhusain1303,

did you already specify APP and APP_b in the flash configuration files?

BTW, there’s known issue that BUP generation utility currently do not support APP_b partition.
you may refer to Topic 139810, to remove APPFILE when running BUP generation.
thanks

#6

@JerryChang I am not sure how I BUP generation is relevant in this case. I am just trying to flash the sd card with a custom partition layout.

For flashing system image, I have to mention the APPFILE variable right?

Also, I added APP_b partition

    <partition name="primary_gpt" type="primary_gpt">
        <allocation_policy> sequential </allocation_policy>
        <filesystem_type> basic </filesystem_type>
        <size> 19968 </size>
        <file_system_attribute> 0 </file_system_attribute>
        <allocation_attribute> 8 </allocation_attribute>
        <percent_reserved> 0 </percent_reserved>
        <description> **Required.** Contains primary GPT of the `sdcard` device. All
          partitions defined after this entry are configured in the kernel, and are
          accessible by standard partition tools such as gdisk and parted. </description>
    </partition>
    <partition name="APP" type="data">
        <allocation_policy> sequential </allocation_policy>
        <filesystem_type> basic </filesystem_type>
        <size> 5368709120 </size>
        <file_system_attribute> 0 </file_system_attribute>
        <allocation_attribute> 0x8 </allocation_attribute>
        <align_boundary> 4096 </align_boundary>
        <percent_reserved> 0 </percent_reserved>
      <filename> system.img </filename> 
    <!--  <filename> APPFILE </filename> -->
        <unique_guid> APPUUID </unique_guid>
        <description> **Required.** Contains the rootfs. This partition must be defined
          after `primary_GPT` so that it can be accessed as the fixed known special device
          `/dev/mmcblk0p1`. </description>
</partition>
<partition name="APP_b" type="data">
        <allocation_policy> sequential </allocation_policy>
        <filesystem_type> basic </filesystem_type>
        <size> 5368709120 </size>
        <file_system_attribute> 0 </file_system_attribute>
        <allocation_attribute> 0x8 </allocation_attribute>
        <align_boundary> 4096 </align_boundary>
        <percent_reserved> 0 </percent_reserved>
    <!--  <filename> APPFILE </filename> -->
        <unique_guid> APPUUID </unique_guid>
        <description> **Required.** Contains the rootfs. This partition must be defined
          after `primary_GPT` so that it can be accessed as the fixed known special device
          `/dev/mmcblk0p1`. </description>
   </partition>

I got a different error now.

[0299.286] I> Writing bpmp-fw-dtb_b partition.
[0301.466] I> Writing VER partition.
[0301.479] I> Writing VER_b partition.
[0301.492] I> Writing device 6: 0.
[0301.498] I> Writing APP partition.
**[0301.578] E> NV3P_SERVER: Could not write 1048576 bytes.**

I am not sure why it is failing while writing the system image when the app partition is different from the default.

Please let me if there is a solution for this.

#7

hello mohamedhusain1303,

those are errors due to we’ll need more changes besides partition layouts to make rootfs A/B redundancy works.
FYI, rootfs A/B support will be included in l4t-r32.5 public release.
thanks

#8

Thanks, @JerryChang. Could you please share us the ETA for l4t-r32.5 release if possible.

#9

hello mohamedhusain1303,

I cannot guarantee the next JetPack public release date,
please expect the rough ETA would be the end of 2020 or early in 2021,
thanks

1 Like
#10

Thanks for the update, @JerryChang.
I made these changes for SOM with eMMC support, and it works. I was able to create two app partitions and flash images through flash.sh. Our target configuration has only eMMC, so this is okay for us.

Thanks for the support.

#12

how to change the APPSIZE ? xml changed is ok?