My Jetson AGX Developer used to work. I appear to have broken it by accidentally saving a very large file locally. A message appeared on the screen saying that there were only 200 MB of free memory. I had to leave the device for half an hour, and when I returned I could no longer unlock the screen because the device no longer recognized my password. When I try to reboot, the process fails with the message
I tried to use another Linux machine to access the device and delete the large file, but I couldn’t establish a connection using either ethernet or usb.
I therefore decided to flash the Jetson. To do this I’m using the SDK Manager 1.8.0 on a laptop running Ubuntu 18.04, directly connected to the front USB-C port of the Jetson. I start the Jetson in recovery mode using the Force Recovery and Power buttons. However, every time the flash aborts with the message
The Jetson target is in a bad state and cannot be flashed. Please manually put the target into recovery mode and then retry flashing.
The last part of the log in the SDK terminal is as follows:
18:37:57 INFO: Found route default wlp0s20f3, setting up device mode
18:37:57 INFO: [host] [sudo] password for anonymised:
18:37:57 INFO: net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1
18:37:57 INFO: Device mode on host successfully set with DNS 8.8.8.8!
18:37:57 INFO: command finished successfully
18:37:57 DEBUG: running command < true >
18:37:58 INFO: command finished successfully
18:37:58 DEBUG: Flash Jetson AGX Xavier - flash: using adapter to install NV_L4T_FLASH_XAVIER_WITH_OS_IMAGE_COMP@JETSON_AGX_XAVIER_TARGETS to /home/anonymised/nvidia/nvidia_sdk/JetPack_4.6.2_Linux_JETSON_AGX_XAVIER_TARGETS
18:37:58 INFO: Flash Jetson AGX Xavier - flash: current working directory is /home/anonymised/nvidia/nvidia_sdk/JetPack_4.6.2_Linux_JETSON_AGX_XAVIER_TARGETS/Linux_for_Tegra
18:37:58 INFO: Flash Jetson AGX Xavier - flash: sudo ./nvsdkmanager_flash.sh --nv-auto-config --username my_username
18:37:58 INFO: Flash Jetson AGX Xavier - flash: [OEMPreconfig] SDKM_INSTALL_ERROR Password for L4T new user my_username:
18:37:58 INFO: Flash Jetson AGX Xavier - flash: *** Checking ONLINE mode ... OK.
18:37:58 INFO: Flash Jetson AGX Xavier - flash: *** Checking target board connection ... 1 connections found.
18:38:03 ERROR: Flash Jetson AGX Xavier - flash: Put the target board in RCM mode and retry.
18:38:03 ERROR: Flash Jetson AGX Xavier - flash: command terminated with error
18:38:03 SUMMARY: DateTime Target Setup - target: Depends on failed component
I’ve tried both Jetpack 4.6 and Jetpack 5.0, but with the same result. How can I flash my device?
No, Ubuntu 18.04 is natively installed on the laptop. In fact I specifically flashed this laptop with Ubuntu 18.04 in order to flash the Jetson, so it’s a new install and the only other software installed on it is SDK Manager and VS Code.
Also, when I start the SDK Manager in Step 1 it checks for attached devices and finds the Jetson, and in the details it states that the Jetson is in recovery mode. This makes the final error message so confusing.
I started the Xavier AGX by pressing and holding the Recovery button, pressing the Power button and then releasing both buttons. I ran f lash.sh manually following these instructions
This is the result:
###############################################################################
# L4T BSP Information:
# R32 , REVISION: 7.2
###############################################################################
Error: probing the target board failed.
Make sure the target board is connected through
USB port and is in recovery mode.
However, without changing the Jetson at all I then started SDK manager and Step 1 implies that that the Jetson is in recovery mode: see screenshot.
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 04f2:b684 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd
Bus 003 Device 003: ID 8087:0026 Intel Corp.
Bus 003 Device 005: ID 0955:7019 NVidia Corp.
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
The photo shows my setup. The USB cable is the one provided by NVidia. The monitor is attached to the HDMI port. The port extender on the table is connected to the mouse and keyboard, but at the moment is not plugged in to the Jstson.
If you are sure that using J512 usb port and the board is in recovery mode (you can tell it by either HDMI monitor or the console, it should give you no response), I would suggest you can try a different cable or different host.
I tried a different cable, but it made no difference. I also found another computer onto which I could install Ubuntu 18, in order to use that as a host, but that also wasn’t successful. The board is quite clearly in recovery mode: see the output of lsub I posted above and the screenshot of the SDL manager, which shows “Status: recovery”. However, the initial step of the flash process responds probing the target board failed.
Since the board is properly connected and is in recovery mode, are there perhaps other reasons why the flash process cannot start? As I said in the original post, I accidentally filled the internal memory - could this interfere with the flash process?
I don’t know what kind of " I accidentally filled the internal memory " you are talking about.
Please be aware that, this is common to corrupt the system on an embedded system. If you just broke some content on the emmc, then it is fine. Not quite big deal and shall be recovered by reflash.
Do you have any other jetson on your side that can make sure your host is really able to flash any of these jetson devices?
“I accidentally filled the internal memory”: I was recording data with a couple of sensors attached to the Jetson. This produces two files, each typically 2-4 GB in size. Because of the way I’d configured the sensors, the data was written to the internal memory instead of to an SD card. When I finished recording the data, an Ubuntu warning popped up that there was only 230 MB of memory left. I went away to get an SD card onto which I could copy the files, and when I came back the screen was locked and I couldn’t unlock it because the system no longer recognised my password. Since no-one could have changed my password, I assume that this was a consequence of the memory being full. I’ve never been able to restart the Jetson since then.
Regarding flashing another Jetson: I don’t have another Jetson AGX Developer, but I’ve got a Jetson TX2 Developer. Would that be a meaningful test?
From what I understand after looking at the documentation, it’s not totally trivial to get the uart log and I’ll need the help of a colleague with some ability in electronics. Due to a combination of business trips and vacations we won’t be in the lab together until three weeks from now.
If by “access” you mean “log in to”, no, the AGX no longer completes the boot process, presumably because the internal memory is full. I can’t access it in normal mode and I can’t flash it in recovery mode.
