During a system upgrade initramfs was broken by an accidental interrupt, and now I have to recover my spark device.
I tried the steps described in the System Recovery page. Unfortunately “USB Drive” never show when entered UEFI the third time, as shown in the following picture.
I even tried some new USB drives, but the problem remains. Really appreciate if anyone could help, Peta’s of thanks.
This one worked for me. Amazon.com: Samsung Type-C USB Flash Drive, 128GB, Transfers 4GB Files in 11 Secs w/Up to 400MB/s USB 3.2 Gen 1 Read Speeds, Compatible w/USB 3.0/2.0, Waterproof, 2022, Blue, MUF-128DA/AM : Electronics
Seems the forum doesn’t like amazon links. I used a samsung usb-c flash drive. I think the important part is that its usb-c and plugged in directly instead of on a hub.
Thanks for the reply. I’ll try this one.
I used lenovo usb drive with both type c and type a but it didn’t work for me.
I will try this samsung usb drive to see if it will solve the issue.
Another question: on step 5 of instructions, under security section, do we need to set secure boot mode to custom in order to move to restore factory keys? Did you select Yes for install factory defaults and Yes for Reset without saving? @boyue.k.cheung @envydia
I did set secure boot mode to custom, yes for factory defaults, and I think I selected yes for reset without saving once, then did it again. Went through that part 3 times.
After I installed the recovery file to my new samsung usb drive, the UEFI was able to detect my usb hard drive. However, after I hit enter, the only thing that happened was my screen flashed once but did not reboot using the USB drive and re-install the OS on the device’s SSD. Did that happen to you as well? @envydia
No. When I selected it as my boot device, the reinstall worked.
FastOS Image Version:
NAME=“DGX SPARK FASTOS”
DATE=“2025-10-10T03:26:29+00:00”
VERSION=“1.91.51”
BUILD_TYPE=“customer”
Looking for external disks…
Select the USB disk to format (this will ERASE it):
Enter the number [1-1] and press Enter: 1
You selected: /dev/disk4 — 64.2 GB — Type-C
WARNING: THIS OPERATION WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON THE DISK.
Type ‘YES’ (uppercase) to continue: YES
[1/5] Unmounting volumes of /dev/disk4…
[2/5] Creating partition map and FAT32 volume ‘BOOTME’…
Started partitioning on disk4
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Waiting for partitions to activate
Formatting disk4s1 as MS-DOS (FAT32) with name BOOTME
512 bytes per physical sector
/dev/rdisk4s1: 60517280 sectors in 1891165 FAT32 clusters (16384 bytes/cluster)
bps=512 spc=32 res=32 nft=2 mid=0xf8 spt=32 hds=255 hid=2048 drv=0x80 bsec=60546880 bspf=14775 rdcl=2 infs=1 bkbs=6
Mounting disk
Could not mount disk4s1 after erase
Finished partitioning on disk4
/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *64.2 GB disk4
1: DOS_FAT_32 BOOTME 31.0 GB disk4s1
(free space) 33.2 GB -
[3/5] Ensuring the BOOTME volume is mounted…
[4/5] Copying files from:
/Users/victor/Downloads/usbimg.customer/usb
to:
/Volumes/BOOTME
Using rsync with progress…
Copy completed.
[5/5] Ejecting the device…
Error: Could not eject the device (unmount=1, eject=0)
After ./CreateUSBKeyMacOS.sh, your usb became ‘bootme’ status and there is nothing inside right?
Did you change any code inside CreateUSBKeyMacOS.sh?
I wonder if I did this step wrong so that on the step 6, I cannot reboot?
Could you help me analyze that based on your experience, where could possibly go wrong?
There was a known issue with that script. They just fixed it in a new version.
USB-C and USB-A should all work. 16GB or greater is required.
How are you creating the recovery drive and do you have the latest image (-1 for MacOS): System Recovery — DGX Spark User Guide
make sure to select the CreateUSBKey for the OS you are using (Windows | MacOS | Ubuntu (DGX Spark is a good platform)).
Please share the output from the image creation.
Hi @abull
My usb drive is 64GB
I used latest image that I downloaded yesterday from the system recovery guide.
I used CreateUSBKeyMac.sh in my macbook pro.
The image creation output:
===================================
FastOS Image Version:
NAME=“DGX SPARK FASTOS”
DATE=“2025-10-10T03:26:29+00:00”
VERSION=“1.91.51”
BUILD_TYPE=“customer”
Looking for external disks…
Select the USB disk to format (this will ERASE it):
Enter the number [1-1] and press Enter: 1
You selected: /dev/disk4 — 64.2 GB — Type-C
WARNING: THIS OPERATION WILL ERASE ALL DATA ON THE DISK.
Type ‘YES’ (uppercase) to continue: YES
[1/5] Unmounting volumes of /dev/disk4…
[2/5] Creating partition map and FAT32 volume ‘BOOTME’…
Started partitioning on disk4
Unmounting disk
Creating the partition map
Waiting for partitions to activate
Formatting disk4s1 as MS-DOS (FAT32) with name BOOTME
512 bytes per physical sector
/dev/rdisk4s1: 60517280 sectors in 1891165 FAT32 clusters (16384 bytes/cluster)
bps=512 spc=32 res=32 nft=2 mid=0xf8 spt=32 hds=255 hid=2048 drv=0x80 bsec=60546880 bspf=14775 rdcl=2 infs=1 bkbs=6
Mounting disk
Could not mount disk4s1 after erase
Finished partitioning on disk4
/dev/disk4 (external, physical):
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme *64.2 GB disk4
1: DOS_FAT_32 BOOTME 31.0 GB disk4s1
(free space) 33.2 GB -
[3/5] Ensuring the BOOTME volume is mounted…
[4/5] Copying files from:
/Users/victor/Downloads/usbimg.customer/usb
to:
/Volumes/BOOTME
Using rsync with progress…
Copy completed.
[5/5] Ejecting the device…
Error: Could not eject the device (unmount=1, eject=0)
Which OS did you run your sudo ./CreateUSB script?
Windows, Ubuntu, MacOS (intel), MacOS(apple silicon)?
Did you add /efi/boot/bootaa64.efi as your boot option ?
Did you connect dgx spark to a working wifi router with an ethernet cable? (is it necessary)
I am still in the process of trying to enter recovery enviroments.
My dgx spark current state after encounter boot loop issue and getting stuck in the update/boot sequence:
unable to wirelessly connect to keyboard and mouse
unable to access to internet/WIFI (whether it’s in China or in US)
WIFI option disappeared in the network setting
Unable to use Nvidia Sync
dgx spark unexpectedly reboot and oftentimes there is a square box filled with digits on the left side of the Nvidia logo.
Here are things I tried and I learned so far (not 100% sure if I get correct):
My macbook has m1 pro max (apple silicon)
I tried lenovo usb 3.2 (USB-C and USB-A) but UEFI did not detect it
I tried samsung usb 3.1 (USB-C)>> UEFI did detect it but only screen flashed
I tried sandisk cz50 usb 2.0 (USB-A)>> UEFI did detect it but only makes my dgx spark reboot (so I will use this usb for the rest of steps)
I connected dgx spark with sandisk cz50 usb 2.0 (USB-A)+ apple type-c adapter, tried (BOW K308DL keyboard with type-c cablewithout hub or adapter + thinkpad mouse USB-A with usb-hub connected to dgx spark) and (logitech k120 USB-A+thinkpad mouse USB-A with usb hub)
I tried connect Ethernet cable to dgx spark, but dgx spark said the ethernet is unplugged. Not sure if it’s ethernet port on the wall is working or not.
I learned the fact for apple silicon chip, MS-DOS is read-only regardless is MBR or GUID Partition Table (GPT). That explained why after I ran sudo ./CreateUSBKeyMacOS.sh, the BOOTME is empty and after I select usb drive under secure override my screen only flashed. Apple silicon chip prevents write to the BOOTME. And I don’t know if M series MacBooks have this same issue. And I am not sure if the shell script solve this issue.
Then I decided to reformat usb drive to mac extension so I can copy the recovery image I downloaded and move it to usb drive. And I saved the recovery image to my old mac mini (intel chip). Then I reformat my usb drive again to MSDOS MBR format and copied the recovery image to the usb drive to I can save it dgx spark (ubuntu) later. And I ran shasum -a 256 -c checksum.txt to make sure all the files are not corrupted.
I was thinking about trying the script on mac mini but because I haven’t used that for decades I forgot admin password to enable sudo.
Therefore, I decided to try the CreateUSBKey.sh on dgxspark ubuntu instead.
Before I ran the shell script, I tried 2 ways to reformat my usb to msdos mbr and msdos guid partition table. For msdos mbr, the shell script works but it takes 5-10min at least to unmount. For msdos guid partition table, the shell script will throw no space left error. Therefore, I sticked to reformat my USB to msdos mbr format and in the shell script it will convert it to GPT format. Good news is that after sudo ./CreateUSBKey.sh, /Volumes/BOOTME folder is not empty and contains
boot fastos.partaa sgdisk.txt.example
efi fastos.partab vmlinuz
efi.tar.xz fw
fastos-release.txt initrd
and under efi/boot/, it has bootaa64.efi grubaa64.efi mmaa64.efi.
With this command file bootaa64.efi, I validated
bootaa64.efi: PE32+ executable (EFI application) Aarch64 (stripped to external PDB), for MS Windows.
Then I chose restart my dgx spark to jump to UEFI mode.
First thing I tried: I selected restore default >>save changes and reset >> under security, change standard to custom >> select UEFI: usb drive to enter recovery environment >> reboot instead of recovery environment mode
Second thing I tried: restore default >> save changes and reset >> change standard to custom >> under boot, I added boot option as “fasos” and select /efi/boot/bootaa64.efi and select create >> set “fastos“ as 1st priority boot, usb drive as second prorioty boot, and UEFI:samsung as third. >> (here I also tried disable secure boot and enable secure boot) >> (here I also tried to select fastos and uefi:usb drive under secure override) >> however, in all these cases, dgx still only reboot and cannot enter recover environment mode.
Honestly, I did not expect I have to go though so much pain to recover the system ( and still not working for me). With all the hype around dgx spark and high price tags $4000, I am not sure if Jensen is giving Elon Musk a dgx spark or a dgx brick. The Dgx spark team cannot even nail the basics or write a clear and detailed instructions or tutorials for system recovery before the product launch.
Lastly, after all the rants, if anyone in this thread know how to fix my dgx spark and allow me to enter recover environment mode, your advice will be much much appreciated as I believe many others may struggle with the similar issues.
For people to get to recovery environment mode and recover the system, I wonder if you guys use windows mainly to setup the usb drive?
Cheers.
Add boot options from /efi/boot/bootaa64.efi and named as ‘recovery‘>> set secure boot mode to Custom >> restore factory keys >> under boot override, select ‘recovery‘ >> cannot enter recovery environment
However, set secure boot mode to Custom >> restore factory keys >>YES >> YES>> under boot override, select UEFI:usb drive >> allow me to enter recovery environment and fix everything.
I think previously why after I follow this correct path and it did not work was due to the fact that apple silicon chip macbook cannot write to msdos format usb drive (it’s read-only) and that leads to empty usb drive. And dgx spark UEFI detect empty folder in usb drive and chose to reboot instead.
After I chose dgx spark ubuntu to run sudo ./CreateUSBKey.sh, the folder contains all the necessary files (not corrupted) to tell UEFI jump to recovery environment. But because I saw people in this thread said to skip selecting restore factory keys, no matter what I tried, dgx spark wont enter recovery environment.
In summary, the working solution for me is as followed:
download the latest recovery image from system recovery guide
unzip the tar file and cd to the unzipped folder
chmod +x [the script based on your OS] (I did it in dgx spark ubuntuOS)
plug in USB drive (USB 2.0) (USB3.2, USB 3.1 did not work for me)
reformat the USB drive via disk utility by selecting entire disk and erasing/reformatting as MSDOS MBR
sudo ./[the script based on your OS]
6)wait patiently until the script is completed and unmount successfully.
make sure your usb drive BOOTME contains the following and they are not corrupted: boot, fastos.partaa, sgdisk.txt.example , efi, fastos.partab, vmlinuz, efi.tar.xz, fw, fastos-release.txt, initrd
if you also use dgx spark to do these steps, then you can click restart your dgx and hold delete key to jump to UEFI mode
Then do restore default >>select YES >>save changes and reset >> secure boot mode as custom >> restore factory keys >> select YES, YES >> boot override >> select UEFI:USB DRIVE (your usb drive) >> recovery environment mode>> enter >> start recovery >> enter.
So yeah bascially follow the system recovery instructions word by word and make sure your usb drive has all the files for recovery.
USB 2.0/3.1/3.2 should all work - not sure why they didn’t for you.
With the last post it appears you were able to restore the UEFI to default and re-image. Is your issue resolved?
The core issue is apple silicon chip (m1 pro max) treat MSDOS MBR/GPT as read-only so USB drive was always empty after sudo ./[shell script]. In retrospect, I believe USB 3.1 will work too. But when I tried usb 3.2, UEFI was not able to detect it.
Yeah, my issue is now resolved
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