In trying to flash an Aetina carrier board (Jetson Xavier NX devkit) that we have in order to use with JetPack 5.1.4/L4T35.6.0, I encountered some errors during the process.
I use the L4T and sample root filesystem files from https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetson-linux-r3560 and the only additions that I make are using the script to create a default username/password/autologin, removing line 117 of the ota_make_recovery_img_dtb.sh since our version of openSSL doesn’t work with dsa keys anymore, and a custom uefi_jetson.bin file that just has the logo replaced, which has worked in past flash attempts with other boards.
I’ve done this process many times before and it usually works to flash the eMMC first with:
sudo ./flash.sh jetson-xavier-nx-devkit-emmc mmcblk0p1
And then flashing the NVMe so it becomes the boot drive with:
sudo ./tools/kernel_flash/l4t_initrd_flash.sh --external-device nvme0n1p1 -c ./tools/kernel_flash/flash_l4t_nvme.xml -S 900GiB --external-only --showlogs jetson-xavier-nx-devkit-emmc nvme0n1p1
I had used these files before to flash a different Jetson a few weeks ago, and it was successful. However, this time, after flashing the NVMe, the system showed the custom uefi boot logo like normal, and then the display had black/grey pixels gradually fill up the screen from top to bottom. I thought the flash may have gone wrong during the process and tried again, but it happened again. I deleted the whole L4T 35.6.0 directory I made, made a new one, unzipped the files provided on the website above, and flashed again, but the same result occurred.
I then took the NVMe from the previously successfully flashed Jetson and put it in the current problematic one, but the result was the same. Removing the NVMe and trying with just eMMC did have it boot to the desktop successfully and showed the Ubuntu welcome window that appears after logging in for the first time.
Putting the NVMe back in gave the same black screen wipe as mentioned above. Rebooting again without the NVMe also made the eMMC-only boot get the screen wipe issue too. Flashing again after that did have the dmesg output show up after booting, but I get many errors related to mounting.
Failed to mount Kernel Debug File System
Failed to mount Kernel Trace File System
Failed to mount RPC Pipe File System
Failed to start Remount Root and Kernel File System
Failed to Mount Kernel Configuration File System
Failed to Mount Arbitrary Executable File Formats File System
I then tried an L4T 35.4.1 flash that worked in the past, but the result was the same. The first few flashes were done with a long USB cable, so I tried again with a short one but nothing changed. Before flashing, the board worked normally, so my only guess at this point was an ESD-related damage issue, but if anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate the help. We have other Jetsons that I could try to flash as well to see if it’s just this one, but I’m a bit concerned of the outcome at this point if this could be caused by potentially the cable or PC that we’re using to flash.