Flashed images via SDK Manager can't be used to boot on another device

Autonomous Machines Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson Nano
#1

I’ve suspected this for some time now, I had initially flashed an A02 r32.3.1 image to an A02 board and used it for 2 months. Then when I got my hands on a B01 board I had tried to boot the same sd card on the B01 (I’m pretty sure the SOM boards are compatible) there was no signs of life. An etcher flashed official r32 image (not through the SDK manager) booted fine on both boards.

I had initially dismissed this as some B01, A02 OS compatibility issues

Now that I have another B01 board, I tried both the SDK and etcher flashed images and the result is the same - an r32 image flashed via the SDK manager (Jetson Nano Devkit P3448, no extra SDKs) will work on the same device it was flashed on but not on another. Are the images somehow tied to the hardware UUIDs? I need to know this because I do own quite a number of boards now and do swap SD cards frequently - to test firmware etc.

Not able to run jetson-io.py
#2

Hi lackdaz,

We have found similar issue before, and the workaround is the fresh new module must be flashed by SDKM first to get the initial bootrom info updated, afterward there should be no issue to swap to another SD card, or reduce the chance. We will fix this issue at the next release.

#3

Well its good to know. Thanks!

#4

Well just to be clear, are you trying to say that flashing via the SDKM always yields images that will work on multiple boards?

There seems to be some contradiction on another thread (Not able to run jetson-io.py). What would be great is if nvidia states the steps for us to reproduce flashing of images that are able to work on multiple devices, e.g.

  1. Format SD card
  2. Flash on SDKM (which add-ons to skip/include)
    …

For right now I would like to state that the only way for an sd card to work on multiple boards in my experience is to flash it with the official r32 images using etcher or dd, and not the SDK manager.

#5

Well just to be clear, are you trying to say that flashing via the SDKM always yields images that will work on multiple boards?

Nope. It will yield a board that could accept your sdcard image.

#6

Hi all! I can confirm that images devices (not sd cards) flashed with the sdkm are able to swap sd cards after updating the QSPI. I haven’t tested compatibility with etcher flashed images but I’d expect them to work as well.

Thanks for the clarification @WayneWWW