Jetpack 3.2 packages modifications

Robotics & Edge Computing Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson TX2
1

I work with Jetpack 3.2.1 on a Nvidia TX2 platform (Ubuntu 16.04, kernel 4.4).

I created a script using the file repository.json downloaded when starting the Jetpack process to optimize the flashing process of my units. This script is basically downloading Jetpack’s packages using URLs saved in this repository.json file and installing those on the target.

I noticed recently those URl addresses point now to empty pages (error 404: not found).

For example, one of those addresses is:
[u]http://developer.download.nvidia.com/devzone/devcenter/mobile/jetpack_l4t/3.2GA/m892ki/JetPackL4T_32_b196/Tegra186_Linux_R28.2.0_aarch64.tbz2[/u][i]

As a fix, I downloaded again Jetpack 3.2, got the new repository.json file and replaced it in my script. I also noticed this file changed a lot compared to the previous one even if it was also on Jetpack 3.2.1).

I was able to fix the script but I noticed some of the packages downloaded had been upgraded compared to my previous setup:

  • libcudnn7 (version 7.0.5.13-1 to 7.0.5.15-1)
  • Tegra186_Linux (version R28.2.0 to R28.2.1)

I wanted to know:
1/. What is included in this modification ? I need to validate all changes before being able to deploy again on a new unit.
2/. How often this type of modification will occur ? This is breaking a lot of automatic processes on my side without any notice and it can be embarrassing in the future.

2

I have not tested it lately, but after R28.2 (JetPack3.2) was deprecated for R28.2.1 (JetPack3.2.1) the servers broke repository.json under JetPack3.2 (repository.json is downloaded each time JetPack runs) and 3.2 could no longer be used (it had an incorrect version of some parts of the file which still exist, and completely deleted other parts). You’d have to use the repository.json from JetPack3.2.1.

I think this is a bug in the deprecation process since R28.2 content should still be available, but since R28.2.1 is now “current”, and since this is basically just a patch level update, it might be possible that some of the R28.2.1 packages work with R28.2 (though I suspect not all files are usable across patch levels).

There are release notes here for R28.2.1:
[url]https://developer.nvidia.com/embedded/jetpack-notes[/url]
[url]https://docs.nvidia.com/jetpack-l4t/#jetpack/3.2.1/release_notes.htm[/url]

3

Thank you for the release notes. I assume it is the release from Jetpack 3.1 and not 3.2 to 3.2.1.

Do you know if this bug in the deprecation process will be fixed soon (files back to original locations) ?

4

I have not heard anything about fixing “3.2”. “3.2.1” took its place. If you are wanting to go from 3.1 to 3.2.1 then this should be “almost” the same as the older 3.2.

The issue is that each time JetPack runs it dynamically checks NVIDIA servers for where to download current versions of software. The file containing this information is repository.json, but 3.2 now gets a repository.json which shows only incorrect URLs. Historic versions really should be kept around, but due to this bug are no longer there.