I have an issue with the first boot of the Jetson Nano. I was expecting the following step in the Getting Started:
First Boot
A green LED next to the Micro-USB connector will light as soon as the developer kit powers on. When you boot the first time, the developer kit will take you through some initial setup, including:
Review and accept NVIDIA Jetson software EULA
Select system language, keyboard layout, and time zone
Create username, password, and computer name
Select APP partition size—it is recommended to use the max size suggested
It did not appear, I just had a login screen with the user “nvidia”. I just guessed the password to be nvidia and could log in. How can I get to the configuration part?
Performed steps (following the Getting Started):
I have the Jetson Nano 4GB and did follow the getting started guide. I successfully downloaded the current JetPack (https://developer.nvidia.com/jetson-nano-sd-card-image) and have written it to a Micro SD Card with Etcher (Mac OSX). I have then inserted the card into the Jetson Nano and attached the barrel power connector. The board instantly booted.
I will add that so far as software you flash goes, it has been a long time since there was any default login name/pass. I’m not certain, but so far as software which you flash (not a pre-built SD card image), Nano probably did not even exist when this was switched to first boot account setup (there is a script though to set this up before flash; this would work on SD card images as well). If you have an image which has the first boot already complete, then you might see what the result is from the command “head -n 1 /etc/nv_tegra_release”.
Also, many people do not realize that although the entire operating system is on the SD card (which includes the login name/pass), that there is QSPI memory on the Nano module itself. That memory is used for the equivalent of what PC would perform with a BIOS, plus boot content. When you first get a Nano you would always want to flash the Nano itself, at least once. If that QSPI content is old enough, then the newer SD card images might not work. If your SD card worked though, no need to flash the QSPI.
It is a 16GB eMMC module with a preinstalled image on it. This is what’s booting currently, but 16GB is very small, and I would like to have more storage.
There is also an SD Card slot, where I inserted the flashed 256 GB SD Card. I planned to boot from the SD Card for two reasons:
There is the most recent JetPack Image on it
More storage on the system drive
Is that a good plan? Or would you recommend otherwise?
An additional note: You do still need the eMMC booting. The entry in extlinux.conf pointing to a new rootfs is “chain loading”. Basically the “/boot” is still on eMMC, and sometimes kernel modules (initially) are there (useful to know if you are updating anything used during boot).