NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB SSD Image

Greetings,

we have an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB module (not devkit), which is included in the Unitree Go2 Extension Pack. They provide an image to flash the SSD, using dd, which is based on Jetpack 5 and it works.

However, we want to upgrade to a Jetpack 6 image and flash the SSD with this image. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find such an official image in any documentation yet. Where can we find an official Jetpack 6 based image for the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB? If there is not one available, how could we create one in order to flash the SSD using dd?

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards

Hi,

Actually I am totally not sure what you are talking about.
If that vendor does not provide a jetpack6 version, then NVIDIA moderators do not know about it either.

We can only offer you the Devkit image.

Hello,

thanks for your reply. Yes, we want to flash the Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB with a Jetpack 6 .img file to flash directly to the SSD using dd, but couldn’t find one in the NVIDIA documentation yet. Since we don’t have an Orin DevKit to create our own image it would be really helpful, if you could provide one for us.

Thanks in advance.

I don’t know what you are asking here. What do you want us to provide to you exactly??

It does not matter with dd. I just want to know what do you have on your side first.

You keep telling it is not NV devkit, so what should I give to you? As I already told, we only provide devkit image.

We have a Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB Module with carrier board, so no devkit. On this is an SSD, which we want to flash with a Jetpack 6 Image. So we need a Jetpack 6 Image for a Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB Module, not a devkit image.

If I read the documentation correctly, it should be possible to create such an Image for a Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB Module using a devkit, at least that’s how unitree created their image for the Orin Nano. We need a ready to go image to flash it on the SSD using dd, without using the SDK Manager. Hope that clarifies what we need.

HI,

Let me explain this by using your comment. Your concept for this is not quite correct.

We have a Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB Module with carrier board, so no devkit. On this is an SSD, which we want to flash with a Jetpack 6 Image. So we need a Jetpack 6 Image for a Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB Module, not a devkit image.

What you are talking about does not exist. There is nothing called “image for only module”. The BSP software provided by NVIDIA is just for the devkit which means base board + module. We don’t have anything “just for the module”.

If I read the documentation correctly, it should be possible to create such an Image for a Jetson Orin Nano 8 GB Module using a devkit, at least that’s how unitree created their image for the Orin Nano. We need a ready to go image to flash it on the SSD using dd, without using the SDK Manager. Hope that clarifies what we nee

What a vendor did is actually

  1. They downloaded the BSP package, which is actually same as what sdkmanager downloaded to host PC

  2. They modify the BSP software from original devkit version to their board version. This requires to know their hardware change in comparison with NV devkit.

  3. We provided a tool inside the BSP package to create sdcard image based on the customized BSP from (2).
    Such image could be used for dd.

The point I am trying to tell is, you told us you are not using the NV devkit. That is fine to me.
So what is the board you are using here? A non NV devkit thing is called custom board and there should be a vendor to prepare a BSP for each Jetpack version.

Just as I said, a custom board has hardware change from original NV devkit. If you don’t have any hardware knowledge about this custom board, then you are unlikely to porting those things by yourself.

Also, jetpack5 to jetpack6 update requires bootloader update too, which means upgrading the image in a SSD won’t really do full upgrade. Sdkmanager or the tool from BSP package are required.

Hello,

thanks for the explanation. I think I mixed up the terminology, that’s why I wasn’t able to convey what we needed.

I think you described our problem. The vendor manufactured the carrier board for the custom Orin Nano board so I assume this is where the BSP changes come from.

So if I interpret it correctly, we are dependent on the vendor to provide the Jetpack 6 image for the SSD because of their BSP changes or need an interface on the vendor carrier board to use the SDK manager in force recovery mode + BSP package of the vendor?

Thanks again for the help.

You need the vendor to provide their customized BSP package, put the board into recovery mode and flash their package to the board so that it would work. Sdkmanager is not involved here. But they are just doing similar thing.

The only difference is sdkmanager only provides a package for NV devkit. Their customized BSP is for their carrier board.

Okay just some last questions for clarification.

Is it possible to find the specific configuration for the custom BSP somewhere in the filesystem after it is flashed?

And since you mentioned the differences between Jetpack 5 and 6, does an NVIDIA Isaac ROS docker container based on Jetpack 6 or one which includes ROS Humble exist and would that even work on a Jetpack 5 system? This would maybe also solve the problems we are facing on the Jetpack 5 image.

Is it possible to find the specific configuration for the custom BSP somewhere in the filesystem after it is flashed?

You need to define what is “specific” you mean here. There are lots of things that could be different rel-35 and rel-36…

And since you mentioned the differences between Jetpack 5 and 6, does an NVIDIA Isaac ROS docker container based on Jetpack 6 or one which includes ROS Humble exist and would that even work on a Jetpack 5 system? This would maybe also solve the problems we are facing on the Jetpack 5 image.

I don’t think this is supported.

I assume that the configurations for the custom board have to be stored somewhere, since they use a custom carrier board which is different from the orin devkit.

What you are talking about does not exist. There is nothing called “image for only module”. The BSP software provided by NVIDIA is just for the devkit which means base board + module. We don’t have anything “just for the module”.

I don’t know, if I understand this correctly, but I assume the changes of the vendor BSP come from the different base board (different/custom carrier board)? If the BSP is a complete image, there have to be some changes compared to the orin devkit version and if it is just an add on for the custom carrier board drivers, the changes should also be apparent somewhere. I would have hoped for some configuration files to maybe reverse engineer it somehow, even if that isn’t recommended.

If it isn’t a hardware driver only issue for the custom carrier board, it seems to me that we are stuck and completely dependent on the vendor to provide a new image.

You are not the first one that tries to port things without the help from vendor.
Mostly they didn’t succeed because of the reason I already told: don’t know the hardware design for their custom board.

And those users who might think they can do this by themselves don’t really have experience in debugging such kind of cases before (sorry to say that).

The BSP is not a complete image. It has lots of files and each of them got flashed into each partition on either the QSPI or the external storage.
Basically such process would involve with lots of crash/debug/reboot/reflash. And reflash here means the BSP flash way but not the dd command.

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