Orin Dev Kit flashing issue

Robotics & Edge Computing Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson Orin NX
1

Greetings folks. I new here so be patient. I have been trying all week to get my Orion dev kit setup and getting nowhere.

Well, not quite nowhere.

I am using my MSI laptop with a dual boot Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS. It’s a clean install and updated.

At one point the Orin booted into its own OS, but the SDK Manager errored out during install of the modules and restarted flashing again.

Now the flashing process gets to about 90% then takes progressively longer for each percent. After about an hour it gets to 98% then says it’s taking too long. I tell it to continue and 10 minutes later at 99% it says installation failed.

The install is happening on a crucial pcie 3.0 nvme m.2 ssd (1TB).

I have tried three different data cables on three different ports. The SDK Manager recognizes the Orin properly. I have been following the videos from JetsonHacks, and I have followed the online steps. They am getting nowhere here.

Another couple items I noticed: the fan does not turn on and the Orin gets hot. Not too hot to touch but pretty close. Also sometimes Ubuntu says the Orin disconnects and immediately reconnects. I am thinking I have a faulty unit.

Right now I am so frustrated that I am about to send it back. Please help!

2

Hello,

Welcome to the NVIDIA Developer forums! Your topic will be best served in the Jetson category.

I will move this post over for visibility.

Cheers,
Tom

3

Thanks for the help there Tom.

Update: I was able to get an image installed on a microSD card (128gb). But I am completely unable to get the system running on the SSD. Like I said, after 90% it seems to take exponentially longer from percent to percent. Then at 98% it seems to time out and I have to confirm to proceed waiting. Interestingly enough, it did the same during the SD install. The difference is that the SSD install results in a failure every time.

I greatly appreciate any help you all provide.

4

Check out:
Linux_for_Tegra/tools/kernel_flash/README_intird_flash.txt

Using alternate boot devices usually requires the initrd flash.

5

Thanks for the tip. I followed the instructions and ran this command:

sudo ./tools/kernel_flash/l4t_initrd_flash.sh jetson-orin-nano-devkit internal

After the reboot of the target, it came up with this error:
…RTNETLINK answers: File exists
RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Waiting for device to expose ssh …Run command: flash on fc00:1:1:0::2
SSH ready
blockdev: cannot open /dev/mmcblk3boot0: No such file or directory
[ 0]: l4t_flash_from_kernel: Starting to create gpt for emmc
Active index file is /mnt/internal/flash.idx
Number of lines is 79
max_index=78
writing item=62, 6:0:primary_gpt, 512, 19968, gpt_primary_6_0.bin, 16896, fixed--0, 8d1fb7d44f80c063aa0a0a962fa06abd33598385
Error: Could not stat device /dev/mmcblk3 - No such file or directory.
Flash failure
Cleaning up…

6

https://docs.nvidia.com/jetson/archives/r35.5.0/DeveloperGuide/IN/QuickStart.html
If you are flashing to an SD card, you do:

sudo ./tools/kernel_flash/l4t_initrd_flash.sh --external-device mmcblk1p1 \
  -c tools/kernel_flash/flash_l4t_external.xml -p "-c bootloader/t186ref/cfg/flash_t234_qspi.xml" \
  --showlogs --network usb0 jetson-orin-nano-devkit internal

If you are flashing to an NVMe SSD, you do:

sudo ./tools/kernel_flash/l4t_initrd_flash.sh --external-device nvme0n1p1 \
  -c tools/kernel_flash/flash_l4t_external.xml -p "-c bootloader/t186ref/cfg/flash_t234_qspi.xml" \
  --showlogs --network usb0 jetson-orin-nano-devkit internal
1 Like
7

I appreciate everyone’s quick help here and I also appreciate your patience. This isnt my first experience with Linux or development or even working with various flavors of AI. But this entire ecosystem Nvidia is providing offers a lot of potential I want to dig into. Given that, a lot of this is quite new to me. Hopefully step by step I can actually learn something here and get some useful projects completed.

Dave - I am currently running your command. Its in the early stages right now and will respond with results.

Again, thanks for the help. Its good to see a community where questions are actually answered and not responded to with snark.

8

Dave, I am sorry to report that the previously reported error occurs with the command you kindly provided:

…RTNETLINK answers: File exists
RTNETLINK answers: File exists
Waiting for device to expose ssh …Run command: flash on fc00:1:1:0::2
SSH ready
blockdev: cannot open /dev/mmcblk3boot0: No such file or directory
[ 0]: l4t_flash_from_kernel: Starting to create gpt for emmc
Active index file is /mnt/internal/flash.idx
Number of lines is 79
max_index=78
writing item=62, 6:0:primary_gpt, 512, 19968, gpt_primary_6_0.bin, 16896, fixed--0, cee2339644360a73d45bea3f3f082c72909cc735
Error: Could not stat device /dev/mmcblk3 - No such file or directory.
Flash failure
Cleaning up…

9

Are you using JetPack 6?
Then you should do

sudo ./tools/kernel_flash/l4t_initrd_flash.sh --external-device mmcblk0p1 \
  -c tools/kernel_flash/flash_l4t_external.xml -p "-c bootloader/generic/cfg/flash_t234_qspi.xml" \
  --showlogs --network usb0 jetson-orin-nano-devkit internal

or

sudo ./tools/kernel_flash/l4t_initrd_flash.sh --external-device nvme0n1p1 \
  -c tools/kernel_flash/flash_l4t_external.xml -p "-c bootloader/generic/cfg/flash_t234_qspi.xml" \
  --showlogs --network usb0 jetson-orin-nano-devkit internal
1 Like
10

This command allowed much more progress, but sadly it still failed. I cleared out the download files and downloaded a fresh copy, but ended up with the same failure.

Writing /mnt/internal/xusb_t234_prod_sigheader.bin.encrypt (164864 bytes) into /dev/mtd0:37093376
Copied 164864 bytes from /mnt/internal/xusb_t234_prod_sigheader.bin.encrypt to address 0x02360000 in flash
Writing bpmp_t234-TE950M-A1_prod_sigheader.bin.encrypt (parittion: B_bpmp-fw) into /dev/mtd0
Sha1 checksum matched for /mnt/internal/bpmp_t234-TE950M-A1_prod_sigheader.bin.encrypt
Writing /mnt/internal/bpmp_t234-TE950M-A1_prod_sigheader.bin.encrypt (1040512 bytes) into /dev/mtd0:37355520
file_to_flash: write, size 0xfe080, n 0xfe080
write(): Input/output error
[ 201]: l4t_flash_from_kernel: Writing /mnt/internal/bpmp_t234-TE950M-A1_prod_sigheader.bin.encrypt (1040512 bytes) into /dev/mtd0:37355520 failed
[ 201]: l4t_flash_from_kernel: The device size indicated in the partition layout xml is smaller than the actual size. This utility will try to fix the GPT.
Flash failure
Cleaning up…

11

I was able to get a fully functional system last night using a 1TB MicroSD card. So perhaps the real problem here is the SSD I have. If that is the case, please tell me what brand/model SSD I should purchase that will work properly with the Orin Nano.

12

Please always give the full log.
This error is not about the SSD.

13

mylog.log (275.7 KB)
Here is my complete log file. Thanks for your help. I hope you find something useful here.

14

Seems like you got some writing issue with the QSPI bootloader.
Can you please confirm if the device is able to boot up now? (At least get into the UEFI menu.)

If it’s not, try this command to flash the bootloader again:

sudo ./flash.sh --no-systemimg -c bootloader/generic/cfg/flash_t234_qspi.xml jetson-orin-nano-devkit internal

After it’s done, alter the command like this so you flash only the SSD, but not the QSPI bootloader again:

sudo ./tools/kernel_flash/l4t_initrd_flash.sh --external-device nvme0n1p1
-c tools/kernel_flash/flash_l4t_external.xml --external-only
–showlogs --network usb0 jetson-orin-nano-devkit internal

15

Thanks again Dave. Yes, I can confirm that the system can not boot from the SSD. I will try your instructions and get back to you with results.

16

Well, Dave… Sorry to say that the second command ended in failure. The log files are from the commands in order. First command is first.log and so on.
second.log (5.3 MB)
first.log (86.2 KB)

17 
Cannot open: Input/output error

This means it’s a hardware issue when writing the disk.
Maybe get another USB cable or another SSD.
As you have previously failed with writing QSPI bootloader, I guess it’s more of the USB cable that is problematic.

18

Dave,

I am going through this with other USB cables. So far I have tried three others on two different UBS ports, an A and a C. But if it were the cable or my host computer, why was I able to get a successful flash on a microsd card? That doesn’t quite make sense to me at all.

However I will do this on my other cables. I also have another computer coming and will try with that, but I seriously doubt the problem is my computer or cables.

I am even willing to completely reimage my computer. I just need this to work.

19

How did you setup the SD card? With the SD card image? Then the cable is not involved here.

20

Well, here is some good news. Somewhat. I got a successful install on the SSD using your second command and yet another USB cable. See log file. The only thing now is that it boots to the Nvidia screen ends the boot loader then the screen goes blank with a blinking cursor. Log file attached.
second.log (162.8 KB)