Orin NX - backup restore not working

Autonomous Machines Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson Orin NX
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1

Dear NVidia Team

We have to reopen the following topic:

In JetPack 5.1.2 the backup restore process works without any issue, but in JetPack 6.0 and now JetPack 6.1, it does not work. We can take a backup from a custom Orin NX system, and when we try to flash it to another Orin NX device with an empty NVMe, it does not work and the system boots into the EFI shell.
Flashing the QSPI does not help and this was also not necessary for JP5.1.2.

There seem to be similar cases:

It only works if we do the following steps:

  1. flash empty NVMe with kernel_flash tool
  2. restore device from step 1 with the backup_restore tool

We also noticed that we can exchange the SSD of a previously flashed Orin NX (with the backup-restore process) with an empty one and when trying to restore the empty NVMe, we get the same result.

We need a solution for this as we are using this steps in our production and we can not flash every device first with a newly created image.

Thank you for your help.

Kind regards

3

Hi sevm89,

Are yo using the devkit or custom board for Orin NX?

Could you share the commands and full backup/restore log when you hit the issue?
Or have you tried to compare the pass/fail log?

4

Hi KevinFFF

We are using a custom board.

Our commands are:

$ sudo ./tools/backup_restore/l4t_backup_restore.sh -b -e nvme0n1 brma3n-11x-orin-nx
$ sudo ./tools/backup_restore/l4t_backup_restore.sh -r -e nvme0n1 brma3n-11x-orin-nx

And here the log files:
log_backup.txt (119.1 KB)
log_restore.txt (112.8 KB)

The command does not fail. It runs through without an issue, but the restored system boots into the efi shell.
Thank you.

5

Okay, it seems there’s no error during backup/restore.

Please share the full serial console log at this moment.

Have you tried to enter into UEFI menu to check the available boot device?

6

Hi KevinFFF

Please find here the log:
log_boot.txt (42.5 KB)

In the UEFI menu, the 240GB NVMe is listed as boot device and also in the EFI shell, the partitions of the NVMe are listed. However when we choose in the boot manager the NVMe, it just opens again the boot manager.
Thank you for your help.

7

From your description, it seems NVMe is recognized but it becomes unbootable so that it enters in to UEFI shell.

Could you also reproduce the similar issue on the devkit?

8

Hi KevinFFF

The issue is reproducible on the devkit.
Can you please investigate?
Thank you.

9

Hi KevinFFF

Were you able to reproduce the issue on your side?
Any update?
Thank you.

10

Would it work if you backup/restore on the same devkit?

11

Hi KevinFFF

No, we did it on the same devkit by exchanging the SSD and it does not work.

12

Hi KevinFFF

Can you see the issue on your side?
Thank you.

13

It seems there’s known issue about backup script in JP6.0GA(R36.3.0).
Please refer to Using the initrd tool to flash the image extracted from backup_restore - #21 by DaveYYY and check if it could help in your case.

14

Hi KevinFFF

This patch is already inside the script for JetPack 6.1 and we have also included it into the JetPack 6.0 version. It does not change the behaviour.
Do you see the issue on your side?
Thank you.

15

Do you have the devkit to reproduce the same issue?

Please also share the result of cat /etc/nv_boot_control.conf on your board.

16

As mentioned in the post of October 30th, we can reproduce it on the devkit.

cat /etc/nv_boot_control.conf
TNSPEC 3767-300-0000-H.2-1-1-brma3n-11x-orin-nx-
TEGRA_CHIPID 0x23
TEGRA_OTA_BOOT_DEVICE /dev/mtdblock0
TEGRA_OTA_GPT_DEVICE /dev/mtdblock0

17

Is it booting into UEFI menu at the end?

Have you tried select the NVMe SSD as boot device manually to check if it can boot?

18

It boots into the EFI shell as already mentioned and when selecting the NVMe SSD as boot device, it just opens the boot manager again as mentioned in the post from Oct 29.

19

Hi KevinFFF

Can you reproduce the issue on your side?
Thank you.

20

Hi sevm89.

We are still trying to reproduce this on the devkit, and will share the result with you.

In the meantime, could you also help to check the following?

  1. use debug UEFI binary: enable more logs to check how it enters into UEFI menu
  2. use other NVMe SSD to restore: to clarify if the issue specific to NVMe SSD itself
  3. Have you formatted the empty NVMe SSD as ext4 before use?
  4. Which PCIe slot you are using for NVMe SSD? C4(longer slot with M2.2280) or C7(shoter slot with M2.2230)?
21

Hi KevinFFF

Here our answers:

  1. We will check this. Is it possible that you provide us the debug UEFI binary?
  2. We will test with an SSD from another manufacturer and let you know of the result.
  3. We have not formatted the empty NVMe before, as this was never necessary before.
  4. We use the M2. 2280 slot (C4), it is identical to the SSD slot on our custom carrier.

Thank you.

Kind regards