Tech discussion. Why Jetson Orin Nano cannot support ssd image like SD card?

Robotics & Edge Computing Jetson & Embedded Systems Jetson Orin Nano
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Hello all,
I have a question about why Nvidia cannot use dd image approach for SSD to provide quick start for Jetson Orin Nano?
dd can dump partition to image?
Then, what is the tech reason why Nvidia cannot provide jetpack image for SSD?

In addition, is it possible to use SD card to boot up Jetson Orin Nano dev kits.
Then, running a script to flash the SSD instead of using a x86 host to flash Jetson Orin Nano with recovery mode.

This is a tech discussion instead of feature request.
I want to understand more tech details and why SSD setup has to use SDK manager.

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Jetsons do not have a BIOS, although they do have the equivalent in software. A traditional BIOS would be able to scan partitions and have drivers for different controllers and such. Any time you flash a Jetson you are more or less also flashing the BIOS and setting up its environment. Part of that environment is the transfer of control from the boot chain to the device in question, and this is the part which has to be told to point at the SSD partition.

It isn’t the partition which is an issue, it is the setup of environment in that boot chain to look at the SSD.

For reference, L4T is what actually gets flashed, and this is just what you would call Ubuntu after adding NVIDIA drivers. JetPack/SDK Manager is just a GUI front end to the flash software (SDKM is the smart network layer). If you use L4T R35.x, then there isn’t a full UEFI emulation, but progress has partial UEFI there. It isn’t until L4T R36.x that full UEFI exists, and this also is when the mainline kernel began its use, more or less for reasons of this boot chain customization. Still, a real BIOS is an actual miniature operating system and allows for changing many things (such as boot device and order) which you will find is limited in the purely software version.
https://developer.nvidia.com/linux-tegra

Also, if you have a valid o/s partition, and if that partition has the correct compatibility with the initial ramdisk (initrd), then you could just dd a partition onto the SSD. The trouble is that the boot software probably won’t be looking for that unless you flashed it with the instructions to use the SSD via the initrd.

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Very detailed explanation. Love it. Now, I can understand why it has to use the SDK manager to do this process 👍