TX2 NX (L4T 32.6.1) – Recommended approach for minimal/custom rootfs?

Robotics & Edge Computing Jetson Systems Jetson TX2
1

Hi,

We are using Jetson TX2 NX with L4T 32.6.1 (JetPack 4.x). Since there is no officially maintained minimal/custom rootfs from NVIDIA, we currently start from the standard sample rootfs and reduce image size by removing unused packages and services.

We are evaluating whether rebuilding a custom rootfs from the Sample Root Filesystem Sources is recommended ?

Could you please advise:

  1. Whether NVIDIA recommends rebuilding a custom rootfs from scratch for TX2 NX on L4T 32.6.1

  2. Any known limitations or risks with this approach

  3. Best practices for minimizing rootfs size on JetPack 4.x

Thanks in advance for your guidance.

@JerryChang

2

Hello @sanu.m19,

Have you considered using Yocto ?

That way you could go with as minimal of a rootfs there is.
And, you can later add whatever packages you need for your application.

best regards,
Andrew
Embedded Software Engineer at ProventusNova

4

hello sanu.m19,

it’s okay by removing unused packages and services to reduce image size.

may I know what’s the expectation of minimal rootfs?
please refer to flash_l4t_t186.xml for partition layouts, and also p3636.conf.common for flashing configuration file.
although TX2 NX has 16GB eMMC, there’re some necessary binaries for boot part. as you can see, it’s defined ROOTFSSIZE=14GiB for root file system.

5

Hi @JerryChang

Our target is not to change the ROOTFSSIZE defined by NVIDIA (14 GiB), but to reduce the actual used space inside the rootfs in order to reduce build time, reduce image maintenance complexity, and avoid carrying unnecessary desktop/UI packages (LibreOffice, games, etc.).

Currently, we start from the standard NVIDIA sample rootfs and remove unused packages and services. This approach has already reduced the used space from ~9.6 GB to ~3.5 GB while keeping the system fully functional.

Package cleaned during build time : libcudnn8
libcudnn8-dev
libgl1-mesa-dri
xfonts-base
fonts-dejavu-core
xfonts-utils
nvidia-l4t-weston
x11-common
nvidia-container-toolkit
libnvidia-container-tools
libnvidia-container0
libllvm10
bluez*

Our best-effort goal is to further reduce the used rootfs size closer to ~2 GB where feasible, understanding that JetPack 4.x / L4T 32.6.1 includes mandatory proprietary components that define a practical lower limit.

Could you please advise if there are any NVIDIA-recommended best practices, tools, or guidelines to further minimize the used rootfs size

6

hello sanu.m19,

unfortunately, there’s no recommended steps to minimize rootfs size.
please have customization to remove unused packages and services to shrink root file system size.

8

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.