Unable to Build or Flash Complete Linux Image for Custom i.MX93 ECU (Bootloader Working)

Khaled_Gued — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 09:01:55 GMT

Context

I am currently working on a custom ECU based on NXP’s i.MX93 processor.
My goal is to build and flash a complete Linux image for this platform using Yocto (LF_v6.6.3 / imx-linux 6.x).

What Has Been Accomplished

Bootloader successfully built and flashed
- I built u-boot for my custom i.MX93 board using the Yocto build system.
- The build completed successfully, and I flashed the bootloader with:
  
  uuu -b emmc imx-boot.bin
- The board boots correctly — the bootloader runs fine and communication via serial console is confirmed.
Yocto environment restored and partially working
- I followed the NXP documentation to rebuild the full image (imx-image-full).
- After many fixes (fetch errors, checksum mismatches, and Python dependency issues such as trove-classifiers, hatchling, semantic-version, etc.), the build starts properly but never completes.
- The errors seem related to broken or outdated Python recipe dependencies within the current Yocto metadata.

Current Issue

The full Linux image (imx-image-full) fails to build due to Python recipe issues.
Example recurring error:

ERROR: python3-hatchling-native-1.25.0-r0 do_compile: Missing dependencies: trove-classifiers
Even after cleaning, rebuilding, and restoring the environment, the issue persists.

Since I couldn’t generate a valid .wic image, I attempted to flash a prebuilt EVK image instead using uuu:

uuu -b emmc_all imx-boot-imx93-14x14-lpddr4x-evk-sd.bin imx-image-full-imx93evk.wic

But this failed with:

LIBUSB_ERROR_TIMEOUT (-7) SDPS: boot -scanterm -f imx-boot-imx93-14x14-lpddr4x-evk-sd.bin

Investigation Results

The official NXP i.MX93 EVK prebuilt image package does not include the expected files:

imx-boot-imx93-14x14-lpddr4x-evk-sd.bin imx-image-full-imx93evk.wic.bz2
The only available file is:

Image-imx93evk.bin
which is a Linux kernel, not a bootable image (it lacks SPL/U-Boot and IVT headers).

Therefore, the ROM times out because it cannot execute a kernel directly — it expects an SPL/U-Boot image (imx-boot-*.bin).

Request for Assistance

Could you please clarify:

Is there an official or reference prebuilt Linux image (imx-image-full) for i.MX93 that can be flashed directly to eMMC or SD (e.g., .wic, .sdcard, or .img format)?
If not, is there a known stable Yocto branch or tag for i.MX93 where all dependencies (Python and otherwise) are currently building correctly for a custom board?
Are there reference binaries available for flashing a custom i.MX93 ECU, not only for the EVK?

Any guidance or updated recipes for LF_v6.6.3 or LF_v6.12.3 would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Unable to Build or Flash Complete Linux Image for Custom i.MX93 ECU (Bootloader Working)

JorgeCas — Tue, 28 Oct 2025 17:40:05 GMT

Hello,

1. No, our available ore-built images can be used only in target board such as EVK, QSB and FRDM boards. If you are using a custom board it is needed to build an image according to the features of your design.

2. In our side, the imx-image-full image can be built successfully. Please check if additional layers of your custom image are causing build errors in your side.

3. Unfortunately we do not have reference binaries for a custom i.MX93 ECU board.

Best regards.