i.MX ProcessorsのトピックRe: Recovery Solution for Bricked i.MX93

Recovery Solution for Bricked i.MX93

pilotnite — Sat, 08 Nov 2025 15:19:52 GMT

Hello All,

I'm looking for a recovery solution for a custom board based on i.MX93. We have IoT devices based on i.MX93 with:

- Bootloader: SPI Flash (eFuses burned to boot from SPI only)
- Root filesystem: eMMC

Issue: Customers occasionally brick devices by removing power during bootloader upgrades. When bricked, the i.MX93 automatically enters Serial Download Protocol (SDP) mode and the device shows up as a USB device waiting for UUU commands.

I can successfully recover bricked devices by reflashing the bootloader using:

sudo uuu -b edge-pro.lst imx-boot ahab_bootable_fspi_otfad.bin
sudo uuu FB: acmd reset

This restores the SPI flash bootloader perfectly, but requires on-site technician with a laptop - UUU utility installed and some technical knowledge.

What I'm looking for a "plug-and-play USB recovery solution" where an on-site technician can:

1. Plug a USB flash drive into the bricked i.MX93 device
2. Power on the device
3. USB flash drive automatically runs UUU and restores the bootloader
4. Device reboots and works normally

Basically, a "bootable USB flash drive" that acts as a USB host and automatically executes the UUU recovery process when it detects the i.MX93 in SDP mode.

Questions

1. Is there any way to make a USB flash drive that can act as a USB host and run UUU to recover an i.MX93 in SDP mode?

2. Are there any commercial or DIY solutions that provide automated USB-based recovery for i.MX devices without requiring a laptop?

3. Has anyone created a recovery solution using something like:
-USB flash drive with embedded Linux?
- Small single-board computer (Raspberry Pi Zero, etc.) as a recovery dongle?
-Dedicated recovery hardware?

4. Are there any NXP-provided tools or methods for field recovery that don't require a full laptop setup?

I only need to restore the SPI flash bootloader - the eMMC rootfs is never affected. Since the i.MX93 reliably enters SDP mode when the bootloader is corrupted, we just need something that can automatically run UUU commands.

Any suggestions or pointers to existing solutions would be greatly appreciated!

Environment:
- SoC: NXP i.MX93
- Boot: SPI Flash via FlexSPI (eFuse configured)
- Storage: eMMC
- Recovery tool: UUU (mfgtools)

Thank you,
Nitesh

Re: Recovery Solution for Bricked i.MX93

joanxie — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 07:12:20 GMT

if you don't want to use PC to download image to the board, maybe you can try the board to board download, for example, the imx8mp can support debian, I tested on my imx8mp and imx93 board, it's successful, you can refer to this if this is what you need

1) install the debian on the imx8mp board

i.MX Debian Linux SDK User Guide

2）download uuu_aarch64 for this system

https://github.com/nxp-imx/mfgtools/releases/tag/uuu_1.5.233

3）need to change the configure files in the uboot

uboot-imx/configs/imx93_11x11_evk_defconfig at lf_v2025.04 · nxp-imx/uboot-imx · GitHub

focus on the "CONFIG_USB_GADGET_VENDOR_NUM" and "CONFIG_USB_GADGET_PRODUCT_NUM"

in my case, I use the 0x18d1 and 0x0d02 according to the table as below

Build in config:
Pctl Chip Vid Pid BcdVersion Serial_No
==================================================
SDPS: MX8QXP 0x1fc9 0x012f [0x0002..0xffff]
SDPS: MX8QM 0x1fc9 0x0129 [0x0002..0xffff]
SDPS: MX8DXL 0x1fc9 0x0147
SDPS: MX28 0x15a2 0x004f
SDPS: MX815 0x1fc9 0x013e
SDPS: MX865 0x1fc9 0x0146
SDPS: MX8ULP 0x1fc9 0x014a
SDPS: MX8ULP 0x1fc9 0x014b
SDPS: MX93 0x1fc9 0x014e
SDPS: MX91 0x1fc9 0x0159
SDPS: MX95 0x1fc9 0x015d
SDPS: MX95 0x1fc9 0x015c
SDPS: MX943 0x1fc9 0x0027
SDP: MX7D 0x15a2 0x0076
SDP: MX6Q 0x15a2 0x0054
SDP: MX6D 0x15a2 0x0061
SDP: MX6SL 0x15a2 0x0063
SDP: MX6SX 0x15a2 0x0071
SDP: MX6UL 0x15a2 0x007d
SDP: MX6ULL 0x15a2 0x0080
SDP: MX6SLL 0x1fc9 0x0128
SDP: MX7ULP 0x1fc9 0x0126
SDP: MXRT106X 0x1fc9 0x0135
SDP: MX8MM 0x1fc9 0x0134
SDP: MX8MQ 0x1fc9 0x012b
SDPU: SPL 0x0525 0xb4a4 [0x0000..0x04ff]
SDPV: SPL1 0x0525 0xb4a4 [0x0500..0x9998]
SDPV: SPL1 0x1fc9 0x0151 [0x0500..0x9998]
SDPU: SPL 0x0525 0xb4a4 [0x9999..0x9999]
SDPU: SPL 0x3016 0x1001 [0x0000..0x04ff]
SDPV: SPL1 0x3016 0x1001 [0x0500..0x9998]
FBK: 0x066f 0x9afe
FBK: 0x066f 0x9bff
FBK: 0x1fc9 0x0153
FB: 0x0525 0xa4a5
FB: 0x18d1 0x0d02
FB: 0x3016 0x0001
FB: 0x1fc9 0x0152
FB: 0x0483 0x0afb

4） build the new uboot image and put it in the imx8mp board and under the same folder which includes uuu tools

5) then connect imx93 with imx8mp and use the standard uuu command to download uboot to the imx93

of course maybe Raspberry Pi also can support this , but I don't have such board to test, just give you a reference

Re: Recovery Solution for Bricked i.MX93

pilotnite — Thu, 13 Nov 2025 13:18:15 GMT

thank you for your feedback... great idea!