IMX8MQ EVK Booting LINUX from SD card

[JKT]

Hi

I am setting up/bringing up the new iMX8M Quad EVK. 

I have changed the BOOT OPTION to boot from micro SD card. (1100). 

(By default the board was booting Android from EMMC.) My interest is SD card-LINUX.

Before setup the Yocto build setup, as it takes longer time, I decided to go with the pre-built binaries and flash them and boot the board, then I can go with the Yocto built images.

But the prebuilt images did not work.

The pre-built images are taken from

L4.14.98_2.0.0_MX8MQ - from https://www.nxp.com/webapp/sps/download/preDownload.jsp

fsl-image-mfgtool-initramfs-imx_mfgtools.cpio.gz.u-boot --> I thought this is the U-boot image

fsl-image-validation-imx-imx8mqevk.sdcard --> SD card image

I have referred the below page to flash the SDcard image and Uboot image. I used the dd command not uuu utility.

https://community.nxp.com/t5/i-MX-Processors/Understanding-imx8mqevk-and-booting-linux-from-sdcard/m...

flashed the SD card image and flashed the Uboot image (as it is) with offset=33 for IMX8MQ EVK.

Changed the Boot switch to boot from SD card.(1100)

J1701 - micro USB cable connected - Putty to look for serial console output (115200, no parity, flowctl off)

But there is no any console message of booting. So I think, board does not boot. Is there any other way to fix/confirm this?

questions: - kindly try to answer/clarify all the questions.

1. Whether this pre-built binaries work for IMX8MQ EVK? If so why are they not booting in my case. Could you please give the series of steps, that I can follow/test.

2. Is the U-boot image correct? If not point me to correct image file and correct dd command.

3. Can you point me to any single document (if any) that I can refer? I already downloaded some docs and checking them. Interested to know whether any single guide for this?

FYKI, I am yet to setup the Yocto. But not sure how it is going to be. Because when I was trying for IMX6SX SABRESD board, the yocto built image was not booting or some build error throws. I have created another thread for that.

I was expecting the setup with pre-built images should be straight forward and less time consuming. But not sure why these issues arise. This is an urgent need. your quicker reply is appreciated.

Thanks and Regards.

[Junjielu]

Hi @jimmychan  and @JKT , 

I am trying the same thing ( iMX8MQ EVK booting from SD card), but the serial port seems not work well (output mess message) .  I saw the correct booting message only once!!! I am pretty sure the baud rate was set correctly.   There are 2 EVK boards in our group, and both of them have the same issue. It's very weird!  One of colleagues used them before and got the same issue. 

have you got this same issue before?  

Thanks,

Jason

 

[jimmychan]

I am using putty for the debug console. The setting for the uart is 115200, 8N1, no hard flow control.

[Junjielu]

Hi Jimmy,

The display and system work well with HDMI hotplug.  But, the opened Wayland Terminal will be gone after HDMI calbe unplugged/replugged-in, which is very weird... 

Do you know how to solve this problem? 

thanks a lot!

Jason

[jimmychan]

You can download the newer version of images from the link below:

https://www.nxp.com/design/software/embedded-software/i-mx-software/embedded-linux-for-i-mx-applicat...

e.g. Linux 5.4.47_2.2.0​​, there is Documentation and demo image for the EVK (i.MX 8M Quad EVK​).

The easiest way is copying the full SD card image (.wic) to the SD card.

The command is : $ sudo dd if=<image name>.wic of=/dev/sdx bs=1M && sync

For details, please refer to the Chapter 4.3.2 in i.MX_Linux_Users_Guide.pdf in the documentation.

[JKT]

@jimmychan Thanks jimmychan. 

Do I need to flash the U-boot also? or only SD card image is fine?

Because in the other blog, it was mentioned to flash U-boot again.

[jimmychan · Accepted solution]

Hello @JKT ,

The SD card image (with the extension .wic) contains U-Boot, the Linux image and device trees, and the rootfs. So you don't need to program the u-boot again. Please read the i.MX Linux User guide for more information.

[vipulj]

In my case I have instead of .wic .sdcard is generated and it is not booting up from SD card

[JKT]

Hi Jimmy, I read the doc and flashed the .wic image. It boots. Nex step I try with Yocto - build image.

Thanks.