Flashing an Image

Before You Start ...

Here are some stuff you need before you start:

  • An microSD card that is at least 4GB.
  • A USB to serial adapter.
  • A 5 VDC power supply.
  • A serial adapter. It would be the best if you get it from Toradex since it needs a correct header to connect to the serial ports on the Ixora module.
  • All parts are properly installed.

Preparing a Flashable SD Card

After you follow through the building instructions or download the prebuilt ISOBlue image, you should have an image tar ball. You would need to extract the tar ball content:

you@yourpc:~$ sudo tar xvf Isoblue2_apalis-imx6_image_2.7b2-YYYYMMDD.tar.bz2

After extracting process, the extracted directory will look like the following:

extracted-dir
└── apalis-imx6_bin
└── imx_flash
└── mnt
└── rootfs
update.sh
  • apalis-imx6_bin contains the kernel image uImage as well as the image files for flashing purposes.
  • imx_flash contains custom scripts from Toradex for flashing iMX modules.
  • rootfs contains all the ISOBlue files that would be flashed onto the flash memory.

Editing rootfs/etc/hosts

The default rootfs/etc/hosts contains a hostname that would cause malfunction of Kafka. To correct this, change the first line to:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain apalis-imx6

Save the changed file.

Making a Flashable SD card

Use update.sh to make a flashable microSD card:

you@yourpc:~/ib-image/rootfs$ ./update.sh -o /yourmicroSDcard/mntpt

After the script finishes, you will have a flashable microSD card.

Flashing

Please follow the listed steps:

  • Connect the serial adapter to the corresponding serial header (X22) on Ixora board. Bring up your favoriate serial terminal.
  • Insert the flashable microSD card you have prepared to SD card slot (X19).
  • Connect the power supply to the Ixora board.
  • Apply power and hit any key to stop autobooting.

After interrupting the boot sequence, you will be put into U-Boot command line.

Then, for Ixora V1.0A, do:

Apalis iMX6 # setenv drive 2
Apalis iMX6 # setenv setupdate 'fatload mmc ${drive}:1 ${loadaddr} flash_mmc.img; source ${loadaddr}'
Apalis iMX6 # setenv fdt_file imx6q-apalis-ixora.dtb
Apalis iMX6 # saveenv
  • Reset the board and hit any key to stop autobooting. In U-Boot command line, do:
Apalis iMX6 # run setupdate

and

Apalis iMX6 # run update

For Ixora V1.1A, you can skip the setenv and saveenv commands. After dropping into the U-Boot command line for the first time, do:

Apalis iMX6 # run setupdate

and

Apalis iMX6 # run update

If the flashing is successful, the device will automatically boot into the ISOBlue image. Don't turn it off or disconnect anything yet. Please proceed to Setting It Up to configure the newly flashed ISOBlue 2.0.

You can also take a look at Toradex's instructions for flashing an image as this documentaion is referenced heavily upon this resource.

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