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Join our teamThe following section describes the steps to boot the i.MX 8QuadMax MEK.
Development kit contains:
Figure 1. i.MX 8QuadMax MEK front
Figure 2. i.MX 8QuadMax MEK back
The kit includes an SD card with a pre-built NXP Linux binary demo image. Without modifying the binary inside the SD card, booting from this SD card provides a default system with certain features for building other applications on top of Linux. The software is described in the following sections.
Connect the micro-B end of the supplied USB cable into Debug UART port
J18
. Connect the
other end of the cable to a host computer.
If you are not sure about how to use a terminal application, try one of the following tutorials depending on the operating system of the host machine:
To see the user interface provided with the image binary connect a
monitor via the HDMI connector (J6
).
Click here to see the Boot Switch Setup
Connect the power supply cable to the power connector (J16
).
Power the board by flipping the switch (SW1
).
The processor starts executing from the on-chip ROM code. With the default boot switch setup, the code reads the fuses to define the media where it is expected to have a bootable image. After it finds a bootable image, the U-Boot execution should begin automatically.
Information is printed in the smaller number serial console for the Cortex®-A53. If you do not stop the U-Boot process, it continues to boot the Linux kernel.
This section is applicable ONLY if attempting to load a Linux operating system on the board.
The i.MX Linux Board Support Package (BSP) is a collection of binary files, source code, and support files that are used to boot an Embedded Linux image on a specific i.MX development platform.
Current releases of Linux binary demo files can be found on the i.MX Linux download page. Additional documentation is available in the i.MX Linux documentation bundle under the Linux sections of the i.MX Software and Development Tool.
Before the Linux OS kernel can boot on an i.MX board, the Linux kernel is loaded to a boot device (SD card, eMMC and so on) and the boot switches are set to boot that device.
There are various ways to download the Linux BSP image for different boards and boot devices.
For this getting started guide, only a few methods to transfer the Linux BSP image to an SD card are listed. Experienced Linux developers can explore other options.
The latest pre-built images for the i.MX 8QuadMax MEK are available on the Linux download page under the most current version on Linux.
The pre-built NXP Linux binary demo image provides a typical system and basic set of features for using and evaluating the processor. Without modifying the system, the users can evaluate hardware interfaces, test SoC features, and run user space applications.
When more flexibility is desired, an SD card can be loaded with individual components (boot loader, kernel, dtb file, and rootfs file) one-by-one or the .sdcard
image is loaded and the individual parts are overwritten with the specific components.
In addition to the connections from Out of box chapter, connect the J17
to the host machine using the proper USB cable.
Turn off the board. Consult Boot switch setup and configure the board to boot on SDP (Serial Download Protocol) mode.
Depending on the OS used in the host machine, the way to transfer the Linux BSP image onto an SD card can vary.
Choose an option below for detailed instructions:
Download the latest stable files from UUU GitHub page. An extensive tutorial for UUU can be found in https://github.com/NXPmicro/mfgtools/wiki.
By default, this procedure flashes the image to the SD card flash. Check the UUU GitHub page for reference on how to flash the image to other devices.
Open a terminal application and change directory to the location where uuu
and the latest Linux distribution for i.MX 8QuadMax MEK are located. Add execution permission to the uuu
file and execute it. Uuu
waits for the USB device to connect
$ chmod a+x uuu
$ sudo ./uuu <kernel_version>_images_<SOC>.zip
Turn on the board, uuu
starts to copy the images to the board.
When it finishes, turn off the board, and consult Boot switch setup to configure the board to boot from SDcard.
Download the latest stable files from UUU GitHub page. An extensive tutorial for UUU can be found in https://github.com/NXPmicro/mfgtools/wiki.
By default, this procedure flashes the image to the SD card flash. Check the UUU GitHub page for reference on how to flash the image to other devices.
Open the command prompt application and navigate to the directory where the uuu.exe
file and the Linux release for the i.MX 8QuadMax MEK are located.
> uuu.exe <kernel_version>_images_<SOC>.zip
Turn on the board, uuu
starts to copy the images to the board.
When it finishes, turn off the board, and consult Boot switch setup to configure the board to boot from SDcard.
When working with embedded systems, it is important to bear in mind that the documentation is wide and diverse. It is common to have different levels of documentation. The i.MX 8QuadMax MEK board has some documents. However, this board’s processor is i.MX 8QuadMax which is documented with SoC level documents. The BSPs available are documented with the BSP level documents.
Choose an option below for related documents:
In the case of i.MX 8QuadMax MEK the following documents are available.
Table 2. List of i.MX 8QuadMax MEK board-related documents
Document | Description |
Board Schematics | The i.MX 8QuadMax MEK electric schematic files. |
i.MX 8QuadMax MEK Hardware User Guide | The purpose of this document is to help hardware engineers design and test their imx8qm series processor-based designs. It provides information on board layout recommendations, design checklists to ensure first-pass success, and ways to avoid board bring-up problems. It also provides information on board-level testing and simulation such as using BSDL for board-level testing, using the IBIS model for electrical integrity simulation and more. |
In the case of i.MX 8QuadMax SoC the following documents are available.
Table 3. List of i.MX 8QuadMax chip-related documents
Document | Description |
i.MX 8QuadMax DataSheet | Describes the SoC physical and electrical characteristics, the part number meaning. |
i.MX 8QuadMax Reference Manual | Lists what the SoC supports, the registers and the memory map. Describes the features, workflow, the boot flow, and the meaning of each register’s bits. |
i.MX 8QuadMax ERRATA | List the hardware issues for that SoC. It may be an Arm core or an i.MX core issue. It may or may not have a workaround. |
i.MX 8QuadMax Security Reference Manual | Sing-in to request access to the i.MX 8QuadMax Security Reference Manual. The link to download is sent in the email. |
For i.MX 8QuadMax MEK the following BSPs are available.
Each BSP has a set of documents, in the next tables all the BSP documentation is described. The order the documents appear in the table is the recommended read order.
Table 4. i.MX 8QuadMax MEK BSP Linux documents
Table 5. i.MX 8QuadMax MEK BSP Android documents
Performance measurement for i.MX8 Series applications processors Software ISP Application Note
On the command prompt of the Linux host machine, run the following command to determine the port number:
$ ls /dev/ttyUSB*
The smaller number is for Arm® Cortex®-A53 core and the bigger number is for Arm® Cortex ®-M4 core.
Use the following commands to install and run the serial
communication program (minicom
as an example):
$ sudo apt-get install minicom
$ sudo minicom -s
Figure 3. Minicom Configuration
The FTDI USB-serial chip on i.MX 8QuadMax creates one serial port. Assume that the port is
COM9
.
This represents the serial console communication from Arm® Cortex®-A53 core. The serial-to-USB drivers are available at
http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm.
Note: To determine the port number of the i.MX board virtual COM port, open the Windows device manager and find USB serial Port in Ports (COM and LPT)
Is an open source terminal emulation application. This program displays the information sent from the NXP development platform’s virtual serial port.
COM
port
number identified earlier) to
115200
baud
rate, 8
data
bits, no parity and
1
stop bit. To configure the serial port, go to Setup →
Serial Port and change the settings.
The FTDI USB-serial chip on i.MX 8QuadMax creates one serial port. Assume that the port is COM9. This represents the serial console communication from Arm® Cortex®-A53 core. The serial-to-USB drivers are available at http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm.
Note: To determine the port number of the i.MX board virtual COM port, open the Windows device manager and find USB serial Port in Ports (COM and LPT)
PuTTY is a terminal-emulation application. This program displays the information sent from the NXP development platform’s virtual serial port.
COM
port
number that you determined earlier. Also enter the baud rate, in
this case
115200
.
COM
port, the terminal window opens. If the configuration is not correct, PuTTY alerts you.
The boot sequence is detailed in the i.MX 8QuadMax Reference Manual. In short, the boot modes of the i.MX boards are controlled by the boot configuration switches.
The switches set the boot media (depending on board, i.e. SD card, eMMC, NAND), the serial download protocol mode (SDP) or the value set on eFuses.
The SDP is also the fallback for the boot media, in other words, when the switches are configured to boot from SD card but the SD card slot is empty, or the SD card binary content is not bootable, the boot sequence continues to the SDP boot.
Figure 4. Boot switch setup
The following table lists the boot switch settings on the i.MX 8M Mini EVK board. The same information can be found on i.MX 8QuadMax Reference Manual and on silkscreen on the board near the switches.
Table 1. Boot modes available for i.MX 8QuadMax MEK
Boot Media |
SW2
[D1-D6]
|
---|---|
Fuse Boot | 000000 |
SDP | 000100 |
eMMC | 0001000 |
SD1 | 001100 |
QSPI | 011000 |
Note: Make sure the boot switch is configured to boot from SD card.