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Flashing images on NXP S32G-RDB3

To build an AutoSD image and flash it onto an NXP S32G-RDB3 board, follow these steps:

  1. Update the board firmware.
  2. Build the AutoSD image.
  3. Optional: Build the NXP BSP kernel into the AutoSD image.

Important

The NXP S32G-RDB3 platform is not fully enabled in the upstream Linux or AutoSD kernels. Therefore, an AutoSD image using the AutoSD kernel cannot use all the features of this board. For a more robust platform experience, you can replace the AutoSD kernel with the NXP BSP vendor kernel by following the instructions in Installing the NXP BSP kernel into the AutoSD image.

  1. Install the secondary boot loader (SBL) binary into the AutoSD image.
  2. Flash the image onto an SD card and boot the system.

Updating your S32G-RDB3 firmware

Before flashing an AutoSD image onto the S32G-RDB3 board, install the updated firmware.

Prerequisites

  • An AArch64 host machine running CentOS Stream, Fedora, or RHEL with Internet access.

Procedure

  1. Enable the @centos-automotive-sig/nxp-board-support repo:

    $ dnf copr enable @centos-automotive-sig/nxp-board-support

  2. Install the nxp-arm-trusted-firmware:

    $ dnf install nxp-arm-trusted-firmware-armv8

After you install the firmware, note the path for the fip.s32 binary you need later for the Installing the NXP BSP into the AutoSD image procedure: /usr/share/nxp-arm-trusted-firmware/s32g399ardb3/fip.s32.

Next steps

After the fip.s32 binary is installed in your host, you can build the AutoSD image.

Building an AutoSD image for S32G-RDB3

Build the AutoSD image using the s32g_vnp_rdb3 target.

Prerequisites

  • An AArch64 host machine running CentOS Stream, Fedora, or RHEL with Internet access.

Procedure

  1. Install the automotive-image-builder tool for your OS or use the container to build.

  2. Build the image, setting --target to s32g_vnp_rdb3:

    Important

    This documentation is in the process of being adjusted for the changes implemented in Automotive Image Builder 1.1.4. In the meantime, to keep the sample commands in this documentation valid, you must use the deprecated CLI, as shown in this example.

    $ aib-dev build-deprecated \
    --distro autosd9 \
    --target s32g_vnp_rdb3 \
    --mode package \
    --export image \
    examples/simple.aib.yml \
    <my-image>.img

    Note

    Replace <my-image> with the name of your image. Replace examples/simple.aib.yml with your desired image manifest.

Next steps

  • Optional: Install the NXP BSP kernel into your image.
  • Install the secondary boot loader into your image.
  • Flash the image and boot AutoSD on your board.

Optional: Installing the NXP BSP kernel into the AutoSD image

To create a bootable AutoSD image for the S32G-RDB3 board, build the NXP BSP kernel and manually install the SBL binary into the image.

Important

The NXP S32G-RDB3 platform is not fully enabled in the upstream Linux or AutoSD kernels. Therefore, an AutoSD image using the AutoSD kernel cannot use all the features of this board. For a more robust platform experience, replace the AutoSD kernel with the NXP BSP vendor kernel.

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Build the NXP BSP kernel:

    $ git clone https://github.com/nxp-auto-linux/linux.git
cd linux
make s32cc_defconfig
# This command is required to boot from AutoSD default boot manager

scripts/config -e CONFIG_EFI
make -j$(nproc)

  2. Set the following environment variables:

    $ IMAGE=<path>/<my-image>.img
$ image=$(basename $IMAGE)
$ loopdev="$(losetup --show -fP $IMAGE)"
$ kernelversion="$(cat include/config/kernel.release)"

    Note

    Replace <my-image> with the name of your image.

  3. Create a temporary directory, and mount the third and fourth partitions of the AutoSD image as block devices:

    $ mkdir tmpdir
$ sudo mount ${loopdev}p4 ./tmpdir/
$ sudo mount ${loopdev}p3 ./tmpdir/boot/

  4. Install NXP kernel modules and device tree:

    $ sudo make INSTALL_MOD_PATH=./tmpdir modules_install
$ sudo make INSTALL_DTBS_PATH=./tmpdir/boot/dtb-${kernelversion} dtbs_install

  5. Copy the NXP BSP kernel to the AutoSD image that you mounted in ./tmpdir:

    $ sudo cp arch/arm64/boot/Image ./tmpdir/boot/Image-${kernelversion}
$ sudo cp System.map ./tmpdir/boot/

  6. Modify the boot loader:

    $ rm ./tmpdir/boot/loader/*
$ cat << EOF | sudo tee -a ./tmpdir/boot/loader/entries/ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff-${kernelversion}.aarch64.conf
title Automotive Stream Distribution (${kernelversion}.aarch64) 9
version ${kernelversion}.aarch64
linux /Image-${kernelversion}
devicetree /dtb-${kernelversion}/freescale/s32g399a-rdb3.dtb
options root=/dev/mmcblk0p4 rw loglevel=4 efi=noruntime acpi=off console=ttyLF0,115200 module.sig_enforce=1 systemd.show_status=auto
libahci.ignore_sss=1 slub_debug=FPZ fsck.mode=skip rcupdate.rcu_normal_after_boot=0 rcupdate.rcu_expedited=1
grub_users $grub_users
grub_arg --unrestricted
grub_class autosd
EOF

  7. Unmount the filesystem, and detach the loop device:

    $ sudo umount ./tmpdir/boot
$ sudo umount ./tmpdir
$ losetup -D ${loopdev}

Installing the secondary boot loader (SBL) binary into the AutoSD image

Prerequisites

Procedure

  1. Install the SBL binary, fip.s32, into the AutoSD image:

    $ sudo dd if=/usr/share/nxp-arm-trusted-firmware/s32g399ardb3/fip.s32 of=<my-image>.img \
    skip=512 seek=512 iflag=skip_bytes oflag=seek_bytes \
    conv=fsync,notrunc

    Note

    Replace <my-image> with the name of your image.

Next steps

After you have installed the SBL binary and, optionally, the NXP BSP kernel into the AutoSD image, you can flash the image onto the S32G-RDB3 board. For more information about creating and running custom kernels in virtual and physical environments, see Building an AutoSD image that includes a custom kernel.

Flashing the AutoSD image onto the S32G-RDB3 board

Flash your customized AutoSD image onto an SD card and boot the system.

Prerequisites

  • An SD card
  • An S32G-RDB3 board
  • The image you’ve built and modified in previous steps

Procedure

  1. Flash the image onto an SD card, replacing </dev/sdX> with your block device:

    $ sudo dd if=<my-image>.img of=</dev/sdX> \
        status=progress conv=fsync

    Note

    Replace <my-image> with the name of your image.

  2. Plug in the SD card and start the system.

    Note

    Flashed u-boot supports EFI boot, so the system boots without any user interaction.

  3. To see the output, log in to the serial port using default credentials:

    Automotive Stream Distribution 9
Kernel 5.15.129-rt67 on an aarch64

localhost login: root
Password: password
[root@localhost ~]#

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