Imx uuu

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Booting from USB using UUU (Universal Update Utility)

Introduction

UUU (Universal Update Utility) is an open source utility by NXP that allows downloading and executing code on i.MX SoCs through the Serial Download Protocol (SDP).
It is the next generation of NXP's MFGTOOL used to load SPL and U-Boot via the USB OTG port and optionally program the internal storage of the SOM.
For more details please visit https://github.com/NXPmicro/mfgtools

Note:
All Variscite SOMs are shipped with U-Boot pre-programmed on the internal storage.
In addition, all Variscite carrier boards have an SD card slot, and even in the unlikely event of the U-Boot being erased from the internal storage, the SOM can always be booted from an SD card (like our recovery SD card, for example).
So, generally, this utility is not needed, however, it is yet another option that can be used to boot (and optionally program) the Variscite SOMs, for anyone who is interested.

Step by step usage instructions

Prepare the host machine

Download and build uuu:

$ sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev libbz2-dev libzstd-dev pkg-config cmake libssl-dev g++
$ cd ~
$ git clone https://github.com/NXPmicro/mfgtools.git
$ cd mfgtools
$ git checkout uuu_1.4.240 
$ cmake .
$ make

Note:
emmc_burn_all.lst configures the eMMC to use the boot partition instead of the user partition. So the following patch is needed to avoid that:

diff --git a/uuu/emmc_burn_all.lst b/uuu/emmc_burn_all.lst
index d868d05..521b3c0 100644
--- a/uuu/emmc_burn_all.lst
+++ b/uuu/emmc_burn_all.lst
@@ -32,7 +32,4 @@ FB: ucmd setenv fastboot_dev mmc
 FB: ucmd setenv mmcdev ${emmc_dev}
 FB: ucmd mmc dev ${emmc_dev}
 FB: flash -raw2sparse all _image
-FB: flash -scanterm -scanlimited 0x800000 bootloader _flash.bin
-FB: ucmd if env exists emmc_ack; then ; else setenv emmc_ack 0; fi;
-FB: ucmd mmc partconf ${emmc_dev} ${emmc_ack} 1 0
 FB: done

Bootloader

Building U-boot:

U-boot can be built in two ways. The first, from source, cloning the repository and compiling U-Boot. And the second, from yocto, using bitbake.

Build U-Boot from source	Build U-Boot from Yocto
Build U-Boot using the defconfig for SD card/eMMC. You can follow the "Build U-Boot from source code" instructions here. Copy the U-Boot image to the uuu directory: $ cp -v imx-boot-sd.bin ~/mfgtools/uuu/_flash.bin	Build imx-boot recipe: $ bitbake -c deploy imx-boot Copy the U-Boot image to the uuu directory: $ cp -v ./tmp/deploy/images/imx8mq-var-dart/imx-boot ~/mfgtools/uuu/_flash.bin

Boot the board into serial download mode:

• Set the board boot mode to SD card, while not having an actual card inserted in its slot.
  

Alternatively, set the board boot mode to eMMC/NAND flash, when the eMMC/NAND flash does not contain a bootloader.
Connect the board to your host PC via the USB OTG port, and power on the board.
The board should be recognized on the host as a "NXP Semiconductors SE Blank M850" (or something similar).

Note:
If your board only has a regular USB type-A connector and doesn't have a USB Micro-AB or Type-C receptacle, you can use a "male USB type-A to male USB type-A" cable.

Run uuu to load U-Boot on the board:

 $ cd ~/mfgtools/uuu
 $ sudo ./uuu ./spl_boot.lst

The board should now run U-Boot.
You can see its output on the console via the debug port, as always.

Note:
The default boot command when booting from USB is bootcmd_mfg - it is defined by default in include/configs/imx_env.h in the U-Boot source code, as part of the the board's default environment.
It can be redefined or made empty.

Rootfs

Build an image and copy it to the uuu directory. For example:

$ unzstd fsl-image-gui-imx8mq-var-dart.wic.zst                    # Example with .wic.zst image extension
$ gzip -dk fsl-image-gui-imx8mq-var-dart.wic.gz                   # Example with wic.gz image extension
$ cp -v fsl-image-gui-imx8mq-var-dart.wic ~/mfgtools/uuu/_image   # Example with fsl-image-gui image

Run uuu to load the image on the board:

 $ cd ~/mfgtools/uuu
 $ sudo ./uuu ./emmc_burn_all.lst

• Set the boot selection switch to the eMMC position.
  

The system should now boot from eMMC, and you can view the output on the console via the debug port as usual.