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Version: 5.0

Load Easy Installer From External Media (SD Card/USB Stick)

Easy Installer 5.3.0​

Introduction​

Toradex Easy Installer is a software meant to install a new OS/image into the internal flash of Toradex computer on modules.

The supported method for loading Easy Installer into the SoM consists of:

  1. Putting the SoM in recovery mode.
  2. Loading Toradex Easy Installer from a desktop PC to the RAM through the USB OTG.

While this method works under any condition, it requires:

  • A carrier board that has the USB OTG circuit implemented.
  • A desktop computer.

This article describes an alternative method, not supported by Toradex officially, as we technically cannot guarantee that this works all the time and also across different versions. This method relies on Distro Boot, which is configured to boot in the following order on our BSP:

  1. SD Card
  2. internal eMMC
  3. USB Stick

Why Load Toradex Easy Installer From External Media?​

Why would you use an unsupported method, though? Because you are in a situation that does not meet the requirements above or, in other words:

  • You have a carrier board that does not allow you to enter recovery mode, or the product enclosing makes it inviable on the field.
  • Your product does not allow one to easily use a desktop PC to load Toradex Easy Installer into the SoM on the field.

Are There Better Solutions?​

Easy Installer is not an update tool. You should instead consider using a proper update solution, such as the Torizon remote updates. Despite the often-used term "over-the-air" on-premise offline updates are possible, including with Torizon.

This article complies to the Typographic Conventions for the Toradex Documentation.

Prerequisites​

  • Desktop PC.
  • Carrier board with either an SD Card or USB host.
  • A FAT formatted (e.g. FAT-32) USB Stick or SD Card.
  • Download Easy Installer 5.3.0 or newer from Loading Toradex Easy Installer.

Prepare the External Media​

Unzip Easy Installer into the root directory of the external media (USB stick or SD Card). You will see the following contents, or similar:

$ tree
.
├── boot-tezi.scr
├── image.json
├── imx-boot
├── imx-boot-v10b
├── overlays.txt
├── recovery
│   ├── uuu
│   ├── uuu.auto
│   ├── uuu.auto-v10b
│   └── uuu.exe
├── recovery-linux.sh
├── recovery-windows.bat
├── tezi.itb
├── tezi.png
├── u-boot.bin
└── wrapup.sh

Rename the file boot-tezi.scr to boot.scr. This is the name used by the U-Boot bootloader in our BSP.

Boot Easy Installer​

Booting Easy Installer 5.3.0 with an image based on our BSP Layers and Reference Images for Yocto Project 5.3.0 should work. Toradex does not support or test it, though.

If you mismatch the Easy Installer and BSP versions things may still work, but the likelihood is lower.

You might need to adapt the boot.scr to make things work. This is not supported by Toradex. You can learn more about Distro Boot and search or ask for help from our developers in the Toradex Community.

Easy Installer on the SD Card​

As soon as you have boot.scr in place:

  • Insert the external media on the carrier board.
  • Power on the carrier board.

Easy Installer will boot. Use it as described on Toradex Easy Installer.

Easy Installer on a USB Stick​

As soon as you have boot.scr in place:

  • Have access to the U-Boot console through the serial port debug UART.
  • Insert the external media on the carrier board.
  • Power on the carrier board.
  • Stop U-Boot from booting by pressing any key on your keyboard.
  • Run the command run bootcmd_usb0. It will skip trying to boot from the SD Card and internal eMMC flash, and try to boot directly from the USB.

Easy Installer will boot. Use it as described on Toradex Easy Installer.

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