Warning: Make sure there is no SD card inserted in the carrier board in order to enter recovery mode properly
On the Apalis iMX6 and Colibri iMX6, iMX7, iMX6ULL, the shared USB Client/Host port can be used to load Toradex Easy Installer and download a new OS image.
To do so successfully, it is necessary to perform the steps described in this article.
Select which tab suits your setup
Connect the Carrier Board USB OTG port to your Linux or Windows host machine
Apalis Evaluation Board
Connect X49 or X50 (USBO1_CL/USBO1)
Ixora Carrier Board
Connect to X9 on the underside of the Carrier Board. Be sure to remove JP2 in order to be able to use X9 in OTG Client mode.
Using hardware mechanism
Warning: Follow precautions for handling electrostatic sensitive devices (ESD)
Make sure the board is turned off.
Shorten the pads on the picture or if you have the Apalis iMX6 Mezzanine on the Apalis Evaluation Board, press the Recovery Mode button.
Note: You can use scissors, tweezers, a paper clip or whatever you have at hand to short circuit the pads. You should not make a permanent short-circuit by e.g. soldering the pads together.
Power on the board and, only after that, remove the short circuit.
Note: The short circuit should be held only while the board is turning on
Using a command in the bootloader
Connect the serial port UART1 of the carrier board with your host computer.
Apalis Evaluation Board
Depending on JP10/12 connect the serial debug console to the lower X28 using a null modem RS-232 cable or X29 using a regular USB cable.
Ixora Carrier Board
Connect the serial debug console to X22 using a null modem RS-232 cable and a 10 pin IDC to 9 pin D-sub male connector (DTK or Intel standard).
Open a terminal on your host computer (115200 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, one stop, no hardware/software flow control).
Power cycle the board and immediately press [space] on the terminal
If you are using U-Boot you should see the U-Boot banner and the prompt Apalis iMX6 #, in this case, type on the U-Boot command line:
bmode usb
If you are using Eboot you should see a menu, in this case, type 'X' to enter the bootloader console, then on the Eboot command line:
bootfrom usb
reboot
Connect the Carrier Board USB OTG port to your Linux or Windows host machine
Colibri Evaluation Board
Connect X29 or X30 (USB_CL/USB_OTG)
Iris Carrier Board
Connect X12 micro USB (close to the Ethernet connector)
Aster Carrier Board
Connect a (second) micro USB on X10. Be sure that nothing is plugged at the lower connector of X9.
Warning: Make sure that no SD card is in the SD card slot
Using hardware mechanism
Warning: Follow precautions for handling electrostatic sensitive devices (ESD)
Make sure the board is turned off.
Shorten the pads on the picture.
Note: You can use scissors, tweezers, a paper clip or whatever you have at hand to short circuit the pads. You should not make a permanent short-circuit by e.g. soldering the pads together.
Power on the board and, only after that, remove the short circuit.
Note: The short circuit should be held only while the board is turning on
Using a command in the bootloader
Connect the serial port UART_A of the carrier board with your host computer.
Depending on JP17/19 (and JP20/JP21 if you use a Carrier Board with V3.2 and later) connect the serial debug console to the bottom X25 using a null modem RS-232 cable or X27 using a regular USB cable.
Connect the serial debug console to X13 using a null modem RS-232 cable and a 10 pin IDC to 9 pin D-sub male connector (DTK or Intel standard).
Open a terminal on your host computer (115200 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, one stop, no hardware/software flow control).
Power cycle the board and immediately press [space] on the terminal
If you are using U-Boot you should see the U-Boot banner and the prompt Colibri iMX6 #, in this case, type on the U-Boot command line:
bmode usb
If you are using Eboot you should see a menu, in this case, type 'X' to enter the bootloader console, then on the Eboot command line:
bootfrom usb
reboot
Note: Colibri iMX7 Solo/Dual 256/512MB V1.1A and older are not supported by Toradex Easy Installer.
Note: Colibri iMX7 Dual 1GB V1.1A and newer are using an eMMC flash and are supported by Toradex Easy Installer 1.2, 1.3 and 1.6 or newer.
Toradex Easy Installer 1.4 and 1.5 did now work reliably with these modules.
Connect the Carrier Board USB OTG port to your Linux or Windows host machine
Colibri Evaluation Board
Connect X29 or X30 (USB_CL/USB_OTG)
Iris Carrier Board
Connect X12 micro USB (close to the Ethernet connector)
Aster Carrier Board
Connect a (second) micro USB on X10. Be sure that nothing is plugged at the lower connector of X9.
Warning: Make sure that no SD card is in the SD card slot
There are 3 different methods to enter recovery mode using hardware mechanisms. While alternative 3 is more generic, it is usually a bit clumsier to execute.
Warning: Follow precautions for handling electrostatic sensitive devices (ESD)
Note: Colibri iMX6ULL 512MB Wi-Fi/Bluetooth are only supported by Toradex Easy Installer 1.3 and newer.
Connect the Carrier Board USB OTG port to your Linux or Windows host machine
Colibri Evaluation Board
Connect X29 or X30 (USB_CL/USB_OTG)
Iris Carrier Board
Connect X12 micro USB (close to the Ethernet connector)
Aster Carrier Board
Connect a (second) micro USB on X10. Be sure that nothing is plugged at the lower connector of X9.
Warning: Make sure that no SD card is in the SD card slot
Using hardware mechanism
There are 3 different methods to enter recovery mode using hardware mechanisms. While alternative 3 is more generic, it is usually a bit clumsier to execute.
Warning: Follow precautions for handling electrostatic sensitive devices (ESD)
Using a command in the bootloader
Connect the serial port UART_A of the carrier board with your host computer.
Depending on JP17/19 (and JP20/JP21 if you use a Carrier Board with V3.2 and later) connect the serial debug console to the bottom X25 using a null modem RS-232 cable or X27 using a regular USB cable.
Connect the serial debug console to X13 using a null modem RS-232 cable and a 10 pin IDC to 9 pin D-sub male connector (DTK or Intel standard).
Open a terminal on your host computer (115200 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, one stop, no hardware/software flow control).
Power cycle the board and immediately press [space] on the terminal
If you are using U-Boot you should see the U-Boot banner and the prompt Colibri iMX6ULL #, in this case, type on the U-Boot command line:
bmode usb
Follow the guide at the Toradex Easy Installer article for a comprehensive guide on how to load it on a Module and the getting started tab for understanding how to use the program to flash a new image to your module.
There is another way to flash images to the module: the Legacy flashing method. If you are interested in this method, check out the articles listed on the See Also section and choose the correct one.
Note: Legacy flashing method does not imply that the embedded Linux image is legacy. There are pre-built Toradex images that are provided in both legacy and Toradex Easy Installer formats. Consult the image releases for a list of images in both formats.
