Nitrogen6X

U-Boot Upgrade

• These instructions only apply to the quad-core, 1GB RAM Nitrogen6x model.
• This process will erase any U-Boot environment stored in flash.
• 6x_bootscript is no longer sourced. Make any customizations within /boot/boot.txt and run ./mkscr within /boot to convert it to the boot.scr file.

1. Download the bootloader upgrade tarball and extract it to a temporary location.
2. Create a single partition formatted ext2/3/4 or FAT on a micro SD card or USB drive.
3. Copy the contents of the upgrade folder to the SD card or USB drive.
4. Insert the micro SD card into either slot, or plug in the USB drive to either port. Remove any other attached storage device.
5. Connect to the debug serial on the board in order to monitor U-Boot output.
6. Set the boot switches next to the power jack for USB boot. Switch 1 should be off, and switch 2 should be on.
7. Connect a USB to micro USB cable between another computer and the micro USB port next to the ethernet port.
8. Apply power to the board. There should be no output on the serial console.
9. Inspect lsusb to ensure that the board has been recognized. A line similar to this should be present:

   Bus 001 Device 077: ID 15a2:0054 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. i.MX 6Dual/6Quad SystemOnChip in RecoveryMode

10. Change into the tools/linux directory from the extracted upgrade tarball.
11. Run the imx_usb (or imx_usb_32bit for 32-bit hosts) as the root user or with sudo to boot the provided U-Boot image. This will run the script on the SD card or USB drive to write the SPI flash module with the U-Boot image.

    cd tools/linux
    ./imx_usb ../u-boot.imx

12. Watch the serial console for any error messages. A message will print when flashing is complete.
13. Power off the board, remove the SD card or USB drive, and set both boot switches to the off position.

Install to SD/USB/SATA

Replace sdX in the following instructions with the device name for the drive as it appears on your computer.

1. Zero the beginning of the drive:

   dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8

2. Start fdisk to partition the drive:

   fdisk /dev/sdX

3. At the fdisk prompt, delete old partitions and create a new one:
   1. Type o. This will clear out any partitions on the drive.
   2. Type p to list partitions. There should be no partitions left.
   3. Now type n, then p for primary, 1 for the first partition on the drive, 2048 for the first sector, and then press ENTER to accept the default last sector.
   4. Write the partition table and exit by typing w.
4. Create the ext4 filesystem:

   mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1

5. Mount the filesystem:

   mkdir mnt
   mount /dev/sdX1 mnt

6. Download and extract the root filesystem (as root, not via sudo):

   wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz
   bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz -C mnt
   sync

7. Download the boot.scr script for U-Boot and place it in the /boot directory:

   wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/imx6/boot/boundary/boot.scr -O mnt/boot/boot.scr

8. Unmount the drive:

   umount mnt

9. Attach the drive to the board, connect ethernet, and apply 5V power.
10. Use the serial console or SSH to the IP address given to the board by your router.
    • Login as the default user alarm with the password alarm.
    • The default root password is root.
11. Initialize the pacman keyring and populate the Arch Linux ARM package signing keys:

    pacman-key --init
    pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm

Install the U-Boot package

1. Remove the boot.scr file manually downloaded previously:

   rm /boot/boot.scr

2. Install the U-Boot package:

   pacman -Sy uboot-boundary

3. When prompted, press y and hit enter to flash the latest bootloader to the SPI flash.