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The Flash-N-Go infrastructure (or FnG infrastructure) is a software product for NXP i.MX Edge devices created by SECO Nothern Europe. It has been used for SAN* devices like, Santoka, Santino, Santaro,…Consisting . Consisting of three parts, : Flash-N-Go Boot, Flash-N-Go System and Flash-N-Go Update; it provides a convenient way of booting, flashing, testing and updating edge devices. Where is …, flashing, testing and updating edge devices. FnG Infrastructure is available on the following series of devices:
Products of the SAN* family of devices with i.MX6: SANTARO, SANTOKA, SANTINO,…
NALLINO with i.MX6ULL
TANARO with i.MX8MM
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What is …
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Flash-N-Go System?
Flash-N-Go System is a versatile Linux distribution to aid with the initial installation, production test and upgrade tasks but is limited to a small set of features. It is sometimes coined referred to as a management or recovery system. Flash-N-Go System is the backbone of the Flash-N-Go infrastructure.
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In production, Flash-N-Go System is used to conduct the production test. This de-couples the testing process from the target-end system and makes it possible to test devices with customer-specific OS configurations, with limited testing capabilities.
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Flash-N-Go Boot?
Flash-N-Go Boot is a simple, non-interactive and open-source bootloader for i.MX6 and i.MX6ULL devices. With its condensed functionalities, it is capable of initializing the RAM dynamically and booting Linux, Android, and Windows CE.
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By using Flash-N-Go Boot it is possible to use different DDR-memory hardware without adapting the bootloader to the specific RAM configuration, and this makes the SD-RAM equipment of embedded board very flexible. Pre-initialization and matching of the bootloader to board or RAM isn’t necessary.
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Flash-N-Go Update?
The Flash-N-Go Update software tool provides an all-in-one update solution for Flash-N-Go System based i.MX6 devices.
Normally coming as a USB flash drive, it uses an auto-start feature of the device to bring up the graphical update process. The available operating systems can be directly downloaded if the device is setup up with internet access and by this provides a way to implement an OTA update behaviour.
Flash-N-Go Update is deprecated and is no longer being supported by SECO.
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Basic Flash-N-Go Architecture
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The current backing-storage type of Flash-N-Go is eMMC (using the Linux naming mmcblk0). In addition to the partitions for the basic Flash-N-Go components, there may be some more partitions depending on the system configuration.
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i.MX6 Partition layout
The default partition layout for the Flash-N-Go on the iMX6 platform is:
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The target operating system kernel is usually installed in mmcblk0p2 FAT32 partition and uses a third partition mmcblk0p3 as a non-volatile rootfs partition. However other partition layouts are possible for the target OS like customer-specific partition layouts or Android-based multi-partition layouts.
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i.MX8 Partition layout
On the imx8 based systems the default partition layout also contains the partitions for the target OS.
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Partition | File System | Contents |
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mmcblk0p1 | none | Bootloader U-Boot placeholder to make the bootloader placement visible |
mmcblk0p2 | none | Bootloader Uboot environment placeholder to make the usage visible |
mmcblk0p3 | VFAT | Config SECO specific config partition, contain xml and other persistent device data |
mmcblk0p4 | none | Extended Partition |
mmcblk0p5 | VFAT, 128M | FLASH-N-GO Flash-N-Go System Kernel and RAM FS |
mmcblk0p6 | VFAT, 128M | LINUX Kernel, devicetrees and boot.cfg for installation A |
mmcblk0p7 | VFAT, 128M | LINUXB Kernel, devicetrees and boot.cfg for installation B |
mmcblk0p8 | EXT4, ~1.2GB | ROOTFS Root Files System for installation A |
mmcblk0p9 | EXT4, ~1.2GB | ROOTFSB Root filessystem for installation B |
mmcblk0p10 | not in use by default, ~1GB | User partition |
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not in use by default, ~1GB | User partition |
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Booting Flash-N-Go
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System
There are two possible options for booting the device into Flash-N-Go System instead of booting the target OS. The first one is pressing down and holding the bootmode switch while the power supply is switched on. The location of the bootmode switch is shown in the following figure
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Alternatively, the bootselect tool can be used, which is usually provided by Flash-N-Go compatible operating systems using Flash-N-Go System as well as by available modes are regular for normal target OS and alternative for Flash-N-Go System itself.
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The boomode bootmode switch needs to be pressed held on each boot process. The selection made with |
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Several tools on the Flash-N-Go System solution are provided for configuring, testing and flashing the devices.
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bootselect
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This tool offers the possibility to switch the boot target between the flashed operation system (e.g. Linux, Windows Embedded) on the device and Flash-N-Go System itself. The following code block shows a list of all possible parameters:
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FLASH-N-GO:/ bootselect -h
Usage: bootselect [-qv] [<bootmode>]
When called without parameters, bootselect reads the
current boot-mode setting from the RTC-register
Options:
<bootmode> Writes the given boot-mode into the RTC-register
May be one of: initialized regular regularB alternative invalid
-v Turns on debug messages on stderr
-vv Turns on info messages on stderr
-q Turns off warning messages on stderr
-qq Turns off all messages on stderr |
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It is also possible to use abbreviation such as a for alternative and so on.
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FLASH-N-GO:/ bootselect regular
regular |
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regular: target OS regularA (or regularB): target OS A or B (in case of A-B partitioning) alternative: Flash-N-Go System |
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| FLASH-N-GO:/ bootselect alternative
alternative oneshot (or oneshotA, oneshotB): boot once into the desired mode, then switch to the fallback
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The |
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sconfig
sconfig is a small command-line tool that offers functionalities for device configurations like network settings, screen rotation etc. The following code block shows a list of all possible parameters.
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The manual system update considers a manual operating system (OS) installation via a console. The progress can be done locally using mass storage devices or using a network connection. The update process described here requires an Ethernet connection of the device to a development PC, either directly or via intranet. Also, a TFTP-Server or HTTP-Server is required on the development PC. There are several, also free, TFTP-Servers and HTTP-Servers online available. Please make sure that the timeout settings of the TFTP-Server are set to 60 seconds at a minimum. The installation of target OSes, and Flash-N-Go System and Flash-N-Go Boot should work via console one- or two-liners. All device partitioning, deployment actions should be done by shell scripts executed by the simple command. See Booting Flash-N-Go System for instructions on how to boot into the management system.
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Before updating the target operating system we first need access to the device. The easiest way to access the target is via the serial console. Simply connect the first RS-232 port of your target system with a COM port of your PC or a USB-to-RS-232 converter using a null-modem cable. With the serial connection set up start your favourite terminal program (e.g. minicom or tera term) with the following settings:
From the very first moment when the target is powered, you should see debug messages in the terminal if the standard configuration is set. |
Establish a network connection
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