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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. 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. 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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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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Booting Flash-N-Go System

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Alternatively, the bootselect tool can be used, available modes are regular for normal target OS and alternative for Flash-N-Go System.

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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:

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

root@santaro:~# bootselect a
alternative
root@santaro:~# bootselect r
regular

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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.

FLASH-N-GO:/ sconfig -h
Usage: /usr/bin/sconfig {start | list | init | <setting> [value]}
  Call without [value] to read a setting, call with [value] to write it.
Available settings:
  serialdiag switch serial debug console on or off
  dhcp switch DHCP on or off
  ip set IP address
  mask set subnet mask
  gateway set standard network gateway
  mac set MAC address
  name set device name
  serial set serial number (affects MAC address and device name)
  rotation set display rotation
If a 2.Ethernet is present, it may be configured via serial2, mac2, etc.

xconfig

xconfig is a command-line tool to manipulate the XML-configuration data directly. Care should be taken when using these commands as miss-configured or corrupted XML- configuration data might render a system unusable. The following code block shows a list of all possible parameters.

FLASH-N-GO:/# xconfig
Usage: $0 [command] [options]

Script to manipulate the XML-configuration data of GuF i.MX Boards
inside the NAND Flash.

xconfig expect one of the following commands to define its behavior:
  list           show the current contents of the XML-configuration as
                 obtained from NAND
  import         import an external XML-configuration file into the NAND
                 Flash
  addnode        add a new (empty) XML node
  delnode        delete XML node(s) and its/their children
  addattribute   add a new or change an existing attribute
  delattribute   delete an existing attribute
If no command and option given xconfig will display its version and exit.

Syntax:
  xconfig list [-v] [-p <path>]
        -v           show whole (sub)tree instead of summary, the format is
                     suitable to be used as input to "xconfig import"
        -s                       search for a specific pattern
        -l                       show long path syntax instead of xml
        --node       filter result by node name, basic wildcards are allowed
        --attribute  filter result by attribute name, basic wildcards are allowed
                     format is either 
                          --attribute linux* matches all nodes that have
                            an attribute starting with linux or
                          --attribute key="value" matching nodes that 
                            have an attribute 'key' with the value 'value'
        -p <path>    path to subtree, e.g.:
                     -p /configurationFile/variables/setting[@key='enable_serialdiag]
                     if omitted, the whole tree is shown
  xconfig import [-v] [-y] [-b] <file>
        -v           be verbose
        -y           assume yes - apply changes without user interaction
        <file>       path to file to import
        -b           deprecated - do not use
  xconfig addnode [-y] -p <path> -n <name>
        -y           same as above
        -p <path>    path to parent node
        -n <name>    name of new node
  xconfig delnode [-y] -p <path>
        -y           same as above
        -p <path>    path to node
  xconfig addattribute [-y] -p <path> -n <attr-name> -v <value>
        -y           same as above
        -p <path>    path to parent node
        -n <attr-name>   name of the attribute
        -v <value>   new value of attribute
  xconfig delattribute [-y] -p <path> -n <attr-name>
        -y           same as above
        -p <path>    path to parent node
        -n <attr-name>   name of the attribute
  xconfig listattributes -p <path>
        -p <path>    path to node
  xconfig getattribute -p <path> -n <attr-name>
        -p <path>    path to parent node
        -n <attr-name>   name of the attribute

Manual System Update

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Manual System Update

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. done locally using mass storage devices or using a network connection.

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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sconfig dhcp on
reboot 

Installation via network

The common concept of the installation is always similar.

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These concatenating these steps the installation can be done in one-liner commands.

Example 1: Install Yocto Kirkstone 25.0

Set the variable location, then call curl to download it to pipe to sh

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The parameter url of the script should point to the location of the folder where the installation files are located.

Example 2: Install Flash-N-Go System 51

The process is similar to installing the target OS

FNG="https://secostorage.blob.core.windows.net/seco-ne-public/HMI/Flash-N-Go/FNGSystem/FNGSystem-51.0/seco-mx6/fngsystem-self-update.sh"
curl --location "$FNG" | sh -s -- --url="$(dirname "$FNG")"

Offline installation

It is also possible to install FnG System as well as the target OS offline.

To do that, simply download and copy the installation script as well as the corresponding files to a USB stick. After that, simply boot the device into FnG System, mount the USB stick and directly call the script.

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Security Considerations

The Flash-N-Go System is designed as a management system to install and update target operating systems and change the device configurations. Thus it runs with root privileges. This may be a concern for some scenarios. Therefore some security considerations are necessary.

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License