NVIDIA Jetson TX2

This article briefly describes the process of imaging a NVIDIA Jetson TX2 with Gentoo aarch64 from an amd64 host. These instructions may be be adapted to suit other NVIDIA Jetson devices with some common-sense modifications; TX2-specific configuration will be called out where possible.

The primary approach documented is the use of external storage to avoid modification of the existing Linux4Tegra software image such that the device can be restored to an out-of-the-box configuration by removing external storage which (as a happy side effect) also ensures that the device can be recovered using the Linux4Tegra image.

It is possible to install Gentoo directly to the eMMC if external storage is unavailable, however this may impact on the longevity of the flash memory.

Upstream documentation on the device is available here.

Booting the TX2

The Jetson TX2, like other NVIDIA Tegra devices, uses the Das U-Boot bootloader to load Linux from a rootfs on a bootable device.

Boot Sequence and Sysboot Configuration Files

U-Boot includes a default boot sequence - It scans bootable devices for /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf in the following order:

External SD card
Internal eMMC
USB device or NVMe device (Jetson TX2 series only)
NFS network via DHCP/PXE

Where extlinux.conf is a standard extlinux text-format sysboot configuration file that contains the:

kernel image filename
initramfs image filename (optional)
device tree blob filename (optional)
kernel command line.

Once an extlinux.conf has been identified, U-Boot performs the following steps:

Uses the sysboot command to read the boot configuration from extlinux.conf
Loads the specified kernel Image file (+ initramfs and device tree blob if configured)
Boots the kernel

The images and extboot configuration may be replaced or updated from a running system; it is not required to flash a new system image to update the kernel.

Changing the Boot Order

It may be desirable to boot off a device that is enumerated after the eMMC in the default boot order. There are several mechanisms for achieving this:

Use the extlinux configuration, kernel, and associated boot files on an SD card or the eMMC to boot a rootfs on another device
Use the Boot Menu (available only via UART; the recovery console is inactive) temporarily
Compile and provide U-Boot using the NVIDIA sources.

Optional Prerequisites

Update the onboard L4T image

If it is desirable to use the L4T kernel, modules, and initramfs these items should be updated first. NVIDIA provide a docker image containing the SDK Manager which can be used to flash the device; An NVIDIA Developer Zone login is required to proceed. Further documentation is available here.

It is recommended to place the device in recovery mode before running the container.

1. Source the appropriate docker image (18.04) from NVIDIA and load it into docker with an appropriate tag.

user $docker load -i sdkmanager-1.9.1.10844-Ubuntu_18.04_docker.tar.gz

user $docker tag sdkmanager-1.9.1.10844-Ubuntu_18.04_docker.tar.gz sdkmanager:latest

2. Run the container.

user $

docker run -rm -it --privileged -v /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb/ -v /dev:/dev -v /media/$USER:/media/nvidia:slave --rm sdkmanager:latest --cli install --logintype devzone --product Jetson --version 4.6.3 --targetos Linux --host --target JETSON_TX2_TARGETS --flash all --additionalsdk 'DeepStream 6.0.1' --license accept --staylogin true --datacollection disable --exitonfinish

3. Follow the prompts to login to the NVIDIA Developer Zone and continue until the device has been flashed.

Configure QEMU user and binfmt

1. Configure and install QEMU to enable chrooting into an aarch64 rootfs.

root #

echo 'QEMU_SOFTMMU_TARGETS="aarch64 x86_64"' >> /etc/portage/make.conf

root #

echo 'QEMU_USER_TARGETS="aarch64"' >> /etc/portage/make.conf

root #

echo app-emulation/qemu static-user >> /etc/portage/package.use/qemu

root #

echo ':aarch64:M::\x7fELF\x02\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\xb7\x00:\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfc\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xff\xff\xff:/usr/bin/qemu-aarch64:' > /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc/register

root #

echo ':aarch64:M::\x7fELF\x02\x01\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x00\xb7\x00:\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfc\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xff\xfe\xff\xff\xff:/usr/bin/qemu-aarch64:' > /etc/binfmt.d/qemu-aarch64-static.conf

root #

systemctl restart systemd-binfmt

root #emerge --ask app-emulation/qemu

root #

gpasswd -a larry kvm

root #

quickpkg app-emulation/qemu

2. Setup an appropriate crossdev toolchain:

root #emerge --ask sys-devel/crossdev

root #

mkdir -p /var/db/repos/crossdev/{profiles,metadata}

root #

echo 'crossdev' > /var/db/repos/crossdev/profiles/repo_name

root #

echo 'masters = gentoo' > /var/db/repos/crossdev/metadata/layout.conf

root #

echo 'thin-manifests = true >> /var/db/repos/crossdev/metadata/layout.conf

root #

chown -R portage:portage /var/db/repos/crossdev

FILE /etc/portage/repos.conf/crossdev.conf

[crossdev]
location = /var/db/repos/crossdev
priority = 10
masters = gentoo
auto-sync = no

root #

crossdev --stable -t aarch64-linux-gnueabi

Preparing an Image

1. Create a development space for associated files

user $mkdir -p ~/development/jetson_tx2/rootfs

user $cd ~/development/jetson_tx2

user $chown root:root rootfs

2. Download and extract the latest arm64 stage3 tarball and portage snapshot.

user $wget https://gentoo.osuosl.org/releases/arm64/autobuilds/current-stage3-arm64-systemd/stage3-arm64-systemd-*.tar.xz

user $wget http://distfiles.gentoo.org/snapshots/portage-latest.tar.xz

root #cd rootfs

root #tar xpvf ../stage3-*.tar.xz --xattrs-include='*.*' --numeric-owner

root #cd /var/db/repos

root #tar xpvf ../../../../portage-latest --xattrs-include='*.*' --numeric-owner

root #mv portage gentoo

3. Set a root password

root #cd ../../../

root #ROOTPASS=$(openssl passwd -6 -salt xyz «your_password_here»)

root #sed -i -e "s,^root:[^:]\+:,root:${ROOTPASS}:," etc/shadow

4. Create a non-root user

root #ROOTFS_USERNAME=larry

root #USERPASS=$(openssl passwd -6 -salt xyz «your_password_here»)

root #mkdir -p home/${ROOTFS_USERNAME} && cp -R etc/skel/* home/${ROOTFS_USERNAME}/

root #chown -R ${ROOTFS_USERNAME}:${ROOTFS_USERNAME} home/${ROOTFS_USERNAME}

root #chmod -R go=u,go-w home/${ROOTFS_USERNAME} && chmod go= home/${ROOTFS_USERNAME}

root #echo "${ROOTFS_USERNAME}:x:1000:1000::/home/${ROOTFS_USERNAME}:/bin/bash" >> etc/passwd

root #echo "${ROOTFS_USERNAME}:x:1000:" >> etc/group

root #for group in wheel audio video users;

root #do sed -i "/^${group}:/ s/$/ ${ROOTFS_USERNAME}/" etc/group; done

5. Customise the system image; Emerge QEMU into the target and chroot. Proceed with a typical Stage 3 configuration oustide of Kernel and Bootloader

root #

ROOT=$PWD/ emerge --usepkgonly --oneshot --nodeps qemu

root #

mount --bind /proc proc

root #

mount --bind /sys sys

root #

mount --bind /dev dev

root #

mount --bind /dev/pts dev/pts

root #

chroot . /bin/bash --login

6. Apply the Tegra firmware to the rootfs.

Note
Until bug 703278 is resolved, FEATURES="-pid-sandbox" must be set or all emerges in the chroot (if using QEMU) will fail.

root #emerge --ask sys-firmware/jetson-tx2-firmware x11-drivers/jetson-tx2-drivers

7. On the build host, install mkstage4 and use it to create a stage4 for installation on the device

root #emerge --ask app-backup/mkstage4-0.4

Flashing the Image

Connect appropriate external storage
Boot the Jetson TX2 into a working Linux
rsync the stage4 image onto the TX2
Partition external storage and unpack the image
Partition the SD card as ext4 and copy the boot files to it

root #gparted /dev/mmcblk1

root #mkdir /mnt/sdcard

root #mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /mnt/sdcard

root #mkdir /mnt/sdcard/boot

root #cp -R /boot/* /mnt/sdcard/boot/

root ## Update kernel command line to point to appropriate device

root #vim /mnt/sdcard/boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf

When the device is next booted the SD card extlinux config, kernel, and supporting files will be used to boot the device off external storage.

Custom Kernels

While this article uses the existing kernel and initramfs to boot Gentoo, it is possible to compile a custom kernel.

Sources

The Mainline kernel has some support for Jetson devices
NVIDIA provide kernel source tarballs with each L4T release
The tegra-mainline-linux sources are relatively up-to-date and should support all hardware but will *not* work with NVIDIA drivers and libraries.
The LADI sources are reported to work with NVIDIA drivers and libraries.