The scripts in this directory allow simplified provisioning of balenaOS images for the following device types:
| Device | Balena device name |
|---|---|
| IOT-GATE-iMX8PLUS 1GB DRAM | Compulab IOT-GATE-iMX8PLUS 1GB-8GB |
| IOT-GATE-iMX8PLUS 2GB DRAM | Compulab IOT-GATE-iMX8PLUS 2GB-4GB |
| IOT-GATE-iMX8PLUS 4GB DRAM | Compulab IOT-GATE-iMX8PLUS 2GB-4GB |
| IOT-GATE-iMX8PLUS 8GB DRAM | Compulab IOT-GATE-iMX8PLUS 1GB-8GB |
These tools run a Docker container to unpack u-boot from the specified balenaOS image and provision both this bootloader and the OS image to a device connected to your HOST.
A Linux-based host with Docker installed is required. The scripts in this directory have been tested on Ubuntu 22.04.
Please follow the steps below to enter Recovery mode and perform provisioning of your Compulab IOT-GATE-iMX8PLUS with balenaOS
Make sure your IOT-GATE-iMX8 is not powered. Connect the microUSB port labeled 'PROG" from your IOT-GATE-iMX8PLUS to your Host PC.
Apply power to the device. The green LED located on the front of the device should light up. lsusb should show a device similar to:
$ lsusb | grep NXP
Bus 001 Device 012: ID 1fc9:0146 NXP Semiconductors SE Blank 865
or
root@5ea9a9133c3a:/usr/src/app# lsusb | grep NXP
Bus 001 Device 012: ID 1fc9:0146 NXP Semiconductors
Check the RAM size option of your device and ensure you have downloaded and unzipped the balenaOS image which corresponds to your board's DRAM configuration. Based on your device's DRAM, you will further pass either d1d8 for the 1GB and 8GB configurations, or d2d4 for the 2GB and 4GB boards. Passing a DRAM configuration that is not in-line with the balenaOS image used or with the device being flashed will
result may result in an un-bootable device. In such cases, the provisioning process will need to be re-started with the correct configuration.
These scripts offer two options for provisioning the device:
a) Building, running the container and provisioning the device in one step:
$ ./run_container.sh -d <d1d8|d2d4> -i /home/<user>/images/<balena-os.img>
NOTE: The absolute path to the images needs to be passed to the script. Please replace and with the actual path and image you intend to use.
b) Running the container and triggering provisioning from the container's command line.
First, create a directory named images in your home directory:
$ mkdir ~/images
Place the unzipped balenaOS image inside ~/images/. This because the directory will be bind-mounted inside the container in /data/images/.
Proceed to build and run the container:
$ ./run_container.sh
Once the container image starts running, you can start provisioning using:
root@5ea9a9133c3a:/usr/src/app# ./flash_iot.sh -d d1d8 -i /data/images/<balena-os.img>
By default the container image is built to run on x86 hosts. If you would like to build and run the container image on an armv7 device, please use ./run_container.sh -a armv7 ....
If you are having problems using these scripts, please raise an issue on GitHub and the balena.io team will be happy to help.