NVIDIA Jetson UEFI/ACPI Experimental Firmware Version 1.1.2

Introduction

These instructions explain how to install and boot Linux on NVIDIA Jetson platforms using UEFI firmware.

This software is intended for use with the mainline Linux kernel. It is not currently compatible with the L4T kernel.

Experimental Feature Notice

This software is experimental. It may be incompatible with standard JetPack functionality including online software update functionality for boot firmware. This software is provided for experimental purposes, and can be reverted by following standard flashing instructions for JetPack software provided with the Jetson Developer Kit.

Supported Platforms

• Jetson AGX Xavier
• Jetson Xavier NX

UEFI features available for all supported platforms

• eMMC
• Ethernet (on-board EQoS controller)
• HTTP boot
• NVMe (disabled by default for ACPI, see 'Enabling PCIe Support for ACPI')
• PCIe (disabled by default for ACPI, see 'Enabling PCIe Support for ACPI')
• PXE boot
• SD-card (see 'Limitations')
• Switching between ACPI and device tree
• USB Mass Storage
• USB Ethernet (AX88772b)

UEFI features supported only on Jetson AGX Xavier

• SATA

Limitations

• SetVariable is not supported at UEFI runtime for Jetson AGX Xavier
• SetTime is not supported at UEFI runtime for Jetson AGX Xavier
• Only SDR25 is supported for SD-cards when booting Linux with ACPI Users may use alternative storage devices, such as USB mass storage, for better performance
• Graphics Output Protocol (GOP) is not supported and so only serial console support is available

Known Issues

• SMMU faults may occur when the Linux kernel is configured with a 4kB MMU page size, but is not observed when configured with a 64kB page size. This issue is under investigation and to prevent the SMMU faults from occurring the SMMU walk cache hashing is disabled by default. It is recommended to keep the SMMU walk cache hashing disabled, but it is possible to enable by selecting the "NVIDIA Resource Configuration" menu under the "Device Manager" and changing the setting "Enable SMMU Walk Cache Hash (EXPERIMENTAL)" to "Enabled".

Version History

• 1.1.2:
  • Fixed issue where SMMU faults from the ethernet controller may occur when booting Linux with the SMMU enabled.
  • Fixed issue where SPI controller clocks were getting disabled at runtime causing runtime variable services to crash.
• 1.1.1:
  • Added support for configuring SPCR/DBG2 and added support for sub-type 5 entries for Operating Systems that support that.
  • Corrected issue where SDHCI ACPI entries had same UID
  • Corrected issue where 12v PCIe supply would not be enabled
  • Updated ACPI DSDT/SSDT compliance revision to 2
  • Reserve USB firmware region to prevent issues where Operating Systems could corrupt data
  • Added AHCI support for ACPI boot when PCIe is not enabled in OS
  • Added Power Button support in ACPI
• 1.1.0:
  • Added support for SD-cards and Jetson Xavier NX
  • Fixed support for USB-C port J512 on Jetson AGX Xavier
• 1.0.0:
  • Initial release supporting Jetson AGX Xavier

Flashing instructions

Setup

Download the following software from the Jetson Download Center

    L4T Jetson Driver Package, version 32.6.1
    L4T Sample Root File System, version 32.6.1

Extract the driver package tarball.

$ tar xjf Jetson_Linux_R32.6.1_aarch64.tbz2

Extract the nvidia-l4t-jetson-uefi-R32.6.1-20211119125725.tbz2 package provided over the top of the extracted driver package and navigate to the Linux_for_Tegra subdirectory.

$ tar xpf nvidia-l4t-jetson-uefi-R32.6.1-20211119125725.tbz2
$ cd Linux_for_Tegra

Note that if you are not planning to use the L4T root filesystem you may skip this step. Extract the root filesystem to the rootfs subdirectory and run the apply_binaries.sh script. Please ensure that you have installed the qemu-user-static package before running the apply_binaries.sh script.

$ cd rootfs/
$ sudo tar xjf /path/to/Tegra_Linux_Sample-Root-Filesystem_R32.6.1_aarch64.tbz2
$ cd ..
$ sudo ./apply_binaries.sh

Linux Serial Console

For the Jetson AGX Xavier platform, the Linux serial console is accessible via the micro-USB connector J501. When you connect a USB cable to the micro-USB connector, you should see four serial USB devices, and the Linux serial console is available on the 3rd of the four.

For the Jetson Xavier NX platform, the Linux serial console is accessible via pins 8 (UART TX) and 10 (UART RX) on the 40-pin expansion header J12.

When you boot Linux, add the following to the Linux kernel command line to direct the kernel output to the serial console.

console=ttyS0,115200n8

You can enable Linux early console support by adding the 'earlycon' parameter to the Linux kernel command line. For Jetson AGX Xavier add:

earlycon=uart8250,mmio32,0x3110000

For Jetson Xavier NX add:

earlycon=uart8250,mmio32,0x3100000

For booting Linux with ACPI, the Tegra 8250 driver (located in the Linux kernel source file drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_tegra.c) is required for the serial console.

Booting UEFI-bootable Linux Distributions

If you are planning to boot a UEFI-bootable Linux distribution from external media, such as a USB drive, place the Jetson Developer Kit in Recovery Mode and execute the following command with the appropriate configuration to flash the UEFI firmware. Otherwise, please refer to the section “Booting L4T with mainline Linux."

$ sudo ./flash.sh <config> external

Where <config> is:

• jetson-xavier-uefi-min for Jetson AGX Xavier with Device-Tree
• jetson-xavier-uefi-acpi-min for Jetson AGX Xavier with ACPI
• jetson-xavier-nx-uefi for Jetson Xavier NX with Device-Tree
• jetson-xavier-nx-uefi-acpi for Jetson Xavier NX with ACPI

The OS hardware description can be changed without flashing the device as well, see “Booting Linux with Device-Tree/ACPI”.

Booting L4T with mainline Linux

Clone the Linux kernel tree:

$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
$ git checkout v5.12

Configure the Linux kernel:

$ export ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu
$ export KBUILD_OUTPUT=/path/to/kernel/build
$ make defconfig

Adjust the configuration:

$ scripts/config --file $KBUILD_OUTPUT/.config --enable STMMAC_ETH
$ scripts/config --file $KBUILD_OUTPUT/.config --enable STMMAC_PLATFORM
$ scripts/config --file $KBUILD_OUTPUT/.config --enable DWMAC_DWC_QOS_ETH
$ scripts/config --file $KBUILD_OUTPUT/.config --enable MARVELL_PHY
$ scripts/config --file $KBUILD_OUTPUT/.config --set-val CMA_SIZE_MBYTES 256

Build the kernel:

$ make

Install the modules:

$ sudo make INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/path/to/l4t-rootfs/ modules_install

Update the L4T serial console for booting with the EDK2 firmware:

$ cd Linux_for_Tegra
$ sudo sed -i 's/nv-oem-config-uart-port=ttyGS0/nv-oem-config-uart-port=ttyS0/' \
  "rootfs/etc/nv-oem-config.conf"

To boot Linux with Device-Tree, put the device into Recovery Mode and run the following command to flash.

$ sudo ./flash.sh -K $KBUILD_OUTPUT/arch/arm64/boot/Image \
  -d $KBUILD_OUTPUT/arch/arm64/boot/dts/nvidia/<dtb> <config> internal

Where <config> is:

• jetson-xavier-uefi for Jetson AGX Xavier
• jetson-xavier-nx-uefi-emmc for Jetson Xavier NX (eMMC)
• jetson-xavier-nx-uefi-sd for Jetson Xavier NX (SD-card)

Where <dtb> is:

• tegra194-p2972-0000.dtb for Jetson AGX Xavier
• tegra194-p3509-0000+p3668-0001.dtb for Jetson Xavier NX (eMMC)
• tegra194-p3509-0000+p3668-0000.dtb for Jetson Xavier NX (SD-card)

To boot Linux with ACPI, put the device into Recovery Mode and run the following command to flash.

$ sudo ./flash.sh -K $KBUILD_OUTPUT/arch/arm64/boot/Image <config> internal

Where <config> is:

• jetson-xavier-uefi-acpi for Jetson AGX Xavier
• jetson-xavier-nx-uefi-acpi-emmc for Jetson Xavier NX (eMMC)
• jetson-xavier-nx-uefi-acpi-sd for Jetson Xavier NX (SD-card)

Booting Linux with Device-Tree/ACPI

To change between device tree and ACPI at boot the following steps can be used:

1. Press the Escape key when console displays "Press ESCAPE for boot options"
2. Select "Device Manager" from the menu.
3. Select "O/S Hardware Description Selection" from the menu.
4. To select Device Tree, scroll down and select "Device Tree".
5. To select ACPI, scroll down and select "ACPI".
6. Press the Escape key to go back to previous screen.
7. At the prompt, press "Y"
8. Press the Escape key once again to go to UEFI menu.
9. Select "Reset"

Enabling PCIe Support for ACPI

PCIe support is disabled by default because prior to Linux v5.13, the PCIe driver does not include the necessary changes to enable ACPI support. If these change are not present, then Linux may be unable to boot. The patches required for enabling PCIe with ACPI when booting pre-v5.13 Linux kernels, are found below.

https://lore.kernel.org/linux-acpi/20210416134537.19474-1-vidyas@nvidia.com/ https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pci/20210610064134.336781-1-jonathanh@nvidia.com/

PCIe support for ACPI can be enabled with the following steps:

1. Press escape when the console displays "Press ESCAPE for boot options"
2. Select "Device Manager" from the menu.
3. Select "NVIDIA Resource Configuration" from the menu.
4. Select "PCIe Configuration" from the menu.
5. Change "Enable PCIe in OS" to Enabled.
6. Press the Escape key twice to go back to the previous screen.
7. At the prompt, press "Y".
8. Press Escape once again to go to the UEFI menu.
9. Select "Reset"