i.MX 8M Mini Evaluation Kit¶

Preparation¶

The instructions in this section also apply to those boards with secure boot enabled. There are references on how to perform common instructions along with the flow. The Security Reference Manual details the required background for secure boot.

Ensure you replace the <factory> placeholder below with the name of your Factory.

Download necessary files from https://app.foundries.io/factories/<factory>/targets
1. Click the latest Target with the platform-devel Trigger.
2. Expand the run in the Runs section which corresponds with the name of the board and download the Factory image for that machine.
  
  E.g:
  
  lmp-factory-image-<machine_name>.wic.gz
  
  u-boot-<machine_name>.itb
  
  imx-boot-<machine_name>
Extract the file lmp-factory-image-<machine_name>.wic.gz:
```
gunzip lmp-factory-image-imx8mm-lpddr4-evk.wic.gz
```
Download and extract the file mfgtool-files-<machine_name>.tar.gz:
```
tar -zxvf mfgtool-files-imx8mm-lpddr4-evk.tar.gz
```

Organize all the files like the tree below:

├── lmp-factory-image-imx8mm-lpddr4-evk.wic
├── u-boot-imx8mm-lpddr4-evk.itb
├── sit-imx8mm-lpddr4-evk.bin
├── imx-boot-imx8mm-lpddr4-evk
└── mfgtool-files-imx8mm-lpddr4-evk
     ├── bootloader.uuu
     ├── full_image.uuu
     ├── imx-boot-mfgtool
     ├── uuu
     └── uuu.exe

Hardware Preparation¶

Set up the board for updating using the manufacturing tools:

Top view of i.MX 8 M Mini EVK

OPTIONAL—Only required if you have problems or want to see the boot console output.
Connect the micro-B end of the USB cable into debug port J901. Connect the other end of the cable to a PC acting as a host terminal. Two UART connections will appear on the PC. On a Linux host for example:
ls -l /dev/serial/by-id/ total 0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Dec 18 11:09 usb-FTDI_Dual_RS232-if00-port0 -> ../../ttyUSB0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Dec 18 11:09 usb-FTDI_Dual_RS232-if01-port0 -> ../../ttyUSB1
Using a serial terminal program like minicom, connect to the port with if01 in the name (in this example ttyUSB1) and apply the following configuration:
Baud rate: 115200

Data bits: 8

Stop bit: 1

Parity: None

Flow control: None
Ensure that the power is off (SW101)
Put the i.MX 8 M Mini EVK into programing mode:

Switch SW1101 to ON, OFF, ON, OFF (from 1-4 bit) to Download Mode.

Location of SW1101 dip switch on i.MX 8 M Mini EVK
Connect your computer to the i.MX 8 M Mini EVK board via the USB-C port 1 Download J301 jack.
Connect the USB-C power plug to the port 2 Power J302 jack.
Power on the i.MX 8 M Mini EVK board by sliding power switch SW101 to ON.

Flashing¶

Once in serial downloader mode and connected to your PC the evaluation board should show up as an NXP® USB device.

For instructions on how to sign the required images before flashing them to the board with secure boot enabled, follow the instructions from Machines with secure aspects enabled by FoundriesFactory.

Verify target is present:

susb | grep NXP
us 001 Device 023: ID 1fc9:012b NXP Semiconductors i.MX 8M Dual/8M QuadLite/8M Quad Serial Downloader

In this mode you will use the uuu tools to program the images to the eMMC. The USB ID may differ if a different SoC is used.

Run the command below to program the LmP to the EMMC:

$ sudo mfgtool-files-imx8mm-lpddr4-evk/uuu mfgtool-files-imx8mm-lpddr4-evk/full_image.uuu
  uuu (Universal Update Utility) for nxp imx chips -- libuuu_1.4.243-0-ged48c51

  Success 1    Failure 0


  1:92     6/ 6 [Done                                  ] FB: done

Turn off the power.
Put the board into run mode

Start the Device Manager
Select View
Select Devices by container
Verify a device like the following:

Run the command below to program the LmP to the EMMC:

C:\Users\Someone> mfgtool-files-imx8mm-lpddr4-evk\uuu.exe mfgtool-files-imx8mm-lpddr4-evk\full_image.uuu
  uuu (Universal Update Utility) for nxp imx chips -- libuuu_1.4.243-0-ged48c51

  Success 1    Failure 0


  1:92     6/ 6 [Done                                  ] FB: done

Turn off the power.
Put the board into run mode

Put the i.MX 8 M Mini EVK into run mode by switching SW1101 to OFF, ON, ON, OFF to set the board to boot from eMMC.

Power on the i.MX 8 M Mini EVK board by sliding the power switch SW101 to ON.