The ConnectCore 8X SBC Pro is shipped without a default operating system loaded. Only U-Boot is flashed in the device. This step demonstrates how to install Digi Embedded Yocto in your ConnectCore 8X SBC Pro.

  1. Establish a serial connection with your device

  2. Download the firmware

  3. Program the firmware

1. Establish a serial connection with your device

Open a serial connection with the device. You can use any serial terminal program such as Tera Term, Minicom, CoolTerm, or HyperTerminal.

PuTTY terminal program is not recommended due to an incompatibility with the USB/serial driver.

Open a serial connection with the following settings:

Parameter Value

Port

Serial port where the device is connected

Baud rate

115200

Data bits

8

Parity

None

Stop bits

1

Flow control

None

2. Download the firmware

To access firmware images, please fill out the following form to provide some information so we can better understand your project needs.

If the form doesn’t load after a few seconds, you may need to refresh the page. Contact Digi Support Services if you are not able to access the firmware images.

3. Program the firmware

There are multiple methods of programming the firmware to the target:

Program the firmware using UUU

  1. Decompress the zip file in a directory of your choice.

  2. Download the latest Universal Update Utility (UUU), a software tool from NXP.

    UUU version should be v1.5.11 or higher.

  3. Place the uuu executable in a directory in your PATH, such as /usr/bin.

  4. Install udev rules to allow any user to run uuu to access the USB port:

    $ sudo sh -c "uuu -udev >> /etc/udev/rules.d/70-uuu.rules"
$ sudo udevadm control --reload

  5. Connect a USB type-C cable to your development PC and the other end to the target USB type-C connector.

  6. Reset the device by pressing the reset button on the board and immediately press any key in the serial terminal to stop the auto-boot process. The U-Boot bootloader prompt displays:

    U-Boot SPL dub-2020.04-r6.1 (Sep 19 2023 - 07:15:55 +0000)
Normal Boot
Trying to boot from MMC1
Primary set selected
Load image from MMC/SD 0x59c00


U-Boot dub-2020.04-r6.1 (Sep 19 2023 - 07:15:55 +0000)

CPU:   NXP i.MX8QXP RevC A35 at 1200 MHz at 33C
DRAM:  2 GiB
MCA:   HW_VER=1  FW_VER=1.01
MMC:   FSL_SDHC: 0, FSL_SDHC: 1
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Model: Digi International ConnectCore 8X SBC Pro Board.
ConnectCore 8X SOM variant 0x02: 2 GiB LPDDR4, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, MCA, Crypto-auth
  Board version 3, ID 135
Boot:  MMC0

 BuildInfo:
  - SCFW 6638c032, SECO-FW c9de51c0, IMX-MKIMAGE 3bfcfccb, ATF e4b2dbf
  - U-Boot dub-2020.04-r6.1

flash target is MMC:0
Net:   eth0: ethernet@5b040000 [PRIME], eth1: ethernet@5b050000
Fastboot: Normal
Normal Boot
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
=>
    Information in the console log may vary.

  7. On the target, in U-Boot, execute the following command:

    => fastboot 1

  8. On your development PC, change to the directory where you extracted the ZIP file:

    $ cd <zip-folder>

  9. Run the install_linux_fw_uuu.sh script with -h parameter to check the syntax:

    $ ./install_linux_fw_uuu.sh -h
############################################################
#           Linux firmware install through USB OTG         #
############################################################
Usage: ./install_linux_fw_uuu.sh [options]

  Options:
   -b                     Activate bootcount mechanism (3 boot attempts).
   -d                     Install firmware on dualboot partitions (system A and system B).
                          (Implies -b).
   -h                     Show this help.
   -i <dey-image-name>    Image name that prefixes the image filenames, such as 'dey-image-qt',
                          'dey-image-webkit', 'core-image-base'...
                          Defaults to 'dey-image-qt' if not provided.
   -k <dek-filename>      Update includes dek file.
                          (implies -t)."
   -n                     No wait. Skips 10 seconds delay to stop script.
   -t                     Install TrustFence artifacts.
   -u <u-boot-filename>   U-Boot filename.
                          Auto-determined by variant if not provided.

  10. To program the default image files (dey-image-qt):

    $ ./install_linux_fw_uuu.sh

  11. Once the firmware is installed, the device boots automatically. The default username is root with no password.

Program the firmware using uSD card

  1. Decompress the zip file.

  2. Place the decompressed files in the root of a FAT-formatted microSD card and insert it in the microSD socket of the board.

  3. Reset the device by pressing the reset button on the board and immediately press any key in the serial terminal to stop the auto-boot process. The U-Boot bootloader prompt displays:

    U-Boot SPL dub-2020.04-r6.1 (Sep 19 2023 - 07:15:55 +0000)
Normal Boot
Trying to boot from MMC1
Primary set selected
Load image from MMC/SD 0x59c00


U-Boot dub-2020.04-r6.1 (Sep 19 2023 - 07:15:55 +0000)

CPU:   NXP i.MX8QXP RevC A35 at 1200 MHz at 33C
DRAM:  2 GiB
MCA:   HW_VER=1  FW_VER=1.01
MMC:   FSL_SDHC: 0, FSL_SDHC: 1
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Model: Digi International ConnectCore 8X SBC Pro Board.
ConnectCore 8X SOM variant 0x02: 2 GiB LPDDR4, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, MCA, Crypto-auth
  Board version 3, ID 135
Boot:  MMC0

 BuildInfo:
  - SCFW 6638c032, SECO-FW c9de51c0, IMX-MKIMAGE 3bfcfccb, ATF e4b2dbf
  - U-Boot dub-2020.04-r6.1

flash target is MMC:0
Net:   eth0: ethernet@5b040000 [PRIME], eth1: ethernet@5b050000
Fastboot: Normal
Normal Boot
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
=>
    Information in the console log may vary.

  4. To install the default firmware images (dey-image-qt) into the internal eMMC, run the following command:

    => run install_linux_fw_sd

    To program other images, set the variable image-name to the DEY image name (such as dey-image-webkit or core-image-base) before running the script.

    => setenv image-name core-image-base
=> run install_linux_fw_sd

  5. Once the firmware is installed, the device boots automatically. The default username is root with no password.

    During installation, error messages appear when the installation process attempts to override MAC addresses. These messages are expected.

    ## Resetting to default environment
oldval: 00:40:9D:7D:17:9A  defval: 00:04:f3:ff:ff:fa
## Error: Can't overwrite "ethaddr"
himport_r: can't insert "ethaddr=00:04:f3:ff:ff:fa" into hash table
oldval: 00:40:9D:7D:17:9B  defval: 00:04:f3:ff:ff:fb
## Error: Can't overwrite "eth1addr"
himport_r: can't insert "eth1addr=00:04:f3:ff:ff:fb" into hash table
oldval: 00:40:9D:7D:17:9C  defval: 00:04:f3:ff:ff:fc
## Error: Can't overwrite "wlanaddr"
himport_r: can't insert "wlanaddr=00:04:f3:ff:ff:fc" into hash table
oldval: 00:40:9D:7D:17:9D  defval: 00:04:f3:ff:ff:fd
## Error: Can't overwrite "btaddr"
himport_r: can't insert "btaddr=00:04:f3:ff:ff:fd" into hash table

Program the firmware using USB mass storage

Follow these steps to install Yocto in the device:

  1. Decompress the zip file.

  2. Place the decompressed files in the root of a FAT-formatted USB mass storage and insert it in the USB host connector of the board.

  3. Reset the device by pressing the reset button on the board and immediately press any key in the serial terminal to stop the auto-boot process. The U-Boot bootloader prompt displays:

    U-Boot SPL dub-2020.04-r6.1 (Sep 19 2023 - 07:15:55 +0000)
Normal Boot
Trying to boot from MMC1
Primary set selected
Load image from MMC/SD 0x59c00


U-Boot dub-2020.04-r6.1 (Sep 19 2023 - 07:15:55 +0000)

CPU:   NXP i.MX8QXP RevC A35 at 1200 MHz at 33C
DRAM:  2 GiB
MCA:   HW_VER=1  FW_VER=1.01
MMC:   FSL_SDHC: 0, FSL_SDHC: 1
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Model: Digi International ConnectCore 8X SBC Pro Board.
ConnectCore 8X SOM variant 0x02: 2 GiB LPDDR4, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, MCA, Crypto-auth
  Board version 3, ID 135
Boot:  MMC0

 BuildInfo:
  - SCFW 6638c032, SECO-FW c9de51c0, IMX-MKIMAGE 3bfcfccb, ATF e4b2dbf
  - U-Boot dub-2020.04-r6.1

flash target is MMC:0
Net:   eth0: ethernet@5b040000 [PRIME], eth1: ethernet@5b050000
Fastboot: Normal
Normal Boot
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
=>
    Information in the console log may vary.

  4. To install the default firmware images (dey-image-qt) into the internal eMMC, run the following command:

    => run install_linux_fw_usb

    To program other images, set the variable image-name to the DEY image name (such as dey-image-webkit or core-image-base) before running the script.

    => setenv image-name core-image-base
=> run install_linux_fw_usb

  5. Once the firmware is installed, the device boots automatically. The default username is root with no password.

    During installation, error messages appear when the installation process attempts to override MAC addresses. These messages are expected.

    ## Resetting to default environment
oldval: 00:40:9D:7D:17:9A  defval: 00:04:f3:ff:ff:fa
## Error: Can't overwrite "ethaddr"
himport_r: can't insert "ethaddr=00:04:f3:ff:ff:fa" into hash table
oldval: 00:40:9D:7D:17:9B  defval: 00:04:f3:ff:ff:fb
## Error: Can't overwrite "eth1addr"
himport_r: can't insert "eth1addr=00:04:f3:ff:ff:fb" into hash table
oldval: 00:40:9D:7D:17:9C  defval: 00:04:f3:ff:ff:fc
## Error: Can't overwrite "wlanaddr"
himport_r: can't insert "wlanaddr=00:04:f3:ff:ff:fc" into hash table
oldval: 00:40:9D:7D:17:9D  defval: 00:04:f3:ff:ff:fd
## Error: Can't overwrite "btaddr"
himport_r: can't insert "btaddr=00:04:f3:ff:ff:fd" into hash table