nvidia: move to a 2 stage install by brianmcgillion · Pull Request #1752 · tiiuae/ghaf

brianmcgillion · 2026-02-14T19:57:47Z

Builds standalone ESP and root partition images for initrd-based flashing. These replace the legacy sdImage approach: instead of a single disk image, we build ESP (FAT32) and root (ext4) as independent compressed images that are written to eMMC partitions created on-device by sgdisk.

Description of Changes

Type of Change

New Feature
Bug Fix
Improvement / Refactor

Related Issues / Tickets

Checklist

Clear summary in PR description
Detailed and meaningful commit message(s)
Commits are logically organized and squashed if appropriate
Contribution guidelines followed
Ghaf documentation updated with the commit - https://tiiuae.github.io/ghaf/
Author has run make-checks and it passes
All automatic GitHub Action checks pass - see actions
Author has added reviewers and removed PR draft status

Testing Instructions

Applicable Targets

Installation Method

Requires full re-installation
Can be updated with nixos-rebuild ... switch
Other:

Test Steps To Verify:

nix build .#nvidia-jetson-orin-agx-debug-from-x86_64-flash-script --option builders ''
sudo ./result/bin/flash-ghaf-host
success joy and happiness.

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR updates the NVIDIA Jetson Orin target to use a two-stage, initrd-based flashing flow that builds and flashes standalone ESP (FAT32) and root (ext4) partition images, replacing the legacy single sdImage approach.

Changes:

Switch Orin flake outputs to expose the new initrd-based flash script (initrdFlashScript) instead of the legacy flash script.
Add ghafFlashImages build output producing esp.img.zst and root.img.zst, and wire system.build.ghafImage to that output.
Remove legacy sdImage/partition-template modules and introduce the new two-phase initrd flashing implementation.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 7 out of 7 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
targets/nvidia-jetson-orin/flake-module.nix	Switches exported flash script package from legacy to initrd-based script.
modules/reference/hardware/jetpack/nvidia-jetson-orin/sdimage.nix	Removes legacy sdImage-based image generation.
modules/reference/hardware/jetpack/nvidia-jetson-orin/partition-template.nix	Removes legacy flash.xml templating and sdImage partition extraction logic.
modules/reference/hardware/jetpack/nvidia-jetson-orin/initrd-flash.nix	Adds device+host two-phase initrd flashing flow (RCM boot + USB mass storage image write).
modules/reference/hardware/jetpack/nvidia-jetson-orin/format-module.nix	Rewires `ghafImage` to `ghafFlashImages` instead of `sdImage`.
modules/reference/hardware/jetpack/nvidia-jetson-orin/flash-images.nix	Builds standalone compressed ESP/root images used by the initrd flash flow.
modules/reference/hardware/jetpack/nvidia-jetson-orin/default.nix	Updates Orin module imports to include the new flash-images and initrd-flash modules.

modules/reference/hardware/jetpack/nvidia-jetson-orin/initrd-flash.nix

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 7 out of 7 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

modules/reference/hardware/jetpack/nvidia-jetson-orin/flash-images.nix

Copilot · 2026-02-15T05:44:47Z

modules/reference/hardware/jetpack/nvidia-jetson-orin/initrd-flash.nix

+    mount -t configfs none /sys/kernel/config
+    if [ -e /sys/kernel/config/usb_gadget ] ; then
+      gadget=/sys/kernel/config/usb_gadget/g.1
+      mkdir $gadget


If /sys/kernel/config/usb_gadget is missing (or gadget setup fails), ttyGS is never set and the host-side script will hang waiting for /dev/serial/by-id/.... Since the rest of the flashing protocol depends on USB ACM, consider failing fast here (print an error and drop to a shell / reboot) rather than continuing silently.

modules/reference/hardware/jetpack/nvidia-jetson-orin/initrd-flash.nix

Builds standalone ESP and root partition images for initrd-based flashing. These replace the legacy sdImage approach: instead of a single disk image, we build ESP (FAT32) and root (ext4) as independent compressed images that are written to eMMC partitions created on-device by sgdisk. Signed-off-by: Brian McGillion <bmg.avoin@gmail.com>

milva-unikie · 2026-02-17T09:13:49Z

Could we get testing instructions please?

Also, we are not yet quite sure how to make this work in the automated tests. That will need to be figured out before this can be merged.

brianmcgillion · 2026-02-17T17:23:07Z

Could we get testing instructions please?

Also, we are not yet quite sure how to make this work in the automated tests. That will need to be figured out before this can be merged.

done, for the instructions.

leivos-unikie · 2026-02-18T09:45:05Z

Tried this on Orin AGX

nix build .#nvidia-jetson-orin-agx-debug-from-x86_64-flash-script --option builders ''
This produced result/bin/initrd-flash-ghaf-host

sudo ./result/bin/flash-ghaf-host
Flash went like this

Welcome to Tegra Flash
version 1.0.0
Type ? or help for help and q or quit to exit
Use ! to execute system commands


 Entering RCM boot

[   0.0126 ] mb1_t234_prod_aligned_sigheader.bin.encrypt filename is from --mb1_bin
[   0.0126 ] psc_bl1_t234_prod_aligned_sigheader.bin.encrypt filename is from --psc_bl1_bin
[   0.0126 ] rcm boot with presigned binaries
[   0.0130 ] tegrarcm_v2 --new_session --chip 0x23 0 --uid --download bct_br br_bct_BR.bct --download mb1 mb1_t234_prod_aligned_sigheader.bin.encrypt --download psc_bl1 psc_bl1_t234_prod_aligned_sigheader.bin.encrypt --download bct_mb1 mb1_bct_MB1_sigheader.bct.encrypt
[   0.0133 ] BR_CID: 0x80012344705DD5002400000001018180
[   0.0355 ] Sending bct_br
[   0.0356 ] Sending mb1
[   0.0363 ] Sending psc_bl1
[   0.0497 ] Sending bct_mb1
[   0.0575 ] Generating blob for T23x
[   0.0593 ] tegrahost_v2 --chip 0x23 0 --generateblob blob.xml blob.bin
[   0.0599 ] The number of images in blob is 19
[   0.0605 ] blobsize is 107609374
[   0.0607 ] Added binary blob_uefi_jetson_minimal_with_dtb_sigheader.bin.encrypt of size 2031680
[   0.1004 ] Added binary blob_pscfw_t234_prod_sigheader.bin.encrypt of size 310768
[   0.1007 ] Added binary blob_mce_flash_o10_cr_prod_sigheader.bin.encrypt of size 187120
[   0.1009 ] Added binary blob_tsec_t234_sigheader.bin.encrypt of size 176128
[   0.1011 ] Added binary blob_applet_t234_sigheader.bin.encrypt of size 279808
[   0.1013 ] Not supported type: mb2_applet
[   0.1014 ] Added binary blob_mb2_t234_with_mb2_cold_boot_bct_MB2_sigheader.bin.encrypt of size 440944
[   0.1016 ] Added binary blob_xusb_t234_prod_sigheader.bin.encrypt of size 164864
[   0.1018 ] Added binary blob_nvpva_020_sigheader.fw.encrypt of size 2164640
[   0.1032 ] Added binary blob_display-t234-dce_sigheader.bin.encrypt of size 12206144
[   0.1113 ] Added binary blob_nvdec_t234_prod_sigheader.fw.encrypt of size 294912
[   0.1138 ] Added binary blob_bpmp_t234-TE990M-A1_prod_sigheader.bin.encrypt of size 1027008
[   0.1144 ] Added binary blob_tegra234-bpmp-3701-0000-3737-0000_with_odm_sigheader.dtb.encrypt of size 384832
[   0.1148 ] Added binary blob_camera-rtcpu-t234-rce_sigheader.img.encrypt of size 458096
[   0.1152 ] Added binary blob_adsp-fw_sigheader.bin.encrypt of size 415008
[   0.1156 ] Added binary blob_spe_t234_sigheader.bin.encrypt of size 270336
[   0.1160 ] Added binary blob_tos-optee_t234_sigheader.img.encrypt of size 1710080
[   0.1163 ] Added binary blob_eks_t234_sigheader.img.encrypt of size 9232
[   0.1166 ] Added binary blob_boot.img of size 84822016
[   0.1611 ] Added binary blob_tegra234-p3737-0000+p3701-0000-nv.dtb of size 254654
[   0.2204 ] tegrarcm_v2 --chip 0x23 0 --pollbl --download bct_mem mem_rcm_sigheader.bct.encrypt --download blob blob.bin
[   0.2206 ] BL: version 1.4.0.4-t234-54845784-e89ea9bc last_boot_error: 0
[   0.3263 ] Sending bct_mem
[   0.3470 ] Sending blob
[   5.5775 ] RCM-boot started


Device is booting initrd flash environment...
Waiting for /dev/serial/by-id/usb-NixOS_serial_0-if00.....................................
Waiting for message: FIRMWARE_DONE (timeout: 900s)
  [device] EMMC_READY
ERROR: Timed out waiting for: FIRMWARE_DONE

Didn't get feelings of success joy and happiness. It does not boot, obviously because waiting FIRMWARE_DONE timed out.

Jetson System firmware version 36.4.4-8f205d6ed58a date 1980-01-01T00:00:00+00:0
0
ESC   to enter Setup.
F11   to enter Boot Manager Menu.
Enter to continue boot.
.EFI stub: Booting Linux Kernel...
EFI stub: Loaded initrd from LINUX_EFI_INITRD_MEDIA_GUID device path
EFI stub: Using DTB from configuration table
EFI stub: Exiting boot services...
��debugfs initialized
��I/TC: Reserved shared memory is disabled
I/TC: Dynamic shared memory is enabled
I/TC: Normal World virtualization support is disabled
I/TC: Asynchronous notifications are disabled
��[    4.384371] i2c i2c-0: of_i2c: modalias failure on /bus@0/i2c@3160000/prod-settings
[    4.384679] i2c i2c-0: Failed to create I2C device for /bus@0/i2c@3160000/prod-settings
[    4.387639] i2c i2c-2: of_i2c: modalias failure on /bus@0/i2c@3180000/p

emrahbillur · 2026-02-19T12:59:14Z

Checked on AGX 32GB failed. Fixed the flash script Now working on AGX 32 GB.

https://github.com/emrahbillur/ghaf-support-for-nx/tree/initrd-flash-image

Will be checking the AGX 64GB also tonight.

emrahbillur · 2026-02-19T13:39:59Z

After testing AGX 64GB I'll merge my commits on this PR

emrahbillur · 2026-02-19T14:14:42Z

Fails on AGX 32 GB also again, it works after flash but lost after first reboot. This is due to the renaming of the flash storage device name. We need to adjust it to fix the flash.

emrahbillur · 2026-02-23T07:45:36Z

Code and tests finalized in my branch and can merge to this PR.

Flashes both AGX 32 GB and AGX 64 GB correctly. Added many controls to keep synchronization.

I might recommend using the previous flash script method as this structure is relies on very long script structure that might fail on the specs on host computer. We may need to postpone using initrd_flashscript support till there is a stable support for it in jetpack-nixos such as functions with two level flashing with simple parameters.

My local branch

leivos-unikie · 2026-02-24T08:39:20Z

Code and tests finalized in my branch and can merge to this PR.

Flashes both AGX 32 GB and AGX 64 GB correctly. Added many controls to keep synchronization.

I might recommend using the previous flash script method as this structure is relies on very long script structure that might fail on the specs on host computer. We may need to postpone using initrd_flashscript support till there is a stable support for it in jetpack-nixos such as functions with two level flashing with simple parameters.

My local branch

I tried building AGX flash script from that branch. In the end of flash device booted automatically to ghaf but flash script still kept on attempting some checks, failing at timeouts. Emrah said this is just some synchronization issue. Anyway the flash itself seemed to succeed. Also ghaf was functional. When it had been running some time I noticed it had rebooted on its own and got stuck in the boot. After this I tried manual hard reboots but it always booted into emergency mode.

brianmcgillion temporarily deployed to internal February 14, 2026 19:57 — with GitHub Actions Inactive

brianmcgillion temporarily deployed to internal February 14, 2026 19:58 — with GitHub Actions Inactive

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brianmcgillion added the Needs Testing CI Team to pre-verify label Feb 17, 2026

leivos-unikie added bug on Orin AGX Cross Issues found on NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin cross-compiled while checking this PR and removed Needs Testing CI Team to pre-verify labels Feb 18, 2026

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