i.MXRT105x Flashloader

i.MXRT105x Flashloader#

This example demonstrates how to create a flashloader for the i.MXRT105x device.

The Jupyter notebook guides you through the process of creating a High Assurance Boot (HAB) container with a flashloader application from the NXP SDK, which can be loaded using serial downloader mode.

The process is divided into several steps, outlined in the following sections.

Note: This example is adaptable to other NXP devices that support HAB containers, such as i.MX RT117x and similar chip families.

1. Prerequisites#

  • SPSDK is needed with examples extension. pip install spsdk[examples] (Please refer to the installation documentation.)

Let’s prepare also workspace and variables.

WORKSPACE = "workspace/"  # change this to path to your workspace
INPUTS = "inputs/"
# verbosity of commands, might be -v or -vv for debug or blank for no additional info
VERBOSITY = "-v"
PORT = "COM1"
HAB_USER_CONFIG = INPUTS + "rt105x_hab.yaml"
HAB_OUTPUT = WORKSPACE + "flashloader.bin"

2. Compiling the Flashloader Application#

To begin, we need to build the flashloader application from the NXP SDK. Follow these steps:

  • Obtain the NXP MCUXpresso SDK by downloading it from the NXP website.

  • Locate the flashloader application in the SDK. It’s typically found at: {SDK_root}\boards\evkmimxrt1050\bootloader_examples\flashloader\cm4

  • Use your preferred Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to open the flashloader application.

  • Build the flashloader and generate a binary output file.

Note: For this example, we’re using a pre-compiled flashloader for convenience.

3. Preparing the HAB configuration file#

Let’s begin with creating a template configuration file using the nxpimage hab get-template command. This command generates a YAML template that can be customized for our specific HAB configuration needs. Below, we’ll compare the differences between the template and our customized example to highlight the additions we’ve made.

nxpimage hab get-template -f mimxrt1050 -o workspace/rt105x_template.yaml --force 
The template file workspace/rt105x_template.yaml has been created.

Configuration Differences

4. HAB Container generation#

Now that we have established the necessary configuration for generating the HAB container with the flashloader application, let’s proceed to create the HAB container.

%! nxpimage hab export -c $HAB_USER_CONFIG -o $HAB_OUTPUT

# Just check the HAB container has been properly created
assert os.path.exists(HAB_OUTPUT)

nxpimage hab export -c inputs/rt105x_hab.yaml -o workspace/flashloader.bin 
Success. (HAB container: workspace/flashloader.bin created.)

5. Flashloader loading#

The final step involves loading the generated flashloader into the MCU and executing it. The most straightforward approach is to utilize the ‘sdphost’ application with the ‘write-file’ and ‘jump-address’ commands.

Ensure that the chip is in serial downloader mode before proceeding.

5.1 Using CLI#

%! sdphost -p $PORT write-file 0x20001c00 $HAB_OUTPUT
%! sdphost -p $PORT jump-address 0x20001c00

sdphost -p COM63 write-file 0x20001c00 workspace/flashloader.bin 
Status (HAB mode) = 1450735702 (0x56787856) Hab Is Disabled (Unlocked).
Response status = 2290649224 (0x88888888) Write File Success.
sdphost -p COM63 jump-address 0x20001c00 
Status (HAB mode) = 1450735702 (0x56787856) Hab Is Disabled (Unlocked).

5.2 Using API#

from spsdk.exceptions import SPSDKError
from spsdk.sdp.interfaces.uart import SdpUARTInterface
from spsdk.sdp.sdp import SDP
from spsdk.utils.misc import load_binary

interfaces = SdpUARTInterface.scan(port=PORT, timeout=10000)
if not interfaces:
    raise SPSDKError("No SDP device found.")

flashloader = load_binary(HAB_OUTPUT)
with SDP(interfaces[0], True) as serial_downloader:
    serial_downloader.write_file(0x20001C00, flashloader)
    serial_downloader.jump_and_run(0x20001C00)
print("Flashloader has started.")

Flashloader has started.

6. Verification#

Now it is time to verify that everything went well and the flashloader application has started. A new mboot device should be visible.

6.1 Using CLI#

%! blhost -p $PORT get-property 1

blhost -p COM63 get-property 1 
Response status = 0 (0x0) Success.
Response word 1 = 1258424320 (0x4b020800)
Current Version = K2.8.0

6.2 Using API#

from spsdk.mboot.interfaces.uart import MbootUARTInterface
from spsdk.mboot.mcuboot import McuBoot
from spsdk.mboot.properties import parse_property_value

interfaces = MbootUARTInterface.scan()
if not interfaces:
    raise SPSDKError("No mboot device found")

PROPERTY_INDEX = 1
with McuBoot(interfaces[0], True) as mb:
    property_raw = mb.get_property(PROPERTY_INDEX)
prop = parse_property_value(PROPERTY_INDEX, property_raw)
print(prop)

Current Version = K2.8.0