BalenaCloud with SeeedStudio reComputerJ4012

Product support balenaOS
1

I’m a new user to BalenaCloud and am having trouble right from the start. I have managed to get a simple and generic Intel x64 MiniITX installed with BalenaOS, but the actual target I need to use is a SeeedStudio reComputerJ4012. I download the OS image provided on the Cloud Dashboard for the right platform, if I use 6.1.24 then the OS boots, but stops straight away with this showing on the serial console:

ˇ·Starting version 250.5+
zramctl: /dev/zram1: failed to set algorithm: Invalid argument
zramctl: /dev/zram1: failed to set algorithm: Invalid argument
zramctl: /dev/zram1: failed to set algorithm: Invalid argument
/init.d/12-zram: line 56: fail: command not found

If I try any of the older versions then they just fail to boot. Images are being written to USB sticks on macOS using BalenaEtcher.

How can I work around this to get the OS installed on my J4012? Any insight would be appreciated.

2

Hello @ptlrd welcome to the balena forums!

Does your Seeed J4012 show up in your balenaCloud dashboard when booting from OS 6.1.24?

3

No, the install from the USB stick never happens, the NVMe storage in the J4012 doesn’t get touched and the installer doesn’t do anything after giving the error message in my first post. It’s still running now, hours later, doing nothing. Pushing Caps Lock changes the LED on the keyboard and pushing Enter on the serial console gives a carriage return, so it hasn’t crashed, it’s just stopped running the scripts it probably ought to be running to perform the install.

I’ve tried about 4 different older versions of the installer and they do variations on the same thing, or they don’t even boot at all.

4

I just tried provisioning a J4012 with 6.1.24 and observed the same behavior as well, even with placing the unit in forced recovery mode before flashing. I will confer with our OS engineers to see if perhaps a step is missing from the instructions and we will get back to you here.

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5

That’s great, thanks for looking into it!

6

Hello, for balenaOS versions v6.1.16 and newer, your device needs to be running UEFI firmware version 36.3. You can see how to check the firmware version and update it if necessary on this page: Provisioning Jetson Orin | balena
(This step will be added to the instructions.) Let us know if this helps!

7

Hi Alan,

the machine reports this:

Jetson UEFI firmware (version 4.1-33958178 built on 2023-08-01T19:34:02+00:00)
ESC to enter Setup.
F11 to enter Boot Manager Menu.
Enter to continue boot.
** WARNING: Test Key is used. **
…

NVIDIA Orin NX Developer Kit
Not Specified 2.00 GHz
4.1-33958178 16138 MB RAM

I guess it’s very far behind if it’s version 4 instead of 36. I’ll update it as far up as I can and try BalenaOS again. Thank you!

8

Sounds good - note that I’ve edited the post to clarify that it needs to be exactly version 36.3.

9

Thanks for your help, that’s it upgraded, BalenaOS installs just fine and I have it in a test fleet!

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