Variscite Dart 6UL BalenaOS instructions

Hi balena users,
I have followed :
https://www.balena.io/docs/learn/getting-started/imx6ul-var-dart/nodejs/

But there is not instructions in how to set the Dart 6UL base board (sw1,sw2) switches and what order the buttons (sw3,sw4,sw5) has to be pressed. The website shows this when a device is added but is not accurate :

Can somebody please describe the correct process?

Thank you.

Hey @rlev, checking and clarifying this with the devices team, should get back to you soon!

Hey, what is your base board that you are using? It might be the case, that we’ve used a different base board than you.

If you are using a “DART-6UL based on NXP/Freescale i.MX6 UltraLite Evaluation Kit” like in this guide:

then you might just need the Booting from micro SD Card section from there:

Set Boot select switches #1 (SW1) & #2 (SW2) downwards to boot from microSD Card

after which (when the flashing finished), should check the Using Default file System section, and set the switched appropriately.

But we’ll be able to advise more on point if we know what base board you use exactly.

Hi @imrehg

I will check / test this later today and let you know.

Thank you for your time . It’s appreciated.

By the way I am using this board :
https://www.variscite.com/products/evaluation-kits/dart-6ul-kits/

I have followed the next steps :

1.- Logged in into balenaCloud.
2.- Created a new application with Default Device Type = Variscite Dart-6UL (Beta)
3.- Added a new device with the next configuration

4.- Dowloaded the balena-cloud-DartApp-imx6ul-var-dart-2.13.6+rev2-dev-v7.14.0 image file and burned into a sd card using Etcher.
5.- Power off the Dart 6UL base board, insert the sd card and set sw1 and sw2 switches to boot form sdcard.
6.- Connect the serial output to my laptop to see the debug information in a serial terminal.
7.- Put sdcard in the dart 6UL board with switches sw1,sw2 to boot from sdcard and power the board up.
8.- I get the next output in the serial terminal :

U-Boot SPL 2015.04-mx6ul+g3dcc0ab (Dec 14 2017 - 17:01:05)

Part number: VSM-6UL-A06B
Assembly: AS1811141870
Date of production: 2018 Nov 20
DART-6UL-5G configuration: eMMC WiFi
Boot Device: SD

U-Boot 2015.04-mx6ul+g3dcc0ab (Dec 14 2017 - 17:01:05)

CPU: Freescale i.MX6ULL rev1.1 at 396 MHz
CPU: Temperature 28 C
Reset cause: POR
Board: Variscite DART MX6ULL 0 MHz
I2C: ready
DRAM: 512 MiB
MMC: FSL_SDHC: 0, FSL_SDHC: 1
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

No panel detected: default to VAR-WVGA-LCD
Display: VAR-WVGA-LCD (800x480)
Video: 800x480x24
Error (-1): cannot determine file size
Error: no valid bmp image at 83100000
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
Net: got MAC0 address from fuse: f8:dc:7a:22:53:7e
FEC0, usb_ether
Error: usb_ether address not set.

Normal Boot
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
Scanning MMC and USB devices 0 1 2
reading resin-image-flasher
24 bytes read in 13 ms (1000 Bytes/s)
Found resin flasher on mmc 0
Loading resinOS_uEnv.txt from mmc device 0 partition 1
reading resinOS_uEnv.txt
** Unable to read file resinOS_uEnv.txt **
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
reading /uEnv.txt
** Unable to read file /uEnv.txt **
reading /boot.scr
** Unable to read file /boot.scr **
reading /zImage
9625680 bytes read in 441 ms (20.8 MiB/s)
Booting from mmc …
fdt_file=imx6ull-var-dart-sd_emmc.dtb
reading /imx6ull-var-dart-sd_emmc.dtb
** Unable to read file /imx6ull-var-dart-sd_emmc.dtb **
Kernel image @ 0x82000000 [ 0x000000 - 0x92e050 ]

Starting kernel …

No message of a emmc or nand being flashed is displayed.

9.- If I reboot the board and boot from the emmc memory I see the Debian 9 that was before…no BalenaOS has been flashed… :frowning:

Note : if I use the Variscite image in a sdcard I am able to flash Debian or Yocto successfully in the Dart 6UL emmc .

Any help will be appreciated .

I have decided to build the Dart 6UL BalenaOS image from scratch using latest master repo ( v2.28.0+rev1 ) from :

After setup the yocto build environment and needed software :

I successfully generate the image (2.7Gb) but after booting the image from sdcard in the Dart 6UL base board with switches set to boot from sd card I get :

U-Boot SPL 2017.03-mx6ul+g466898df53 (Dec 09 2018 - 15:15:41)

Part number: VSM-6UL-A06B
Assembly: AS1811141870
Date of production: 2018 Nov 20
DART-6UL-5G configuration: eMMC WiFi
Trying to boot from MMC1
MMC Boot Device: mmc0 (SD)

U-Boot 2017.03-mx6ul+g466898df53 (Dec 09 2018 - 15:15:41 +0000)

CPU: Freescale i.MX6ULL rev1.1 900 MHz (running at 396 MHz)
CPU: Commercial temperature grade (0C to 95C) at 29C
Reset cause: POR
Board: Variscite DART-6UL
I2C: ready
DRAM: 512 MiB
MMC: FSL_SDHC: 0, FSL_SDHC: 1
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

Display: VAR-WVGA-LCD (800x480)
Video: 800x480x24
Error (-1): cannot determine file size
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
eMMC: 7.3 GiB
Net: got MAC0 address from fuse: f8:dc:7a:22:53:7e
FEC0 [PRIME], usb_ether
Error: usb_ether address not set.

Normal Boot
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
Scanning MMC and USB devices 0 1 2
reading resin-image-flasher
24 bytes read in 14 ms (1000 Bytes/s)
Found resin flasher on mmc 0
Loading resinOS_uEnv.txt from mmc device 0 partition 1
reading resinOS_uEnv.txt
** Unable to read file resinOS_uEnv.txt **
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
reading /uEnv.txt
** Unable to read file /uEnv.txt **
reading /boot.scr
** Unable to read file /boot.scr **
reading /zImage
10821312 bytes read in 493 ms (20.9 MiB/s)
Booting from mmc …
fdt_file=imx6ull-var-dart-sd_emmc.dtb
reading /imx6ull-var-dart-sd_emmc.dtb
** Unable to read file /imx6ull-var-dart-sd_emmc.dtb **

Starting kernel …

Something goes wrong and the emmc memory is not flashed with the balenaOS.
Does somebody has a clue that what might be the problem?

Thanks in advance

Hello ! Sometimes the sdcard can become corrupted, could you let us know if the problem persists when using a different sdcard ? (To get the chances higher - Etcher does the verification step by default, make sure to not skip that)
Also - we’re not sure if you’re using the same baseboard as we do - could you let us know which one is the one producing error ? Thanks so much !

Hi @cyplo,

Thank you for your reply.

I have used another sdcard and flashed the balenaOS image on it with verification and still the same issue :frowning_face:

I use the Variscite Dart-6UL-5G v2.02
https://www.variscite.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/DART-6UL_DART-6UL-5G_Datasheet.pdf

and base board VCB-6UL-10

Thanks in advance.

Hi @rlev,

Your board is not booting because is missing the device tree file “imx6ull-var-dart-sd_emmc.dtb”.

I will check why is that and I will come back with an update.

Regards!

Hi @spanceac,

Thank you for your reply.

Looking forward for your response :ok_hand:

Hi @rlev,

I created this PR that should fix the issue https://github.com/balena-os/balena-variscite/pull/71.

Could you please try the build again after applying the PR?

Thanks!

@spanceac,

I will try it and let you know.

Thank you.

@spanceac,

I confirm that https://github.com/balena-os/balena-variscite/pull/71
works and the Variscite Dart 6UL module get its emmc flashed.

I see that eth0 is up but wlan0 is down. I have to find out why.

Thank you very much for your help!.

Hi @rlev,

I’m glad to hear that you were able to flash the board.

I merged the PR to be included in the next release.

Regards!

1 Like

hi… i cant build for emmc dart-6ul. “unable to start bitbake server”

@0ohmdash,
I had built and using now v2.29.0+rev1 from https://github.com/balena-os/balena-variscite
and I can confirm it works.

Also you can try to put variscite own images first ( http://variwiki.com/index.php?title=DART-6UL) debian or yocto to force reformat of emcc before you try BalenaOS again.

My problem is that I follow the steps described here but the image is not created. At the moment of executing (I must change the name) “./resin-yocto-scripts/build/barys” (./balena-yocto-scripts/build/barys) the image is not created

I think it will help if you describe all your steps with error messages if any.
OS you are using for the building?
What version of BalenaOS are you trying to build?
etc.

i’m using ubuntu 16.04
The step i’ve used are on https://github.com/balena-os/balena-variscite

when do:
./balena-yocto-scripts/build/barys

Building JSON manifest…
…Done


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| _ // _ / | | ’ \ | | | | __ \
| | \ \ /_ \ | | | || || | ) |
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/|| ||_/ |/


Resin specific images available:
resin-image-flasher

Variscite DART-6UL (EXPERIMENTAL) : MACHINE=imx6ul-var-dart bitbake resin-image-flasher Variscite imx7-var-som (EXPERIMENTAL) : MACHINE=imx7-var-som bitbake resin-image-flasher
Variscite DART-MX8M (EXPERIMENTAL) : MACHINE=imx8m-var-dart bitbake resin-image-flasher Variscite VAR-SOM-MX6 (EXPERIMENTAL) : MACHINE=var-som-mx6 bitbake resin-image-flasher

[000000004][LOG]Resin build initialized in build.
[000000004][LOG]Run build for imx6ul-var-dart: MACHINE=imx6ul-var-dart bitbake resin-image-flasher
[000000004][LOG]This might take a while …
ERROR: Unable to start bitbake server
ERROR: Server log for this session (/home/dash/balena-variscite/build/bitbake-cookerdaemon.log):
— Starting bitbake server pid 5110 at 2019-02-23 17:49:09.691248 —

[000000006][LOG]Build for imx6ul-var-dart failed. Check failed log in build/tmp/log/cooker/imx6ul-var-dart .
[000000006][LOG]Run build for imx7-var-som: MACHINE=imx7-var-som bitbake resin-image-flasher
[000000006][LOG]This might take a while …
ERROR: Unable to start bitbake server
ERROR: Last 10 lines of server log for this session (/home/dash/balena-variscite/build/bitbake-cookerdaemon.log):
self.cooker = bb.cooker.BBCooker(self.configuration, self.featureset)
File “/home/dash/balena-variscite/layers/poky/bitbake/lib/bb/cooker.py”, line 197, in init
self.initConfigurationData()
File “/home/dash/balena-variscite/layers/poky/bitbake/lib/bb/cooker.py”, line 356, in initConfigurationData
self.databuilder.parseBaseConfiguration()
File “/home/dash/balena-variscite/layers/poky/bitbake/lib/bb/cookerdata.py”, line 317, in parseBaseConfiguration
raise bb.BBHandledException
bb.BBHandledException
ERROR: The following required tools (as specified by HOSTTOOLS) appear to be unavailable in PATH, please install them in order to proceed:
docker

[000000008][LOG]Build for imx7-var-som failed. Check failed log in build/tmp/log/cooker/imx7-var-som .
[000000008][LOG]Run build for imx8m-var-dart: MACHINE=imx8m-var-dart bitbake resin-image-flasher
[000000008][LOG]This might take a while …
ERROR: Unable to start bitbake server
ERROR: Server log for this session (/home/dash/balena-variscite/build/bitbake-cookerdaemon.log):
— Starting bitbake server pid 5140 at 2019-02-23 17:49:14.145595 —
Traceback (most recent call last):

[000000011][LOG]Build for imx8m-var-dart failed. Check failed log in build/tmp/log/cooker/imx8m-var-dart .
[000000011][LOG]Run build for var-som-mx6: MACHINE=var-som-mx6 bitbake resin-image-flasher
[000000011][LOG]This might take a while …
ERROR: Unable to start bitbake server
ERROR: Server log for this session (/home/dash/balena-variscite/build/bitbake-cookerdaemon.log):
— Starting bitbake server pid 5154 at 2019-02-23 17:49:16.468761 —
Traceback (most recent call last):

[000000013][LOG]Build for var-som-mx6 failed. Check failed log in build/tmp/log/cooker/var-som-mx6 .
[000000013][LOG]If build for imx6ul-var-dart succeeded, final image should have been generated here:
[000000013][LOG] build/tmp/deploy/images/imx6ul-var-dart/resin-image-flasher-imx6ul-var-dart.resinos-img
[000000013][LOG]If build for imx7-var-som succeeded, final image should have been generated here:
[000000013][LOG] build/tmp/deploy/images/imx7-var-som/resin-image-flasher-imx7-var-som.resinos-img
[000000013][LOG]If build for imx8m-var-dart succeeded, final image should have been generated here:
[000000013][LOG] build/tmp/deploy/images/imx8m-var-dart/resin-image-flasher-imx8m-var-dart.resinos-img
[000000013][LOG]If build for var-som-mx6 succeeded, final image should have been generated here:
[000000013][LOG] build/tmp/deploy/images/var-som-mx6/resin-image-flasher-var-som-mx6.resinos-img
[000000013][LOG]Done.

I’m using the steps on https://github.com/balena-os/balena-variscite
The problem is the next:

./balena-yocto-scripts/build/barys

Resin specific images available:
resin-image-flasher

Variscite DART-6UL (EXPERIMENTAL) : MACHINE=imx6ul-var-dart bitbake resin-image-flasher Variscite imx7-var-som (EXPERIMENTAL) : MACHINE=imx7-var-som bitbake resin-image-flasher
Variscite DART-MX8M (EXPERIMENTAL) : MACHINE=imx8m-var-dart bitbake resin-image-flasher Variscite VAR-SOM-MX6 (EXPERIMENTAL) : MACHINE=var-som-mx6 bitbake resin-image-flasher

[000000004][LOG]Resin build initialized in build.
[000000004][LOG]Run build for imx6ul-var-dart: MACHINE=imx6ul-var-dart bitbake resin-image-flasher
[000000004][LOG]This might take a while …
ERROR: Unable to start bitbake server
ERROR: Server log for this session (/home/dash/balena-variscite/build/bitbake-cookerdaemon.log):
— Starting bitbake server pid 5110 at 2019-02-23 17:49:09.691248 —

[000000006][LOG]Build for imx6ul-var-dart failed. Check failed log in build/tmp/log/cooker/imx6ul-var-dart .
[000000006][LOG]Run build for imx7-var-som: MACHINE=imx7-var-som bitbake resin-image-flasher
[000000006][LOG]This might take a while …
ERROR: Unable to start bitbake server
ERROR: Last 10 lines of server log for this session (/home/dash/balena-variscite/build/bitbake-cookerdaemon.log):
self.cooker = bb.cooker.BBCooker(self.configuration, self.featureset)
File “/home/dash/balena-variscite/layers/poky/bitbake/lib/bb/cooker.py”, line 197, in init
self.initConfigurationData()
File “/home/dash/balena-variscite/layers/poky/bitbake/lib/bb/cooker.py”, line 356, in initConfigurationData
self.databuilder.parseBaseConfiguration()
File “/home/dash/balena-variscite/layers/poky/bitbake/lib/bb/cookerdata.py”, line 317, in parseBaseConfiguration
raise bb.BBHandledException
bb.BBHandledException
ERROR: The following required tools (as specified by HOSTTOOLS) appear to be unavailable in PATH, please install them in order to proceed:
docker

[000000008][LOG]Build for imx7-var-som failed. Check failed log in build/tmp/log/cooker/imx7-var-som .
[000000008][LOG]Run build for imx8m-var-dart: MACHINE=imx8m-var-dart bitbake resin-image-flasher
[000000008][LOG]This might take a while …
ERROR: Unable to start bitbake server
ERROR: Server log for this session (/home/dash/balena-variscite/build/bitbake-cookerdaemon.log):
— Starting bitbake server pid 5140 at 2019-02-23 17:49:14.145595 —
Traceback (most recent call last):

[000000011][LOG]Build for imx8m-var-dart failed. Check failed log in build/tmp/log/cooker/imx8m-var-dart .
[000000011][LOG]Run build for var-som-mx6: MACHINE=var-som-mx6 bitbake resin-image-flasher
[000000011][LOG]This might take a while …
ERROR: Unable to start bitbake server
ERROR: Server log for this session (/home/dash/balena-variscite/build/bitbake-cookerdaemon.log):
— Starting bitbake server pid 5154 at 2019-02-23 17:49:16.468761 —
Traceback (most recent call last):

[000000013][LOG]Build for var-som-mx6 failed. Check failed log in build/tmp/log/cooker/var-som-mx6 .
[000000013][LOG]If build for imx6ul-var-dart succeeded, final image should have been generated here:
[000000013][LOG] build/tmp/deploy/images/imx6ul-var-dart/resin-image-flasher-imx6ul-var-dart.resinos-img
[000000013][LOG]If build for imx7-var-som succeeded, final image should have been generated here:
[000000013][LOG] build/tmp/deploy/images/imx7-var-som/resin-image-flasher-imx7-var-som.resinos-img
[000000013][LOG]If build for imx8m-var-dart succeeded, final image should have been generated here:
[000000013][LOG] build/tmp/deploy/images/imx8m-var-dart/resin-image-flasher-imx8m-var-dart.resinos-img
[000000013][LOG]If build for var-som-mx6 succeeded, final image should have been generated here:
[000000013][LOG] build/tmp/deploy/images/var-som-mx6/resin-image-flasher-var-som-mx6.resinos-img
[000000013][LOG]Done.