Updating system?

[PeterB]

I've had my Matrix for a few days, and have a couple of issues with it.

uname -a reports:
Linux Matrix 3.0.35-2666-gbdde708 #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon Feb 17 10:37:36 CST 2014 armv7l GNU/Linux

Before documenting the issues, I want to try updating the system software. I believe that V1.0.0.5 is later than that which has been delivered on my board.

My problem is that I cannot work out how to install the update. The document "How to burn a new OS into eMMC on Matrix" refers to the use of "MfgTool2". This doesn't appear to work in Wine. How can I update my Matrix from Ubuntu - I don't use Windows at all.

Is it possible to use an SD card to install the update?

[jowski]

There are many who are trying to figure out a reliable way to update a linux system using linux tools and the progress in that direction has been little at best. When it happens, you'll know it.

Jim

[PeterB]

Hmmm ... that's a shame. The Pi is so easy in comparison - just 'dd' your image to SD card.

I guess that I'll just have to wait, or spend some more time on it myself.

When I found the Matrix for sale on Amazon, I assumed that it was market-ready - foolish me!

[steven]

Hmmm ... that's a shame. The Pi is so easy in comparison - just 'dd' your image to SD card.

I guess that I'll just have to wait, or spend some more time on it myself.

When I found the Matrix for sale on Amazon, I assumed that it was market-ready - foolish me!

Hi PeterB

Our default boot device is EMMC,is you want to boot from SD card,you can manual change the boot device.
Next version we will add a switch button to change boot device.
Here is some information:
Boot device choose

Boot Device choose

As you can see the default is 1100110

BootPin

If you want to boot from SD3 you can use 0R Resistor to connect the pins.

Thanks

Kind Regards

steven

[PeterB]

Thanks Steven. Unfortunately, I don't think my 60 year old eyes are up to the task of soldering smc any longer.

[steven]

Thanks Steven. Unfortunately, I don't think my 60 year old eyes are up to the task of soldering smc any longer.

Hi PeterB

Wo, maybe you are the oldest fans of TBS,and sorry for the inconvenience ,next version of Matrix will add the boot choose switch.

Thanks

Kind Regards

steven

[mijanek]

Hi Steven,

somehow I don't understand the wiring you proposed to use. I tought I would have to desolder R756, R757 and R754 in order to boot from sd3....?

[steven]

Hi Steven,

somehow I don't understand the wiring you proposed to use. I tought I would have to desolder R756, R757 and R754 in order to boot from sd3....?

Hi mijanek

Yea, You are right ,you just need to disconnect R756 and R757 and R754, it is 01000010 then matrix will boot from SD3 .

Thanks

Kind Regards

steven

[PeterB]

I can confirm that I now have MatrixTV booting from the SD card (SD3), flashed from Ubuntu desktop, making it much easier for me to update, and swap between, releases.

Running 1.0.0.6-2, I have identified two issues relating to HDMI-CEC (I suspect one hardware and one software). TBS assure me that they are giving attention to the issues. Apart from these, the unit is behaving very well - smoother, I think, than my AMD E450 Fusion/OpenELEC boxes, and certainly much better than my Raspberry Pis.

[l3iggs]

There's no need to do any soldering to boot from the SD card or a USB stick or the network for that matter.
The switch on the board tells the CPU where to initially look to load the u-boot firmware(bios) from, that's it. It's fine that the board is hardwired to load u-boot from the eMMC chip, we know it will always be present.

The trick is to edit the u-boot environment variables so that the kernel and root file system are loaded from your device of choice. These variables can then be saved permanently and the device will boot from whatever location you configured going forward. Editing the u-boot environment variables is rather annoying because the most straightforward way to do this is through access to the debug UART port on the board (I think there is some way to edit them from Linux, but I haven't looked much into that.)

In the case one wishes to update u-boot, one should flash partition 1 of the eMMC starting at byte 1024 with an u-boot.imx binary. This can be done from within u-boot or from linux.