09. How To Flash Your Portenta X8

Overview

In this tutorial, you will learn how to manually flash your Portenta X8 with the image provided by Arduino. You will flash your board through USB using the Terminal. The instructions below are meant to be used with a Windows Operating System.

Goals

• Learn how to get the required files
• Learn how to set up the correct structure of the files
• Learn how to set up the board
• Learn how to flash the device

Required Hardware and Software

• Arduino Portenta X8
• Portenta Breakout Board or Arduino Portenta Max Carrier
• USB-C® cable (either USB-C® to USB-A or USB-C® to USB-C®)

Instructions

Arduino's Download Repository

Go to Arduino Download repository and a compressed

.tar.gz

Please extract the files after you have downloaded the compressed file. The extracted contents have the following structure.

Copy
1Unzipped folder
2├── imx-boot-portenta-x8
3├── lmp-partner-arduino-image-portenta-x8.wic.gz **(Compressed)**
4├── mfgtool-files-portenta-x8.tar.gz **(Compressed)**
5├── sit-portenta-x8.bin
6└── u-boot-portenta-x8.itb

After verifying these files are available, you will need to decompress

mfgtool-files-portenta-x8.tar.gz

lmp-partner-arduino-image-portenta-x8.wic.gz

.wic

Copy
1Unzipped folder
2├── mfgtool-files-portenta-x8/
3├── imx-boot-portenta-x8
4├── lmp-partner-arduino-image-portenta-x8.wic
5├── lmp-partner-arduino-image-portenta-x8.wic.gz **(Compressed)**
6├── mfgtool-files-portenta-x8.tar.gz **(Compressed)**
7├── sit-portenta-x8.bin
8└── u-boot-portenta-x8.itb

Setting the Portenta X8 to Flashing Mode

Connect your Portenta X8 into your carrier of choice, either Portenta Breakout or Portenta Max Carrier, via High-Density connectors. After connecting the Portenta X8, you will need to set the

BOOT

BOOT

On the Portenta Max Carrier, the DIP switches are identified by the label

BOOT SEL

BOOT

On the Portenta Breakout, the DIP switches are identified by the label

BT_SEL

BOOT

You will need to connect one USB-C® end to the Portenta X8 and the other end (USB-C® or USB-A) to your computer. If the connection is established correctly, you will be able to see a newly connected device called

SE Blank M845S

Flashing the Portenta X8

To flash the Portenta X8, you need to begin by opening a terminal. Within the terminal, you need to change the directory to where

mfgtool-files-portenta-x8

cd

Copy
1uuu full_image.uuu

When the flashing operation is finished, you should see a similar result as the following figure:

Once you have verified it has successfully flashed the Portenta X8, the

BOOT

After booting, you will need to wait 10 seconds until the Portenta X8 starts blinking Blue LED. The Blue LED indicates it was able to boot successfully.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you have learned to flash the Portenta X8 by getting the latest image, setting up the adequate file structure and the board, and finally flashing the board with these files.

Troubleshooting

• If you get an error while it is flashing, make sure your USB is correctly plugged in. Reconnect your board and try to flash it again. You may need to go through a few trials before successful flashing.
• If you get an error related to permissions, try to launch the

  uuu

  command as Super User (

  sudo

  ).