Boot using U-Boot

You must first boot the board with U-Boot from the microSD card. After U-Boot launches, you can load the QNX IFS.

For information about how to boot U-Boot and then load the QNX IFS using an microSD card, see the Load the QNX IFS from the microSD section in this chapter.

Load the QNX IFS from the microSD card

The followings steps describe how to boot board using U-Boot and then load the QNX IFS from your microSD card. Before you can complete these steps, you must prepare the microSD card. For more information, see the Preparing the microSD to boot the board section in this chapter for more information.

Connect your Jacinto 7 J721E SK target board to your host system.
On your host machine, start your favorite terminal program with these settings:
- Baud rate: 115200
- Data: 8 bit
- Parity: none
- Stop: 1 bit
- Flow control: none
- Serial Device: /dev/ttyUSB2
Connect the Jacinto 7 J721E SK board to the power supply. The board will turn on automatically. To reset the board, press the reset button SW2.
Figure 1Power Connector / Reset Button

After the power is turned on, output from U-Boot appears terminal console. When you see the prompt Hit any key to stop autoboot, press any key on your keyboard to interrupt the boot process as follows:

U-Boot SPL 2023.04-ti-gf9b966c67473 (Mar 19 2024 - 20:31:40 +0000)
SYSFW ABI: 3.1 (firmware rev 0x0009 '9.2.4--v09.02.04 (Kool Koala)')
Trying to boot from MMC2
Warning: Detected image signing certificate on GP device. Skipping certificate to prevent boot failure. This will fail if the image was also encrypted
Warning: Detected image signing certificate on GP device. Skipping certificate to prevent boot failure. This will fail if the image was also encrypted
Warning: Detected image signing certificate on GP device. Skipping certificate to prevent boot failure. This will fail if the image was also encrypted
Warning: Detected image signing certificate on GP device. Skipping certificate to prevent boot failure. This will fail if the image was also encrypted
Warning: Detected image signing certificate on GP device. Skipping certificate to prevent boot failure. This will fail if the image was also encrypted
Loading Environment from nowhere... OK
Starting ATF on ARM64 core...

NOTICE:  BL31: v2.10.0(release):v2.10.0-367-g00f1ec6b87-dirty
NOTICE:  BL31: Built : 16:09:05, Feb  9 2024
I/TC: 
I/TC: OP-TEE version: 4.1.0-51-g012cdca49 (gcc version 11.4.0 (GCC)) #1 Tue Jan 30 10:48:03 UTC 2024 aarch64
I/TC: WARNING: This OP-TEE configuration might be insecure!
I/TC: WARNING: Please check https://optee.readthedocs.io/en/latest/architecture/porting_guidelines.html
I/TC: Primary CPU initializing
I/TC: GIC redistributor base address not provided
I/TC: Assuming default GIC group status and modifier
I/TC: SYSFW ABI: 3.1 (firmware rev 0x0009 '9.2.4--v09.02.04 (Kool Koala)')
I/TC: HUK Initialized
I/TC: Activated SA2UL device
I/TC: Fixing SA2UL firewall owner for GP device
I/TC: Enabled firewalls for SA2UL TRNG device
I/TC: SA2UL TRNG initialized
I/TC: SA2UL Drivers initialized
I/TC: Primary CPU switching to normal world boot

U-Boot SPL 2023.04-ti-gf9b966c67473 (Mar 19 2024 - 20:31:40 +0000)
SYSFW ABI: 3.1 (firmware rev 0x0009 '9.2.4--v09.02.04 (Kool Koala)')
Trying to boot from MMC2
Warning: Detected image signing certificate on GP device. Skipping certificate to prevent boot failure. This will fail if the image was also encrypted
Warning: Detected image signing certificate on GP device. Skipping certificate to prevent boot failure. This will fail if the image was also encrypted


U-Boot 2023.04-ti-gf9b966c67473 (Mar 19 2024 - 20:31:40 +0000)

SoC:   J721E SR1.1 GP
Model: Texas Instruments J721E SK A72
Board: J721EX-EAIK rev E2
DRAM:  2 GiB (effective 4 GiB)
Core:  121 devices, 34 uclasses, devicetree: separate
Flash: 0 Bytes
MMC:   mmc@4fb0000: 1
Loading Environment from nowhere... OK
In:    serial@2800000
Out:   serial@2800000
Err:   serial@2800000
am65_cpsw_nuss ethernet@46000000: K3 CPSW: nuss_ver: 0x6BA00101 cpsw_ver: 0x6BA80100 ale_ver: 0x00293904 Ports:1 mdio_freq:1000000
Net:   eth0: ethernet@46000000port@1
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
=>

On the U-Boot prompt, type the following U-Boot commands to load the QNX IFS from the microSD card:

mmcinfo
fatload mmc 1 88000000 psdk_linux_9.2_k3-j721e-sk.dtb
fatload mmc 1 80080000 qnx-ifs
go 80080000 88000000

after you run the go command, QNX OS loads.

=> uenvcmd=mmcinfo
=> fatload mmc 1 88000000 psdk_linux_9.2_k3-j721e-sk.dtb
103777 bytes read in 25 ms (4 MiB/s)
=> fatload mmc 1 80080000 qnx-ifs
14062264 bytes read in 316 ms (42.4 MiB/s)
=> go 80080000 88000000
## Starting application at 0x80080000 ...
Hypervisor support disabled
MMU: 16-bit ASID 44-bit PA TCR_EL1=00000014b5183519
ARM GIC-500 r1p1, arch v3.0 detected
gic_v3_lpi_add_entry for vectors 8192 -> 8447, Ok
gic_v3_lpi_add_entry for vectors 8448 -> 65535, Ok
No SPI intrinfo. Add default entry for 32 -> 991 vectors, Ok
LPI config table #1 @ 0000000080013000, callout vaddr: ffffff8040251000
aarch64_cpuspeed: core speed 2000
cpu0: MPIDR=0000000080000000
cpu0: MIDR=411fd080 Cortex-A72 r1p0
cpu0: CWG=4 ERG=4 Dminline=4 Iminline=4 PIPT
cpu0: CLIDR=a200023 LoUU=1 LoC=2 LoUIS=1
cpu0: L1 Icache 48K linesz=64 set/way=256/3
cpu0: L1 Dcache 32K linesz=64 set/way=256/2
cpu0: L2 Unified 1024K linesz=64 set/way=1024/16
Enabling ITS 0
ITS queue at 0000000080030000, num slots: 256
Issue MAPC/SYNC/INVALL commands for ICID 0
update CWRITER to 0x00000060
Waiting for all commands to be processed ... Done in 1 tries
Enable LPIs in GICR_CTLR @ 0000000001900000 for CPU0
Total Available L3 cache (MSMC SRAM): 0 bytes
Loading IFS...decompressing...done
I/TC: Secondary CPU 1 initializing
I/TC: Secondary CPU 1 switching to normal world boot
aarch64_cpuspeed: core speed 2000
cpu1: MPIDR=0000000080000001
cpu1: MIDR=411fd080 Cortex-A72 r1p0
cpu1: CWG=4 ERG=4 Dminline=4 Iminline=4 PIPT
cpu1: CLIDR=a200023 LoUU=1 LoC=2 LoUIS=1
cpu1: L1 Icache 48K linesz=64 set/way=256/3
cpu1: L1 Dcache 32K linesz=64 set/way=256/2
cpu1: L2 Unified 1024K linesz=64 set/way=1024/16
ITS 0 already Enabled
ITS queue at 0000000080030000, num slots: 256
Issue MAPC/SYNC/INVALL commands for ICID 1
update CWRITER to 0x000000c0
Waiting for all commands to be processed ... Done in 1 tries
Enable LPIs in GICR_CTLR @ 0000000001920000 for CPU1

System page at phys:0000000080023000 user:ffffff8040276000 kern:ffffff8040272000
Starting next program at vffffff806008e910
syspage::hypinfo::flags=0x00000000
 
Welcome to QNX 8.0.0 on TI_J721E_Starter_Kit_Board !
 
Starting I2C driver ...
Starting PCI Server ...
Start serial driver
Starting MMC/SD memory card driver... SD
Starting Flash driver...
Starting XHCI driver on USB3SS0 and USB3SS1
Starting devf-ram filesystem ...
Starting networking ...
Starting DHCP client ...
Starting SSH daemon ...
Starting devc-pty manager ...
Starting qconn daemon ...
Starting shell ...
#

You should now be able to test the OS by executing any shell command, or any command residing within the QNX IFS image. For example: ls or uname -a.

Note:

Addresses are interpreted as hexadecimal, therefore entering 0x80080000 and 80080000 are considered to be the same.

Note:

After you've completed the steps above, you can put the following command in the uenv.txt file and then copy it to the microSD card, which permits your system to automatically boot the QNX IFS.

'uenvcmd=mmcinfo; fatload mmc 1 88000000 psdk_linux_9.2_k3-j721e-sk.dtb; fatload mmc 1 80080000 qnx-ifs;
go 80080000 88000000'

Page updated: October 24, 2025