Back up and restore the image

This page describes how to back up the current RDK S100 system to an image, and restore it to the source board or copy it to a new board.

Overview

Backing up saves the current system as an image. After backing up, flash the image to the target board to restore it. The target board can be the source board or a new board:

• Restore to the source board: Restore the system to the state it was in when it was backed up.
• Copy to a new board: Copy the system to another development board.

note

Backing up does not support batch operation. Back up one device at a time.

Prerequisites

Source board preparation

Confirm that the source board boots normally and that ADB is enabled.

XBurn version requirement

XBurn 1.2.2 or later is required. For installation, see Install XBurn.

SDK version requirement

• On SDK 4.0.5 or later, start backing up directly.
• On SDK 4.0.5 or earlier, U-Boot does not support backing up partitions larger than 4 GB, so update it first.

Update U-Boot on the source board before backing up:

1. Obtain uboot.img:
   • Option 1: Apply the patch and compile to produce uboot.img.
   • Option 2: Download a prebuilt uboot.img — either uboot-debug.img (includes debug messages) or uboot-release.img (for production).
2. Replace uboot.img in the product folder (product is the extracted folder downloaded in Image download), overwriting:
   • product/xmodem_tools/sec/out/s100/uboot.img
   • product/img_packages/uboot.img
3. Flash to the uboot partition on the source board:

   • Option 1: In XBurn, select the uboot partition and flash.

     

   • Option 2: On the board, first enter Fastboot mode (after power-on, press and hold the spacebar to enter the U-Boot command line, then enter fastboot 0), then run:

     fastboot oem interface:blk
     fastboot oem bootdevice:mmc
     fastboot flash uboot_a uboot.img
     fastboot flash uboot_b uboot.img

Back up the full image

Back up the complete system image for restoring to the source board or copying to a new board.

1. Starting from the steps in Flash the full image, expand Advanced configuration, and select the miniboot regions and the boot and system partitions.

   

   Region/Partition	Description
   miniboot_flash region	NOR Flash boot image
   miniboot_emmc region	eMMC basic boot image
   boot, system, and other partitions (as needed)	Partitions after U-Boot

   note

   Do not select the emmc region, because miniboot already covers the boot image, and the rest is backed up by partition.

2. Wait for the backup to complete, then check the images under the img_packages/ directory in the extracted product folder:

   Path	Content	Naming rule
   img_packages/disk/	Region backup images	[region]_backup.img (such as miniboot_flash_backup.img, miniboot_emmc_backup.img)
   img_packages/backup/	Individual partition backup images	[partition].img (such as boot.img, system.img)

   Do not interrupt the backup

   The backup takes a long time (a large partition such as a 45 GB system takes about 30 minutes or more). Wait patiently and do not interrupt the backup.

3. Rename the backup images, removing the _backup suffix from the filenames:

   Original path	Path after rename	Naming rule
   img_packages/disk/	Unchanged	Remove _backup - miniboot_flash_backup.img → miniboot_flash.img - miniboot_emmc_backup.img → miniboot_emmc.img
   img_packages/backup/	img_packages/	Names unchanged (such as boot.img, system.img)

4. Flash via Flash specific regions and Flash specific partition images, selecting the same regions and partitions as you backed up.

Back up specific regions

Back up the image of specific regions to your PC. The supported backup regions are:

Region	Actual storage medium	Firmware content	Backup image
miniboot_flash	NOR Flash	Basic boot image on NOR Flash	img_packages/disk/miniboot_flash_backup.img
miniboot_emmc	eMMC	Basic boot image on eMMC	img_packages/disk/miniboot_emmc_backup.img
emmc	eMMC	Complete eMMC image	img_packages/disk/emmc_disk_backup.img

1. Starting from the steps in Flash the full image, expand Advanced configuration, select Back up specific regions, and select the target regions (such as miniboot_flash and miniboot_emmc).

   
   Backup takes time

   Data backup takes a long time. Wait patiently.

2. After the backup completes, open img_packages/disk/ and check the backup image files (such as miniboot_flash_backup.img and miniboot_emmc_backup.img).

3. Rename the backup images, removing the _backup suffix from the filenames:

   Region	Backup image	Renamed to
   miniboot_flash	miniboot_flash_backup.img	miniboot_flash.img
   miniboot_emmc	miniboot_emmc_backup.img	miniboot_emmc.img
   emmc	emmc_disk_backup.img	emmc_disk.simg

   note

   The emmc region requires changing the extension from .img to .simg.

4. Flash via Flash specific regions, selecting the same regions as you backed up.

Back up specific partition images

Back up by individual system component partition, at a finer granularity than Back up specific regions. This is partition-level (a single component partition, such as uboot, boot, or system).

1. Starting from the steps in Flash the full image, expand Advanced configuration, select Back up specific partition images, select the target partitions, and complete the backup.

   The partition options that appear after selection are:

   

2. After the backup completes, the partition images are saved in img_packages/backup/ (such as boot.img and system.img).

3. Before flashing, replace the partition images by overwriting the same-named files under img_packages/ (such as boot.img and system.img).

4. Flash via Flash specific partition images, selecting the same partitions as you backed up.