Flash the system image

This page describes system flashing for the RDK S100. Complete flashing preparation before you flash.

Download modes

Before you flash the system image to the RDK S100 with XBurn, select a download mode based on the device state, then enter that mode and start flashing.

Download mode	Scenario	Prerequisite
DFU+Fastboot	Blank board or system corruption that bricks the device	Set the DIP switches to put the device into DFU boot mode
Fastboot	Update the system on a non-blank board	Requires a non-blank board whose system can enter U-Boot

Prerequisite check

Set the SW3 switch to boot from onboard eMMC. Booting from an M.2 NVMe SSD is not supported.

Enter DFU+Fastboot mode

1. Set the SW1 DIP switch to ↑, and power off.

2. Set the SW2 DIP switch to ↑ to enter Download mode.

3. Set the SW1 DIP switch to ▽, and power on.

4. Check the DOWNLOAD indicator LED: a lit LED means the device is in DFU mode. If it does not light up, press K1 to reset the system and retry.

   

Enter Fastboot mode

1. Set the SW1 DIP switch to ↑, and power off.
2. Set the SW2 DIP switch to ↓ to enter normal boot mode.
3. Set the SW1 DIP switch to ▽, and power on.

• Automatic entry: After the board system finishes booting, the ADB service starts automatically. XBurn detects the ADB device and sends a command to put the board into Fastboot.
• Manual entry: Right after power-on, press and hold the spacebar to enter the U-Boot command line, then enter fastboot 0 to enter Fastboot.

Flash the full image

Use this for a first-time flash or system recovery. It flashes the complete system image package and overwrites the onboard eMMC and miniboot_flash on Norflash.

1. For Product type, select RDK S100.

2. For Connection type, select USB. For Download mode, select DFU+Fastboot or Fastboot.

3. For Storage, select eMMC. For Firmware type, select secure.

4. To the right of Image directory, click Browse and select the product folder that contains the firmware.

   

5. (Optional) To flash multiple devices at once, see the XBurn Manual Batch flashing (software limit 8 devices, recommended ≤4; the more devices, the higher the failure rate, and stability depends on the cable, USB hub, power supply, and other hardware. The software provides no guarantee). For batch flashing, turn off Reboot after flashing so that one device rebooting does not affect the others.

6. (Optional) Expand Advanced configuration and select Reboot after flashing. After flashing, the device reboots automatically, so you do not need to power off, exit download mode, and power on again manually. For details, see the XBurn Manual Auto-reboot and boot check after flashing.

7. Click Start flashing. The device powers on and flashing starts. Wait for the progress to complete.

8. After flashing completes, exit the corresponding mode (for DFU mode, toggle the flashing switch down to exit), and power off.

9. Verify the boot. Keep the device powered off, connect the device to a monitor with an HDMI cable, then power on the device. On first boot, the system performs default environment configuration that takes about 45 seconds, after which the Ubuntu desktop appears on the monitor.

   LED indicators

   • Green LED: Lit means the hardware is powered on normally.

   If the device produces no display output for a long time (over 2 minutes) after power-on, the boot failed and you need to debug over a serial cable. For boot failure troubleshooting, see the XBurn Manual Boot issues.

   

Advanced usage

Use this for specific scenarios other than a first-time flash.

Flash specific regions

Flash only part of the image by region, instead of the complete full-image package. For Storage medium, select eMMC. The supported regions are:

Region	Actual storage medium	Firmware content	Image
miniboot_flash	Norflash	Basic boot image on Norflash, including images for HSM/MCU0 and other system components	img_packages/disk/miniboot_flash.img
miniboot_emmc	eMMC	Basic boot image on eMMC, including images for BL31/U-Boot and other system components	img_packages/disk/miniboot_emmc.img
emmc	eMMC	Complete eMMC image, already includes miniboot_emmc	img_packages/disk/emmc_disk.simg

Starting from the steps in Flash the full image, expand Advanced configuration, select Flash specific regions, and select the target regions (such as miniboot_flash and miniboot_emmc). Complete the flash and verify the boot.

Back up specific regions

Back up the image of specific regions to your PC. For Storage, select eMMC. The supported backup regions are:

Region	Actual storage medium	Firmware content	Backup image
miniboot_flash	Norflash	Complete Norflash image	img_packages/disk/miniboot_flash_backup.img
emmc	eMMC	Complete eMMC image	img_packages/disk/emmc_disk_backup.img

Starting from the steps in Flash the full image, expand Advanced configuration, select Back up specific regions, and select the target region (such as miniboot_flash). After flashing, open img_packages/disk/ and check the backup image file miniboot_flash_backup.img.

Note

• Data backup takes a long time. Wait patiently.
• To flash a backup image, remove _backup from the filename and change it to the same filename used for flashing a specific region (for example, emmc_disk_backup.img → emmc_disk.simg).

Flash specific partition images

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

Starting from the steps in Flash the full image, expand Advanced configuration, select Flash specific partition images, and select the target partitions. Complete the flash and verify the boot.

The partition options that appear after selection are: