Software Packages and the Update Mechanism ¶
NVIDIA provides additional
NVIDIA
®
Jetson™
Linux software components and updates in APT
(Debian) repositories, accessible through the
apt
utility.
Installing Additional Packages ¶
NVIDIA maintains the following APT repositories:
-
For NVIDIA ® Jetson AGX Xavier™ series
-
For NVIDIA ® Jetson Xavier™ NX series
-
For NVIDIA ® Jetson AGX Orin™
The package
nvidia-l4t-apt-source
is preinstalled in the Jetson Linux root
file system. It identifies the platform it is running on and adds the
appropriate repositories to the software source list.
The packages in the APT repositories are signed with GPG keys. The
corresponding public key is preinstalled in the Jetson Linux root file system.
Once the repositories are added to the source list,
apt
can download and
install packages.
Note
The APT repositories described here are also used to upgrade existing packages and install packages that NVIDIA adds to the set initially installed with Jetson Linux. For more information, see Updating a Jetson Device .
Repackaging Debian Packages ¶
You can use the script
nvdebrepack.sh
to repackage the existing Jetson Linux
Debian packages. The script can be found in the directory
Linux_for_Tegra/tools/Debian/
. See
Linux_for_Tegra/tools/Debian/nvdebrepack.txt
for usage and examples.
Building Kernel Debian Packages Yourself ¶
You can customize the Jetson Linux kernel by getting the kernel source packages, making your changes, and building the Debian packages.
This section describes the package dependencies and scripts that NVIDIA uses to build the kernel packages. You may use it as a reference to create your own Debian packages.
Working with the Packages ¶
The kernel packages are all open source. Three of the four kernel
packages are in
public_sources.tbz2
. You can download the archive from
the NVIDIA Developer Center.
This archive contains another archive named
kernel_src.tbz2
, which in
turn contains three directories of header files:
-
nvidia-l4t-kernel/
-
nvidia-l4t-kernel-dtbs/
-
nvidia-l4t-kernel-headers/
The debian.org Guide for Debian Maintainers gives guidelines for modifying the open source files and creating new Debian packages from them.
The fourth kernel package,
nvidia-l4t-jetson-io
, is discussed in
nvidia-l4t-jetson-io
, below.
Package Dependencies ¶
Most Jetson Linux Debian packages pre-depend on
nvidia-l4t-core
. This package
prevents package installation on an incompatible Jetson platform, e.g.,
installing a Jetson software package on a non-Jetson device.
nvidia-l4t-core
does not perform the installation if it detects an incompatible
platform.
nvidia-l4t-core
also prevents a
partial upgrade
, in which one Jetson Linux package upgrades to a new major release, but other Jetson Linux packages that depend on it are not upgraded as well. Partial upgrades can cause compatibility issues between firmware, programs, and libraries that have been upgraded and ones that have not.
nvidia-l4t-kernel ¶
nvidia-l4t-kernel
contains files for the Jetson Linux kernel itself.
Pre-Dependencies and Dependencies ¶
This package’s pre-dependencies are:
-
nvidia-l4t-core
(must match this package’s major release)
This package’s dependencies are:
-
nvidia-l4t-tools
-
nvidia-l4t-init
Package Scripts ¶
This package has a post-installation script which you can get by
extracting the
.deb
file. It performs these actions:
-
Executes
depmod -a
. -
Creates a dpkg trigger file named
/usr/lib/linux/triggers/
. The trigger invokes actions defined in/etc/kernel/postinst.d
to updateinitramfs/grub configs/…
when the kernel is updated. This conforms to the standard Ubuntu kernel update procedure.
nvidia-l4t-kernel-dtbs ¶
nvidia-l4t-kernel-dtbs
contains files for Jetson Linux’s device tree blobs (DTBs).
The package installs all of the
.dtb
files in
/boot/
. When you flash a
board, it installs the
.dtb
file used by that board in
/boot/dtb/
by
checking the board specification against the DTBs’ compatibility information.
Pre-Dependencies and Dependencies ¶
This package’s pre-dependencies are:
-
nvidia-l4t-core
(must match this package’s major release)
This package’s dependencies are:
-
device-tree-compiler
-
nvidia-l4t-kernel
Package Scripts ¶
This package has a post-installation script, which you can get by
extracting the
.deb
file.
The post-installation script performs these actions:
-
Decompiles the
.dtb
file used by the board in/boot/dtb/
and gets thebootargs
property in the/chosen
node. -
Decompiles the corresponding
.dtb
file in/boot/
and substitutes thebootargs
property from step 1 in the resulting.dts
file. -
Recompiles the
.dts
file to a.dtb
file and puts it in/boot/dtb/
.
nvidia-l4t-kernel-headers ¶
nvidia-l4t-kernel-headers
contains Jetson Linux kernel header files.
Pre-Dependencies and Dependencies ¶
This package’s pre-dependencies are:
-
nvidia-l4t-core
(must match this package’s major release)
This package’s dependencies are:
-
nvidia-l4t-kernel
-
libc6
-
libssl1.1
Package Scripts ¶
This package has no package scripts.
nvidia-l4t-jetson-io ¶
nvidia-l4t-jetson-io
contains Python scripts concerned with Jetson I/O functions.
Pre-Dependencies and Dependencies ¶
This package’s pre-dependencies are:
-
nvidia-l4t-core
(must match this package’s major release)
This package’s dependencies are:
-
mount
-
python3
-
util-linux
-
nvidia-l4t-kernel
-
device-tree-compiler
You can also get the dependencies by extracting the Debian file.
Package Scripts ¶
This package has no package scripts.
Over-the-Air Update ¶
Over-the-Air (OTA) Update enables you to update NVIDIA Jetson devices and host computers for Jetson development.
Jetson Linux supports two forms of OTA, which are used for different purposes. Debian package management-based OTA can update Jetson devices running Jetson Linux or Jetson components on a host computer. Image-based OTA lets you create OTA payload packages, and can update the full image running on a Jetson device, partition by partition. The following sections describe both forms of OTA.
Updating from the NVIDIA APT Server ¶
The first form of OTA update uses Debian packages obtained from an NVIDIA APT server. You can use this form of OTA update to update a Jetson device running Jetson Linux or to update NVIDIA JetPack™ components installed on a host computer running Ubuntu. The APT server maintains respective groups of Debian packages for each purpose.
This section describes the tools and packages that provide basic support for Jetson Linux.
Note
You cannot use OTA update to update a Jetson device on which JetPack is installed.
To update JetPack and Jetson Linux components to a new JetPack release on a system where both are installed, see the instructions in the JetPack documentation .
NVIDIA does not recommend installing OTA Debian packages on a Jetson Linux release earlier than release 32.3.1, or on a system that is based on Ubuntu without the customization of Jetson Linux.
Updating a Jetson Device ¶
Use the appropriate procedure below to update your system:
-
To update to a new point release of the same minor release; for example, from release 34.1.0 to 34.1.1
-
To update to new minor release ; for example, from release 34.0.0 to 34.1.0
To update to a new point release ¶
-
Enter the command:
$ sudo apt update
apt
reads a list of packages from the remote APT repository and identifies new and upgradable packages. -
Enter the command:
$ apt list --upgradable
apt
displays a list of new and upgradable packages. -
To install the basic packages for Jetson Linux, enter the command:
$ sudo apt upgrade
-
Reboot your Jetson device when the upgrade is finished.
To update to a new minor release ¶
-
Open the
apt
source configuration file in a text editor, for example:$ sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-l4t-apt-source.list
-
Change the repository name and download URL in the
deb
commands.The original commands are:
deb https://repo.download.nvidia.com/jetson/common
main deb https://repo.download.nvidia.com/jetson/ main Where:
-
is the release number of the minor release you want to update to. For example, to update to minor release 34.1, replace with r34.1
. OTA updates to the latest point release of the specified minor release. -
-
t234
for NVIDIA ® Jetson AGX Orin™ -
t194
for Jetson Xavier NX series or Jetson AGX Xavier series
-
For example, if the current release is release 34.1 and your platform is Jetson AGX Orin series, the commands are:
deb https://repo.download.nvidia.com/jetson/common r34.1 main deb https://repo.download.nvidia.com/jetson/t234 r34.1 main
-
-
Save and close the source configuration file.
-
Enter the commands:
$ sudo apt update $ sudo apt dist-upgrade
If
apt
prompts you to choose an option to fix local modified configuration file, reply Y for yes (to use the NVIDIA updated version of the file). -
When the upgrade is finished, reboot the Jetson device.
Note
-
Upgrade from 34.0.0 to 34.1.0 on Jetson Xavier NX series or Jetson AGX Xavier series is not supported
-
The
do-release-upgrade
command is disabled because Jetson Linux does not officially support Ubuntu release 22.04 at this time.
Updating a Host ¶
NVIDIA provides a group of Debian packages that add or update Jetson Linux support components on the host computer.
To prepare the host computer to install Jetson Linux support components ¶
-
Enter this command to install the public key of the x86_64 repository of the public APT server:
$ sudo apt-key adv --fetch-key https://repo.download.nvidia.com/jetson/jetson-ota-public.asc
-
Add the following x86_64 repository to the host system’s source list.
-
For an Ubuntu 18.04 host:
deb http://repo.download.nvidia.com/jetson/x86_64/bionic
main -
For an Ubuntu 20.04 host:
deb http://repo.download.nvidia.com/jetson/x86_64/focal
main
Where
-
-
Enter the command:
$ sudo apt update
-
Use
apt
to download and install the required packages.-
For an Ubuntu 18.04 host:
$ sudo apt-get install cuda-toolkit-11-4 cuda-cross-aarch64-11-4 \ libnvvpi2 vpi2-dev vpi2-cross-aarch64-l4t python3-vpi2 \ python3.9-vpi2 vpi2-samples nsight-systems-2021.5.4 \ nsight-graphics-for-embeddedlinux-2021.5.1
-
For an Ubuntu 20.04 host:
$ sudo apt-get install cuda-toolkit-11-4 cuda-cross-aarch64-11-4 \ libnvvpi2 vpi2-dev vpi2-cross-aarch64-l4t python3-vpi2 \ python3.9-vpi2 vpi2-samples nsight-systems-2021.5.4 \ nsight-graphics-for-embeddedlinux-2021.5.1
-
Debian Packages on the NVIDIA APT Server ¶
This section lists the Debian packages maintained on the NVIDIA APT server for a Jetson device or a host.
Update Packages for Jetson Devices ¶
Following is a list of OTA update packages for BSP on Jetson devices as of Jetson Linux release 34.1.
For a list of other OTA packages and instructions for applying them, see “List of JetPack OTA Packages” in JetPack SDK .
Component group |
Packages |
---|---|
BSP |
|
Update Packages for Hosts ¶
The following table lists Jetson Linux support components that you can install with apt on a host, and the packages that contain them.
Component group |
Packages |
---|---|
CUDA |
|
CUDA cross-compile |
|
Computer Vision |
|
Developer Tools |
|
Customizing Debian Packages ¶
You can customize Debian packages to help you implement your solution, for example, by adding support for your carrier board. For more information, see Repackaging Debian Packages and Building Kernel Debian Packages Yourself .
Downloading Debian Packages for Later Use ¶
As an alternative to installing Debian packages on a Jetson device or host from the APT server, you can download packages and store them, and later install them manually.
To download packages, open the NVIDIA Jetson repository in a web browser. This page displays a list of Debian packages for each JetPack release and processor. Each package name is a hyperlink; to download a package, click its link.
Updating Jetson Linux with Image-Based Over-the-Air Update ¶
Image-Based Over-the-Air Update is a failsafe way to update BSP on a Jetson device by writing pre-generated images to the partitions. It can update many old BSP versions to newer ones. This feature will be supported in next public release.