Flashing BIOS Firmware

Firmware Notes

Radxa Dragon Q8B ships with BIOS firmware preinstalled. Normally you do not need to flash the boot firmware. If the system fails to boot properly, you can try reflashing the BIOS firmware.

The core task of BIOS firmware (BootROM + bootloader) is to initialize hardware in stages (CPU -> memory -> storage), then load the operating system kernel from the storage device.

When the device cannot boot properly, enter EDL Mode, then use the EDL tool to flash the BIOS firmware.

Go to the Resource Downloads page, download and extract the edl-ng archive, then select the corresponding version for your system platform to download the BIOS firmware.

Flashing BIOS Firmware

Windows

• Enter EDL Mode

• Run the following command to flash the BIOS firmware

Windows$

.\edl-ng.exe --memory=spinor --loader C:\path\to\prog_firehose_ddr.elf rawprogram C:\path\to\rawprogram0.xml C:\path\to\patch0.xml

Linux

Add the Linux version of the edl-ng tool to the system environment path so that you can run edl-ng from any terminal location.

• Check the path

Open a terminal in the folder that contains the edl-ng tool. Use realpath to view the full path of edl-ng, then create a symbolic link for it.

Linux$

realpath edl-ng

Example terminal output:

/home/user/edl-ng-dist/linux-x64/edl-ng

• Create a symbolic link

Linux$

sudo ln -s [edl-ng path] /usr/local/bin/edl-ng
# Example
sudo ln -s /home/user/edl-ng-dist/linux-x64/edl-ng /usr/local/bin/edl-ng

Parameter description:

• [edl-ng path] : Replace this with the full path to your own edl-ng tool

• Verify

Open a terminal in any location and run edl-ng --version to view version information.

Linux$

edl-ng --version

If the terminal prints version information, the symbolic link for edl-ng was created successfully.

• Enter EDL Mode

• Flash BIOS Firmware

Go to the Resource Downloads page, download the BIOS firmware file, extract it, open a terminal in the directory containing prog_firehose_ddr.elf, and use edl-ng to flash the BIOS firmware.

Linux$

sudo edl-ng --memory=spinor rawprogram rawprogram0.xml patch0.xml --loader=prog_firehose_ddr.elf

Restart the device after flashing

After the BIOS firmware is successfully flashed, please restart the device using either of the following methods:

• Re-plug the device power
• Run the edl-ng reset command in the terminal

Erase BIOS Firmware

Erasing the BIOS firmware will prevent the device from booting. You must reflash the BIOS firmware before the device can boot normally. Do not erase the BIOS firmware unless necessary.

Windows

• Enter EDL Mode

• Erase BIOS Firmware

Open a terminal and run the following commands to erase it:

Windows$

.\edl-ng.exe --memory spinor -l prog_firehose_ddr.elf erase-part ddr
.\edl-ng.exe --memory spinor -l prog_firehose_ddr.elf erase-part uefi
.\edl-ng.exe --memory spinor -l prog_firehose_ddr.elf erase-part devcfg
.\edl-ng.exe --memory spinor -l prog_firehose_ddr.elf erase-part xbl
.\edl-ng.exe --memory spinor -l prog_firehose_ddr.elf erase-part VarStore

Linux

• Enter EDL Mode

Add the Linux version of the edl-ng tool to the system environment path so that you can run edl-ng from any terminal location.

• Check the path

Open a terminal in the folder that contains the edl-ng tool. Use realpath to view the full path of edl-ng, then create a symbolic link for it.

Linux$

realpath edl-ng

Example terminal output:

/home/user/edl-ng-dist/linux-x64/edl-ng

• Create a symbolic link

Linux$

sudo ln -s [edl-ng path] /usr/local/bin/edl-ng
# Example
sudo ln -s /home/user/edl-ng-dist/linux-x64/edl-ng /usr/local/bin/edl-ng

Parameter description:

• [edl-ng path] : Replace this with the full path to your own edl-ng tool

• Verify

Open a terminal in any location and run edl-ng --version to view version information.

Linux$

edl-ng --version

If the terminal prints version information, the symbolic link for edl-ng was created successfully.

• Erase BIOS Firmware

Open a terminal in the directory containing prog_firehose_ddr.elf, then run the following commands to erase it

Linux$

sudo edl-ng --memory spinor -l prog_firehose_ddr.elf erase-part ddr
sudo edl-ng --memory spinor -l prog_firehose_ddr.elf erase-part uefi
sudo edl-ng --memory spinor -l prog_firehose_ddr.elf erase-part devcfg
sudo edl-ng --memory spinor -l prog_firehose_ddr.elf erase-part xbl
sudo edl-ng --memory spinor -l prog_firehose_ddr.elf erase-part VarStore

FAQ

• If you see Unable to load DLL 'libusb-1.0'

Install vc_redist