Sporadic reboots when running Android Oreo 8.1 on Apalis i.MX8QM

Hello all,

I successfully booted Android Oreo 8.1 on Apalis i.MX8QM SoM.

I have used the NXP BSP for the MEK_8M platform as a reference, and with some tweaks I ported to the Apalis i.MX8QM module.

It did run well with some bugs, although I tested only the basic features (UI, input, etc). And I think the bugs are expected since the BSP is still in beta.

But during the tests I experienced sporadic reboots in the OS startup or when using the Launcher application.

After more tests I discovered that lowering the frequency of the Cortex A72 cores solved the problem. I did the tests using the cpufreq subsystem of the Linux kernel. In specific, Android works well when the Cortex A72 is running with 1056000Hz, but sporadically reboots when I increase the frequency to 1464000Hz.

Maybe it is related to the SoC temperature? Is this behavior expected?

Best regards,

Sergio Prado - Embedded Labworks

Dear @sprado,

thank you very much for your interesting in Toradex products and for sharing your experience on the Toradex Developer Community.

I would say that the temperature could be one of the reason for the behavior you are experiencing. What is the thermal solution you are using in your system?

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

Hi, Sergio! This is Gustavo from the Toradex Brazil office.

Did you run the tests with a fan over the heatsink?

Leonardo was running some benchmarks here and he told me that the sporadic rebooting stopped when running with a fan, even with the A72 frequency set to 1.4GHz, so probably it is temperature-related, indeed.

Best regards,

Gustavo.

@diego.tx, I’m using just the heatsink.

@gustavo.tx, I’ll try the fan over the heatsink and let you know the results.

Thanks!

Hi @sprado,
thanks a lot for your feedback. Yes, the fan is definitely recommended.

Hi, @sprado!

The hardware guys found that the reboot issue was caused by an incorrect modification to the carrier board.
This is the errata document with more information about the issue and a guide for fixing it.

I’ve spoken to Gui about this and we’ll get in touch with you soon.

Hello Gustavo,

Thanks for the feedback. Gui already told me about the issue. I’ll try the fix and let you now the results.

Best regards,

Sergio Prado

Hello Gustavo,

Thanks for the feedback. Gui already told me about the issue. I’ll try the fix and let you now the results.

Best regards,

Sergio Prado