Setup Nvidia Jetson AGX Xavier

Setting up Nvidia Jetson products is neither comfortable nor easy. I struggled the last weekend to get my AGX Xavier up and running and found that many other had and have problems to use the Nvidia SDK Manager correctly.

Here are the neccessary information for you to succeed:

  • You need Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS Desktop, even though Ubuntu 20.04 is officially supported, it does not work with the AGX Xavier.
  • You can write the Ubuntu ISO image to a USB flash drive and use the Try Ubuntu feature, a full installation is not necessary (even if the Nvidia guys say so). But: You need a possibility to store ~40 GB of data which is downloaded by the SDK manager. Use a second flash drive.
  • When you boot Ubuntu 18 from a flash drive you have to activate the universe repository by executing sudo add-apt-repository universe When you do a full install of Ubuntu, the repository is installed automatically.
  • Now connect the Jetson via USB to your PC and switch it on by connecting the power cable and push the left button.
  • Install the SDK Manager. When Ubuntu says it cannot install the tool because some dependencies are not installable, you missed adding the universe repository.
  • When you start the SDK Manager the tool will show you that the AGX Xavier is connected. In case that the tool says that your current OS is not supported or that there are no versions supporting your OS you did not boot Ubuntu 18.04.5 (it happend to me using CentOS 7, CentOS 8 and Ubuntu 20.04)
  • The SDK Manager will download the required files. You might have to switch the download directory. The installation will follow.
  • After flashing the OS you will see a promt asking for an IP, a user name and a password. You now have to connect keyboard, mouse and monitor to your Jetson. On this monitor you will see that the Jetson will configure the installation. You have to enter a user name and a password that you will have to enter on your host pc (the Ubuntu 18.04).
  • It can happen (at least it happend to me and to many more other users on the net) that the Jetson does not boot but shows the Nvidia logo over and over again. I had no other option but removing the sd card and delete all partitions on it and then flash the Jetson again.
  • When you configured the Jetson correctly, the SDK Manager will continue to install the SDK on the OS. When it is done, your Jetson is ready to use.

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