NXP Flex-Installer installation in Linux

Note: This project was written in July of 2023 with Flex-Installer version 1.14.2110 as the latest release, but should continue to be applicable to newer releases

What is Flex-Installer?

• Flex-Installer allows a user to quickly deploy LLDP or LSDK images for various use cases such as deploying firmware images and formatting storage devices
• Flex-Installer is a bash script written and maintained by NXP
• Flex-Installer source code is provided on GitHub and is licensed under the BSD 3-Clause

Where can I find the Flex-Installer on GitHub?

Navitate to GitHub nxp-imx/meta-nxp-desktop

From there, navigate to the /scripts directory

Make sure you are looking at the latest branch or tag.

These were the latest as of the time this article was written

• Branch: lf-6.1.22-2.0.0-mickledore
• Tag: rel_lf_6.1.22_2.0.0_ldp

You will see two files

• Documentation: Named README-flex-installer.md or README.md
• Bash script: Named flex-installer_1.14.2110.lf or flex-installer

Where can I find documentation on how to use Flex-Installer?

There are 4 sources of documentation that I know of, and there may be more

1 The README-flex-installer.md file on GitHub

2 The LLDP User Guide, HTML version

• Section Download and deploy Layerscape LDP images in Linux environment using flex-installer
• Section Deploying Layerscape LDP images to a board using flex-installer

3 The LLDP User Guide, PDF version

• Section 4.2 Download and deploy Layerscape LDP images in Linux environment using flex-installer
• Section 4.4 Deploying Layerscape LDP images to a board using flex-installer
• Section 4.6 Downloading a TinyDistro image to a Layerscape board using flex-installer

4 The LSDK User Guide, HTML version, Download and deploy LSDK images with flex-installer in Linux environment

How do I install the Flex-Installer?

I will provide 2 methods for installing the Flex-Installer

• 1 The method offered by NXP in the GitHub scripts README-flex-installer.md
• 2 The method that I recommend

Why does my method differ from NXP's method?

NXP wants to install the script to /usr/bin which is reserved for applications installed by a package manager. The correct location to install the script is /usr/local/bin. I also want to be able to call Flex-Installer as root, and I have experienced a situation where root did not have access to /usr/local/bin but did have access to /usr/local/sbin; this is an unusual case but I like to fix possible issues in advance.

Installing Flex-Installer as per NXP

EXAMPLE $ git clone https://github.com/nxp-imx/meta-nxp-desktop.git \
        -b lf-6.1.1-1.0.0-langdale && \
    cp meta-nxp-desktop/scripts/flex-installer_1.14.2110.lf \
        /usr/bin/flex-installer && \
    sudo chmod a+x /usr/bin/flex-installer && \
    flex-installer -v

Installing Flex-Installer using my preferred method

Note: I have included a bash script in this project that you can download. It will perform all of the below commands for you automatically

Note: In the instructions that follow, the "$" represents a Linux Bash shell prompt and signifies that you are to copy all of the text after the "$"

Copy the following text into your preferred editor and modify as needed, then paste into the command line

$ export Account="https://github.com/nxp-imx" && \
    export Project="meta-nxp-desktop"           && \
    export Directory="scripts"                  && \
    export Branch="lf-6.1.22-2.0.0-mickledore"  && \
    export Tag="rel_lf_6.1.22_2.0.0_ldp"        && \
    export GitName="flex-installer_1.14.2110.lf"  && \
    export BuildDir="${HOME}/Builds"  && \
    export FileName="flex-installer"

Move to the build directory

$ mkdir -p "$BuildDir" && cd "$BuildDir"

Delete previous cloned project, if it exists

$ rm -rf "${Project}"

Clone the project and move into it

$ git clone "${Account}/${Project}" -b "${Branch}" && \
    cd "${Project}"

Check out the specified tag

$ git checkout "tags/${Tag}"

Remove old versions of UUU

$ sudo rm -f "/usr/local/sbin/${FileName}" && \
    sudo rm -f "/usr/local/bin/${FileName}"

Install Flex-Builder for user access

$ sudo cp "${BuildDir}/${Project}/${Directory}/${GitName}" \
    "/usr/local/bin/${FileName}"

Change permissions

$ sudo chmod a+x "/usr/local/bin/${FileName}"

Add symbolic link for root

$ sudo ln -s "/usr/local/bin/${FileName}" \
    "/usr/local/sbin/${FileName}"

Test that the Flex-Installer is properly installed

$ flex-installer -v

The end

Please let me know in the comments if these instructions were useful for you.

If you run into any issues, please share what happened so I can update my instructions.