Qcom Flash Qdl

Flash a board over EDL with QDL

Flashes the qcomflash bundle produced by a meta-qcom build (see qcom-yocto-build-image) or a prebuilt image download (see qcom-yocto-download-prebuilt) onto a board in EDL mode, following meta-qcom's docs/flashing.md and the Dragonwing flash guide.

Prerequisites

• qdl — obtained via one of these sources (checked in order):

  1. Qualcomm IDE VS Code extension (preferred, no download needed; only applicable if Qualcomm IDE is installed): the extension bundles prebuilt qdl binaries for all platforms. Locate them based on your OS:

     Linux / WSL (remote extension host):

     ls ~/.vscode-server/extensions/qualcomm.qualcomm-ide*/build/extension/tools/qdl/
     # or for local VS Code installs:
     ls ~/.vscode/extensions/qualcomm.qualcomm-ide*/build/extension/tools/qdl/
     

     Use QDL_Linux_x64/qdl or QDL_Linux_ARM64/qdl depending on your arch.

     macOS:

     ls ~/.vscode/extensions/qualcomm.qualcomm-ide*/build/extension/tools/qdl/
     

     Use QDL_Mac_ARM64/qdl (Apple Silicon) or QDL_Mac_x64/qdl (Intel).

     Windows (PowerShell):

     ls "$env:USERPROFILE\.vscode\extensions\qualcomm.qualcomm-ide*\build\extension\tools\qdl\"
     

     Use QDL_Win_x64\qdl.exe or QDL_Win_ARM64\qdl.exe.

  2. Download from upstream linux-msm/qdl releases (if the extension is absent): official prebuilt binaries are published at https://github.com/linux-msm/qdl/releases (e.g. the v2.8 release). Download the archive for your platform and extract it. On Linux/macOS run chmod +x qdl after extracting.

  3. System PATH: if qdl (or qdl.exe on Windows) is already on PATH it can be used directly.

• USB access / host OS setup (skip the steps that do not apply to your OS):

  • Linux: add a udev rule for VID:PID 05c6:9008 so qdl can access the EDL device as a non-root user (see "Update udev rules" in the Qualcomm flashing docs). Without it, prefix each qdl command with sudo. Also stop ModemManager if it is running — it will grab the EDL device:

    systemctl is-active ModemManager && sudo systemctl stop ModemManager
    

  • WSL: USB passthrough is required. Attach the EDL device with usbipd from a Windows administrator shell before running qdl in WSL:

    # List devices — find the one with VID 05c6 PID 9008
    usbipd list
    usbipd bind --busid <BUSID>
    usbipd attach --wsl --busid <BUSID>
    

    The udev rule and ModemManager steps above still apply inside WSL.

  • macOS: no udev or ModemManager. qdl needs raw USB access — run it with sudo or grant it via a kernel extension/entitlement if your security policy requires.

  • Windows: no udev. Run qdl.exe from a Command Prompt or PowerShell with administrator privileges if required by your USB driver setup.

• The flash bundle: a *.qcomflash directory or archive from the build deploy dir or prebuilt download, containing prog_firehose_ddr.elf, rawprogram*.xml, and patch*.xml.

Procedure

Invoking qdl: if the binary is not on PATH, replace bare qdl in all commands below with the full path to the binary located in the Prerequisites step (the path printed by the ls command for your OS).

PowerShell note: PowerShell requires the & call operator to invoke an executable by path (e.g. & "C:\path\to\qdl.exe" --storage ufs ...). Also, PowerShell does not expand wildcards in command arguments the way bash does — replace rawprogram*.xml and patch*.xml with the explicit file list, or use (Get-Item rawprogram*.xml) and (Get-Item patch*.xml) to expand them inline:

& ".\qdl.exe" --storage ufs prog_firehose_ddr.elf (Get-Item rawprogram*.xml) (Get-Item patch*.xml)

0. Identify device and storage type

Ask the user which board they are flashing if not already stated. This determines storage type, whether UFS provisioning is needed, whether SAIL must be flashed, and which CDT to use.

See references/storage-types.md for the default storage type per board. Surface the storage type early — the qdl command and several later steps depend on it.

1. Stage the flash bundle

Prebuilt image (zip archive):

Linux/macOS/WSL:

unzip <prebuilt-image>.zip
cd <unzipped-image-directory>/images/<machine>/<image>-<machine>

Windows (PowerShell):

Expand-Archive <prebuilt-image>.zip -DestinationPath .
cd <unzipped-image-directory>\images\<machine>\<image>-<machine>

Compiled image (already in deploy dir):

cd build/tmp/deploy/images/<machine>/<image>-<machine>.rootfs.qcomflash

Confirm the bundle is intact — these files must all exist:

Linux/macOS/WSL:

ls prog_firehose_ddr.elf rawprogram*.xml patch*.xml

Windows (PowerShell):

ls prog_firehose_ddr.elf, rawprogram*.xml, patch*.xml

All subsequent commands run from this directory unless stated otherwise.

2. Open the serial console (recommended)

Connect the debug UART and open it at 115200 baud so flashing and the first boot can be observed.

Linux/WSL — find the device with dmesg | grep tty (e.g. /dev/ttyUSB0):

WSL: the debug UART is a separate USB device from the EDL interface. Attach it in WSL before attempting to open it — from a Windows administrator shell, identify the UART's bus ID with usbipd list and attach it:

usbipd bind --busid <UART-BUSID>
usbipd attach --wsl --busid <UART-BUSID>

picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0

macOS — find the device with ls /dev/tty.usbserial* or ls /dev/tty.SLAB_*:

screen /dev/tty.usbserial-XXXX 115200

Windows — find the COM port in Device Manager under "Ports (COM & LPT)", then use a serial-capable client such as PuTTY or TeraTerm at 115200 baud.

3. Put the board in EDL mode

How a board enters EDL is board-specific — do not guess a switch or button. See references/entering-edl.md for per-board instructions (e.g. RB3 Gen 2: hold F_DL while applying power). If your board is not listed there — including Arduino and other third-party boards (ventuno-q, uno-q, rubikpi3, …) — follow the "flash images" section of its Quick Start Guide (https://docs.qualcomm.com; Dragonwing boards: https://dragonwingdocs.qualcomm.com) rather than assuming another board's sequence. Then confirm the host sees the EDL device:

Linux/WSL:

lsusb -d 05c6:9008

macOS:

system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep -A5 "9008"

Windows (PowerShell):

pnputil /enum-devices /connected | Select-String "VID_05C6&PID_9008" -Context 3

Alternatively, open Device Manager and look for "Qualcomm HS-USB QDLoader 9008" under "Ports (COM & LPT)" or "Universal Serial Bus devices".

No match means the board is not in EDL — do not proceed; re-check the button/switch sequence and the USB cable.

WSL note: if lsusb shows the device on the Windows side but not in WSL, the USB device is not attached — run the usbipd attach command from the Prerequisites step.

4. Provision UFS

Skip this step for IQ-615-EVK (EMMC storage).

UFS must be provisioned before the first flash, and re-provisioned if the LUN layout has changed. It is safe to re-run when unsure. See references/provision-ufs.md for the per-board download URL and qdl command.

The device reboots after provisioning. Confirm it is back in EDL using the same OS-appropriate command from step 3 before proceeding.

5. Flash SAIL

Only for IQ-9075-EVK and IQ-8275-EVK. Skip for all other boards.

SAIL (Safety Island) is isolated safety-critical firmware. Its artifacts are in the sail_nor/ subdirectory of the flash bundle:

cd sail_nor
qdl --storage spinor prog_firehose_ddr.elf rawprogram0.xml patch0.xml
cd ..

6. Configure CDT

The Configuration Data Table (CDT) is device-specific initialization data. See references/cdt-by-device.md for the selection steps:

• IQ-X7181 / IQ-X5121: download a separate CDT tarball from CodeLinaro and flash it with qdl before the main image.
• All other kits: multiple CDT binaries ship inside the qcomflash bundle; copy the correct one over cdt.bin.

7. Flash

Run qdl with the storage type for the board (from step 0):

qdl --storage ufs prog_firehose_ddr.elf rawprogram*.xml patch*.xml

qdl --storage emmc prog_firehose_ddr.elf rawprogram*.xml patch*.xml

cd spinor
qdl --storage spinor xbl_s_devprg_ns.melf rawprogram*.xml patch*.xml
cd ..
qdl --storage ufs xbl_s_devprg_ns.melf rawprogram*.xml patch*.xml

With multiple boards connected, select one by serial. Obtain the serial number with the OS-appropriate command:

Linux/WSL:

lsusb -v -d 05c6:9008 | grep iSerial

macOS:

system_profiler SPUSBDataType | grep -A10 "9008" | grep "Serial Number"

Windows (PowerShell):

pnputil /enum-devices /connected | Select-String "VID_05C6&PID_9008" -Context 5

Then pass it to qdl:

qdl --storage ufs --serial=<SERIAL> prog_firehose_ddr.elf rawprogram*.xml patch*.xml

A healthy run starts with the firehose handshake (HELLO version: 0x2 ...) followed by per-partition program/patch progress. Report the qdl exit status and the last lines of output.

8. Boot and hand off

After a successful flash, power-cycle the board (or exit EDL per the board's guide) so it boots the new image, then validate the boot with the qcom-boot-validate skill.

Notes / gotchas

• A failed or interrupted qdl leaves the board in EDL mode — the recovery is simply to re-run the qdl command; no re-arming is needed.
• qdl "Waiting for EDL device" that never completes:
  • Linux/WSL: ModemManager may have stolen the device, the udev rule may be missing, or the board dropped out of EDL. On WSL, also check that the USB device is still attached via usbipd.
  • All OSes: power-cycle the board back into EDL and retry.
• Never mix bundles: rawprogram*.xml describes the partition layout for exactly the machine the image was built for; flashing another board's bundle can brick storage contents (EDL itself remains available for recovery).
• This flow writes the full partition table and images. If the user only wants to update a kernel or rootfs partition, confirm intent before flashing everything.