Sysupgrade

Once the initial installation of the OpenIPC software for your camera is complete it is possible to upgrade it either via the web interface or manually via a terminal window.

This article is about how to manually perform an update using a terminal window using the sysupgrade command.

root@openipc-${soc}:~# sysupgrade --help
OpenIPC System Updater v1.0.48

Vendor  sigmastar
SoC  ssc338q
Kernel  04:02:47 2025-07-06
RootFS  master+3674581, 2025-07-06

Usage: /usr/sbin/sysupgrade [options]
Where:
  -k                    Update kernel from online repository.
  -r                    Update rootfs from online repository.
      --url=[URL]       Custom URL to update from (.tgz format).
      --archive=[FILE]  Custom archive to update from (.tgz format).
      --kernel=[FILE]   Update kernel from file (uImage format).
      --rootfs=[FILE]   Update rootfs from file (squashfs format).
  -f, --force_all       Do not validate anything.
  -n, --wipe_overlay    Wipe overlay partition.
  -x, --no_reboot       Do not reboot after updating.
  -z, --no_update       Do not update self.
  -h, --help            Display this help and exit.

Tip

By default, sysupgrade will reboot the camera to complete the update. If you don’t wish to do that then use the -x option.

Upgrading from the GitHub latest release.

By default, running sysupgrade will attempt to download the latest software for your camera model from the github sources.

There are other options available so you can use a local copy of the Linux kernel (uImage) and camera software (rootfs.squashfs).

For old firmware running sysupgrade without parameters is enough. For newer firmware, run sysupgrade -k -r to update both kernel and rootfs is required.

Caution

Upgrading firmware can lead to “bricking” your camera. Make sure you are prepared both morally and skill wise. Have your rescue SD card and/or UART adapter ready. Be prepared to de-solder and reprogram flash chip as the last resort. Do not upgrade production cameras unless you really have to!__

Using sysupgrade

Typically running sysupgrade will give you the latest release for your camera, as described above, however if you wish to revert to a previous image, or load your own updates, then use any the options described below.

Remember once you are ready to run sysupgrade you must use the syntax sysupgrade --kernel=/tmp/uImage.${soc} --rootfs=/tmp/rootfs.squashfs.${soc} -z where ${soc} is your camera specific soc e.g. gk7205v300 otherwise the latest release on Github will be downloaded.

Using a TFTP server

On your host machine:

If you haven’t already got a TFTP server running on your host machine then take a look at the Wiki article Set up a TFTP server.

If you don’t already have the uImage and rootfs.squashfs images for your camera then go to [OpenIPC firmware latest}(https://github.com/OpenIPC/firmware/releases/tag/latest) and download the latest firmware bundle for your SoC and extract the content of the bundle into the root directory of your TFTP server.

tar xvf <firmware.tgz>

If you have built your own versions using a copy of the firmware repository then your uImage and rootsfs.squashfs images will be in your output/images folder. Copy these to the root of your tftp server.

On the camera:

You can either update the images from a Linux terminal session or from the U-Boot prompt, if you have a UART serial connection and interrupted Linux loading.

Check that your camera environment variable for the TFTP server is correct by looking for the serverip entry when listing them with fw_printenv.

If it needs updating use fw_setenv serverip <your.tftp.ip.address> command.

From Linux

soc=$(fw_printenv -n soc)
serverip=$(fw_printenv -n serverip)
cd /tmp
busybox tftp -r rootfs.squashfs.${soc} -g ${serverip}
busybox tftp -r uImage.${soc} -g ${serverip}
sysupgrade --kernel=/tmp/uImage.${soc} --rootfs=/tmp/rootfs.squashfs.${soc} -z

From U-Boot

for 8MB image

tftp ${baseaddr} uImage.${soc}
sf probe 0; sf erase 0x50000 0x200000; sf write ${baseaddr} 0x50000 ${filesize}

tftp ${baseaddr} rootfs.squashfs.${soc}
sf probe 0; sf erase 0x250000 0x500000; sf write ${baseaddr} 0x250000 ${filesize}

for 16MB image

tftp ${baseaddr} uImage.${soc}
sf probe 0; sf erase 0x50000 0x200000; sf write ${baseaddr} 0x50000 ${filesize}

tftp ${baseaddr} rootfs.squashfs.${soc}
sf probe 0; sf erase 0x250000 0xA00000; sf write ${baseaddr} 0x250000 ${filesize}

Now restart the camera to load the new images.

Using scp

On your host machine:

If you don’t already have the uImage and rootfs.squashfs images for your camera then go to OpenIPC firmware latest and download the latest firmware bundle for your SoC and extract the contents.

tar xvf <firmware.tgz>

If you have built your own versions using a copy of the firmware repository then your uImage and rootsfs.squashfs images will be in your output/images folder.

Now copy these to the camera using scp.

scp uImage* rootfs* root@<yourcameraip>:/tmp/

Note: If you get an error that ‘/usr/libexec/sftp-server could not be found’ it is because in later versions of scp sftp is now used behind the scenes and this is not built into the busybox implementation currently. To force scp to use the legacy behavour use the -O option so

scp -O uImage* rootfs* root@<yourcameraip>:/tmp/

On the camera:

Now create a terminal session with the camera e.g. ssh root@192.168.1.10 and run the sysupgrade command pointing at your new images in /tmp.

soc=$(fw_printenv -n soc)
sysupgrade --kernel=/tmp/uImage.${soc} --rootfs=/tmp/rootfs.squashfs.${soc} -z

Upgrading from an SD card

On your host machine

If you don’t already have the uImage and rootfs.squashfs images for your camera then go to OpenIPC firmware latest and download the latest firmware bundle for your SoC and extract the contents

If you have built your own versions using a copy of the firmware repository then your uImage and rootsfs.squashfs images will be in your output/images folder.

Insert an SD card into your host machine and copy the uImage and squashfs files to the card e.g.

cp uImage* rootfs* /media/<username>/<card-id>/

On your camera

Insert the SD card into your camera.

Create a terminal session and run the following

soc=$(fw_printenv -n soc)
sysupgrade --kernel=/mnt/mmcblk0p1/uImage.${soc} --rootfs=/mnt/mmcblk0p1/rootfs.squashfs.${soc} --force_ver -z

SD Card: Alternatively, from U-Boot

for 8MB image

mw.b ${baseaddr} 0xff 0x200000
fatload mmc 0:1 ${baseaddr} uImage.${soc}
sf probe 0; sf erase 0x50000 0x200000; sf write ${baseaddr} 0x50000 ${filesize}

mw.b ${baseaddr} 0xff 0x500000
fatload mmc 0:1 ${baseaddr} rootfs.squashfs.${soc}
sf probe 0; sf erase 0x250000 0x500000; sf write ${baseaddr} 0x250000 ${filesize}

for 16MB image

mw.b ${baseaddr} 0xff 0x300000
fatload mmc 0:1 ${baseaddr} uImage.${soc}
sf probe 0; sf erase 0x50000 0x300000; sf write ${baseaddr} 0x50000 ${filesize}

mw.b ${baseaddr} 0xff 0x500000
fatload mmc 0:1 ${baseaddr} rootfs.squashfs.${soc}
sf probe 0; sf erase 0x350000 0xa00000; sf write ${baseaddr} 0x350000 ${filesize}

Flashing U-Boot via ymodem

Clean 320K of RAM and load bootloader file into it:

mw.b ${baseaddr} 0xff 0x50000
loady

(press “Ctrl-a” followed by ”:”, then type)

exec !! sz --ymodem u-boot.bin

After the file if uploaded, write it into ROM:

sf probe 0
sf erase 0x0 0x50000
sf write ${baseaddr} 0x0 ${filesize}

Troubleshooting

If you got this error:

losetup: /tmp/rootfs.squashfs.${soc}: No such file or directory
Rootfs: Unable to get hostname, execution was interrupted...

then try to update only kernel first: sysupgrade -k

If it doesn’t help, use --force option: sysupgrade -r --force

If you caught a glitch, retrieve the most recent version of the utility:

curl -k -L -o /usr/sbin/sysupgrade "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/OpenIPC/firmware/master/general/overlay/usr/sbin/sysupgrade"