Upgrade NVIDIA Jetson Xavier AGX from Ubuntu Bionic Beaver to Focal Fossa

We want to upgrade a NVIDIA Jetson Xavier AGX 16GB:

• from Ubuntu Bionic Beaver 18.04 LTS
• to Ubuntu Focal Fossa 20.04 LTS

TLDR: Before starting the update of your Jetson Xavier AGX, you must remove the chromium and libopencv-dev packages. This should prevent you from encountering the problems detailed below.

Let’s start from the beginning.

Check current release

We will upgrade a Jetson Xavier:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo lshw -C system
neuralux                      
    description: Computer
    product: Jetson-AGX
    serial: 0422128031978
    width: 64 bits
    capabilities: smp cp15_barrier setend swp

with Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS:

moore@neuralux:~$ cat /etc/os-release 
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="18.04.5 LTS (Bionic Beaver)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS"
VERSION_ID="18.04"
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
VERSION_CODENAME=bionic
UBUNTU_CODENAME=bionic

We can use the jetson_stats pip module to get current libraries versions:

moore@neuralux:~$ jetson_release
 - NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier [16GB]
   * Jetpack 4.2.3 [L4T 32.2.3]
   * NV Power Mode: MODE_30W_ALL - Type: 3
   * jetson_stats.service: active
 - Libraries:
   * CUDA: 10.0.326
   * cuDNN: 7.5.0.56
   * TensorRT: 5.1.6.1
   * Visionworks: 1.6.0.500n
   * OpenCV: 3.3.1 compiled CUDA: NO
   * VPI: NOT_INSTALLED
   * Vulkan: 1.1.70

You can check the kernel version:

moore@neuralux:~$ uname -a
Linux neuralux 4.9.140-tegra #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Nov 5 13:37:19 PST 2019 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Pre-update

You should first update all packages before doing a major upgrade.

If you try a “do-release-upgrade” you will hit this error:

Checking for a new Ubuntu release
Please install all available updates for your release before upgrading.

First resynchronize the package index files from their sources:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo apt update

Upgrade all your packages:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo apt upgrade -y

Clean unused packages:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo apt autoremove

Reboot:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo systemctl reboot

Reconnect and do the dist upgrade:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo do-release-upgrade
...
Updating repository information

Third party sources disabled

Some third party entries in your sources.list were disabled. You can
re-enable them after the upgrade with the 'software-properties' tool
or your package manager.

To continue please press [ENTER]
...
Unpacking libattr1:arm64 (1:2.4.48-5) over (1:2.4.47-2build1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:            
 /tmp/apt-dpkg-install-hSThiV/00-chromium-browser_1%3a85.0.4183.83-0ubuntu0.20.04.2_arm64.deb
Exception during pm.DoInstall():  E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 chromium-browser-l10n

Upgrade complete 

The upgrade has completed but there were errors during the upgrade 
process. 

To continue please press [ENTER]

Remove chromium:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo apt-get remove --purge chromium-browser chromium-browser-l10n -y

Upgrade the last packages not upgraded:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo apt upgrade -y

Remove libopencv-dev:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo dpkg --purge --force-all libopencv-dev

Fix the install:

moore@neuralux:~$ apt --fix-broken install

Check remaining packages:

moore@neuralux:~$ apt list --upgradable
Listing... Done
orca/focal-updates 3.36.2-1ubuntu1~20.04.1 all [upgradable from: 3.28.0-3ubuntu1]
N: There are 2 additional versions. Please use the '-a' switch to see them.

Upgrade orca:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo apt install orca -y

Clean packages:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo apt autoremove -y

Finally reboot:

moore@neuralux:~$ sudo systemctl reboot

Connect to the Xavier:

moore@laptop:~$ ssh neuralux
Welcome to Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.9.140-tegra aarch64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/advantage
This system has been minimized by removing packages and content that are
not required on a system that users do not log into.

To restore this content, you can run the 'unminimize' command.

0 updates can be installed immediately.
0 of these updates are security updates.

Last login: Mon Nov 22 23:45:40 2020 from 192.168.1.10
moore@neuralux:~$ 

Check the release:

moore@neuralux:~$ cat /etc/os-release 
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="20.04.1 LTS (Focal Fossa)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS"
VERSION_ID="20.04"
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
VERSION_CODENAME=focal
UBUNTU_CODENAME=focal

I’ve also done an upgrade on one Jetson Nano and I had the same chromium and opencv errors. It was not a straightforward upgrade, but the system has moved to Foca Fossa.

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