Most modern embedded SoCs provide a ROM-based recovery mechanism to bootstrap an unflashed device or revive a system whose bootloader has failed. Unfortunately, these mechanisms are typically vendor-specific, poorly documented, and supported only non-standard, sometimes closed, tools. Engineers end up juggling different utilities for each SoC family, with varying user interfaces and commands.

Snagboot addresses this fragmentation. It is a vendor-agnostic, fully open-source recovery and reflashing tool written in Python, with support for TI, NXP, Microchip, ST, Broadcom, Amlogic, and Xilinx platforms (and Rockchip on the way). Through its components snagrecover, snagflash, and snagfactory, Snagboot offers a unified workflow for recovery, reflashing, and factory programming. This talk will give a concise introduction to how Snagboot works and where it fits in the bring-up and manufacturing process.