Jetson Optimize Memory
NVIDIAOfficialCreated by Jetson TeamDistributed by NVIDIA
- Skill
- Workflow
- Cloud and DevOps
- Apache-2.0
- Medium risk
AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
This skill provides a structured procedure to optimize memory usage on NVIDIA Jetson platforms by disabling unused hardware subsystems. By modifying MB1 BCT, MB2 BCT, kernel reserved-memory, and SWIOTLB configurations, users can reclaim DRAM carveouts that are typically reserved for features like display or camera pipelines. It is intended for headless or specialized deployments where these peripherals are not required, ensuring that memory is freed for application use while maintaining system stability.
What it does
- Provides recipes to disable display-related carveouts for headless deployments.
- Provides recipes to disable camera-related carveouts for no-camera deployments.
- Guides the user through modifying MB1 and MB2 BCT files to zero out carveouts.
- Instructs on disabling kernel reserved-memory nodes for specific hardware.
- Provides instructions for adjusting the SWIOTLB DMA bounce pool size.
- Includes mandatory verification steps to ensure changes are correctly applied and stable.
When to use it
- When deploying a Jetson module in a headless environment without a display.
- When deploying a Jetson module that does not require camera or ISP functionality.
- When you need to maximize available DRAM for compute-intensive applications.
- When you need to adjust the SWIOTLB pool size for specific peripheral DMA requirements.
Advantages
- Increases available system memory by removing unnecessary hardware reservations.
- Reduces the memory footprint of the OS for specialized embedded deployments.
- Provides a systematic, multi-layer approach to ensure boot-time stability.
- Includes verification procedures to prevent boot failures and DMA errors.
Usage examples
- “I am deploying an Orin Nano in a headless configuration. How do I reclaim the memory reserved for display?”
- The agent will guide you through the headless recipe, including disabling DCE-family carveouts in MB1/MB2 BCT and disabling the display node in the kernel DTS.
- “How can I reduce the memory footprint of my Jetson Thor deployment by disabling camera subsystems?”
- The agent will provide the no-camera recipe for T264, detailing which RCE and VI/ISP carveouts to zero out and which kernel nodes to disable.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/nvidia/jetson-optimize-memory/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip jetson-optimize-memory.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by Jetson Team
jetson-optimize-memory
Memory is reserved across four layers ordered by boot chronology (higher row = earlier in boot, closer to hardware):
| Layer | Content | Key files |
|---|---|---|
| MB1 BCT | firmware carveouts | per-module misc DTS |
| MB2 BCT | firmware loading + AST controls | per-module misc DTS |
| Kernel DTS | reserved-memory and driver binding | per-module DTS |
| SWIOTLB | DMA bounce pool size | <module>.conf.common (CMDLINE_ADD) |
Critical rules:
Only the scenarios in Scenario recipes are validated. Refuse any request to disable a carveout/cluster/node not in that table.
Zeroing a carveout requires both: disabling the cluster's loading controls AND removing the AST that references it.
Emit explicit overrides for every cluster in the recipe, regardless of how the source
#ifdef/#elselooks. Verify the merged binary.GPU SW stack must match the chip: T234 -> nvgpu, T264 and later -> OpenRM. Follow the shared derived-platform rule in
target-platform-contract.md; stop on mismatches instead of guessing.Do not set SWIOTLB to 0 — some peripherals can't use the IOMMU.
Scenario recipes
| Keyword | MB1 BCT carveouts | MB2 BCT | Kernel DTS |
|---|---|---|---|
headless | DCE-family (see chip table) | DCE auxp_controls + DCE AST(s) | display@<addr> (and dce@<addr> if exposed) → disabled |
no-camera | RCE/VI/ISP-family | RCE auxp_controls (each instance) + RCE AST(s) | recommended: VI/ISP/NVCSI → disabled |
Chip-specific carveouts
| Scenario | T234 (Orin) | T264 (Thor) |
|---|---|---|
headless | CARVEOUT_BPMP_DCE, CARVEOUT_DCE, CARVEOUT_DCE_TSEC, CARVEOUT_TSEC_DCE, CARVEOUT_DISP_EARLY_BOOT_FB | CARVEOUT_DCE, CARVEOUT_TSEC_DCE, CARVEOUT_HPSE_DCE, CARVEOUT_DISP_EARLY_BOOT_FB |
no-camera | CARVEOUT_RCE, CARVEOUT_CAMERA_TASKLIST | CARVEOUT_RCE, CARVEOUT_RCE1, CARVEOUT_RCE_RW, CARVEOUT_VI_TASKLIST, CARVEOUT_VI1_TASKLIST, CARVEOUT_ISP_TASKLIST, CARVEOUT_ISP1_TASKLIST |
Post-boot:
headless→sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target.
MB1 BCT carveout overrides
File: Linux_for_Tegra/bootloader/generic/BCT/tegra<chip>-mb1-bct-misc-<module>.dts
(e.g. tegra234-mb1-bct-misc-p3767-0000.dts for Orin Nano,
tegra264-mb1-bct-misc-p3834-0008-p4071-0000.dts for Thor).
For each carveout, add inside the existing carveout node:
aux_info@<CARVEOUT_NAME> {
pref_base = <0x0 0x0>;
size = <0x0 0x0>;
alignment = <0x0 0x0>;
};MB2 BCT cluster + AST overrides
File: Linux_for_Tegra/bootloader/generic/BCT/tegra<chip>-mb2-bct-misc-<module>.dts
(includes tegra<chip>-mb2-bct-common.dtsi).
For each target cluster:
Override
auxp_controls@<index>:auxp_controls@<index> { enable_init = <0>; enable_fw_load = <0>; enable_unhalt = <0>; };/delete-node/ auxp_ast_config@<idx>;
Look up indices in common.dtsi: auxp_controls@N carries a comment
naming its cluster; auxp_ast_config@N has ast_region children whose
carveout = <CARVEOUT_…>; lines identify the owner.
Kernel DT reserved-memory
DTB=Linux_for_Tegra/kernel/dtb/<platform-dtb-name>.dtb
dtc -I dtb -O dts -o /tmp/platform.dts $DTB
# edit: status = "disabled" on target nodes
dtc -I dts -O dtb -o $DTB /tmp/platform.dtsDisplay — disable display@<addr>, plus dce@<addr> if exposed as
a separate kernel node.
Camera — under host1x@<addr>, disable whichever of vi* / isp*
/ nvcsi exist on the BSP (only emit present nodes):
Locate the display controller node in the decompiled DTS and disable it.
The node's unit address is chip-specific — find it by compatible string
(e.g. nvidia,tegra234-display) rather than hard-coding the address.
host1x@<addr> {
vi0@<addr> { status = "disabled"; };
vi1@<addr> { status = "disabled"; };
isp@<addr> { status = "disabled"; };
isp1@<addr> { status = "disabled"; };
nvcsi@<addr> { status = "disabled"; };
};SWIOTLB DMA bounce pool
The NVIDIA IOMMU covers peripheral DMA, so SWIOTLB is rarely used.
Edit CMDLINE_ADD (never CMDLINE) in Linux_for_Tegra/<module>.conf.common:
# Total bytes = swiotlb_value × 2048; 4 MiB pool:
CMDLINE_ADD="... swiotlb=2048"Override verification (mandatory)
After every patched MB1/MB2 BCT .dts, reproduce the BSP's compile +
decompile using the same -D… flags from bct_flags.append(...) in
bootloader/tegraflash_impl_t<chip>.py:
gcc -E -nostdinc -x assembler-with-cpp \
-DENABLE_<FLAG_1> -DENABLE_<FLAG_2> \
-I bootloader -I bootloader/generic/BCT \
-o /tmp/cpp.dts <patched-bct.dts>
dtc -q -I dts -O dtb -o /tmp/cpp.dtb /tmp/cpp.dts
dtc -q -I dtb -O dts /tmp/cpp.dtb | lessConfirm in the merged output:
Each zeroed
aux_info@<NAME>(oraux_info@<id>Upost macro expansion) hassize = <0x0 0x0>andpref_base = <0x0 0x0>.Each disabled
auxp_controls@<idx>has all threeenable_*fields<0>.Each
/delete-node/'dauxp_ast_config@<idx>is absent.
Verification (on booted target)
sudo cat /proc/iomem | grep -iE 'nv-reserved|cma|fb|carveout'
ls /proc/device-tree/reserved-memory/
dmesg | grep -iE 'firmware|carveout|bpmp|reserved|fail|error' | head -20
free -m| Scenario | Sysfs | dmesg grep |
|---|---|---|
| Display off | ls /sys/class/drm/ (empty) | tegra-drm|nvdisplay|dce|host1x|fb0 |
| Camera off | ls /dev/video* 2>/dev/null (none) | rce|nvcsi|tegra-camera|vi0|vi1|isp |
| SWIOTLB shrink | cat /sys/kernel/debug/swiotlb/io_tlb_nslabs matches cmdline | swiotlb |
For SWIOTLB: /proc/cmdline must contain swiotlb=<value>, and
watch -n5 cat /sys/kernel/debug/swiotlb/io_tlb_used must stay under
io_tlb_nslabs during full workload — if exceeded, restore original
CMDLINE_ADD and re-flash kernel-dtb.
Purpose
Cut the unused DRAM carveouts that ship enabled in the reference BSP when a Jetson deployment skips display, camera, or other peripherals, freeing the freed bytes for the application. Always edits the four layers in boot order so an early-stage carveout never outranks a later-stage shrink.
Prerequisites
Active target profile resolved per
../../context/target-platform-contract.md.BSP image extracted and source tree initialized (
/jetson-init-image,/jetson-init-sourcecomplete).For headless / no-camera recipes: confirm the workload truly does not need display or camera.
Limitations
Only the validated recipes (
headless,no-camera,swiotlb) are exposed; ad-hoc subsystem disables outside the recipe set are refused.SWIOTLB shrink is bounded by peak in-flight DMA — exceeding the new
io_tlb_nslabsrequires reverting the change.BPMP-DTB edits land in the overlay tracker only after Customize + Build + Deploy run; this skill does not flash on its own.
Troubleshooting
Boot fails after MB1 BCT carveout disable — restore the pristine misc DTS and re-flash; the missing carveout is mandatory for the active SoC.
io_tlb_usedexceedsio_tlb_nslabs— revertswiotlb=inCMDLINE_ADDand re-flash the kernel DTB partition.Reclaimed delta smaller than expected — verify the recipe truly matched the deployment (e.g. display still attached); use the
dmesg | grep -iE 'firmware|carveout'check in this file to confirm.Validation
dmesgshows the disabled subsystem still probing — the change probably did not promote through tobsp_image; re-run/jetson-promote-image.
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer929 B
- BENCHMARK.md3.7 KiB
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer11.2 KiB
- SKILL.md8.0 KiB
- evals/evals.json4.8 KiB
- skill-card.md3.6 KiB
- skill.oms.sig4.5 KiB
LICENSE
Copyright (c) 2026 NVIDIA CORPORATION & AFFILIATES. All rights reserved.
Apache License
Version 2.0, January 2004
http://www.apache.org/licenses/
TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE, REPRODUCTION, AND DISTRIBUTION
1. Definitions.
"License" shall mean the terms and conditions for use, reproduction,
and distribution as defined by Sections 1 through 9 of this document.
"Licensor" shall mean the copyright owner or entity authorized by
the copyright owner that is granting the License.
"Legal Entity" shall mean the union of the acting entity and all
other entities that control, are controlled by, or are under common
control with that entity. For the purposes of this definition,
"control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the
direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or
otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the
outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.
"You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity
exercising permissions granted by this License.
"Source" form shall mean the preferred form for making modifications,
including but not limited to software source code, documentation
source, and configuration files.
"Object" form shall mean any form resulting from mechanical
transformation or translation of a Source form, including but
not limited to compiled object code, generated documentation,
and conversions to other media types.
"Work" shall mean the work of authorship, whether in Source or
Object form, made available under the License, as indicated by a
copyright notice that is included in or attached to the work
(an example is provided in the Appendix below).
"Derivative Works" shall mean any work, whether in Source or Object
form, that is based on (or derived from) the Work and for which the
editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications
represent, as a whole, an original work of authorship. For the purposes
of this License, Derivative Works shall not include works that remain
separable from, or merely link (or bind by name) to the interfaces of,
the Work and Derivative Works thereof.
"Contribution" shall mean any work of authorship, including
the original version of the Work and any modifications or additions
to that Work or Derivative Works thereof, that is intentionally
submitted to Licensor for inclusion in the Work by the copyright owner
or by an individual or Legal Entity authorized to submit on behalf of
the copyright owner. For the purposes of this definition, "submitted"
means any form of electronic, verbal, or written communication sent
to the Licensor or its representatives, including but not limited to
communication on electronic mailing lists, source code control systems,
and issue tracking systems that are managed by, or on behalf of, the
Licensor for the purpose of discussing and improving the Work, but
excluding communication that is conspicuously marked or otherwise
designated in writing by the copyright owner as "Not a Contribution."
"Contributor" shall mean Licensor and any individual or Legal Entity
on behalf of whom a Contribution has been received by Licensor and
subsequently incorporated within the Work.
2. Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
copyright license to reproduce, prepare Derivative Works of,
publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the
Work and such Derivative Works in Source or Object form.
3. Grant of Patent License. Subject to the terms and conditions of
this License, each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual,
worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable
(except as stated in this section) patent license to make, have made,
use, offer to sell, sell, import, and otherwise transfer the Work,
where such license applies only to those patent claims licensable
by such Contributor that are necessarily infringed by their
Contribution(s) alone or by combination of their Contribution(s)
with the Work to which such Contribution(s) was submitted. If You
institute patent litigation against any entity (including a
cross-claim or counterclaim in a lawsuit) alleging that the Work
or a Contribution incorporated within the Work constitutes direct
or contributory patent infringement, then any patent licenses
granted to You under this License for that Work shall terminate
as of the date such litigation is filed.
4. Redistribution. You may reproduce and distribute copies of the
Work or Derivative Works thereof in any medium, with or without
modifications, and in Source or Object form, provided that You
meet the following conditions:
(a) You must give any other recipients of the Work or
Derivative Works a copy of this License; and
(b) You must cause any modified files to carry prominent notices
stating that You changed the files; and
(c) You must retain, in the Source form of any Derivative Works
that You distribute, all copyright, patent, trademark, and
attribution notices from the Source form of the Work,
excluding those notices that do not pertain to any part of
the Derivative Works; and
(d) If the Work includes a "NOTICE" text file as part of its
distribution, then any Derivative Works that You distribute must
include a readable copy of the attribution notices contained
within such NOTICE file, excluding those notices that do not
pertain to any part of the Derivative Works, in at least one
of the following places: within a NOTICE text file distributed
as part of the Derivative Works; within the Source form or
documentation, if provided along with the Derivative Works; or,
within a display generated by the Derivative Works, if and
wherever such third-party notices normally appear. The contents
of the NOTICE file are for informational purposes only and
do not modify the License. You may add Your own attribution
notices within Derivative Works that You distribute, alongside
or as an addendum to the NOTICE text from the Work, provided
that such additional attribution notices cannot be construed
as modifying the License.
You may add Your own copyright statement to Your modifications and
may provide additional or different license terms and conditions
for use, reproduction, or distribution of Your modifications, or
for any such Derivative Works as a whole, provided Your use,
reproduction, and distribution of the Work otherwise complies with
the conditions stated in this License.
5. Submission of Contributions. Unless You explicitly state otherwise,
any Contribution intentionally submitted for inclusion in the Work
by You to the Licensor shall be under the terms and conditions of
this License, without any additional terms or conditions.
Notwithstanding the above, nothing herein shall supersede or modify
the terms of any separate license agreement you may have executed
with Licensor regarding such Contributions.
6. Trademarks. This License does not grant permission to use the trade
names, trademarks, service marks, or product names of the Licensor,
except as required for reasonable and customary use in describing the
origin of the Work and reproducing the content of the NOTICE file.
7. Disclaimer of Warranty. Unless required by applicable law or
agreed to in writing, Licensor provides the Work (and each
Contributor provides its Contributions) on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
implied, including, without limitation, any warranties or conditions
of TITLE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY, or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. You are solely responsible for determining the
appropriateness of using or redistributing the Work and assume any
risks associated with Your exercise of permissions under this License.
8. Limitation of Liability. In no event and under no legal theory,
whether in tort (including negligence), contract, or otherwise,
unless required by applicable law (such as deliberate and grossly
negligent acts) or agreed to in writing, shall any Contributor be
liable to You for damages, including any direct, indirect, special,
incidental, or consequential damages of any character arising as a
result of this License or out of the use or inability to use the
Work (including but not limited to damages for loss of goodwill,
work stoppage, computer failure or malfunction, or any and all
other commercial damages or losses), even if such Contributor
has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
9. Accepting Warranty or Additional Liability. While redistributing
the Work or Derivative Works thereof, You may choose to offer,
and charge a fee for, acceptance of support, warranty, indemnity,
or other liability obligations and/or rights consistent with this
License. However, in accepting such obligations, You may act only
on Your own behalf and on Your sole responsibility, not on behalf
of any other Contributor, and only if You agree to indemnify,
defend, and hold each Contributor harmless for any liability
incurred by, or claims asserted against, such Contributor by reason
of your accepting any such warranty or additional liability.
END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS
APPENDIX: How to apply the Apache License to your work.
To apply the Apache License to your work, attach the following
boilerplate notice, with the fields enclosed by brackets "[]"
replaced with your own identifying information. (Don't include
the brackets!) The text should be enclosed in the appropriate
comment syntax for the file format. We also recommend that a
file or class name and description of purpose be included on the
same "printed page" as the copyright notice for easier
identification within third-party archives.
Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner]
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
Requirements and compatibility
Written for: Claude Code
Works with: Claude Code, Claude apps, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Kiro, OpenCode, Goose, Amp, Roo Code, JetBrains Junie, Factory Droid, Devin (ex-Windsurf), Mistral Vibe, OpenHands, Letta
“Works with” means the tool reads the open Agent Skills format; a skill written for one tool may use features others lack.
Needs: Claude Code frontmatter, Needs Node.js
Security
What our scanner noticed· Medium risk
- Large base64-encoded blobs
A static scan is not a guarantee. Skills are third-party content: review a skill before you let an agent use it.
Attribution and licence
- Created by
- Jetson Team
- Publisher
- NVIDIA (Official)
- Distributed by
- NVIDIA
- Source
- NVIDIA/skills · skills/jetson-optimize-memory · commit fce3cca
- Licence
- Apache License 2.0 (redistribution allowed)
- LICENSE (added by AutoGineer from LICENSE-APACHE)
- ATTRIBUTION.md (written by AutoGineer)
- Synced
AutoGineer is not affiliated with or endorsed by Jetson Team or NVIDIA.
Download ZIP
The ZIP holds the skill’s files, its licence files and an ATTRIBUTION.md. Download jetson-optimize-memory.zip