NVIDIA Jetson Nano and Orin Nano Setup Guide
The Jetson Nano and Jetson Orin Nano from NVIDIA are small computers built for embedded applications and capable of supporting modern AI workloads.
Follow this guide to set up the Jetson Nano Developer Kit or the Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit to prepare your NVIDIA Jetson Nano for viam-server
installation.


Important
This guide assumes that you have a Jetson Nano Developer Kit or a Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit with a Jetson module and reference carrier board. If you want to use a different carrier board to incorporate your Nano into your robot, the type of carrier board you use will affect your hardware requirements.
Hardware Requirements
You need the following hardware, tools, and software to install viam-server
on a Jetson Nano or Jetson Orin Nano:
Initial Setup with Display Attached:
- A Jetson Nano Developer Kit or Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit
- A microSD card (32GB UHS-1 minimum recommended)
- A computer display (HDMI or DP) with a USB keyboard and mouse
- A way to connect the microSD card to the computer (like a microSD slot or microSD reader)
- Ethernet cable and/or Wifi dongle, to establish network connection on the Nano
- 5V-2A (Nano) or 9-19V (Orin Nano) DC power supply with barrel jack connector
Initial Setup in Headless Mode:
- A Jetson Nano Developer Kit or Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit
- A microSD card (32GB UHS-1 minimum recommended)
- An internet-connected computer
- A way to connect the computer to the Nano (like a USB 2.0 A-Male to Micro B Cable)
- A way to connect the microSD card to the computer (like a microSD slot or microSD reader)
- Ethernet cable and/or Wifi dongle, to establish network connection on the Nano
- 5V-2A (Nano) or 9-19V (Orin Nano) DC power supply with barrel jack connector
Nano Setup Guide
- Follow the instructions in Getting Started with Jetson Nano Developer Kit or Getting Started with Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit. Once you have reached Next Steps, return to the Viam docs.
- Your Jetson Nano or Jetson Orin Nano now has a Viam-compatible operating system installed.
Continue to install viam-server.
Note that the Jetson Nano and Jetson Orin Nano have
aarch64
CPU architecture.
Tip: viam-server
installation with curl
If curl
is not installed on your Orin, run sudo apt install curl
before downloading the viam-server
binary.
If this command fails, try using wget https://storage.googleapis.com/packages.viam.com/apps/viam-server/viam-server-stable-aarch64.AppImage
to download the viam-server
binary.
Troubleshooting
Make sure the polarity on your barrel jack power supply is matched when powering your robot. See the last step of your appropriate initial setup guide for instructions on choosing the correct power supply for your Nano board.
You can find additional assistance in the Troubleshooting section.
You can also ask questions in the Community Discord and we will be happy to help.
Was this page helpful?
Glad to hear it! If you have any other feedback please let us know:
We're sorry about that. To help us improve, please tell us what we can do better:
Thank you!