Sergei Steshenko

Is "usb_pgood_delay" in small letter or in capital ones ?

I've ordered a 5V 6A power supply in metal enclosure. It typically takes 2 .. 3 weeks for such orders to arrive. If and when the supply arrives and I test it, I'll report my findings and the URL to the item. The supply has voltage adjustment, is also for LEDs, the description claims it underwent burn-in test under 100% load, blah, blah, blah. Ironically the 5V 6A is cheaper than 5V 5A.

"You can add kernel command line parameters" - do you mean to add them to /boot/armbianEnv.txt or I can add them interactively while booting ? If the latter, how do I do this ? I.e. what keys should I press in order to be able to add 'extraargs' ?

I have also checked my 5V 3A power supply - the same.

I've checked my 5V 4A power supply. Well, it's fake 4A. With HDD attached voltage drops sometimes to less than 4.5V. It's hard to say what the voltage exactly is - because the HDD squeaks every second or so, and DMM integrates, but there shouldn't be more than 0.5V of voltage drop.

@jock, the following are contents of my /boot/armbianEnv.txt file: " verbosity=1 overlay_prefix=rockchip fdtfile=rk3288-xt-q8l-v10.dtb rootdev=UUID=<whatever> rootfstype=ext4 usbstoragequirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u ". I.e. there is no 'rootdelay'.

Here: https://iotbyhvm.ooo/boot-up-raspberry-pi-external-hard-disk/ it's stated that 'rootfdelay' is in /boot/cmdline.txt .

Another related thread: -> - pay attention to "sleep 5".

@jock, this is what I found: "Increase disk detection timeout at boot with Linux/Systemd" - https://serverfault.com/questions/938506/increase-disk-detection-timeout-at-boot-with-linux-systemd : " I've finally found it! It's of course but a simple kernel parameter, found here https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.html The parameter I was specifically looking for is rootdelay, I had already tried rootwait but apparently that wasn't enough, as it still aborted the wait after 10 seconds. Now it actually does not wait the full 30 seconds specified, but only about 10-15 seconds depending on how long it takes for my disks to show up, so setting a really high value doesn't seem to hurt, although I've only set 30 for my use case, which so far seems to have completely resolved the issue! You can add it to your kernel boot parameters in Grub or systemd-boot. Grub: /etc/defaults/grub -> GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="rootdelay=30 quiet" systemd-boot: /boot/loader/entries/yourentry.cfg -> options rootdelay=30 [other options] ". So, is there 'rootdelay' in /boot/armbianEnv.txt ?

2.5 inch HDD.

Again, I power the USB port from a separate power supply - which is 5V 4A. When the HDD is powered from 5V 4A and at the same time TV box is powered from 5V 2.5A, everything works. When both the HDD and the TV box are powered from 5V 4A, the drive is not detected. With my USB port adapter I completely bypass whatever limits of USB - the only limits are the ones of power supply I'm using. FWIW I am an electronic engineer by trade.

And my HDD enclosure doesn't have a separate power port, so I have to provide the necessary current through the only port present - which is USB.

@jock, thanks for the update. My OTG port is dead from the getgo - the seller didn't even put the cable for it. Several weeks ago I discovered that the port didn't work at all. Regarding the USB HDD timeout value - maybe it's somewhere in UDEV rules ? I have never looked into UDEV, but I think it's responsible for detachable devices.

I think there is a problem with timeout of detection of external HDD. The following text probably looks convoluted - I've tried my best. I have a number of HDD USB <-> STAT adapters - a USB-3.0 one and a USB-2.0 one. My last experiment was with the USB-2.0 one - quite possibly it consumes less current from USB port than the USB-3.0, but results are the same. If I take my HDD connected to the USB-2.0 adapter, and connect the adapter with the HDD to my DESKTOP Linux PC, the HDD is detected, albeit with a delay of several seconds, and contents of the HDD can be read without a problem. If I connect the same USB-2.0 with the same HDD (with Armbian RK3288 system) to my RK3288 box, there are repetitive attempts to reset the drive (squeaking sound about once per second), and the system fails to detect the drive. The power supply I'm using is 5V 4A (however one can believe the rating) power supply. I have also a 5V 3A power supply - the same results. I have soldered a special USB port adapter which is USB male -> USB female connector with GND, D+, D- soldered straight from the male to the female connector and +5V line goes USB male pin -> SS34 Schottky diode anode -> SS34 cathode -> +5V pin of the USB female connector. In addition to this there is a 5.5mm/2.1mm power connector soldered to the USB female connector, and I connect the 5V 4A power supply (using a Y-splitter) to the 5.5mm/2.1mm power connector. There is also a 3300uF electrolytic capacitor connected to +5V and GND pins of the output female USB connector. The capacitor is intended to buffer voltage drops due to impulse current consumption by the HDD. In such a manner I completely bypass the USB port current limit - now current is limited by the +5V 4A power adapter I'm using. I.e. the current limit (assuming 4A is true) is 4A - current_consumed_by_the_RK3288_box. Still the same repetitive attempts to reset the HDD with squeaking sound. The USB male -> USB female adapter I've soldered definitely works - I tested it with USB mouse and with HDD on my desktop. But if I additionally use another power supply - 5V 2.5A (which came with the RK3288 box) to power the box and the 5V 4A power adapter with the USB adapter I've soldered to connect the USB-2.0 HDD adapter + HDD to the RK3288 box, I am able to boot. Alternatively instead of self-soldered USB male -> USB female adapter I can use ready made powered USB hub - the system also boots. Again, the main point being TWO power supplies working at the same time: the 5V 2.5A + 5V 4A. My theory is the following. On desktop the timeout is long enough, so even with the standard USB port without any external power supply the system manages to detect the drive, albeit slowly. In the Armbian image the timeout is too short, so the system is able to detect the drive only when it spins up quickly enough, and it happens with two power supplies working in parallel. So I can order a more powerful power supply - say, 5V 5A. And/or I can try to change timeout, but I do not know in what file it's coded. @jock, do you know what the file is and what is the procedure ? I mean I need to create a new SD card boot image with the modified file setting. I.e. I need to modify the file and then to run something to modify the image, correct ? Thanks in advance.

Yes, I do use the SDcard too. As I wrote above, I didn't want to risk changing the box internal state yet again, so I decided to keep the SDcard while having the system on HDD. Is there a way to copy what I have on SDcard at the moment to a smaller SDcard ? It's a pity to have a 16GB SDcard just to host the /boot partition, i.e. a 4GB card, or even a smaller one, should suffice. Back to the issue of newer kernels. Probably 2 decades ago I compiled a Linux kernel after making small changes in TV capture card (ironically, I stopped watching TV in 2006 or so). Since with HDD the TV box is a full fledged computer, there shouldn't be a problem to compile the kernel natively. Is there a way to have multi-boot WRT to kernels ? Like on regular x86 boxes GRUB(2). Regarding the USB OTG port - in order to use it as yet another USB master port do I have to configure it somehow or just to plug the drive into it using the appropriate adapter cable ? Could you please have a look into arm-cortex-a7 'gcc' vs arm-cortex-a17 real HW issue mentioned in my previous post ?