djurny

Hi @wolf7250,
The $PWD is an environment variable that represents the current working directory. The lone period "." also represents the current working directory. $PWD has nothing to do with your password - unless your folder names are the same as your password and/or vice versa.
 
As to your question, yes, I would think a fresh reinstall from scratch is going to be the best way forward. But I have no idea how easy that will be with transferring OMV settings from old to new etc. OMV is unbeknownst to me.
 
On the other hand, if the workaround with the new load addresses in `armbianEnv.txt` work (and they seem to work just fine) it's more of a matter of how "correct" you want your situation to be. Things seems to be working.
 
Groetjes,

Hi @wolf7250,
You can download the package without installing as follows:
cd /tmp/ mkdir fliepeltje cd /tmp/fliepeltje/ apt-get download armbian-bsp-cli-helios4-current dpkg -x armbian-bsp-cli-helios4_*.deb ${PWD:?}  
Then backup the current bootscript as follows:
cd /boot/ sudo cp boot.cmd boot.cmd~org sudo cp boot.scr boot.scr~org  
Then copy the new bootscript and convert it to U-Boot script format as follows:
cd /boot/ sudo cp /tmp/fliepeltje/usr/share/armbian/boot.cmd ${PWD:?} sudo mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d boot.cmd boot.scr  
Then reboot to check if all went well.
Gr,
 
PS syntax is on purpose, of course you can replace ${PWD:?} with . but that might be easy to miss when reading the instruction.

Hi there,
U-Boot was updated. Can you share the contents of `/boot/boot.cmd`? Just to be sure 🙂
Groetjes,

Hi @wolf7250,
I'm not familiar with OMV, so not sure what that update/upgrade process looks like. If it will update/upgrade the armbian packages to the latest release 25.11, then the correct version of armbian-bsp-cli will be installed. The installation of that package should update /boot/boot.scr and make a new U-Boot image available that you would have to install with nand-sata-install.
Gr,

Hi @wolf7250,
That does not look like the new bootscript. Did you update already? 
 
To get it working again, you can try the quick workaround as you pointed to earlier, which should allow more room for U-Boot loading kernel, initrd and the rest.
Gr,

Hi @wolf7250,
The correct U-Boot and bootscript is for sure in the newest release. I built recently and all is there and working without issue on my helios4.
Let's unravel what is happening for you and get that sorted out.
Gr,

Hi @wolf7250,
When you upgrade, one of the packages will update the bootscript (/boot/boot.scr), that will prevent a load address conflict - this should be armbian-bsp-cli iirc. The new bootscript will either calculate the load addresses or use new defaults to avoid the image overlap/"corruption" issue.
The U-Boot for the helios4 has been updated as well to enable load address calculation, instead of using hardcoded values. To update U-Boot, run nand-sata-install and select to "install/update the bootloader on SD/MMC" (see here).
Groetjes,

Hi @Vodalex,
Write down the MAC address of the interface you want to use to wake up the Helios4.
ip link show You would need to put the Helios4 in suspend, by either:
sudo pm-suspend or:
echo 'suspend' | sudo tee /sys/power/state  
To wake it up, from another system, make sure that wakeonlan is installed. Then:
wakeonlan ${HARDWARE_ADDRESS} That should be it.
Groetjes,

I also have some oom issues when doing an aptitude upgrade in my opizero w/256 MiB ram. Guess even more on a 128MiB board like yours.
Best to add a swap file to make sure upgrades go without issue.
Grt,

Hi,
If you want to know which kernel is used for your build, just run:
./compile.sh inventory-boards This will take some time.
Open the resulting .csv file, which will contain all combinations possible.
Groetjes,

Hi @Werner,
Not to pick nits, but 7 is the highest level (lowest priority) you can give a printk() statement. To make them appear however, the loglevel of the printk() needs to be smaller than the loglevel of the console, meaning the [console] loglevel needs to be 7+1:
loglevel= [KNL,EARLY] All Kernel Messages with a loglevel **smaller** than the console loglevel will be printed to the console. It can also be changed with klogd or other programs. The loglevels are defined as follows: Also, the following text also steers into the direction of using 8 instead of 7 to show all printk() messages:
To change the current console_loglevel simply write the desired level to ``/proc/sys/kernel/printk``. For example, to print all messages to the console:: # echo 8 > /proc/sys/kernel/printk (Taken from https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/core-api/printk-basics.rst.)
Grt,

Hi @Vodalex,
Write down the MAC address of the interface you want to use to wake up the Helios4.
ip link show You would need to put the Helios4 in suspend, by either:
sudo pm-suspend or:
echo 'suspend' | sudo tee /sys/power/state  
To wake it up, from another system, make sure that wakeonlan is installed. Then:
wakeonlan ${HARDWARE_ADDRESS} That should be it.
Groetjes,

Hi,
wake-on-lan should be working now due to https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8235.
Groetjes,

fixed

Hi all, @Igor @0r31
I managed to come up with a more structural solution that should work for future increased sizes of the kernel/inital ramdisk as well.
 
Let me know if you are interested in testing this out before I attempt to make a pull request, as some instructions are required to test this out.
 
Changes are all in `boot.cmd` so no rebuilding or updating of U-Boot required.
Based on the load addresses in U-Boot, reshuffled the loading of DT, kernel and initial ramdisk last. After loading the DT it will calculate the kernel load address based on the DT `totalsize`. After loading the kernel it will calcuiate the initial ramdisk load address based on the kernel filesize. Some other minor changes are also incorporated; `fdt resize <extrasize>` adter re-loading original DT when applying the overlays has failed. Skip the `fdt apply` and `fdt resize` for the SPI-SATA workaround.  
Results on my Helios4 with an old U-Boot 2018.11 below:
 
Comments are welcome,
Groetjes,
boot-mvebu.cmd

@Igor
Fans working great with fancontrol. I have 92 MM Noctua Fan attached and it is working perfectly. I can adjust the configuration as described here https://wiki.kobol.io/helios4/pwm/
@all
I also edited the default 2.5 inch drives case provided from helios4  (replaced fan mounts from default 70 mm fan to 92 mm fan) and added holes to mount ssds horizontally as well using 3.5 to 2.5 metal adapter from aliexpress .. It looks like this.. Very quiet and the drives stay cool.

Hi there,
Now two pull requests are awaiting review:
- https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8166#issuecomment-2867147049
   Update the boot.scr script to calculate load addresses in case `setexpr` is available on the U-Boot monitor.
- https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8170#issuecomment-2867915659
   Enable the `setexpr` command on the U-Boot monitor, to unlock load address calculation in combination with the boot.scr update.
 
Both are now tested OK using a built armbian 'minimal' image based on Bookworm.
 
Groetjes,

Hi @Igor, all,
Made some updates, see here (including some minor corrections).
 
Tested it with a built image (bookworm-minimal) and it seems to work:
 
I will see how i can change U-Boot configuration to allow for `setexpr` to work, as using `setexpr` will make sure this does not need constant changing whenever kernel grows in size.
 
As this is  my first pull request, not sure what to do next?
 
Please have a look-see,
Groetjes,

Hi all, @Igor @0r31
I managed to come up with a more structural solution that should work for future increased sizes of the kernel/inital ramdisk as well.
 
Let me know if you are interested in testing this out before I attempt to make a pull request, as some instructions are required to test this out.
 
Changes are all in `boot.cmd` so no rebuilding or updating of U-Boot required.
Based on the load addresses in U-Boot, reshuffled the loading of DT, kernel and initial ramdisk last. After loading the DT it will calculate the kernel load address based on the DT `totalsize`. After loading the kernel it will calcuiate the initial ramdisk load address based on the kernel filesize. Some other minor changes are also incorporated; `fdt resize <extrasize>` adter re-loading original DT when applying the overlays has failed. Skip the `fdt apply` and `fdt resize` for the SPI-SATA workaround.  
Results on my Helios4 with an old U-Boot 2018.11 below:
 
Comments are welcome,
Groetjes,
boot-mvebu.cmd

So I decided to modify the armbianEnv.txt with the values you provided and it has moved to "Starting kernel..."
 
It is taking quite a while to boot. The older version seemed to take quite a while as well but this seems to be hanging possibly. I tried changing the armbianEnv.txt verbosity to 7 but it is still stuck on Starting kernel...
 
U-Boot 2024.01-armbian-2024.01-S866c-P7738-Ha5c2-V1f00-Bb703-R448a (Mar 16 2025 - 04:03:33 +0000) Allwinner Technology CPU: Allwinner V3s (SUN8I 1681) Model: PineCube IP Camera DRAM: 128 MiB Core: 47 devices, 20 uclasses, devicetree: separate WDT: Not starting watchdog@1c20ca0 MMC: mmc@1c0f000: 0, mmc@1c10000: 1 Loading Environment from FAT... Unable to use mmc 0:1... In: serial@1c28800 Out: serial@1c28800 Err: serial@1c28800 Autoboot in 1 seconds, press <Space> to stop switch to partitions #0, OK mmc0 is current device Scanning mmc 0:1... Found U-Boot script /boot/boot.scr 5475 bytes read in 2 ms (2.6 MiB/s) ## Executing script at 41900000 U-boot loaded from SD 227 bytes read in 1 ms (221.7 KiB/s) Load fdt: /boot/dtb/sun8i-s3-pinecube.dtb 12286995 bytes read in 509 ms (23 MiB/s) 11013984 bytes read in 456 ms (23 MiB/s) Found mainline kernel configuration 19691 bytes read in 4 ms (4.7 MiB/s) Working FDT set to 41000000 Kernel image @ 0x41080000 [ 0x000000 - 0xa80f60 ] ## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 42080000 ... Image Name: uInitrd Image Type: ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed) Data Size: 12286931 Bytes = 11.7 MiB Load Address: 00000000 Entry Point: 00000000 Verifying Checksum ... OK ## Flattened Device Tree blob at 41000000 Booting using the fdt blob at 0x41000000 Working FDT set to 41000000 Loading Ramdisk to 42248000, end 42dffbd3 ... OK Loading Device Tree to 421da000, end 42247fff ... OK Working FDT set to 421da000 Starting kernel ...  

Many thanks for fixing this!

I also tested on my side, works now. We can eventually put this board back to supported list. (board config .csc -> .conf)

There are few other things that would be nice to get working - I notice WOL service erroring out, fan support is unknown. I only have PCB without anything attached to it, for testing.
 
Merging both patches shortly.

Hi there,
Now two pull requests are awaiting review:
- https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8166#issuecomment-2867147049
   Update the boot.scr script to calculate load addresses in case `setexpr` is available on the U-Boot monitor.
- https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8170#issuecomment-2867915659
   Enable the `setexpr` command on the U-Boot monitor, to unlock load address calculation in combination with the boot.scr update.
 
Both are now tested OK using a built armbian 'minimal' image based on Bookworm.
 
Groetjes,

Slightly off topic, but a very similar problem (if not exactly this problem) is a current issue for clearfog base and pro as they're based on the same SoC and use the same kernels. I had been running on an older kernel with some packages (including the kernel) held by dpkg. I also had never installed u-boot to SPI before (running it off my boot media instead). This morning I installed a newer u-boot to SPI (maybe not necessary), included the same offsets to armbianEnv.txt, unheld all packages, upgraded everything and rebooted - and everything worked. Thanks to everyone that contributed information here. Hopefully we can keep these systems running for a bit more now!

Hi there,
Some other solution that I have not been able to make "permanent" yet.
 
Thanks @FredK@Josua-SR and @Igor for allowing me to have some fun building U-Boot once more (have not built a U-Boot since i think 2006!), it for sure did bring back some good memories 🙂
 
Unfortunately the built U-Boot (with SDHCI_SDMA disabled) did not solve my issue.
 
Then i decided to revert back to the previous release (*-6.6.87-current-mvebu => *-6.6.43-current-mvebu) by moving the symlinks in /boot around, which at least allowed the kernel and some userspace to boot. But due to lacking kernel modules (the 6.6.43 were removed during upgrade to 6.6.87) the box itself did not really work.
 
After some inspection, based on the remarks from @Josua-SR about memory corruption, i decided to check if this might not be just a simple overlapping issue with the images, e.g. kernel image partially occupying where the initrd is loaded.
 
Kernel image Size Size (hex) vmlinuz-6.6.43-current-mvebu 7170736 0x6d6ab0 vmlinuz-6.6.87-current-mvebu 8858728 0x872c68  
Loading of files is done as follows:
fdt (dtb) 0x2040000 (0x840000 max size) ramdisk (uInit) 0x2880000   kernel (vmlinuz) 0x2080000 (0x7fffff max size)  
You can already spot that the kernel image will not fit into the area that U-Boot has designated for it: 0x872c68 > 0x7fffff. whereas the 6.6.43 kernel should fit fine: 0x6d6ab0 < 0x7fffff.
 
Some testing showed that when setting ramdisk_addr_r to a higher value - which should fit the bigger kernel image - things started to boot again:
=> setenv ramdisk_addr_r 2980000 => boot switch to partitions #0, OK mmc0 is current device Scanning mmc 0:1... Found U-Boot script /boot/boot.scr 2996 bytes read in 210 ms (13.7 KiB/s) ## Executing script at 03000000 Boot script loaded from mmc 176 bytes read in 201 ms (0 Bytes/s) 28834 bytes read in 424 ms (66.4 KiB/s) 11504908 bytes read in 2562 ms (4.3 MiB/s) 8858728 bytes read in 2218 ms (3.8 MiB/s) ## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 02980000 ... Image Name: uInitrd Image Type: ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed) Data Size: 11504844 Bytes = 11 MiB Load Address: 00000000 Entry Point: 00000000 Verifying Checksum ... OK ## Flattened Device Tree blob at 02040000 Booting using the fdt blob at 0x2040000 Loading Ramdisk to 0f507000, end 0ffffccc ... OK reserving fdt memory region: addr=2040000 size=6d000 Loading Device Tree to 0f497000, end 0f506fff ... OK Starting kernel ... [ 0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0  
Next is to try and figure out how I could change ramdisk_addr_r (the initial spot where U-Boot wants to load the ramdisk into), as I prefer not to have to type this at the U-Boot prompt every single time i reboot the box.
 
Hope this helps someone out there with similar issue.
 
Update: I built a U-Boot from the Kobol repo (https://wiki.kobol.io/helios4/uboot/#u-boot-2018) with the SDHCI_SDMA option disabled, and different memory load addresses for the ramdisk, script and efi stuff, see attached. Note i had some issues with the scripts/dtb, some yylloc variable had to be defined as external due to some linker error.
 
in "scripts/dtc/dtc-lexer.lex.c" i had to change line 618 to:
extern YYLTYPE yylloc;  
To update the memory load addresses, in "include/configs/helios4.h":
#define KERNEL_ADDR_R __stringify(0x2080000) #define FDT_ADDR_R __stringify(0x2040000) #define RAMDISK_ADDR_R __stringify(0x3000000) #define SCRIPT_ADDR_R __stringify(0x4000000) #define PXEFILE_ADDR_R __stringify(0x4100000)  
Essentially moved RAMDISK_ADDR_R from 0x0288'0000 to 0x0300'0000 to allow for larger kernel image and moved SCRIPT_ADDR_R (a.o.) to make room for the ramdisk image, from 0x0300'0000 to 0x0400'0000.
 
Then to write the U-Boot single page loader image out to the SDcard:
sudo dd if=u-boot-spl.kwb of=/dev/mmcblk0 seek=1 bs=512  
Groetjes,
 
PS Warranty until the door for the attached U-Boot....



 
 
 
u-boot-spl.kwb

I can confirm that Armbian_community_25.5.0-trunk.4_Helios4_noble_current_6.6.75.img.xz does not boot on Helios-4 with the same error described above:
 
Wrong Ramdisk Image Format Ramdisk image is corrupt or invalid SCRIPT FAILED: continuing...  
I spent the weekend investigating a similar issue with upstream Debian and upstream u-boot that turned out to be after a certain size of mmc access data would be corrupted. Disabling the SDHCI_SDMA function in u-boot helped:
https://lore.kernel.org/r/20250208-a388-kerneladdr-v2-1-17c01313eba2@solid-run.com
 
Finally I pushed this and other changes to the SolidRun vendor fork for the Armada 388 System on Module (as used on Helios-4), and attempted booting the same armbian image again. This time boot succeeded:
 
BootROM - 1.73 Booting from SPI flash U-Boot SPL 2024.04 (Feb 08 2025 - 13:12:00 +0000) High speed PHY - Version: 2.0 Detected Device ID 6828 board SerDes lanes topology details: | Lane # | Speed | Type | -------------------------------- | 0 | 6 | SATA0 | | 1 | 5 | USB3 HOST0 | | 2 | 6 | SATA1 | | 3 | 6 | SATA3 | | 4 | 6 | SATA2 | | 5 | 5 | USB3 HOST1 | -------------------------------- High speed PHY - Ended Successfully mv_ddr: 14.0.0 DDR3 Training Sequence - Switching XBAR Window to FastPath Window DDR Training Sequence - Start scrubbing DDR3 Training Sequence - End scrubbing mv_ddr: completed successfully Trying to boot from SPI U-Boot 2024.04 (Feb 08 2025 - 13:12:00 +0000) SoC: MV88F6828-A0 at 1600 MHz DRAM: 2 GiB (800 MHz, 32-bit, ECC enabled) Core: 30 devices, 20 uclasses, devicetree: separate MMC: mv_sdh: 0 Loading Environment from SPIFlash... SF: Detected w25q32 with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 4 KiB, total 4 MiB *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment Model: Helios4 Board: Helios4 Net: Warning: ethernet@70000 (eth1) using random MAC address - 86:69:49:e4:c6:90 eth1: ethernet@70000 Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0 switch to partitions #0, OK mmc0 is current device Scanning mmc 0:1... Found U-Boot script /boot/boot.scr 2996 bytes read in 17 ms (171.9 KiB/s) ## Executing script at 00200000 Boot script loaded from mmc 158 bytes read in 13 ms (11.7 KiB/s) 28834 bytes read in 32 ms (879.9 KiB/s) 8146813 bytes read in 807 ms (9.6 MiB/s) 8550096 bytes read in 850 ms (9.6 MiB/s) Working FDT set to 100000 Kernel image @ 0x800000 [ 0x000000 - 0x8276d0 ] ## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 01800000 ... Image Name: uInitrd Image Type: ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed) Data Size: 8146749 Bytes = 7.8 MiB Load Address: 00000000 Entry Point: 00000000 Verifying Checksum ... OK ## Flattened Device Tree blob at 00100000 Booting using the fdt blob at 0x100000 Working FDT set to 100000 Loading Ramdisk to 0f83b000, end 0fffff3d ... OK Loading Device Tree to 0f7cb000, end 0f83afff ... OK Working FDT set to f7cb000 Starting kernel ... Loading, please wait... Starting systemd-udevd version 255.4-1ubuntu8.5
Binaries for reference:
https://images.solid-run.com/A38X/U-Boot/v2024.04/2025-02-08_695f767/u-boot-helios-4-sd.kwb
https://images.solid-run.com/A38X/U-Boot/v2024.04/2025-02-08_695f767/u-boot-helios-4-spi.kwb