SymbiosisSystems

The most current download images for Helios64 are now all provided with linux 6.18.xx.
 
I downloaded a minimal image and checked the dtb: it would not appear to contain the opp-microvolt patch that made Helios64 finally stable.
 
So for the ones who have stability issues again on Helios64, I attached the patched dtb compiled for linux 6.18.xx using the exact same opp-microvolt values as in the previous dtb versions I compiled for linux 6.6 and 6.12. The current linux deb files can be downloaded from beta.armbian.com, the linux 6.18.18 deb files I used can be downloaded from here (to be installed with 'dpkg -i linux*').
 
In order to install the dtb, simply unzip it, copy it into the proper location, update initramfs and reboot:
 
# install the dtb with the opp-microvolt patch: unzip rk3399-kobol-helios64.dtb-6.18.18-opp.zip cp rk3399-kobol-helios64.dtb-6.18.18-opp /boot/dtb/rockchip/rk3399-kobol-helios64.dtb update-initramfs -u reboot rk3399-kobol-helios64.dtb-6.18.18-opp.zip

@jbergler I recently noticed the armbian-hardware-optimization script for Helios64 changes the IO scheduler to `bfq` for spinning disks, however, for ZFS we should be using `none` because it has it's own scheduler. Normally ZFS would change the scheduler itself, but that would only happen if you're using raw disks (not partitions) and if you import the zpool _after_ the hardware optimization script has run.
 
You can try changing it (e.g. `echo none >/sys/block/sda/queue/scheduler`) for each ZFS disk and see if anything changes. I still haven't figured out if this is a cause for any problems, but it's worth a shot.

Hi,
On an up-to-date Helios64, around 50% of boots are stuck at "Starting kernel ...".
As device is having kernel panics every day, it reboots and then sometimes can't start, stuck on this.
When will we have a stable device ? I can't understand selling devices which just can't run !

If you want the fans of your Helios64 to start spinning earlier, look no further. This will allow the fans to spin at a constant speed from the earliest stage of initrd until fancontrol is started by the system. My use-case is for full disk encryption and recovery in initramfs, sometimes I can have the machine powered on for quite a while before fancontrol starts. Or, if the boot process encounters an error the fans may never start, this prevents that.
 
Step 1: Tell initramfs to include the pwm-fan module
echo pwm-fan | sudo tee -a /etc/initramfs-tools/modules  
Step 2: Create a new file at /etc/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-top/fan with the following contents:
#!/bin/sh PREREQ="" prereqs() { echo "$PREREQ" } case $1 in prereqs) prereqs exit 0 ;; esac . /scripts/functions modprobe pwm-fan for pwm in /sys/devices/platform/p*-fan/hwmon/hwmon*/pwm1; do echo 150 >$pwm done exit 0 Feel free to change the value 150 anywhere between 1-255, it decides how fast the fans will spin.
 
Step 3: Enable the fan script for inclusion in initramfs and update the initramfs image:
sudo chmod +x /etc/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-top/fan sudo update-initramfs -u -k all  
Step 4: Reboot and ejoy the cool breeze.