[Booting ROCK Pi 4(A/B/C) with mainline u-boot in SPI, NVMe and Armbian v20.11.x]

Fantastic instructions and thanks for all the work! I was able to follow the instructions and almost had it working. There were some small changes required however.

 

I had to modify my /boot/boot.cmd on the nvme drive:

--- /boot/boot.cmd
+++ /boot/boot.cmd
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 setenv load_addr "0x9000000"
 setenv overlay_error "false"
 # default values
-setenv rootdev "/dev/mmcblk0p1"
+setenv rootdev "/dev/nvme0n1p1"
 setenv verbosity "1"
 setenv console "both"
 setenv bootlogo "false"
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 if test "${bootlogo}" = "true"; then setenv consoleargs "bootsplash.bootfile=bootsplash.armbian ${consoleargs}"; fi
 
 # get PARTUUID of first partition on SD/eMMC the boot script was loaded from
-if test "${devtype}" = "mmc"; then part uuid mmc ${devnum}:1 partuuid; fi
+if test "${devtype}" = "nvme"; then part uuid nvme ${devnum}:1 partuuid; fi
 
 setenv bootargs "root=${rootdev} rootwait rootfstype=${rootfstype} ${consoleargs} consoleblank=0 loglevel=${verbosity} ubootpart=${partuuid} usb-storage.quirks=${usbstoragequirks} ${extraargs} ${extraboardargs}"
 

 

Then after modifying I ran `mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /u/boot/boot.cmd /u/boot/boot.scr`

 

(I had mounted the nvme partition under `/u` after the `nand-sata-instal` step completed)

 

Without this fix the board would not seem to boot. U-boot would complete and then load the kernel. However I was able to see via serial that the kernel was waiting for the root device to appear (looping `Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.` over and over). Then it would drop to an initramfs shell and alert that it was unable to find the root filesystem device and had given up.

 

Hardware:

RockPi 4A 1.4

Kingston A2000 1TB

ROCK PI 4x M.2 Extension board v1.6

 

Armbian Image:

5036f952501644989d744d789d36c4f797501d48e24605d7a8f043adfc792ad0 *Armbian_21.02.1_Rockpi-4a_buster_current_5.10.12.img.xz

 

Full /boot/armbianEnv.txt:

verbosity=1
console=both
bootlogo=false
overlay_prefix=rockchip
fdtfile=rockchip/rk3399-rock-pi-4a.dtb
rootdev=UUID=3e02d076-8e50-47fe-9a55-df7e1edef6e0
rootfstype=ext4
usbstoragequirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u

Full /boot/boot.cmd:

# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE
#
# Please edit /boot/armbianEnv.txt to set supported parameters
#

setenv load_addr "0x9000000"
setenv overlay_error "false"
# default values
#setenv rootdev "/dev/mmcblk0p1"
setenv rootdev "/dev/nvme0n1p1"
setenv verbosity "1"
setenv console "both"
setenv bootlogo "false"
setenv rootfstype "ext4"
setenv docker_optimizations "on"
setenv earlycon "off"

echo "Boot script loaded from ${devtype} ${devnum}"

if test -e ${devtype} ${devnum} ${prefix}armbianEnv.txt; then
	load ${devtype} ${devnum} ${load_addr} ${prefix}armbianEnv.txt
	env import -t ${load_addr} ${filesize}
fi

if test "${logo}" = "disabled"; then setenv logo "logo.nologo"; fi

if test "${console}" = "display" || test "${console}" = "both"; then setenv consoleargs "console=tty1"; fi
if test "${console}" = "serial" || test "${console}" = "both"; then setenv consoleargs "console=ttyS2,1500000 ${consoleargs}"; fi
if test "${earlycon}" = "on"; then setenv consoleargs "earlycon ${consoleargs}"; fi
if test "${bootlogo}" = "true"; then setenv consoleargs "bootsplash.bootfile=bootsplash.armbian ${consoleargs}"; fi

# get PARTUUID of first partition on SD/eMMC the boot script was loaded from
#if test "${devtype}" = "mmc"; then part uuid mmc ${devnum}:1 partuuid; fi
if test "${devtype}" = "nvme"; then part uuid nvme ${devnum}:1 partuuid; fi

setenv bootargs "root=${rootdev} rootwait rootfstype=${rootfstype} ${consoleargs} consoleblank=0 loglevel=${verbosity} ubootpart=${partuuid} usb-storage.quirks=${usbstoragequirks} ${extraargs} ${extraboardargs}"

if test "${docker_optimizations}" = "on"; then setenv bootargs "${bootargs} cgroup_enable=cpuset cgroup_memory=1 cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1"; fi

load ${devtype} ${devnum} ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${prefix}uInitrd
load ${devtype} ${devnum} ${kernel_addr_r} ${prefix}Image

load ${devtype} ${devnum} ${fdt_addr_r} ${prefix}dtb/${fdtfile}
fdt addr ${fdt_addr_r}
fdt resize 65536
for overlay_file in ${overlays}; do
	if load ${devtype} ${devnum} ${load_addr} ${prefix}dtb/rockchip/overlay/${overlay_prefix}-${overlay_file}.dtbo; then
		echo "Applying kernel provided DT overlay ${overlay_prefix}-${overlay_file}.dtbo"
		fdt apply ${load_addr} || setenv overlay_error "true"
	fi
done
for overlay_file in ${user_overlays}; do
	if load ${devtype} ${devnum} ${load_addr} ${prefix}overlay-user/${overlay_file}.dtbo; then
		echo "Applying user provided DT overlay ${overlay_file}.dtbo"
		fdt apply ${load_addr} || setenv overlay_error "true"
	fi
done
if test "${overlay_error}" = "true"; then
	echo "Error applying DT overlays, restoring original DT"
	load ${devtype} ${devnum} ${fdt_addr_r} ${prefix}dtb/${fdtfile}
else
	if load ${devtype} ${devnum} ${load_addr} ${prefix}dtb/rockchip/overlay/${overlay_prefix}-fixup.scr; then
		echo "Applying kernel provided DT fixup script (${overlay_prefix}-fixup.scr)"
		source ${load_addr}
	fi
	if test -e ${devtype} ${devnum} ${prefix}fixup.scr; then
		load ${devtype} ${devnum} ${load_addr} ${prefix}fixup.scr
		echo "Applying user provided fixup script (fixup.scr)"
		source ${load_addr}
	fi
fi
booti ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${fdt_addr_r}

# Recompile with:
# mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr