Ian Hubbertz

Ok, I did not had access to the Orange PI when posting, so I only posted the technical description, but no logs. I consider bullet 3 as completed in my original post: The board always rebooted (or sporadically froze) when initializing USB - unless a USB device (keyboard) was connected. This is not reproducible anymore today: The board boots headless now flawlessly. Two important changes to yesterday: I updated the Kernel image to the latest legacy image (using the "normal" apt upgrade mechanism) I use a completely soldered wiring for power supply (with a cheaper 5V, 2A (USB) converter). Yesterday I tried that converter, but also a regulated PSU set to 5.0V (and later 5.2V) - but there was a connection to the input socket (I also tried PIN 2 (5V) and 6 (GND)) using a probe and a croco clamp somewhere in the wiring. I still think the power supply was not the issue - because it was still a good connection and especially because the board run stable after disconnecting the keyboard even while there was a quite high CPU load (installing SW updates and new SW) and also generating some RSA keys). So, for me the issue is solved. Just for the record: If your board don't boot headless with the downloaded image, try to connect USB keyboard/mouse (and maybe HDMI), upgrade the kernel and you are fine.

My newly received Orange PI Plus 2 gets stuck in a reboot loop, if I try to boot headless (no USB, no HDMI; UART is connected to see boot messages). Is such a problem known here? I have the same issue with some other linux images from other distributions, but hope to find some experience here. In detail: Power supply: Regulated Power Supply set to approx 5.2V (max 2A, built-in analog amperemeter shows max 1.4A during boot). No cables connected except power supply and UART I tried various SD-Cards (8GB or 64GB SDHC) --> The Orange PI Plus 2 boots till USB initialization and then reboots (sometimes it freezes). If I connect a keyboard and HDMI, it boots completely, I can remove the keyboard and login via UART or ssh. A software reboot (reboot command on commandline), also works fine(!), but power-cycling results in the reboot loop again until I connect a keyboard. I left the HDMI connceted and I did not change my screen to use this as input, so I'm unsure if there is a video signal and if the connection is necessary for complete boot. (I want to go headless, so HDMI is out of scope for me).