No Ethernet in u-boot (Orange Pi win)

[Maxime Hesling]

Hi everyone,

 

I want to have a diskless Orange Pi Win, i'm trying to get the Ethernet to work in u-boot, but it does not seem to connect at all with my router when booting, no blinking led at all (none on the Pi neither on the router), I tried différents cables, ports, searched on the web, found some "patches" on DTS file on the web for pine64... But nothing seems to work (but Ethernet works correctly when the Pi is booted on Linux).

 

Quote

ethernet@1c30000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !

Any Idea ?

Many thanks,

[TRS-80]

Welcome to Armbian forums.

 

19 minutes ago, Maxime Hesling said:

nothing seems to work (but Ethernet works correctly when the Pi is booted on Linux)

 

Sorry, I am not following you. Does it work or not?

Edited February 2, 2020 by TRS-80
typo

[jernej]

OrangePi Win default configuration in U-Boot has only half drivers enabled for ethernet. I fixed that recently with https://gitlab.denx.de/u-boot/custodians/u-boot-sunxi/commit/2936eb2d550a642275113464fc9dcbb03357c049 It will be part of U-Boot v2020.04.

[Maxime Hesling]

2 hours ago, TRS-80 said:

Welcome to Armbian forums.

 

 

Sorry, I am not following you. Does it work or not?

 

 

Ethernet was not working in u-boot (i want to boot to something like iPXE, and network is required at this stage), and with an other sd card (where armbian is installed, i have no problem with Ethernet once armbian is fully booted (but it does work only after passing u-boot).

 

Thanks jernej, it solved the Ethernet problem :D , but now, trying to boot iPXE, it goes to it and asks me to press Ctrl-B for the Cmd line (which is normal behaviour), but keyboard isn't working, i tried the four usb ports, but none is giving any source of life at this stage, ideas ?  Thank you very much for your help :)

[martinayotte]

1 hour ago, Maxime Hesling said:

but keyboard isn't working

Most probably because CONFIG_USB_KEYBOARD isn't set in your u-boot defconfig.

 

[Maxime Hesling]

5 hours ago, martinayotte said:

Most probably because CONFIG_USB_KEYBOARD isn't set in your u-boot defconfig.

 

Thanks, i tried but it does not work. No key recognized, tried Num Lock and Caps Lock, no sign of the activation on their indicator, just like if it was not connected to the PI.

 

I also tried to put an usb key (which has a led) and every time I put the key on the Pi, the key blinks once (but it's a really fast blink) and then does not give any sign of life, it's so fast that I think there is no communication between the Pi and the key, perhaps just some mW going from the port to the key and that's all.

 

Also weird thing, when usb is starting, it says

 

scanning bus usb@1c1a000 for devices ... 1 USB Device(s) found

scanning bus usb@1c1a400 for devices ... 1 USB Device(s) found

scanning bus usb@1c1b000 for devices ... 1 USB Device(s) found

scanning bus usb@1c1b400 for devices ... 1 USB Device(s) found

 

even if nothing is connected to the USB ports of the PI and nothing changes if I connect a keyboard/ a mouse/ a key...

 

and just behind

it always says "scanning usb for storage devices ... 0 storage Device(s) found" whatever the usb key is connected or not.

 

Thanks

[Maxime Hesling]

I (partially ?) solved the USB issue, it's now working in u-boot, the four USB ports are working, keyboard works (i can stop autoboot and write everything i want), and when usb key is connected, it's recognized as storage device, so it's all good !

 

These are the changes I made to orangepi_win_defconfig, just added these two lines :

 

CONFIG_USB0_ID_DET="PH9"
CONFIG_USB1_VBUS_PIN="PD7"

 

I now have a problem with iPXE, it loads the menu (on my server), but i can't choose any of the options on the menu (don't know if it's iPXE related, (u-boot / efi) bug/misconfig, i'll try with a rpi pi 3), but i think that it is not armbian related at all, i'll stop bother you with any non-armbian stuff

[jernej]

8 minutes ago, Maxime Hesling said:

These are the changes I made to orangepi_win_defconfig, just added these two lines :

 

CONFIG_USB0_ID_DET="PH9"
CONFIG_USB1_VBUS_PIN="PD7"

You should send patch for that to U-Boot so next person which tries to use USB on OrangePi Win don't need to do that work again.

[Maxime Hesling]

I'm not so familiar on how to push changes to a git repo where I have no write access :/

 

I just made a fork, and put the changes in my fork, i don't know how to submit the changes so that everyone using the original repo will have access to the changes 

 

In the other hand, I perhaps figured out why iPXE is "freezing", I'll try after work and I will let you know 

[Igor]

1 hour ago, Maxime Hesling said:

I'm not so familiar on how to push changes to a git repo where I have no write access :/

Then at least add it here below, this way: https://docs.armbian.com/Process_Contribute/

[TRS-80]

9 hours ago, Maxime Hesling said:

I'm not so familiar on how to push changes to a git repo where I have no write access :/

 

There is a first time for everything...

 

It's actually quite easy. Link Igor gave above outlines the process. You are most of way there already, in fact.

[Maxime Hesling]

Thanks, I'll check that 

 

The things are going on, I found the solution about keyboard not working in iPXE here (for those who are interested ).

 

And all is well in the world (almost )

 

My "project" for this OrangePi Win is to have multiple systems (Armbian/Debian, CentOs, Arch, and perhaps others  and also to acquire some knowledge in Linux ), and those (their rootfs) will be stored in my server,  and the pi will simply (and it's not that simple) fetch them via nfs.

Every rootfs will be separated by différents nfs shares.

 

The thing is about the kernel, every distro uses different version, and some (CentOs ?) are using (4.x) kernels that are not so "compatible" with A64, the idea is to build a mainline kernel (actually 5.5.0) (with it's own initrd/initramfs ?) that every distro will use, the kernel and it's initramfs are loaded by iPXE (and that works fine)

 

After some tries (I tried Debian and CentOs), there are the results :

 

- Debian kernel with it's initrd (loaded by iPXE, without nfs rootfs) : it launches sort of an installer, where I can choose language, keyboard "language", it configures the internet, both USB and Ethernet works, but after that it complains about kernel modules (no rootfs ?)

 

-CentOS kernel with it's initrd (loaded by iPXE, without nfs rootfs) : it starts but then after 40 seconds loading, it sticks at "Reached target Basic system", then after a few minutes, complains about /dev/root (normal I think), goes to emergency mode, but then, I'm totally unable to write something, keyboard does not work, Ethernet led are blinking but I think there is no working connection

 

-CentOS kernel with it's initrd (loaded by iPXE, with nfs rootfs)

: same thing than before but does not complain about /dev/root, as before, it goes to emergency mode, and as before, neither the keyboard or the Ethernet works

 

I'm a bit confused about the mainline kernel, I'm able to build it with my computer, but I can't build the initramfs (not the same architecture), and I don't know then how to install the mainline kernel with all the distro

 

Thanks 

 

[TRS-80]

Well, if jumping in the deep end is the way you like to learn GNU/Linux, I guess continue on your current course...

 

For me, I installed Debian on a regular x86 desktop about 3 years ago, and am only just now getting around to playing with qemu, as in my view it's a lot easier (and less breakage) way to play around with other OS (BSD, Arch, Gentoo, etc.) or even do Linux From Scratch, etc...

 

In the meantime I also been playing with these SBCs but it's like the Wild West. You will learn (maybe you are starting to already) that all boards (and OSes) are not created equal. Especially with SBCs and supported hardware. That is why I stuck with not only Armbian but also with recommended / supported hardware and so far I have had very good results. But I needed something relatively stable to "just work" I was not looking to experiment. So maybe your needs are different. You sure will learn a lot.

 

There has been a lot work done these last several years in order to make all of this possible. I know at one time Armbian was very far ahead of pretty much all other distros on SBCs (which was one of the reasons I came here). I am not knowledgeable enough to say for certain that this is still the case, but I suspect strongly that it is. Just something to keep in mind...

 

Finally, we are strictly a volunteer community project and so we barely have enough resources here to support Armbian itself, much less any other OSes (something else to keep in mind)...

 

Good luck to you, in any case...