Best/easiest way to downgrade kernel (if possible without reinstalling)

[gilarelli]

Armbianmonitor:

http://ix.io/2yzy

Hi,

 

I would like to know if it is possible to switch from the current branch to the legacy one as I've read that the board will be much more stable with the older kernel ?

 

I've installed my NanopiM4 last march, and I've experienced some random freezes of my board after some time (can take weeks). It seems that one of my solutions would be to use the legacy kernel as it is much more stable - information I got by reading the forums (something I haven't done before because I'm stupid and was in a hurry...).

 

Is it possible to downgrade only the kernel at all ?

 

Here are the packages that (I think) I have to replace :

linux-buster-root-current-nanopim4/buster,now 20.08.3 arm64  [installed]
linux-dtb-current-rockchip64/buster,now 20.08.3 arm64  [installed]
linux-headers-current-rockchip64/buster,now 20.08.3 arm64  [installed]
linux-image-current-rockchip64/buster,now 20.08.3 arm64  [installed]
linux-u-boot-nanopim4-current/buster,now 20.08.1 arm64  [installed]

With those packages, then :

linux-buster-root-legacy-nanopim4 - armbian tweaks for buster on nanopim4 (legacy branch)
linux-dtb-legacy-rockchip64 - linux dtb, version 4.4.213-rockchip64
linux-headers-legacy-rockchip64 - linux kernel headers for 4.4.213-rockchip64 on arm64
linux-image-legacy-rockchip64 - linux kernel, version 4.4.213-rockchip64
linux-u-boot-nanopim4-legacy - uboot loader 2020.07

 

Will that be enough or are more packages needed without screwing my install ?

Should I use apt-get or do I have to use the armbian-config tool instead ?

Is there an order to respect ?

[Werner]

You should use the armbian-config tool to adjust kernel branch

It will uninstall current packages and replace them with legacy or whatever you want.

[gilarelli]

Well, that didn't went as planned...

 

The bad news is that it doesn't boot anymore:

 

The "good" news is that I can boot with a legacy SDCard (yay !).

 

I've tried the menu "Install/Update the bootloader on SD/eMMC" in the armbian-config tool, but I've got the same error...

 

The legacy boot files seems to be all there on my /boot folder :

-rw-r--r--  1 root root      151 Sep 23 08:02 armbianEnv.txt
-rw-r--r--  1 root root        0 Sep 23 10:10 armbianEnv.txt.out
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     1536 Mar  9  2020 armbian_first_run.txt.template
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    38518 Mar  9  2020 boot.bmp
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     2868 Mar  9  2020 boot.cmd
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     4882 Mar  9  2020 boot-desktop.png
-rw-r--r--  1 root root     2940 Mar  9  2020 boot.scr
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   160119 Sep 18 11:19 config-4.4.213-rockchip64
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root       22 Sep 25 06:40 dtb -> dtb-4.4.213-rockchip64
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root     4096 Sep 25 06:40 dtb-4.4.213-rockchip64
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root       26 Sep 25 06:40 Image -> vmlinux-4.4.213-rockchip64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 12165147 Sep 25 06:40 initrd.img-4.4.213-rockchip64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root        0 Sep 25 06:40 .next
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  4553000 Sep 18 11:19 System.map-4.4.213-rockchip64
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root       26 Sep 25 06:40 uInitrd -> uInitrd-4.4.213-rockchip64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 12165211 Sep 25 06:40 uInitrd-4.4.213-rockchip64
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root root 22114312 Sep 18 11:19 vmlinux-4.4.213-rockchip64

Any idea on what I can try to boot from the emmc again ?

[Werner]

Don't know about this error but maybe try start reading at @piter75's posting here. The user above had a similar issue: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/7498-nanopc-t4/?do=findComment&comment=96488

[gilarelli]

I have a different kernel on the eMMC after running the armbian-config tool that the one on the SDCard:

 

SDCard /boot	emmc /boot
config-4.4.213-rk3399 dtb-4.4.213-rk3399 initrd.img-4.4.213-rk3399 System.map-4.4.213-rk3399 uInitrd-4.4.213-rk3399 vmlinux-4.4.213-rk3399	config-4.4.213-rockchip64 dtb-4.4.213-rockchip64 initrd.img-4.4.213-rockchip64 System.map-4.4.213-rockchip64 uInitrd-4.4.213-rockchip64 vmlinux-4.4.213-rockchip64

 

Here are some other differences

 

SDCard /etc/armbian-release	eMMC /etc/armbian-release
BOARD=nanopim4 BOARD_NAME="NanoPi M4" BOARDFAMILY=rk3399 DISTRIBUTION_CODENAME=buster DISTRIBUTION_STATUS=supported VERSION=20.08.1 LINUXFAMILY=rk3399 BRANCH=legacy ARCH=arm64 IMAGE_TYPE=stable BOARD_TYPE=conf INITRD_ARCH=arm64 KERNEL_IMAGE_TYPE=Image	BOARD=nanopim4 BOARD_NAME="NanoPi M4" BOARDFAMILY=rk3399 DISTRIBUTION_CODENAME=buster DISTRIBUTION_STATUS=supported VERSION=20.08.3 LINUXFAMILY=rk3399 BRANCH=legacy ARCH=arm64 IMAGE_TYPE=user-built BOARD_TYPE=conf INITRD_ARCH=arm64 KERNEL_IMAGE_TYPE=Image

SDCard /etc/armbian-image-release	eMMC /etc/armbian-image-release
BOARD=nanopim4 BOARD_NAME="NanoPi M4" BOARDFAMILY=rk3399 BUILD_REPOSITORY_URL=https://github.com/armbian/build DISTRIBUTION_CODENAME=buster DISTRIBUTION_STATUS=supported VERSION=20.08.1 LINUXFAMILY=rk3399 BRANCH=legacy ARCH=arm64 IMAGE_TYPE=stable BOARD_TYPE=conf INITRD_ARCH=arm64 KERNEL_IMAGE_TYPE=Image	BOARD=nanopim4 BOARD_NAME="NanoPi M4" BOARDFAMILY=rk3399 BUILD_REPOSITORY_URL=https://github.com/armbian/rkbin DISTRIBUTION_CODENAME=buster DISTRIBUTION_STATUS=supported VERSION=20.02.1 LINUXFAMILY=rockchip64 BRANCH=current ARCH=arm64 IMAGE_TYPE=stable BOARD_TYPE=conf INITRD_ARCH=arm64 KERNEL_IMAGE_TYPE=Image

 

Edit: I can boot on the eMMC system by changing the armbianEnv.txt ; go to maintenance mode, but that's already a start.

 

[gilarelli]

It's solved !

 

So: after modifying the /boot/armbianEnv.txt file and booting in maintenance mode, I installed the same packages as the ones on the SDCard (*rk3399 instead of *rockchip64) and now it's working fine.

 

I'll just check if everything is really fine, but this topic can be closed.

Thanks for your help !