Pine A64 LTS boots from SD, but once booted, the SD device is MIA

[goathunter]

Armbianmonitor:

http://hunter.goatley.com/misc/armbian-2021-03-10.txt

Yesterday, I upgraded my Pine A64 LTS to the 5.10.21 kernel:

Quote

me@aldo:~$ uname -a
Linux aldo.xxxxx.com 5.10.21-sunxi64 #21.02.3 SMP Mon Mar 8 00:45:13 UTC 2021 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

 

The system rebooted just fine, though took longer then before. I didn't realize why until today, when I tried to access /media/mmcboot and discovered that it wasn't there. In fact, there is no /dev/mmcblk0p1 device at all. It's bizarre: it boots from the MicroSD, switches to my SSD, but then the MicroSD card device is simply gone when the system is up.

I do not see this on two other Pine A64 (not LTS) systems.

 

Quote

 20048  [   96.545683] systemd[1]: dev-disk-by-uuid-9de746a4-d0de-404f-9403-4645fb268a33.device: Job dev-disk-by-uuid-9de746a4-df0de-404f-9403-4645b268a33.device/start timed out.
 20049  [   96.545731] systemd[1]: Timed out waiting for device /dev/disk/by-uuid/9de746a4-d0de-404f-9403-4645fb268a33.
 20050  [   96.560122] systemd[1]: Dependency failed for File System Check on /dev/disk/by-uuid/9de746a4-d0de-404f-9403-4645fb268a33.
 20051  [   96.564171] systemd[1]: Dependency failed for /media/mmcboot.
 20052  [   96.568077] systemd[1]: Dependency failed for /boot.

 

I was able to mount the microSD card on one of the other systems, and fsck reported everything was fine. I could also see all of the files just fine. The files in /boot had been updated for 5.10.21.

But booting up the LTS again resulted in the same thing: it boots, but /dev/mmcblk0p1 does not exist.

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks!

[goathunter]

FWIW, I double-checked using another system: the UUID has not changed on the MicroSD card.

 

I decided to start fresh with a second MicroSD. I downloaded the current SoPINE Focal image from Armbian:

Armbian_21.02.3_Pine64so_focal_current_5.10.21.img

 

On the first boot, it loaded the kernel, hung for a bit after the "done." shown in the image---and then the MicroSD could not be found.

[goathunter]

This is definitely a problem with 5.10.21 somehow. I'll spare you the details, but I managed to start fresh with 5.10.12, then upgraded to 5.10.16, and all was well. The MicroSD card could still be seen. Upgraded to 5.10.21, no more /dev/mmcblk0p1 device at all.

I'm now frozen at 5.10.16 for the time being, and everything is as it should be.

 

And to clarify, I do not see this problem with 5.10.21 on two PINE A64s (non-LTS) and on a RockPro64. Only the PINE A64-LTS (the SOPINE images) has the problem.

 

[GregH]

Thanks for posting your findings goathunter, I'm seeing the same problem. Very frustrating! Thanks for the tips on which versions work, now I know how far I can upgrade before I get the dreaded uuid message.

 

[goathunter]

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing it!

[kuartangokoa]

Downloaded the current (supported) version of Focal for Sopine and built a system out of it. The thing crashes repeatedly if a full upgrade is made. Got it running setting the upgrades for kernel and firmware on hold. Problem seems to be related to the dissapeared UUID others are referring to.

[williamcolls]

Armbian_21.02.3_Pine64so_buster_current_5.10.21.img

Having the same problem, except that after the message "Dropping to a shell" all I get is a shell prompt [initramfs]. Busybox does not start, so there is no way to find out what commands are available, or preform an orderly shut. this usually results in the card being in a locked state when it is removed from the board. If i can get the card unlocked, I'll drop back to an earlier version.

[goathunter]

This post from January is a for a different device and a different version, but the same symptom, based on the provided screenshot.

 

Boot problem after upgrade to linux-image-current-sunxi64_20.11.7

[goathunter]

Another issue I've had for a little while is that incoming wired Ethernet speeds have been terrible. Outgoing is as fast as ever, but incoming is anywhere from 4MBs down to 100KBs. It's usually in the 24MBs to 28MBs range. On a whim yesterday, I decided to drop back down to the 5.9.14 kernel. So far, so good. My problems started when I went to 5.10. But again, only on my LTS with the SoPINE images.

 

I'm currently frozen at 5.9.14.

[dippywood]

This issue with the SD card vanishing is also being discussed here:- 

As a work-around you can install a slightly earlier version and hold back linux-dtb-current-sunxi64 - or modify the dts to re-add the missing  non-removable entry, as I did. The dts for the SoPINE is attached to the other thread.

 

@goathunter- there's a name from my VAX past... :-)

 

 

 

[goathunter]

Thanks, @dippywood! I hadn't seen that thread. I figured the problem had to be something simple, but it never occurred to me to look where you did. I'd go with your solution if I hadn't also experienced the Ethernet throughput issues I mentioned. So far, dropping down to 5.9.14 seems to have corrected those problems, too.

 

I'm fortunate to still be doing work on VMS! 

[goathunter]

Just FYI, i have retired my Pine A64 LTS. I don't know if the recent kernel updates ever fixed this problem or not, because I never had/took the time to try them. But over the past few months, I've had a recurring issue of my USB system disk going AWOL. A reboot would clear everthing up. I thought maybe it was a power problem, so I eventually moved the system disk to a powered hub instead of plugging it directly into the Pine. That seemed to help for a bit, but the problem returned and actually got worse---the system would run OK for a couple or three days, then there'd be errors about writing to the drive and the system would hang. (All checks I ran on the disk showed no problems at all.)

 

With all of this, I decided a few weeks ago to move everything on the system (Plex server, primarily) to one of my non-LTS Pine A64s, and the system has run perfectly fine ever since. No disk access problems, no system hangs---and no special SOPINE kernel. After I determined that it was stable, I decided I was tired of messing with the LTS, and I recycled it. I've always been confused about why the LTS version had several hardware changes made to it (the memory, the power connector, etc).... It's seems like a new model, not just an LTS version of the original.

Anyway, it's history.