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Unable to boot 'focal' or 'buster' images on SOPine Clusterboard

robocone

By robocone
in SD card and PSU issues

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robocone

robocone

Posted
Posted (edited)

I am trying to boot armbian on the Pine64 clusterboard but I cannot get past a 'Starting kernel...' message on the serial console.

 

I am not able to boot either of the images from https://www.armbian.com/sopine-a64/#kernels-archive-all

 

I'm not sure if the serial is just turning off or the system is freezing. It does not connect to my router.

 

Here is the serial output for for 'focal' image.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Can anyone provide any advice for diagnosing/fixing this?

Board: Not on the list
Edited by TRS-80
put long output inside spoiler
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Igor

Igor

Posted
Posted
  On 3/22/2021 at 10:28 AM, robocone said:

I am trying to boot armbian on the Pine64 clusterboard but I cannot get past a 'Starting kernel...' message on the serial console.

Expand  


Default log goes to HDMI ... how long do you wait?

0
robocone

robocone

Posted
  • Author
Posted

The clusterboard has no HDMI connection, so I am using the serial console so I can get networking going and then use ssh.

 

Thanks, I will try and find out how to change the output from HDMI to serial

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robocone

robocone

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thank you very much, mounting the image and changing armbianEnv.txt to 

console=serial
#disp_mode=1920x1080p60

had it go further:

  

Starting kernel ...

Loading, please wait...
Starting version 241
Begin: Loading essential drivers ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/init-premount ... done.
Begin: Mounting root file system ... Begin: Running /scripts/local-top ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-premount ... Scanning for Btrfs filesystems
done.
Begin: Waiting for root file system ... Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
done.
Gave up waiting for root file system device.  Common problems:
 - Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
   - Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
 - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT!  UUID=b9866ace-f260-437c-9794-8e1a363a3c71 does not exist.  Dropping to a shell!
(initramfs)

 

Now it is unable to find the root filesystem (but when I check the UUID on my PC it does match

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robocone

robocone

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I was able to boot successfully by downloading 'Armbian_20.11.7_Pine64so_buster_current_5.10.4.img.xz' from the archives (I did not try all previous versions but this one worked so I will upgrade from there).

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dippywood

dippywood

Posted
Posted

I have the same problem -so, to help things along a little - 21.02.1 WILL boot - 21.02.3 does not.

 

Upgrading via apt will prevent booting unless frozen.

 

@TRS-80(it seems that you might be a good person to ask) I note that, in the first post, this has been flagged as having a board that is not on the list - this board is the Sopine A64 compute module, which is intended for use in the 'baseboard' and the 'clusterboard'  The Sopine A64 is explicitly listed as supported. Is it that this compute module is only supported when used with the baseboard? It seems as though the clusterboard has been supported until now, with changes having been made to support networking just recently

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TRS-80

TRS-80

Posted
Posted
  On 3/23/2021 at 10:14 AM, dippywood said:

@TRS-80(it seems that you might be a good person to ask) I note that, in the first post, this has been flagged as having a board that is not on the list - this board is the Sopine A64 compute module, which is intended for use in the 'baseboard' and the 'clusterboard'  The Sopine A64 is explicitly listed as supported. Is it that this compute module is only supported when used with the baseboard? It seems as though the clusterboard has been supported until now, with changes having been made to support networking just recently

Expand  

 

To clarify,  OP wrote "Board: Not on the list" which was the last line in his post.  No idea what they meant by that.

 

If you look closely at the edit note below that, you will see a reason.  It is the same as your own post immediately above this one.  Anyway, in my case, my edit to OP was simply to "put long output inside spoiler" and that's all I did.

0
Igor

Igor

Posted
Posted
  On 3/23/2021 at 10:14 AM, dippywood said:

The Sopine A64 is explicitly listed as supported.

Expand  

 

That is correct. Support: https://docs.armbian.com/#what-is-supported creates costs which are 99% covered by us, which means it will wait for a free slot. This can be stretched from days to years. You have to understand that this vendor never covered us a single minute for supporting troubles their customers have by using (one if not the best available) OS for their hardware. Nor "you" see and feel the necessity to cover support costs you make. Since none of you see value in getting help, there is no warranty we will fix this and you might need to wait months ... 

 

Workaround = use old builds.

1
dippywood

dippywood

Posted
Posted

@IgorPlease do not think that your efforts are unappreciated - they are, and greatly so. I was simply concerned that the board status was not what I expected. 

 

I also agree with the work-around - and thus me taking the builds and working out which would work for @robocone

 

I am also not adverse to providing workarounds when I can, and, as time allows, I will attempt to identify exactly where the problem is, and share same.

 

Once more, the efforts here are greatly appreciated (at least by myself) and I remain grateful for all of your efforts. If I can find the cause then I shall do so, but. for me. the 'free' is very valuable

 

3
dippywood

dippywood

Posted
Posted

Just in case this provokes an 'ah-ha!' - this problem is somewhere within the DTB.

 

I purchased a baseboard so that I can reboot on command, and by selectively releasing the hold on package upgrades, this shows that the problem is only apparent when linux-dtb-current-sunbix64 is upgraded 

 

If there is no light-bulb moment then I'll start digging through the dtbs and see what I can find.

0
pinecorn

pinecorn

Posted
Posted

Thanks, holding back 'linux-dtb-current-sunxi64' works for me too.

 

Performing a diff on the dts with 

dtc -I dtb -O dts -o /tmp/sopine.dts /boot/dtb/allwinner/sun50i-a64-sopine-baseboard.dtb

 

Finds, apart from some odd white space changes (< x > becomes <x> and <x> becomes < x >) the following differences in the dts:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I have not been able to confirm whether the removing the dts changes is enough to make it boot but looking at the contents of the package 'dpkg -L linux-dtb-current-sunxi64' it looks like it could be

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karlitos

karlitos

Posted
Posted

Hello,

 

I just stumbled upon this topic, after I spend few hours trying to run the current Armbian (buster)  I downloaded from the Sopine64 Product page. I got the same error:

  

Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/local-block ... done.
done.
Gave up waiting for root file system device.  Common problems:
 - Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
   - Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
 - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT!  UUID=b9866ace-f260-437c-9794-8e1a363a3c71 does not exist.  Dropping to a shell!
(initramfs)

 

The UUID in the armbianEnv.txt did match, so my conclusion is, that there is something wrong with the current linked image. I have a Pine64 LTS which is identical with the Sopine board. Downloading the Armbian_20.11.7 image did solve my problems.

0
karlitos

karlitos

Posted
Posted
  On 3/29/2021 at 3:40 PM, pinecorn said:

 

Dude, see the suggestions by @dippywood the latest version is 21.02.1

The broken package can be held back with 

echo "linux-dtb-current-sunbix64 hold" | sudo dpkg --set-selections

 

Expand  

Thanks for the suggestion, I will hold the brocken package back. Does the 21.02.1. version boot ?

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dippywood

dippywood

Posted
Posted

So, here's the problem, and its resolution:

 

Comparing the decompiled DTBs for the SOPine for 21.02.1 and 21.02.3, diff gives me  

565d564
<                       non-removable;
600c599
<                       max-frequency = <0xbebc200>;
---
>                       max-frequency = <0x8f0d180>;
681a681,682
>                       phys = <0x2d 0x00>;
>                       phy-names = "usb";
691a693,694
>                       phys = <0x2d 0x00>;
>                       phy-names = "usb";

 

Working through these show that only the first of these seems to make a difference. The definition for mmc@1c0f000 no longer contained the 'non-removable' entry. 

 

Therefore, inserting "non-removable;" at line 565 of sun50i-a64-sopine-baseboard.dts and compiling to /boot/dtb/allwinner/sun50i-a64-sopine-baseboard.dtb resolves this issue.

 

I can supply a patched focal image if requested.

 

 

2
lanefu

lanefu

Posted
Posted

Any chance you can share the patched version of the dts.  Will make it easier to add it back into armbian build

1
SecT0uch

SecT0uch

Posted
Posted

Having the exact same problem with my sopine and the baseboard.

@lanefu I can't see the related PR upstream, has it been done yet ? I would submit it, but I'm not sure on which file (on Github) I should apply it.

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dippywood

dippywood

Posted
Posted

@SecT0uchIf you are able to mount the image on another system then you could make the update in place

 

Something along the lines of (adjust paths to suit your setup) 

mkdir /tmp/image
mount -v -o offset=4194304 -t ext4 /Path/To/Armbian_21.02.3_Pine64so_focal_current_5.10.21.img /tmp/image
dtc -O dtb -o /tmp/image/boot/allwinner/dtb/sun50i-a64-sopine-baseboard.dtb -b 0 sun50i-a64-sopine-baseboard.dts
umount /tmp/image

 

Then write the image as usual

 

You can mount this from another Linux system. from WSL2 or whatever, as long as you have the dtc command avaialble. 

1
pfeerick

pfeerick

Posted
Posted

Thanks for finding out the cause of the problem! I just updated all seven nodes of my clusterboard, only to have them not boot... It was probably time to clean them up, but it's still annoying, and affects more than just the clusterboard, but also the Pine64 A64 LTS. I thought I was having trouble with getting this to take, but I was probably being too imatient, and not waiting long enough for the microSD resize to complete...

 

If I understand right, the patch would go in here - https://github.com/armbian/build/tree/master/patch/kernel - but I'm not sure which of the sunxi branches it goes in... current? Making it so the patch belongs in `archive/sunxi-5.10` ... Anyway... all seven nodes will be happy once I apply this to the remaining six :)

0
kravietz

kravietz

Posted
Posted

Any idea where did this non-removable change come from? I checked the DTS file https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/master/packages/blobs/sunxi/a64/pine64so.dts#L2117 but the non-removable flag is still there in sdmmc@01c0f000 section. But then some changes in DTS files are introduced by kernel patches apparently. The only patch that removes the flag is this one https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/0cdffb29b07305209efb12cf3b5ac6032d3a1153/patch/kernel/archive/sunxi-5.4/patch-5.4.46-47.patch#L44 from 24 March but the Armbian runs Linux 5.10.21-sunxi64 so I can't see how it's even relevant... I would like to create a PR to fix this but I'm a bit confused here.

1
Buckzilla311

Buckzilla311

Posted
Posted
  On 4/8/2021 at 10:23 PM, dippywood said:

dtc -O dtb -o /tmp/image/boot/allwinner/dtb/sun50i-a64-sopine-baseboard.dtb -b 0 sun50i-a64-sopine-baseboard.dts

Expand  

 

Should be:

  

dtc -O dtb -o /tmp/image/boot/dtb/allwinner/sun50i-a64-sopine-baseboard.dtb -b 0 sun50i-a64-sopine-baseboard.dts

 

Not that I'm critiquing or anything, I hope you got that new brain for your birthday :P

 

Anyway, I can also confirm that this is indeed working. My clusterboard thanks you!

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