Upgrade install on Rock Pi S. No serial console with Focal Edge image.

[ballsystemlord]

Hi,

I've already installed Armbian once before onto the SD card of my Rock PI S (Non-flash version). Before upgrading to Focal, I plugged it into my serial receiver in order to verify that I got the procedures correct so when I upgrade I'd get a console. I was glad I did that as I had forgotten I couldn't get screen(1) to work with my serial device as it can't send and receive data at the 1.5Mbs. I ended up using minicom(1).

I downloaded the Focal Edge version of Armbian, verified the data with the ASC key, and wrote it to the Micro-SD card. I then booted it and the blue LED started blinking indicating an alive and working kernel.

But I got no data over the serial console. I tried re-writting the image and reversing the RX and TX lines with no success. I then double-checked that my initial wiring was correct for my board and it was. I tried again without success.

My procedure is as follows.

1: Plug in the serial adapter which is connected to the board.

2: Start minicom.

3: Plug in the SBCs power cable.

 

How do I get a serial console on my Rock Pi S?

 

Thanks!

 

[tparys]

1 - Did you disable hardware flow control on the serial port? Minicom enables it by default, and you won't get data via 3-wire 232 serial, unless you did.

 

2 - Are you using the right voltage level for your serial port? They might be 3.3V, 5V, or full RS232 (8-15V) ranges.

[ballsystemlord]

1: Flow control, both HW and SW, is disabled.

2: Considering it worked with one of the previous Armbian releases, yes I'm certain I am using the right voltage.
 

Could the serial interface have been disabled by accident in the latest focal release? Or perhaps the serial port is a different set of pins now? I'm using the v1.2 PCB which uses different pins than the v1.0 board. See:

https://wiki.radxa.com/RockpiS/dev/serial-console

[Igor]

56 minutes ago, ballsystemlord said:

Or perhaps the serial port is a different set of pins now?

 

Yes. It is clearly written on the download pages https://www.armbian.com/rockpi-s/ (Modern kernel serial console is on UART2) I have personally lost a week trying to fix this "small" problem and I will not repeat this ever again. Armbian is dropping official support for this hardware, images and upgrade will be no more ... Not your fault - we also made mistake trusting this vendor. You (anyone) can pick up and proceed with support to keep it at least on this level as now.

[ballsystemlord]

5 hours ago, Igor said:

Armbian is dropping official support for this hardware, images and upgrade will be no more ... Not your fault - we also made mistake trusting this vendor.

Why was it a mistake to trust the Rock Pi vendor? I ask because it seems to me that I'd need to know what's going on if I were to help support the project's efforts for this SBC.

[Armate]

I also want to know the answer for this question.