Orange Pi Plus 2E

dnm2dnm · September 3, 2016

Hi whoever can help.

Just bought the Topic device.

Very disappointed because of very poor docs and support.

I cannot boot Armbian.

There are must be something undocumented.

I just burnt image desktop Armbian with dd if=image of=/dev/sdc to SD but it is ext4 on /dev/sdc1 and fsck reports good.

Well I made it is bootable by setting boot flag in partition but the device is not going to boot. None of leds is lighting.

The device is booting well without any SD from it's internal flash into Android. (How to put there Armbian by the way?)

It is also booting into Android from SD which I burnt under Windows(!!!!) with a "special" buggy tool Phoenix (Crazy!!!)

What a trick should be to run Armbian?

Thanks in advance to anybody who can advise about this magic?

PS. The most intelligent advise was on Orange PI site that everybody who is trying to boot up must be patient because the first boot is always long!!! This is awesome!!! How long to be patient!!!

Igor · September 3, 2016

Hardware failure in term of bad card reader or similar is extremely rare but possible. I would check those things first:

- use other SD card

- disconnect any USB device

- use other PSU

And read the docs.

http://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Getting-Started/

dnm2dnm · September 3, 2016

I followed carefully to all 3 your advices but the same result: no lights and no booting for at least 5 minutes.

Can somebody send the CRC of the Armbian image? (I mean sha or md5 sum)

Can somebody write what red and green leds mean?

Is it right that FAT is not requred and system should be able to boot exactly from ext4 without any config files?

Below is my log where I put Armbian image into the same OK-boot flash with Android.

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auto@cors40u:/media/auto$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdc

[sudo] password for auto:

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.27.1).

Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.

Be careful before using the write command.

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdc: 7,4 GiB, 7892631552 bytes, 15415296 sectors

Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disklabel type: dos

Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type

/dev/sdc1 4923392 15413246 10489855 5G b W95 FAT32

/dev/sdc2 * 73728 106495 32768 16M 6 FAT16

/dev/sdc3 1 4923392 4923392 2,4G 85 Linux extended

/dev/sdc5 106496 139263 32768 16M 83 Linux

/dev/sdc6 139264 172031 32768 16M 83 Linux

/dev/sdc7 172032 1744895 1572864 768M 83 Linux

/dev/sdc8 1744896 1777663 32768 16M 83 Linux

/dev/sdc9 1777664 1843199 65536 32M 83 Linux

/dev/sdc10 1843200 3416063 1572864 768M 83 Linux

/dev/sdc11 3416064 3448831 32768 16M 83 Linux

/dev/sdc12 3448832 3481599 32768 16M 83 Linux

/dev/sdc13 3481600 3514367 32768 16M 83 Linux

/dev/sdc14 3514368 3579903 65536 32M 83 Linux

/dev/sdc15 3579904 3612671 32768 16M 83 Linux

/dev/sdc16 3612672 4923391 1310720 640M 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Command (m for help): q

auto@cors40u:/media/auto$

auto@cors40u:/media/auto/DATA/_ISO/ambian4opi$ sudo dd if=Armbian_5.14_Orangepiplus2e_Debian_jessie_3.4.112_desktop.raw of=/dev/sdc bs=4M

667+1 records in

667+1 records out

2799697920 bytes (2,8 GB, 2,6 GiB) copied, 420,613 s, 6,7 MB/s

auto@cors40u:/media/auto/DATA/_ISO/ambian4opi$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdc

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.27.1).

Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.

Be careful before using the write command.

Command (m for help): p

Disk /dev/sdc: 7,4 GiB, 7892631552 bytes, 15415296 sectors

Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes

Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disklabel type: dos

Disk identifier: 0x7143b565

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type

/dev/sdc1 2048 5468159 5466112 2,6G 83 Linux

Command (m for help): q

Pieter · September 3, 2016

I followed carefully to all 3 your advices but the same result: no lights and no booting for at least 5 minutes.

Can somebody send the CRC of the Armbian image? (I mean sha or md5 sum)

Can somebody write what red and green leds mean?

Is it right that FAT is not requred and system should be able to boot exactly from ext4 without any config files?

As Igor said, try reading the documentation: http://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Getting-Started/

The fourth topic there will tell you how to check the download.

On linux, after dd has finished, don't forget to do a 'sync'.

Most common problems: faulty SD-card (happens a lot), faulty power supply.

Tip: attach a ttl-usb cable between your orange pi and your pc and watch what happens on boot.

dnm2dnm · September 3, 2016

I knew about pgp 20 years ago. Are we going back to the Future?

1. I want md5sum /dev/sdc1 This is only the FASTEST TRUE way to check if everything is right with the image burnt already.

2. I need to know if the leds do not flash/lights in 10 seconds does it worth to wait for 5 minutes or MORE? or start to think what is wrong?

How patient should I be? What does this term mean on Orange PI official web-site? "BE PATIENT" = how much time?

3. Still nobody advised if EXT4 is good for direct booting by small PC? Why am I asking?

Because EXT4 is not simple like FAT and needs drivers to be preloaded or at least such trick boot system like grub is.

Is that so difficult to document for novice users like I am?

If I need to dance with debug tools around usb in such a VERY trivial situation I would rather prefer to quit back to OTHER system.

Sorry to say that in the community which I would like to join.

martinayotte · September 3, 2016

All Armbian images are using a U-Boot that is EXT4 aware, so SD images has only one EXT4 partition.

As Pieter said, checking the debug serial output will help to figure where it is choking.

Tip: attach a ttl-usb cable between your orange pi and your pc and watch what happens on boot.

zador.blood.stained · September 3, 2016

1. I want md5sum /dev/sdc1 This is only the FASTEST TRUE way to check if everything is right with the image burnt already.

Won't help you if u-boot or SPL are corrupted

2. I need to know if the leds do not flash/lights in 10 seconds does it worth to wait for 5 minutes or MORE? or start to think what is wrong?

How patient should I be? What does this term mean on Orange PI official web-site? "BE PATIENT" = how much time?

The only way to see what is happening is UART console. LEDs are controlled from software, so they can't tell you much.

3. Still nobody advised if EXT4 is good for direct booting by small PC? Why am I asking?

Because EXT4 is not simple like FAT and needs drivers to be preloaded or at least such trick boot system like grub is.

You can't put whole rootfs on FAT partition (at least without some very strong magic to emulate file permissions and owner information). These "small PCs" are using u-boot which does have ext4 filesystem drivers, well, unless you build your image on Debian Stretch (testing) or sid, which uses ext4 flags not supported by u-boot.

Is that so difficult to document for novice users like I am?

Yes. Compared to Raspberry Pi, these boards are not perfect for novice users, and also most things are already documented (i.e. here)

If I need to dance with debug tools around usb in such a VERY trivial situation I would rather prefer to quit back to OTHER system.

Sorry to say that in the community which I would like to join.

I wouldn't call this a trivial situation. If you search through this forum, you can see that most of early boot problems are related to either SD card problems (including using wrong/incomplete procedure for writing an image) or power supply problems (or interference from connected USB peripherials), but it may take ages and insane efforts to force users to admit that problem is on theirs side.

Well I made it is bootable by setting boot flag in partition but the device is not going to boot. None of leds is lighting.

These images are designed to work out of the box, you don't need to touch anything related to partition table

dnm2dnm · September 3, 2016

Perfect! Thank you guys! I will try harder!

But I would like your last comments go to the FAQ.

Clear, Understanding, Perfect! Of course for the novice but what it is you guys must want our circle to grow.

Thanks again, no questions anymore this time.

PS. But one remark I would like to make: some flashing leds must be during boot up to give advise to the others that everything is going on the way during some seconds. I believe the image can include such software feature. For example why give someone a hope that something can be fine if it is not going to be. Please look at the others who developed such software. "BE PATIENT" is not the case. Must be some expectations.

dnm2dnm · September 5, 2016

UART output:

----

U-Boot SPL 2016.05-armbian (Jun 01 2016 - 20:28:42)

DRAM: 2048 MiB

Trying to boot from MMC2

(flashing cursor forever)

----

What could that mean?

PGP Signature OK

Voltage 5.11B Current: 0.20A

PS: Samsung 5V/2A

No any USB attached

MicroSD Transcend Premium 400x 16GB (tested and working very good)

dnm2dnm · September 5, 2016

What is VERY strange for me is that without SD card inserted the output of UART is completely different.

I believe that something on start should be the same???

-----------------

auto@cors40u:~$ head orange.log

HELLO! BOOT0 is starting!

boot0 version : 4.2.0

boot0 commit : c8c201b51b7ea1baa94590a1887313124d9a5879

fel_flag = 0x00000000

rtc[0] value = 0x00000000

rtc[1] value = 0x00000000

rtc[2] value = 0x00000000

rtc[3] value = 0x00000000

rtc[4] value = 0x00000000

auto@cors40u:~$

-----------------

dnm2dnm · September 5, 2016

Started to be paranoic:

Connected PSU 5V/20A from PC

Tried server image. http://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-plus-2e/

The same result:

---------

U-Boot SPL 2016.05-armbian (Jun 01 2016 - 20:28:42)

DRAM: 2048 MiB

Trying to boot from MMC2

---------

dnm2dnm · September 5, 2016

Xenial Server

Trying to boot from MMC2

BUT the green led is ON

After about 10 minutes!: Power OFF/ON (Cycle)

Trying to boot from MMC1 !!!!!!!!!

After that the image loaded restarted, loaded again from MMC1

Login: root

Change password

Change Display setting

Reboot to take effect

Booted into Android on internal flash

Power cycling

Booted into Ubuntu

All those things followed with some errors. I do not know if they are vital...

dnm2dnm · September 5, 2016

After apt-get upgrade and shutdown the luck came to an end.

Looks like U-Boot also upgraded.

The Green Led is always ON but:

What is it??? Any Idea??? How to force MMC1?

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