cubox-i stuck in boot loop

dudepron · December 7, 2021

Trying to debug this issue. Everything was fine until a recent reboot and now the box is stuck in a boot loop with any supported image downloaded from armbian. I've been focused with debian but the ubuntu doesn't work either. I have tried 3 different microSD cards (samsung and SanDisk) with the same result.

I've tried the steps in

https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Basic-Troubleshooting/

https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Recovery/

but it appears that the there is something going on with the Linux kernel?

changing the verbosity doesn't provide any new information.

I have even tried 20.05.1 and still the same behavior.

Any thoughts on possible next steps?

dudepron · December 7, 2021

forgot to attach

cubox.txt

I stand corrected. I forgot to add the console=serial.

Wondering if this is a HW issue. I don't see any errors during boot. It just reboots. I'll try to get some logs posted...

Igor · December 7, 2021

Our test hardware (Cubox i4) works http://ix.io/3HgE but this doesn't mean all variants (we only have one device) and kernels are covered. I can't tell from those logs what is wrong.

BTW. We are going to put a lot of devices into retirement, probably also this one since nobody beside me has it and I have no time for any research anytime soon.

dudepron · December 7, 2021

I appreciate the response.

It is a recent issue. I do not recall doing any big upgrades, besides having the zram /var disk fill up with journal entries. I suspect HW at the moment. It does boot the kernel but it does reboot sometimes after 11 - 14 seconds. I will work on posting that output today.

djElementDC · December 10, 2021

Hey @dudepronI have exactly the same issue - but using two different SD cards using different distros. I also suspect HW. Coincidence? Did they put a timer on this thing to just start failing after a certain number of years

After like 15 successive reboots, sometimes it will load the OS... but it's basically failing. I wonder if there's anything comparable to buy - I kind of just want to buy a new one, but a lot of the recent distros don't support the hardware anymore.

Dirk_P_Broer · January 19, 2022

I recently installed Armbian on my HummingBoard-i4ex (same Freescale I.MX6 SOC, same board manufacturer SolidRun) -and re-installed it when it all of a sudden it didn't recognize the password anymore after a reboot.