Pinebook PRO does not boot Armbian_22.08.1_Pinebook-pro_bullseye_current_5.15.63.img

[Dianne S.]

Hi,

I put the image on an SD card, but the machine fails to boot.  Looking at the serial console, it just sits in a loop with the CPU constantly resetting after an exception.  Serial console log is attached.

 

Regards,

 

Dianne.

 

bootloop.txt

[Dianne S.]

UPDATE: For whatever reason, /boot/boot.scr was corrupt; it had a bunch of garbage prior to the "# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE" line.  I removed that garbage and now the Pinebook PRO boots... into Manjaro.  Here's the relevant serial console output:

Scanning mmc 1 for bootable partitions...
Scanning mmc 1:1 for extlinux or boot scripts...
Found U-Boot script /boot/boot.scr
3113 bytes read in 19 ms (159.2 KiB/s)
## Executing script at 00500000
Wrong image format for "source" command
SCRIPT FAILED: continuing...

EDIT: Meh, I guess the junk is needed as it's a legacy uImage.  So that's not it.  But obviously the junk at the top of boot.scr is not the correct junk.

Edited September 21, 2022 by Dianne S.
Update with new info

[Dianne S.]

Is anyone successfully running a recent release of Armbian on the PBP?

[Werner]

@NicoD @lanefu don't you have pbp for a quick test?

[lanefu]

I downloaded xfce for PBP from armbian website, flashed to sdcard with etcher and booted successfully.

 

Caveat I don't have emmc chip installed and nothing on SPI.  

 

So yeah could easily be manjaro uboot allergies to trying to pivot to armbian to boot.

 

If possible just wipe emmc

 

 

[Dianne S.]

Hmm, ok.  I don't want to wipe the emmc until I'm confident I can install Armbian successfully on the emmc; running from the SD card is not a long-term solution.

 

I'll run a test with the emmc switch disabled to see if that at least lets me boot from the SD card.  My SPI is empty also.

 

Thanks,

 

Dianne.

 

[Dianne S.]

Thanks.  With the emmc disabled, it booted into Armbian.

 

I have a USB-to-emmc adapter.  If I were to simply write the image directly to the emmc from my workstation, would that be expected to work?

 

Regards,

 

Dianne.

 

[lanefu]

7 minutes ago, Dianne S. said:

 

I have a USB-to-emmc adapter.  If I were to simply write the image directly to the emmc from my workstation, would that be expected to work?

 

 

Yep writing image directly to emmc should be fine.   Has been the case historically for me.   

[Dianne S.]

Awesome, thanks for your help!

[Dianne S.]

So, just to close this out:  Writing directly to the emmc did not work.  The system was unable to find the root file system.  It had the wrong UUID somehow, so I changed it with tune2fs.  Still no luck.

I then replaced the rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb with the one that ships with Manjaro.  That booted, but the laptop screen did not come on.  I could only access it via the serial port.

Finally, I saw this post: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=17215
 

When I replaced rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb with the version from Kali Linux, it booted, I got the display, and everything worked.  I now finally have Armbian running from the emmc, albeit with the device tree blob from Kali Linux.

 

[Werner]

Maybe you could do a comparison between Armbian and Kali dtb by chance? Would be neat to know if we miss something.

[lanefu]

5 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

 

When I replaced rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb with the version from Kali Linux, it booted, I got the display, and everything worked.  I now finally have Armbian running from the emmc, albeit with the device tree blob from Kali Linux.

 

When was your PBP made?  Is it from one of the newer production runs from past year?

 

Mines from 2nd gen. (Pre covid era)    I remember seeing Kali had a few extra patches for the newer PBPs

[Dianne S.]

Hi.  My PBP is very new; I bought it within the last couple of months.  I decompiled the two .dtb files using dtc, but there are a lot of differences and I'm a bit out of my depth here.  Also, it's probably better to look at the source files rather than the decompiled .dtbs because they will have comments and symbols.  Anyway, for what it is worth, I have attached the two decompiled dtb files.  The kali one works and the armbian one does not, when booting from the emmc.
 

armbian-rk3399-pinebook-pro.dts kali-linux-rk3399-pinebook-pro.dts

[Werner]

25 minutes ago, Dianne S. said:

so, it's probably better to look at the source fi

Of course it is but going this way gives first clues where to start looking

[Dianne S.]

Well, there are a lot of differences between the files, but most of them seem minor (different phandle values, for example).  I wouldn't know how to look for significant differences in the dtbs, so I have to leave this with the Armbian devs.  Thanks to all who helped with suggestions.

[Dianne S.]

Any progress on this?  Each time the kernel upgrades, it messes up my PBP and I have to re-install the Kali Linux dtb file.  Any pointers to where I can at least find the Armbian dts and dtsi sources so I can start comparing them with Kali?

[Igor]

On 10/19/2022 at 7:48 PM, Dianne S. said:

Any pointers to where I can at least find the Armbian dts and dtsi sources so I can start comparing them with Kali?

 

Start with https://github.com/armbian/build

 

./compile.sh EXPERT=yes CREATE_PATCHES="yes"

When prompted for kernel patch, go to cache/sources/KERNEL_SOURCE_DIR ... and change in the DTS what needs to be changed. Then add a patch to:
https://github.com/armbian/build/tree/master/patch/kernel/archive/rockchip64-6.0

and

https://github.com/armbian/build/tree/master/patch/kernel/archive/rockchip64-5.19

 

following by creating a pull request.

[Dianne S.]

Thanks.  However, I have a working solution (using the Kali dtb) and I have no motivation to go chasing this down... I'm not an Armbian dev and don't have the time to put into this.  I would hope that the Pinebook Pro maintainer would be able to do it.

[Igor]

10 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

However, I have a working solution

Understand, but you will need to workaround each time ... 

 

10 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

I would hope that the Pinebook Pro maintainer would be able to do it.

He hasn't showed up for a while, but we recreated and tested images last night https://www.armbian.com/pinebook-pro/ (kernel 6.0.6) and they boot normally. From SD and from (some) eMMC. 

 

10 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

I'm not an Armbian dev

 

It is Pine64 responsibility to deal with low level problems. Its only our good will if we invest into their business. Do they deserve? https://blog.brixit.nl/why-i-left-pine64/

[Dianne S.]

Late reply here, but it seems all the Armbian images are broken.  While I understand your frustration with Pine64, I think you should remove the Pinebook Pro from your list of images.  Being up front and saying that you don't support the hardware is better / less frustrating than claiming to support the hardware but providing broken images.

Anyway, I'm selling my Pinebook Pro and reverting it to the factory Manjaro build.  It's too annoying to keep fighting with it.

[Igor]

6 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

Being up front and saying that you don't support the hardware is better / less frustrating than claiming to support the hardware but providing broken images.

 

I have moved status to "Community maintained" as there is nothing we can do at short time.

 

 

There is always a solution for end users: "Current images doesn't work? Use old images from archive and report to forums ..." You did and lets hope someone will look into. If nobody picks up, there is little we can do. Yearly budget is less then zero.

 

There is a build system https://github.com/armbian/build that we take care of with care and you can build image on your own. You can choose different kernels, debug, etc., perhaps you can find out what is wrong, perhaps someone else will.

 

6 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

It's too annoying to keep fighting with it.

 

This hardware suppose to be for advanced users who knows how to fix it. And we provide help with community, build framework, tips. We can't debug all hardware instead of you. Its impossible. I mean, we will fix this eventually, but certainly not anytime soon. We only have testers, but coordinating that is already at extreme end. So much time is lost for that and broken images often slips trough, some versions of devices needs extra touch ... We can't afford to have a dedicated developer for Pinebooks and dev team is overloaded with many other problems. New custom hardware keeps coming in. More new toys you buy, less you support us, quicker your hardware will become obsolete as it needs constant maintenance. Support resources, ours and general community, are small and expensive and our interaction exists mainly when you are unhappy. And people only make donations when they are happy ... your happiness costs us a lot. 

 

6 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

While I understand your frustration

 

I am afraid you don't. Core of frustration is almost complete absence of your help. When you are asking us to invest a week of work to fix your software on your computer, check here: https://www.armbian.com/participate/ and match hours of work on what you are asking for. Help us one week, 24/7, help us all the time, ... This is ofc just a suggestion, a tip how you can fight fixing your problems on your computer.

[Jaromír Cápík]

Hello. I just tried the latest Armbian jammy for PineBook Pro and the kernel refuses to boot. I tried to replace the 6.6.31 kernel with 6.1.63 from older image and it works without problems.

[Jaromír Cápík]

Just a note ... I'm booting via Tow-Boot ... tried booting from USB and from the internal MMC + NVMe storage

Edited July 23 by Jaromír Cápík

[TRS-80]

On 7/23/2024 at 10:39 PM, Jaromír Cápík said:

Just a note ... I'm booting via Tow-Boot

 

On SPI?

 

On 7/23/2024 at 10:39 PM, Jaromír Cápík said:

tried booting from USB and from the internal MMC + NVMe storage

 

And...?

[Dianne S.]

My final note... I'm unfollowing this thread as I sold my Pinebook Pro.  It wasn't worth the hassle.

 

Regards,

 

Dianne.

 

[Igor]

7 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

It wasn't worth the hassle.

Then you should buy a MacBook in first place? 😺

From general maintaining perspective it never was - loosing hundreds of hours / several ten thousands to get few hundred from never satisfied - there is always something - customers (of somebody else) is the best deal what we can expect from such low end hardware made for end users that want to buy as cheap as possible. This never cover investments of our time, not even at 1%. It is terrible frustrating. Amateurs maintainers and people that collect donations (our competitors that contributes nothing and waits that we fix problem for you, so they can remain profitable) based on our work are even convinced that once hardware is mainlined that the job is done, but that is right the opposite. Software support in constantly changing software stack needs constant assistance or it breaks down. And you don't believe until its too late. At one point wasting time for software, support and education, goes from stupid to disastrous stupid, Concorde Fallacy is just too obvious, and you cry?  I can understand your position, but we are in worse.
 

There is a build framework we happily maintain for you, there is this community you are a part of, instructions for debugging can be found anywhere on internet. Here you can DIY, that's the point - learn, debug it. And, if you want internal experience of making something good - share the fix with others (we don't need this to work, you do!). We will integrate it (if done right) and provide you automatically made image. This is the best what we can do, once we ran out of options.

[Dianne S.]

No, a MacBook is not the answer.  Proprietary software never is.  I have an x86_64 laptop running Linux that works perfectly.

I understand and appreciate that the Armbian devs are volunteers and do a lot of hard work.  But if you can't properly support a platform, don't advertise it as supported.  That just wastes everyone's time.

 

I see now that the Pinebook PRO is no longer listed as a supported platform.  I wish that had been the case a year ago when I made the decision to purchase mine.  (It is still listed as "community maintained" which IMO is misleading.  It's not maintained by anyone.  Please remove it completely from the list of Armbian hardware.)

 

[c0rnelius]

I think the problem is Pine and not Armbian here. But I understand your point of view.

[Igor]

2 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

Proprietary software never is.

 

What about custom hardware, called Pinebook PRO, that needed years before opensource routines were developed by 3rd party (community)? Until then, hardware already become obsolete, maintainace expensive.

 

2 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

I have an x86_64 laptop running Linux that works perfectly.

 

I am sure Armbian works perfectly on it  I am running it on my x86 Lenovo laptop and it works perfectly too. Armbian Ubuntu is exactly the Ubuntu I want & need for everyday work. Do you run Armbian there too and why not?

 

2 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

I understand

 

Are you sure? Start volunteering and after a year, you will understand something, after few years you could understand our perspective.

 

2 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

But if you can't properly support a platform, don't advertise it as supported. 

 

I totally agree with you. We do have a mechanism to determine when to adjust status, but it runs every 3 months and with best effort principle. Its not a professional service and runs without any budget. We have no interest to fool you or deliberately waste your time, like everyone wants to waste ours. We try to educate people, but that is usually difficult and expensive as general expectations are shaped by much bigger forces and not with common in mind. This is our try: https://docs.armbian.com/#what-is-supportedmaintained vs. trash proprietary hardware and naivety of people. This is the only way: "Supported/maintained is not a guarantee." As in this world, this is the best you can expect. They sold you demo device without software support and you don't support us to support you! And other big side is telling you something else. We can't compete with that brainwashing.

 

Keeping status synchronized with reality is also expensive, a professional service and also paid from our private pockets. If we would have a volunteer to talk and motivate maintainers, testers round the clock - perhaps you? - we would know faster, before you complaining that something is not o.k. Its a serious logistic operation, while nobody support that so its a complete waste of our time. Why would you waste your time to save everyone's time? While telling me how we should do thing differently to save everyone's time. Step up, make this change so that everyone's time won't be wasted.

 

Also feel free to use any other Linux for Pinebook PRO if ours stop working. Why there are so many alternatives on non-proprietary hardware? And all of them works perfectly.
 

2 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

That just wastes everyone's time.

 

Everyone covers only 0.5% of all maintainers time. Think from that perspective. Armbian is not random Linux me-too distribution.

 

2 hours ago, Dianne S. said:

Please remove it completely from the list of Armbian hardware

 

There are no justifications for that and is IMO stupid. It might get fixed upstream, someone might sponsor our work to fix it for you & everyone and you will be happy again. Once support is moved to community, it costs us close to nothing / same as other Linux distributions, which "supports" the hardware. And most people understand that they have nothing to complain about. And are happy when downloaded image works.

We needed several years to come out with something that works better then chaos - if you care to understand: https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Board-Support-Rules/

[Igor]

I found a workaround for this problem. Need someone to confirm if this works:

1. Download https://archive.armbian.com/pinebook-pro/archive/Armbian_24.2.1_Pinebook-pro_jammy_current_6.6.16_gnome_desktop.img.xz

2. sudo apt update & sudo apt upgrade

3. reboot

4. install to eMMC or nvme

 

Does it survives?