u-boot for direct sata boot

[Carlo]

Helios4 can boot directly from the sata disk nr 1, without the need to switch from the SD or the eMMC.
I personally tried setting SW1 to 11100 and using u-boot-sata for Clearfog, which shares the same uSOM and the system booted regularly, obviously the system didn't recognize many devices being u-boot for another board.

 

I tried to compile a version of u-boot for sata trying to integrate the changes present in https://solidrun.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/developer/pages/287212134/A38X+U-Boot in the U-boot build instruction and sources for Helios4 present in the Kobol Wiki but my skills are not sufficient for such a job.

 

In the binaries available for Helios4 at  https://imola.armbian.com/beta/pool/main/l/linux-u-boot-helios4-current/ there are only u-boots for uart, flash and mmc. 

Would it be possible to have the sata version in future releases?

Thanks in advance and for all the work done.

[Heisath]

Yeah that should be no problem. Just compare these two files:

 

(Clearfog configuration)
https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/master/config/sources/families/include/mvebu-clearfog.inc 

 

(Helios4 configuration)

https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/master/config/sources/families/include/mvebu-helios4.inc

 

Just provide a PR with added targets here https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/master/config/sources/families/include/mvebu-helios4.inc#L11
Test it by building locally and we'll have sata uboot on the next release.

[Carlo]

Thanks, I'll give it a try as soon as possible.
I will let you know.

[Carlo]

I tried to modify configuration but unlucky it's not sufficient and I got error that I'm unable to fix.

 

  LD      spl/u-boot-spl
  OBJCOPY spl/u-boot-spl-nodtb.bin
  CAT     spl/u-boot-spl-dtb.bin
  COPY    spl/u-boot-spl.bin
  MKIMAGE u-boot-spl.kwb
  CFGCHK  u-boot.cfg
[ error ] ERROR in function compile_uboot [ functions/cli/cli-entrypoint.sh:108 -> functions/main/default-build.sh:55 -> functions/compilation/uboot.sh:145 -> functions/logging/traps.sh:0 ]
[ error ] U-boot file not found [ u-boot-sata.kwb ]
[ o.k. ] Process terminated

 

[Heisath]

Ok I'll look into it this afternoon. 

[Heisath]

Ok I checked this and there is no uboot config for 2019 uboot helios4 which has SATA support enabled. Not sure how to best go forth here.

[Mangix]

I am curious why upstream UBoot is not used. It has support or the Helios 4. Plus a bugfix for that RAM timing issue that shows up on boot.

[Igor]

4 hours ago, Mangix said:

I am curious why

 

Because nobody volunteered to try, check for possible regressions and submit changes? From project perspective, if @Heisathdon't have much time and interest, there is nothing we can do as project is way way too small to follow endless users & HW needs. We don't have a backup. 

 

[Heisath]

@Mangix because u-boot was maintained by the kobol team, which have given up supporting both their boards. I do not currently have the time to switch to another u-boot and test / fix upgrade and new image scenarios. But there are only a few patches https://github.com/armbian/build/tree/master/patch/u-boot/legacy/u-boot-helios4 and so it might be possible to go upstream. You are welcome to try and send a patch. 

 

I might also try, once I find time + motivation for it.

[Pali]

Upstream u-boot (in its next branch) has now lot of 32-bit armada / mvebu patches related to SD/eMMC, SATA and UART booting. Also on mailing list are waiting some Clearfog eMMC patches.

Likely you should take Helios patches and put then on top of the u-boot next.

[Mangix]

As I mentioned, OpenWrt maintains upstream u-boot with a build for the helios4. Necessary patches can be taken from there.

[laibsch]

On 6/6/2023 at 4:10 PM, Mangix said:

As I mentioned, OpenWrt maintains upstream u-boot with a build for the helios4. Necessary patches can be taken from there.

 

Mangix, are you still around?  Where is the code you are referring to in openwrt?  I see exactly one commit in 2020 about the Helios4 and then nothing after that.  I also don't see any specific patches applied.

[Mangix]

@laibsch

 

https://u-boot.org/

 

edit: as I said earlier, it would be better to switch to upstream to get rid of patches and get some nice bugfixes in the process, but I assume this thing is mostly abandoned. A bunch of my containers no longer offer ARM32 support. Home Assistant too at the end of this year.

Edited November 16 by Mangix

[laibsch]

should be fixed with https://github.com/armbian/build/pull/8980

[Mangix]

Wonderful.

[Mangix]

@laibschcoud you take a look at

https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/commit/cae6e8993c8eaed7c520b1046766b658e0f97b90
https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/commit/aec83261b98eec3a2ca2e9a5a2debea31fcd9d65

https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/commit/529d24002b6cefb88cd00cef307b8752dbeebfc4

 

Maybe relevant for the first patch.

[laibsch]

Thank you, @Mangix.  We bumped u-boot to v2025.10 for Helios, so I would assume those commits are already incorporated, aren't they?  I have only looked at commit dates, not actual code.

[Mangix]

Correct. But the old Marvell code needs different KConfig symbols.

[djurny]

Hi there,

I also tried to see what happens when I set the DIP to SATA0, but to my surprise, the serial console does not give any indication of a boot attempt from SATA:

BootROM - 1.73
Booting from SPI flash
BootROM: Bad header at offset D4000000
BootROM: Bad header at offset D4200000
BootROM: Bad header at offset D4400000
BootROM: Bad header at offset D4600000
BootROM: Bad header at offset D4800000
BootROM: Bad header at offset D4A00000
BootROM: Bad header at offset D4C00000
BootROM: Bad header at offset D4E00000

Trying Uart 

And yes, DIP was set to SATA0.

 

To note: there was a blinking red LED prior to the output on the serial console.

 

When I re-set the DIP to SPI, it boots up without issue:

Booting from SPI flash

U-Boot SPL 2025.10_armbian-2025.10-Se50b-Pee16-H9530-V9a59-Bbf55-R448a (Nov 23 2025 - 08:27:54 +0000)
High speed PHY - Version: 2.0
Detected Device ID 6828
board SerDes lanes topology details:
 | Lane # | Speed |  Type       |
 --------------------------------
 |   0    |   6   | SATA0       |
 |   1    |   5   | USB3 HOST0  |
 |   2    |   6   | SATA1       |
 |   3    |   6   | SATA3       |
 |   4    |   6   | SATA2       |
 |   5    |   5   | USB3 HOST1  |
 --------------------------------
High speed PHY - Ended Successfully
mv_ddr: 14.0.0 
DDR3 Training Sequence - Switching XBAR Window to FastPath Window
DDR Training Sequence - Start scrubbing
DDR3 Training Sequence - End scrubbing
mv_ddr: completed successfully
Trying to boot from SPI


U-Boot 2025.10_armbian-2025.10-Se50b-Pee16-H9530-V9a59-Bbf55-R448a (Nov 23 2025 - 08:27:54 +0000)

SoC:   MV88F6828-A0 at 1600 MHz
DRAM:  2 GiB (800 MHz, 32-bit, ECC enabled)
Core:  32 devices, 21 uclasses, devicetree: separate
MMC:   mv_sdh: 0
Loading Environment from SPIFlash... SF: Detected w25q32 with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 4 KiB, total 4 MiB
OK
Model: Helios4
Board: Helios4
...

 

It almost appears that the DIP is not read out properly?

 

What does your console say when you set the DIP to SATA0?

Groetjes,