Nano Pi Neo Core: kernel upgrade 5.x -> 6.1 crashes the board

[DVE]

Hi all,

 

I have a Nano Pi Neo Core board with Armbian 5.15.93, and I want to upgrade it to 6.1. 

I ran the "armbian-config", and selected the new version linux-image-edge-sunxi=23.02.2 based on kernel 6.1.11-sunxi. After the update the board does not boot anymore.

 

Further investigation shows that the original "/boot" folder was looking like this:

 

 

And after the upgrade, I get this:

 

 

A "uInitrd" symlink is broken, the "uInitrd-6.1.11-sunxi" file is missing, and obviously, the board cannot boot.

 

Question N1: where can I get the proper "uInitrd-6.1.11-sunxi" file? I cannot find it online, and I think, it can only be built from a source?

As a temporary workaround, I installed the image from https://www.armbian.com/nanopi-neo/ into another board, and copied the "uInitrd-6.1.30-sunxi" file from that board manually to the first one. A sort of hacky way, but the board was able to boot. But I have another remote board, which I have no physical access to, so I cannot boot it from SD card and do the same trick.

 

Question N2: after the kernel upgrade and fixing a missing file, the board can boot. But there are some issues:

-  "/etc/os-release" shows "Ubuntu 20.04.6 Focal fossa". I suppose, only the kernel was updated but other files were intact? Commands "apt update" and "apt upgrade" did not help.

- "/etc/armbian-release" is now missing.

- "/etc/apt/sources.list" and "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/armbian.list" are still pointing to "focal" (is it enough just to change to "jammy"?) 

- "armbian-config" does not show any kernels anymore and does not allow upgrades or downgrades

 

What is the right way to update Ubuntu to the latest one as well?

 

Thanks and best regards

 

 

 

 

Edited September 20, 2023 by DVE

[Gunjan Gupta]

2 hours ago, DVE said:

where can I get the proper "uInitrd-6.1.11-sunxi" file? I cannot find it online, and I think, it can only be built from a source?

uInitrd file is built automatically on the board when a installing a new kernel. Installing a new kernel triggers generation of initramfs using update-initramfs command. After initramfs is created, the update-initramfs triggers /etc/initramfs/post-update.d/99-uboot script to generate uInitrd file.

 

2 hours ago, DVE said:

"/etc/os-release" shows "Ubuntu 20.04.6 Focal fossa". I suppose, only the kernel was updated but other files were intact?

I believe you only choose to change kernel and haven't updated anything. Latest available edge kernel would have been something like 6.4.12 or something.

 

2 hours ago, DVE said:

  "/etc/os-release" shows "Ubuntu 20.04.6 Focal fossa". I suppose, only the kernel was updated but other files were intact? Commands "apt update" and "apt upgrade" did not help.

What was the output of "apt update" and "apt upgrade" Hard to understand what was going on without seeing the output

 

2 hours ago, DVE said:

"/etc/apt/sources.list" and "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/armbian.list" are still pointing to "focal" (is it enough just to change to "jammy"?) 

Upgrades are generally not tested because of resource crunch. But theoretically that is what is supposed to be done for performing an upgrade.

 

2 hours ago, DVE said:

"armbian-config" does not show any kernels anymore and does not allow upgrades or downgrades

I guess this is because of your armbian config has gone missing. Again you haven't shared any of the outputs from the operations you have performed. So can't really say why that file went missing in the first place

[DVE]

Hi Gunjan, thanks for the answer.

 

I manually changed "focca" to "jammy" in "/etc/apt/sources.list" and "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/armbian.list", then did apt update && apt upgrade, and all packages were updated properly.

 

  

57 minutes ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

What was the output of "apt update" and "apt upgrade"

 

Before I changed "focca" to "jammy" it was "no packages available" or something like that, I don't remember the exact string. After the change, about 300 packages were installed, so this part works.

 

The current output:

lsb_release -a:

No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:    Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS
Release:    22.04
Codename:    jammy

 

cat /etc/os-release:

PRETTY_NAME="Armbian 23.8.1 jammy"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION_ID="22.04"
VERSION="22.04.3 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)"
VERSION_CODENAME=jammy
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.armbian.com"
SUPPORT_URL="https://forum.armbian.com"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://www.armbian.com/bugs"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.armbian.com"
UBUNTU_CODENAME=jammy
ARMBIAN_PRETTY_NAME="Armbian 23.8.1 jammy"

 

uname -r:

6.4.12-edge-sunxi

 

The "/etc/armbian-release" is still missing. Does it make sense to copy it manually from another board, or should it be generated automatically during the update?

 

Another (though not critical) issue, the armbian-config font is now wrong (Locale is set to UTF-8):

 

 

Surprisingly, mc works properly, are the fonts not the same?

Edited September 20, 2023 by DVE

[Gunjan Gupta]

1 hour ago, DVE said:

uname -r:

6.4.12-edge-sunxi

In a couple of hours or may be by tomorrow 6.5.3 kernel will also get available

 

1 hour ago, DVE said:

The "/etc/armbian-release" is still missing. Does it make sense to copy it manually from another board, or should it be generated automatically during the update?

 

 

The file should be provided by armbian-bsp-cli-nanopineo-edge package. Check if its installed, Install it if its missing.

 

1 hour ago, DVE said:

the armbian-config font is now wrong (Locale is set to UTF-8):

 Do you mean the lqqqqq thing from the screenshot? it can renders differently based on ssh client, whether you are doing running it over serial cable or whether you are doing it in graphical terminal. If you are using  ssh, try using a different client like if previously you were using putty, then try mobaxterm. If you experienced it on serial, try using ssh

[DVE]

5 minutes ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

The file should be provided by armbian-bsp-cli-nanopineo-edge package

Thanks a lot. This package was missing indeed. After the install, "armbian-release" was created, and armbian-config now shows a list of kernels properly.

 

I have a feeling that if I install this package before the initial kernel upgrade from 5.xx, there would be no need to update the "uInitrd" manually, as I did in the first step. Will check later.

 

7 minutes ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

 Do you mean the lqqqqq thing from the screenshot?

Yes. This problem magically disappeared after the "Update all packages" command and reboot, now it's fine. Maybe the locales were regenerated during the process. 

 

Thanks again  

[Gunjan Gupta]

Happy to help. Do you have a option to mark this thread as solved? If so please do mark the thread as resolved

[DVE]

I don't see any button to close the thread

[Gunjan Gupta]

 

2 minutes ago, DVE said:

I don't see any button to close the thread

 

ok no problem. Probably @Werner can help to mark it resolved

[DVE]

Small update: I did a test on another Nano Pi board: an "armbian-bsp-cli-nanopineo-edge" component is missing on 5.xx:

sudo apt install armbian-bsp-cli-nanopineo-edge -y

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package armbian-bsp-cli-nanopineo-edge

 

Probably it was added only on 6.x?

 

I'm not sure if is it a problem with my board only, but running a kernel update on 5.15.93 via "armbian-config" wipes the old uInitrd file and does not save a new one, so (at least on my board) the problem mentioned in the first post, still exist.

Edited September 21, 2023 by DVE

[Gunjan Gupta]

11 hours ago, DVE said:

armbian-bsp-cli-nanopineo-edge

It came into existence sometime close(before or after I don't remember exactly) to 23.02 release. Do a full upgrade first and then check if any armbian-bsp-cli-nanopineo-* package is installed. If its not installed, then install it manually

[DVE]

Thanks again. Indeed, "sudo apt install armbian-bsp-cli-nanopineo" works for fossa.