None of the images work.. OrangePi Zero2

[highlander0681]

Hello

I've tried both Bookworm and Jammy (also older version). None boot up - nothing. The red LED starts blinking after after a few seconds.

Yes the SD card is good, Yes the power supply is good (both work with the official images). Yes I've tried different SD card and power supplies.

Is there an image/version someone can confirm was tested and works?

 

thank you

[Igor]

11 hours ago, highlander0681 said:

Is there an image/version someone can confirm was tested and works?

I doubt that our last images are broken as this is one of popular devices and this is the only report I can remember. Also we are running test automation, which shows not problems. However, non working images can exists, ... we keep previous versions for you to verify quickly: "Current images doesn't work ..." ... if its something on your side (powering, SD card) or image is broken. Official images are few years old version of Armbian with different boot loader and kernel.

 

Spoiler

Can you attach UART to the serial console and see where it stops?

[highlander0681]

Quote

Can you attach UART to the serial console and see where it stops?

Unfortunately I don't have the tools or knowledge to do that.
 

I further searched around and found a reddit discussion where someone was asking the same. 

Armbian_22.02.2_Orangepizero2_bullseye_legacy_4.9.255 was answered to be working and it also works for me, but it is quite old..

[Werner]

9 minutes ago, highlander0681 said:

Unfortunately I don't have the tools or knowledge to do that.

https://debug.armbian.de

[pixdrift]

@highlander0681 can you provide a direct link to the images you used and I will verify on a Zero 2 here.

 

I am regularly building from main Armbian branch and testing on Zero2 and haven't had issues, but it will be quick to test/validate the image you had issues with.

 

I want to confirm you were using images from here as the 'Orange Pi Zero +2' can be confusing (and is a different board).
https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-zero-2/

Edited February 3 by pixdrift

[pixdrift]

I just downloaded, flashed, and booted this image on a Zero2 with no issues.
https://dl.armbian.com/orangepizero2/archive/Armbian_23.11.2_Orangepizero2_bookworm_current_6.1.68.img.xz

[highlander0681]

@pixdrift thank you for your time trying to help

 

Quote

I want to confirm you were using images from here as the 'Orange Pi Zero +2' can be confusing (and is a different board).
https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-zero-2/

Yes. Correct. Zero2 and not Zero+2.

 

Quote

I just downloaded, flashed, and booted this image on a Zero2 with no issues.
https://dl.armbian.com/orangepizero2/archive/Armbian_23.11.2_Orangepizero2_bookworm_current_6.1.68.img.xz

I tried that one first. 

 

I also tried and do not work:

https://dl.armbian.com/orangepizero2/archive/Armbian_23.11.2_Orangepizero2_jammy_current_6.1.68_minimal.img.xz

https://fi.mirror.armbian.de/archive/orangepizero2/archive/Armbian_23.8.3_Orangepizero2_jammy_current_6.1.53_minimal.img.xz

https://fi.mirror.armbian.de/archive/orangepizero2/archive/Armbian_23.8.3_Orangepizero2_jammy_current_6.1.53.img.xz

 

and some few more.. I lost track  

 

 

These ones work for me:

https://fi.mirror.armbian.de/archive/orangepizero2/archive/Armbian_22.02.2_Orangepizero2_bullseye_legacy_4.9.255.img.xz

https://fi.mirror.armbian.de/archive/orangepizero2/archive/Armbian_23.5.2_Orangepizero2_jammy_legacy_4.9.318_minimal.img.xz

 

Those which work, work on all SD cards I used so I ruled out the possibility of faulty cards.

Edited February 3 by highlander0681

[pixdrift]

@highlander0681, not sure what to say about this image not working
https://dl.armbian.com/orangepizero2/archive/Armbian_23.11.2_Orangepizero2_bookworm_current_6.1.68.img.xz

My apologies, I missed something obvious as I always test/boot boards using serial/UART. I plugged in a monitor this morning and I don't appear to be getting HDMI out on this image. Not sure if this is a regression or the patches were never added to 'currrent'.

It takes about 10 minutes to resize filesystem on my (fast) 64GB SD card (red blinking)., there also appears to be a bug where it resizes filesystem on every boot which is strange.

This is from the serial console for the image. No HDMI on this build does look like a problem though, thanks for reporting it @highlander0681.

 

 

Armbian 23.11.2 Bookworm ttyS0

orangepizero2 login: root
Password:
  ___  ____  _   _____             ____
 / _ \|  _ \(_) |__  /___ _ __ ___|___ \
| | | | |_) | |   / // _ \ '__/ _ \ __) |
| |_| |  __/| |  / /|  __/ | | (_) / __/
 \___/|_|   |_| /____\___|_|  \___/_____|

Welcome to Armbian 23.11.2 Bookworm with Linux 6.1.68-current-sunxi64

System load:   103%             Up time:       10 min
Memory usage:  11% of 984M      IP:
CPU temp:      46°C             Usage of /:    94% of 1.9G

[ General system configuration (beta): armbian-config ]

 

[Gunjan Gupta]

1 hour ago, pixdrift said:

My apologies, I missed something obvious as I always test/boot boards using serial/UART. I plugged in a monitor this morning and I don't appear to be getting HDMI out on this image. Not sure if this is a regression or the patches were never added to 'currrent'.

I added the hdmi just about a month back, remember? It was not there before.

[Gunjan Gupta]

@highlander0681If you are expecting hdmi, use the image from the rolling release section of the download page.

[Gunjan Gupta]

1 hour ago, pixdrift said:

It takes about 10 minutes to resize filesystem on my (fast) 64GB SD card (red blinking)., there also appears to be a bug where it resizes filesystem on every boot which is strange.

I fixed that too when I migrated uwe5622 to the extension. its the uwe5622 driver causing the cpufreq to crash and lscpu call hangs because of that. This is already discussed in other threads for orange pi zero2

[Gunjan Gupta]

1 hour ago, pixdrift said:

No HDMI on this build does look like a problem though, thanks for reporting it

Text from download page 

Quote

Mainline kernel does not support wireless, HDMI, … It is useful for server case scenarios.

 

[highlander0681]

Quote

@highlander0681If you are expecting hdmi, use the image from the rolling release section of the download page.

 

@Gunjan Gupta Thank you for this. I tried Armbian_24.2.0-trunk.519_Orangepizero2_noble_edge_6.7.3_xfce_desktop HDMI is there and it seems to work fine. However I see the warning it for developer testing and it may crash after updates... Is there a good desktop alternative? I will have this Zero2 installed in a place where I would have physical access once a year at best.

 

Also, is it possible to achieve something like this: Run GUI on demand ? I could really use a guide to achieve this 🙏

Edited February 4 by highlander0681

[Gunjan Gupta]

57 minutes ago, highlander0681 said:

Also, is it possible to achieve something like this: Run GUI on demand ? I could really use a guide to achieve this 🙏

There can be multiple ways. Here is one of them. Use a desktop image. Then run

sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

This will prevent the desktop to start by default

To start the desktop, run 

sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target

To stop it again run

sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target

 

[Gunjan Gupta]

13 minutes ago, highlander0681 said:

Is there a good desktop alternative?

We have a release coming. Its scheduled for this month end. Once its released you should be able to use the 24.02 images. There is nothing wrong with using rolling release either. Just you will be getting more frequent updates. On possitive side you will be getting the features before people using the release. On negative side, in extremely rare scenarios, the board may crash. But its rare.

 

If you are not going to be physically there, make sure to use ethernet for networking, don't use wifi. Audio support is not there yet and will get added sometime later. I noticed this issue on Orange Pi Zero 3, not sure if its there on Orange Pi zero 2, but sometimes when soft rebooting the board, board hangs after reboot So those are some caveats right now. If you can use a smart power socket for controling power remotely, I will highly recommend to use the same.

 

We are continuously improving things. As you can see we added support for HDMi and wifi since last release, but with limited resources the progress is bit slow. Things will improve further over future releases.

[highlander0681]

Thank you

 

2 hours ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

To stop it again run

sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target

 

The first part works, but when I get to stopping it again I get a blank screen and a cursor and it's stuck 

 

 

Edited February 4 by highlander0681

[highlander0681]

2 hours ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

We have a release coming. Its scheduled for this month end. Once its released you should be able to use the 24.02 images. There is nothing wrong with using rolling release either. Just you will be getting more frequent updates. On possitive side you will be getting the features before people using the release. On negative side, in extremely rare scenarios, the board may crash. But its rare.

It's my first interaction with armbian. I will patiently wait for the release. Actually I saw the software updated in the rolling release version does not work. I did it manually

 

2 hours ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

f you are not going to be physically there, make sure to use ethernet for networking, don't use wifi.

I am not a big fan of WiFi I always connect via cable when I can.

 

2 hours ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

Audio support is not there yet and will get added sometime later.

I do see the icon and everything but as a dummy output. I won't need it anyway..

 

2 hours ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

If you can use a smart power socket for controlling power remotely

That's a brilliant idea! What brand/model do you use? I would need a Wi-Fi one to avoid the need for a gateway. I'll search Aliexpress for something..

[Gunjan Gupta]

1 hour ago, highlander0681 said:

The first part works, but when I get to stopping it again I get a blank screen and a cursor and it's stuck 

ok...maybe just forget about systemctl isolate and use startx to start the graphics. Then you can simply logout.

[Gunjan Gupta]

49 minutes ago, highlander0681 said:

Actually I saw the software updated in the rolling release version does not work. I did it manually

Thats news to me. Could you please share more details?

 

50 minutes ago, highlander0681 said:

That's a brilliant idea! What brand/model do you use? I would need a Wi-Fi one to avoid the need for a gateway

I don't personally use them. I had bought a smart extension board with 3 power sockets and 3 usb about 5 years back, but the company went downhill, so their servers are now down. I have a plan to hack it though and add my own firmware on it. Similar to most smart devices sold in my country, its using a ESP8285 based module. Just need enough time and boredom to work on it. Its now working as a normal extension board. Just buy which ever brand you trust. They are mostly all the same. 

[highlander0681]

1 hour ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

ok...maybe just forget about systemctl isolate and use startx to start the graphics. Then you can simply logout.

Actually systemctl isolate works too, I just did not realize I have to press Alt+F1 to go back

With xinit (startx) works too and it doesn't even ask me for the password but I feel it starts like a new 'session'? What is the actual difference and which is better to use?

[highlander0681]

1 hour ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

Thats news to me. Could you please share more details?

Not much to say. Simply when clicking on "Software Updater" nothing happens.

I also noticed that Ctrl Alt T does not bring up the terminal

 

@Gunjan Gupta and another very weird thing happening with the HDMI,  that would actually be a show stopper of how I would want to use it:

So I use DWService for remote control (easy access to both desktop and terminal). And I notice that when I have no monitor connected, the machine does not appear to be online. The second I plug in the HDMI it comes (and remains) online but then I have no signal on the monitor. 😄 It works fine only if I leave the HDMI connected when I reboot..

Edited February 4 by highlander0681

[Gunjan Gupta]

1 hour ago, highlander0681 said:

Not much to say. Simply when clicking on "Software Updater" nothing happens.

I also noticed that Ctrl Alt T does not bring up the terminal

May be Software Updater is not installed? Anyways rolling release is based on distributions that are not even released yet. Debian Trixie will release next year. Ubuntu Noble will release close to end of April. So bugs in those distributions are kind of expected.

 

May be shortcut is not defined. Not sure, I have to check and come back to you

 

1 hour ago, highlander0681 said:

And I notice that when I have no monitor connected, the machine does not appear to be online. The second I plug in the HDMI it comes (and remains) online but then I have no signal on the monitor. 😄 It works fine only if I leave the HDMI connected when I reboot..

That is weird. I wonder if its the wrong ram size detection thing that I mentioned. Only way to tell is by using serial console and looking at the output. So if you can share the same, that will be great

[Gunjan Gupta]

1 hour ago, highlander0681 said:

With xinit (startx) works too and it doesn't even ask me for the password but I feel it starts like a new 'session'? What is the actual difference and which is better to use?

The difference is mostly in what handles the process. As you already discovered startx doesn't ask you password. Thats because you already logged in and desktop is being started for your user only.

 

If you are familiar with old run level concept, "Systemctl isolate multi-user.target" is like calling telinit 3 and "Systemctl isolate graphical.target" is like calling telinit 5. Desktop is started for all users. Anyone who have access can login.

[highlander0681]

1 hour ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

Only way to tell is by using serial console and looking at the output.

 

Are any of these what I need? You'd have to guide me what to do after I get it 😊

 

https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005006444198784.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.23.7222b5b0dBMvaD&algo_pvid=cb0a5052-b55b-4d12-8f6d-4f1b957333e2&algo_exp_id=cb0a5052-b55b-4d12-8f6d-4f1b957333e2-11&pdp_npi=4%40dis!CZK!1.56!1.56!!!0.48!0.48!%402103254117070809328652431e2ac7!12000037188699761!sea!CZ!180449678!&curPageLogUid=6CG2eYXm8nZ0&utparam-url=scene%3Asearch|query_from%3A

[Gunjan Gupta]

Yeah, I think anyone of them should do. I am personally using one thats based on FT232R. In the video I think its mentioned to use one based on CH340C, CP2104 or FT232R. But anyone should work fine for this board. 

[highlander0681]

46 minutes ago, Gunjan Gupta said:

In the video I think its mentioned to use one based on CH340C, CP2104 or FT232R.

I know, I saw the recommendation but couldn't find any of them on Ali or ebay. They're cheap anyway

[going]

10 часов назад, highlander0681 сказал:

I know, I saw the recommendation but couldn't find any of them on Ali or ebay. They're cheap anyway

A search for Ali on the FTDI232 line yielded 216 results. Is that not enough?

[highlander0681]

12 hours ago, going said:

A search for Ali on the FTDI232 line yielded 216 results. Is that not enough?

I never searched for that. It's not among those recommended in the video. And if you want to help you could paste a link of the right one to choose  Thanks

Edited February 5 by highlander0681

[Gunjan Gupta]

24 minutes ago, highlander0681 said:

I never searched for that. It's not among those recommended in the video. And if you want to help you could paste a link of the right one to choose  Thanks

Yeah speaking from personal experience, he didn't meant to offend you. He uses an online translator so I guess if message appeared rude, that is not his fault. He was only trying to help

 

FTDI232 and FT232 is actually the same thing. its just printed differently on different chips. But as I said before, anyone of the adapters will be fine. Some boards require to communicate at very high speed and thats when generally we have to be careful in choosing the uart adapter. But this board uses standard 115200 bps rate. So any adapter can handle it.

[ag123]

i used one of those ch340 dongles

https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-ch340.html

, but with Orange Pi Zero 3, they worked quite well

not so much for 'quality', but that they are rather low costs, and that some of the modules has switches between 3.3v and 5v vcc. I get one of those with switches and set it at 3.3v