Stuck on "Starting kernel..."

[Wilson Wilson]

Hello,

 

Installed some updates recently on OrangePi PC Plus and after reboot I'm stuck on boot screen with message "Starting kernel...".

Would this be logged somewhere? Any way to recover from this or should I start from scratch?

 

boot error

 

 

Edited June 1 by Wilson Wilson
Title edited

[Werner]

https://debug.armbian.de

[mikhailai]

I have a similar issue on "Banana PI M1", so I can provide more details. Basically, what I've found out is the linux kernel contained in the latest "linux-image-legacy-sunxi" (version 24.5.1) package appears to broken to the point of locking-up right from the start. It prints "Starting kernel...", and no more messages appear even with "verbosity=6" setting in the "armbianEnv.txt".

 

*  "linux-image-current-sunxi" version 24.5.1 with 6.6.31 kernel: boots fine.

*  "linux-image-legacy-sunxi" version 24.2.1 with "6.1.77" kernel: boots fine.

*  "linux-image-legacy-sunxi" version 24.5.1 with "6.1.92" kernel: broken as described above.

 

In the "boots fine" cases, the kernel prints multiple other messages, before starting the OS boot.

 

Here are the steps to reproduce. I've done it for "Banana PI M1", but I think any board with Allwinner "Cortex-A7"-based SOC should work.

1. Download and write the Armbian image to a MicroSD card.

2. Connect the serial console, boot the board, finish setup, do all the upgrades: assume everything works fine at this point. Double-check that "linux-image-current-sunxi" is what's being used.

3. Set "verbosity=6" in the "armbianEnv.txt", reboot and observe the kernel messages. 

4. Install "armbian-config" and use it to switch to the legacy kernel.

 

After step (4) reboots, observe the boot process gets stuck at "Starting kernel..." message.

 

What I'm guessing could've happened is something went wrong during the build process for that specific target (e.g. data corruption, wrong architecture being used).

[Werner]

5 hours ago, mikhailai said:

verbosity=6

Should be 7

[mikhailai]

Tried the verbosity=7, the same effect.

 

With 6.1.77 kernel:

Working FDT set to 49630000

Starting kernel ...

[    0.000000] Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0
[    0.000000] Linux version 6.1.77-legacy-sunxi (armbian@next) (arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc (Ubuntu 11.4.0-1ubuntu1~
22.04) 11.4.0, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Ubuntu) 2.38) #1 SMP Fri Feb 23 08:12:53 UTC 2024
[    0.000000] CPU: ARMv7 Processor [410fc074] revision 4 (ARMv7), cr=50c5387d
[    0.000000] CPU: div instructions available: patching division code
[    0.000000] CPU: PIPT / VIPT nonaliasing data cache, VIPT aliasing instruction cache
[    0.000000] OF: fdt: Machine model: LeMaker Banana Pi
......

 

With 6.1.92 kernel from  "linux-image-legacy-sunxi" version 24.5.1

Working FDT set to 49630000

Starting kernel ...

 

I tried the Device Trees from both "linux-dtb-legacy-sunxi" and "linux-dtb-current-sunxi": makes no difference.

 

This again points to the "linux-image-legacy-sunxi" version 24.5.1 being broken. I wonder if someone with more authority can try running the kernel from that package on any Allwinner A20 board, or any Allwinner H3 Board (e.g. Orange Pi One, Orange Pi PC Plus), and confirm or disprove my claim.

[TRay]

I can add that Orange Pi Zero 3 users have similar problems, i.e. after turning on the power or, for example, after reboot. This is not a cyclical phenomenon. So when it happens that you need to reboot remotely, it may turn out that Orange Pi Zero 3 requires physical intervention by turning the power on and off.

 

[Aleksey Vasenev]

On 6/4/2024 at 8:18 PM, mikhailai said:

I wonder if someone with more authority can try running the kernel from that package on any Allwinner A20 board, or any Allwinner H3 Board (e.g. Orange Pi One, Orange Pi PC Plus), and confirm or disprove my claim.

Same problem on Orange Pi Zero:

6.1.53 work

6.6.31 work

6.1.92 stuck on "Starting kernel..."

Edited June 29 by Aleksey Vasenev

[Aleksey Vasenev]

From latest sources also not work Armbian-unofficial_24.8.0-trunk_Orangepizero_bookworm_legacy_6.1.96_minimal.img

 

May be size problem? 6.1.92 size more than 8MiB. Older kernel size less than 8MiB.

But this does not explain why 6.6 and 6.7 work despite the larger size.

[going]

There have been changes in the 6.1.78 kernel that negatively affect arm (Cortex-A7).
Try not to use kernels more than 6.1.78.
I hope this will be fixed soon.

[Aleksey Vasenev]

6.1.77 good
6.1.87 good
6.1.88 bad
6.1.89 bad
6.1.90 bad
6.1.92 bad
6.1.96 bad

[going]

55 минут назад, Aleksey Vasenev сказал:

6.1.88 bad

Alexey, will you be able to publish the console boot log with the debug message parameter 7?

[TRay]

My friend who had problems with OZPI v3 did not start after reboot, and sometimes after turning on the power, he had to turn the power on again for the system to start. Run armbian-config and select SYSTEM -> INSTALL from the menu and then select option 5 "Install/update the bootloader on SD/eMMC" Since then, there have been no problems with the computer not starting from time to time after reboot or after turning on the power

 

It looks like updating the bootloader helped ?

[Aleksey Vasenev]

On 6/30/2024 at 2:43 PM, going said:

Alexey, will you be able to publish the console boot log with the debug message parameter 7?

armbianEnv.txt: verbosity=7

 

1.log

Edited July 7 by Aleksey Vasenev

[going]

@Aleksey Vasenev The problem will be solved with this PR: # 6893

 

 

[Aleksey Vasenev]

2 hours ago, going said:

@Aleksey Vasenev The problem will be solved with this PR: # 6893

Same problem on my another board in latest build, sometime boot (30%), sometime not (70%):

Armbian_community_24.8.0-trunk.314_Orangepi3-lts_bookworm_current_6.6.36_minimal.img.xz

[going]

1 час назад, Aleksey Vasenev сказал:

Orangepi3-lts

You shouldn't expect help from me for this device.