Overlays do not apply even when selected in armbian-config and then rebooting

[Jorropo]

armbianmonitor -u

https://paste.next.armbian.com/hoyonuruye

 

I installed the newest fresh debian minimal image for the RockPi-S and no matter what I do overlays do not apply.

I've followed

and compiled spi1 and spi2 rk3308. I've also tested the external antenna device tree as I have installed an external antenna:

 

However neither the external antenna is being used nor spidev are present.
I have diffed

dtc -I fs -O dts /proc/device-tree

and they are identical before and after enabling the overlays in armbian-config and rebooting.

 

I was able to confirm the "overlays" work by manually copypasting their changes in linux's source dts and generating a patch file, placing it in armbian's linux patch folder and recompiling from scratch, so if I do change the options spidev works, just I somehow can only do this by editing the source.

 

Here is the `/boot/armbianEnv.txt` file generated:

verbosity=1
bootlogo=false
console=serial
overlay_prefix=rk3308
fdtfile=rockchip/rk3308-rock-pi-s.dtb
extraargs=cma=16M
rootdev=UUID=036c1484-611d-470e-b2ef-775fe550149b
rootfstype=ext4
fdt_overlays=rk3308-s0-ext-antenna rk3308-spi1-spidev rk3308-spi2-spidev
usbstoragequirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u

Also after editing the overlays in armbian-config this error pops up:

/boot/armbianEnv.txt: line 9: rk3308-spi1-spidev: command not found

 

[Werner]

9 hours ago, Jorropo said:

verbosity=1
bootlogo=false
console=serial
overlay_prefix=rk3308
fdtfile=rockchip/rk3308-rock-pi-s.dtb
extraargs=cma=16M
rootdev=UUID=036c1484-611d-470e-b2ef-775fe550149b
rootfstype=ext4
fdt_overlays=rk3308-s0-ext-antenna rk3308-spi1-spidev rk3308-spi2-spidev
usbstoragequirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u

 

Try this:

 

verbosity=1
bootlogo=false
console=serial
overlay_prefix=rk3308
fdtfile=rockchip/rk3308-rock-pi-s.dtb
extraargs=cma=16M
rootdev=UUID=036c1484-611d-470e-b2ef-775fe550149b
rootfstype=ext4
overlays=s0-ext-antenna spi1-spidev spi2-spidev
usbstoragequirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u

 

For once the prefix is already set and for the other IIRC it is just overlays instead of fdt_overlays. But not sure.

Overall there might be a bug in config-ng with overlays. Just need to verify that manual applying works.

[brentr]

Applying the overlays manually works.

I use the s0-ext-antenna and b@1.3ghz overlays frequently.

I've never done it any other way.

 

[Jorropo]

44 minutes ago, Werner said:

verbosity=1
bootlogo=false
console=serial
overlay_prefix=rk3308
fdtfile=rockchip/rk3308-rock-pi-s.dtb
extraargs=cma=16M
rootdev=UUID=036c1484-611d-470e-b2ef-775fe550149b
rootfstype=ext4
overlays=s0-ext-antenna spi1-spidev spi2-spidev
usbstoragequirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u

This does not work either.

[Jorropo]

25 minutes ago, brentr said:

Applying the overlays manually works.

I use the s0-ext-antenna and b@1.3ghz overlays frequently.

I've never done it any other way.

Have you tried it with debian minimal image or the noble CLI ?

[Meestor_X]

I too am not seeing any overlays added via armbianEnv.txt whether I add them on the overlays= line or user_overlays= line.
ls /proc/device-tree is the same whether items are added or not.

Running 24.8.3 (bookworm). Can anyone confirm that overlays aren't working in case it's something I'm doing wrong?

Edited 18 hours ago by Meestor_X

[eselarm]

For my ROCK3A (rockchip RK3568) using Armbian 24.11.x I enable SATA (beta 6.1.84 kernel). I need the file: /boot/dtb/rockchip/overlay/rock-3a-sata.dtbo, that exists.

 

I see in armbianEnv overlay_prefix=rk35xx, but from boot.cmd there is now an extra option without applying overlay_prefix, which is needed in my case I see. I compared with and older NanoPi-NEO (allwinner sun8i/H3), how i did it there.

 

So my statement added in armbianEnv.txt is:

 

overlays=rock-3a-sata

 

and that works.

 

 

Note that I added it with a text editor to armbianEnv.txt myself, as I needed to change paths related to booting unusual things that armbian-config doesn't know.

Edited yesterday at 04:52 PM by eselarm

[Igor]

3 hours ago, eselarm said:

I see in armbianEnv overlay_prefix=rk35xx,

This was a bug in armbian-config ... fixed with https://github.com/armbian/configng/pull/299

[Meestor_X]

@eselarm are you saying that overlays are working now in 24.11.1 ? (I'm unable to update due to an issue with Armbian-config and apt update not being able to find servers)

Edited 18 hours ago by Meestor_X

[eselarm]

@Meestor_XMy 32-bit boards still use 24.8.3 according to /etc/armbian-release I see. There there the older armbian-config is installed and I see overlays are under System->Hardware.

 

My new RK35xx boards all run beta/rolling/testing/trunk, so armbian-configng and I see no list there you can tick at the moment (configng is work-in-progress). There is an option to edit armbianEnv.txt. So that is what you need to do, same as I did and others in this topic. Make sure you understand this linux kernel DTB and overlays well enough I would say, else take older image.

[Meestor_X]

@eselarmI've been working on this for several days, and as far as I can tell, on Armbian 24.8.3, if the "simple test" for whether an overlay has installed is to see if it shows up in `/proc/device-tree` then they are not loading, whether they are added via the overlays= or user_overlays= lines in /boot/armbianEnv.txt. This is for exisitng .dbto files (like s0-ext-antenna, bs, bs@1.3ghz, sdio@10mhz, etc), ones I've copied from websites or forums, or self-created ones.

The ONLY way I've been able to successfully install an overlay is by decompiling rk3308-rock-pi-s.dtb, editing it, and recompiling it. Annoyingly, `apt upgrade` will revert that file, so being able to add overlays or user_overlays would be very helpful.

References:

https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Armbian_overlays/

https://forum.radxa.com/t/usb-sound-card-on-type-c-connector/17627

https://source.android.com/docs/core/architecture/dto/syntax#reference

 

 

Edited 48 minutes ago by Meestor_X