Banana Pi BPI-M2-Ultra with armbian stops load after "Scanning for Btrfs filesystems"

[Евгений Загребельный]

Hello guys.

I have Banana Pi BPI-M2-Ultra v1.1 board with A40i chip

I download img from armbian "Armbian_community_25.2.0-trunk.86_Bananapim2ultra_noble_current_6.6.62_xfce_desktop.img.xz" and write it on microSD(HC) 32Gb A1 10 class with balena etcher.

Then plug it in a board and turn on.

Here is uart debug output

 

11:14:41.598 ->
11:14:42.396 -> U-Boot SPL 2024.01-armbian-2024.01-S866c-Pb2fe-H0429-V0f9a-Bda0a-R448a (Nov 17 2024 - 03:22:36 +0000)
11:14:42.429 -> DRAM: 2048 MiB
11:14:42.429 -> Trying to boot from MMC1
11:14:42.728 -> ns16550_serial serial@1c28000: pinctrl_select_state_full: uclass_get_device_by_phandle_id: err=-19
11:14:42.728 -> 
11:14:42.728 -> 
11:14:42.728 -> U-Boot 2024.01-armbian-2024.01-S866c-Pb2fe-H0429-V0f9a-Bda0a-R448a (Nov 17 2024 - 03:22:36 +0000) Allwinner Technology
11:14:42.761 -> 
11:14:42.761 -> CPU:   Allwinner R40 (SUN8I 1701)
11:14:42.761 -> Model: Banana Pi BPI-M2-Ultra
11:14:42.761 -> DRAM:  2 GiB
11:14:42.795 -> sunxi-pinctrl pinctrl@1c20800: pinctrl_select_state_full: pinctrl_config_one: err=-38
11:14:42.795 -> Core:  66 devices, 23 uclasses, devicetree: separate
11:14:42.828 -> WDT:   Not starting watchdog@1c20c90
11:14:42.828 -> MMC:   gpio_sunxi pinctrl@1c20800: pinctrl_select_state_full: pinctrl_config_one: err=-38
11:14:42.828 -> mmc@1c0f000: 0, mmc@1c10000: 2, mmc@1c11000: 1
11:14:42.861 -> Loading Environment from FAT... Unable to use mmc 0:1...
11:14:42.861 -> In:    serial@1c28000
11:14:42.894 -> Out:   serial@1c28000
11:14:42.894 -> Err:   serial@1c28000
11:14:42.927 -> Net:   eth0: ethernet@1c50000
11:14:42.927 -> starting USB...
11:14:42.927 -> Bus usb@1c19000: Port not available.
11:14:42.961 -> Bus usb@1c19400: Port not available.
11:14:42.961 -> Bus usb@1c1c000: Port not available.
11:14:42.961 -> Bus usb@1c1c400: Port not available.
11:14:42.994 -> Autoboot in 1 seconds, press <Space> to stop
11:14:43.991 -> switch to partitions #0, OK
11:14:44.024 -> mmc0 is current device
11:14:44.024 -> Scanning mmc 0:1...
11:14:44.024 -> Found U-Boot script /boot/boot.scr
11:14:44.024 -> 5442 bytes read in 3 ms (1.7 MiB/s)
11:14:44.024 -> ## Executing script at 43100000
11:14:44.057 -> U-boot loaded from SD
11:14:44.057 -> 154 bytes read in 3 ms (49.8 KiB/s)
11:14:44.057 -> Unknown command ':' - try 'help'
11:14:44.655 -> 14529165 bytes read in 604 ms (22.9 MiB/s)
11:14:45.053 -> 8992608 bytes read in 375 ms (22.9 MiB/s)
11:14:45.053 -> Found mainline kernel configuration
11:14:45.053 -> 38747 bytes read in 7 ms (5.3 MiB/s)
11:14:45.053 -> Load fdt: /boot/dtb/sun8i-r40-bananapi-m2-ultra.dtb
11:14:45.086 -> Working FDT set to 43000000
11:14:45.086 -> Failed to load '/boot/dtb/overlay/sun8i-r40-fixup.scr'
11:14:45.086 -> Kernel image @ 0x42000000 [ 0x000000 - 0x893760 ]
11:14:45.086 -> ## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 43400000 ...
11:14:45.086 ->    Image Name:   uInitrd
11:14:45.086 ->    Image Type:   ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
11:14:45.120 ->    Data Size:    14529101 Bytes = 13.9 MiB
11:14:45.120 ->    Load Address: 00000000
11:14:45.120 ->    Entry Point:  00000000
11:14:45.120 ->    Verifying Checksum ... OK
11:14:45.219 -> ## Flattened Device Tree blob at 43000000
11:14:45.219 ->    Booting using the fdt blob at 0x43000000
11:14:45.252 -> Working FDT set to 43000000
11:14:45.252 ->    Loading Ramdisk to 49224000, end 49fff24d ... OK
11:14:45.286 ->    Loading Device Tree to 491b2000, end 49223fff ... OK
11:14:45.286 -> Working FDT set to 491b2000
11:14:45.286 -> 
11:14:45.286 -> Starting kernel ...
11:14:45.286 -> 
11:14:50.135 -> done.
11:14:50.135 -> Begin: Mounting root file system ... Begin: Running /scripts/local-top ... done.
11:14:50.135 -> Begin: Running /scripts/local-premount ... Scanning for Btrfs filesystems

 

so thats all. it stops on it.

 

Before it i tryed to use ubuntu MATE 16.04 (from sd card and install to emmc). and it works

 

any ideas how to run armbian?

[Werner]

Try adjust armbianEnv.txt for once set verbosity to 7 and for the other make sure the UUID matches the one from the sdcard.

[going]

8 часов назад, Евгений Загребельный сказал:

any ideas how to run armbian?

You can try to assemble the image yourself.

 

8 часов назад, Евгений Загребельный сказал:

11:14:50.135 -> Begin: Running /scripts/local-premount ... Scanning for Btrfs filesystems

 

so thats all. it stops on it.

How many minutes did you wait for the invitation at the first launch?

Your SD card is 32GB.

At the first launch, the script stretches the system partition over the entire card and this is a long process.

 

What will the use of the Linux system utilities show if you insert the SD card into the USB-CD adapter and run the checks on another computer?

[Igor]

Also try some older builds. We have one of this board in the automated test system and it works fine.
https://armbian.atomonetworks.com/archive/bananapim2ultra/archive/

[Евгений Загребельный]

23 часа назад, Werner сказал:

Try adjust armbianEnv.txt for once set verbosity to 7 and for the other make sure the UUID matches the one from the sdcard.

as i understand this file on SD card? or this envs change from uboot (interrupt loading with uart debug)? and where UUID match? (in armbianEnv.txt too?)

[Евгений Загребельный]

18 часов назад, going сказал:

You can try to assemble the image yourself.

is there help steps for this method?

18 часов назад, going сказал:

How many minutes did you wait for the invitation at the first launch?

Your SD card is 32GB.

At the first launch, the script stretches the system partition over the entire card and this is a long process.

 

What will the use of the Linux system utilities show if you insert the SD card into the USB-CD adapter and run the checks on another computer?

i leaved it for a night :))) and nothing changed

[Евгений Загребельный]

13 часов назад, Igor сказал:

Also try some older builds. We have one of this board in the automated test system and it works fine.
https://armbian.atomonetworks.com/archive/bananapim2ultra/archive/

thanks, will try

[going]

2 часа назад, Евгений Загребельный сказал:

i leaved it for a night :))) and nothing changed

10 - 20 minutes is enough.
I've come across this kind of behavior.
One of the possible reasons is the SD card from the manufacturer SAMSUNG.
I have a "fast" SD card if it is formatted as FAT32. If I format it into any other file system, it starts to work very very slowly.
The built-in SD card controller cannot cope.

 

P.S. It seems the problem is not with the card. If you download another operating system and it works.

[eselarm]

There is an issue with SD-card interfacing in the 'noble_current_6.6.62' images I think. I see the same:

   Begin: Running /scripts/local-premount ... Scanning for Btrfs filesystems

and is is because after the kernel is loaded and starting to run (doing scripts from initramfs etc), the SD-card/MMC interfacing get flaky or so. That endless wait is just that initrd can't find the rootfs. It also happened in an earlier phase that communication with the SD-card gets into trouble. Then many block I/O errors. It seems on older slower card 1 out of 4 powercycles it works, and then also no problem at all. The successful run I managed to setup the full system KDE neon desktop. But now it always fails, so I took a complete image of the SD-card and will try later.

 

In my case it is a ROCK3A so different SoC. A Radxa Debian11 CLI image gives no problems. I will make an own topic later when I know more.

 

Edited Monday at 09:47 PM by eselarm

[eselarm]

I am almost sure now that the reason I saw: 'Running /scripts/local-premount ... Scanning for Btrfs filesystems' is power supply or circuitry related.

 

What exactly is a question still. If I want to know, I have to go back to the situation on the day before yesterday when I tried to boot the new ROCK3A v1.31 with the original downloaded noble 6.2.62 based images.

Radxa wiki mentions 5V/2A is needed, so I took a known-to-work PSU (used for diskless RPi4B) rated 5V/2.4A, added my https://www.fnirsi.com/products/fnb48s and with HDMI, serial console, RJ45 connected as well.

 

The FNB48S displayed values well below 5V/2A. What worries me is that several strange things happened:

- with 2 different brand SD-cards, the board went in a low-power state, stalled. Disconnect and then reconnect USB-c power cable made it boot further mostly, until 1 time full success

- the HDMI monitor sometimes shows a shaky flash. That is the most strange; I suspect a loop in cabling somehow, but it isn't there (in theory). The workaround is to make sure no loops, so no HDMI, serial console connected laptop on batteries

- around kernel/systemd messaging about NPU power also something changed, either stall or success.

 

In the end, as stated already, Radxa Debian11 CLI image worked. But also the Armbian Bookworm minimal IoT image with kernel 6.6.62. So I used the latter one to set up some basic things like ssh access and keys and correct MAC/IP address (networkd fails somehow with DNS in my homelan, so purged netplan and (re-)installed NM). And the converted the whole rootfs of-line to Btrfs with btrfs-convert, put SD-card back in and it still worked.

 

Yesterday, the day after, I swapped the 5V/2.4A+FNB48S for just a new RaspberryPi 5V/5A PSU (not that the 5A matters) but was new/unused and also got 2 the other already setup noble rootfs systems onto extra partitions on the same SD-card. No issues, although now it is kernel 6.6.63 or 6.6.64 already as I put it on the beta repo.

 

My use-case was replacing an old  dead Intel Asrock server board handling a large SATA HDD, so I needed the 6.1.84 vendor kernel which now includes a SATA overlay and that works (kernel sees it at least).

So my guess is I have/had some (GND)loop or whatever. I always can run the whole setup via an off-grid standalone 12V car-battery, in case I want some 'proof'. it was late in the evening, too tired as well I guess.