Can't flash Armbian to EMMC on Orange Pi 5B

[sns1081]

Hello everyone. I can't flash Armbian to EMMC on the OrangePi 5B board. I made an SD card, booted, ran armbian-install, selected Boot from EMMC/System on EMMC, the recording process was successful, but after that the board stops booting at all. When I boot from the SD card again, I see that EMMC is not a device in the system. There is no main mmcblk0, no mmcblk0boot0, no mmcblk0boot1.

 

I was able to get EMMC back only after re-flashing the standard Android firmware using RKDevTool via maskrom. When I flash Android to EMMC and then boot from the SD card with Armbian, /dev/mmcblk0, /dev/mmcblk0boot0 and /dev/mmcblk0boot1 are back in place.

 

Accordingly, I have some confusion:
1. Why, when booting from an SD card after flashing EMMC, none of the three devices mmcblk0, mmcblk0boot0 and mmcblk0boot1 are visible? What can be flashed there so that it falls off completely?
2. Why, when processing armbian-install, the system does not boot and how can I flash Armbian to EMMC?

 

I am using the image: Armbian_24.11.2_Orangepi5_bookworm_vendor_6.1.75_minimal.img.xz, I have previously tried others, including larger images with a graphical environment.
My board: Orange Pi 5B 16G/128G, revision 1.2. I have changed boards, tried three pieces.

[Werner]

moved

[z28z34man]

i had the same issues i rolled back to Armbian_23.8.1_Orangepi5_bookworm_legacy_5.10.160_cinnamon_desktop.img

[Andrius Vainorius]

I have OrangePi 5b and no matter what i tried, i was unable to boot ir from EMMC (official images boot normally from EMMC). I tried new rolling releases too, and they do not support boot from EMMC.

[sns1081]

So far I have come to the following solution:

The problem is now solved by rewriting part of the uboot taken from the manufacturer's image. I fix dtb in armbianEnv.txt to "5b" in the base Armbian image, write it to the EMMC using the utility rkdeveloptool on host PC, and then rewrite part of the bootloader starting at sector 64. At the moment, the solution is like this:

rkdeveloptool db rk3588_spl_loader_v1.15.113.bin
rkdeveloptool wl 0 Armbian_24.11.2_Orangepi5_noble_vendor_6.1.75_gnome-kisak_desktop-fixed-for-5b.img
rkdeveloptool wl 64 idbloader.img
rkdeveloptool rd

 

Prepare base image (This can be done by mounting an image, but it was easier for me via microSD.):

1. On a host computer I write any Armbian image to a microSD card.
2. On the same computer I edit the /boot/armbianEnv.txt directly on the microSD card. I'm changing the main dtb: ```fdtfile=rockchip/rockchip-rk3588s-orangepi-5.dtb``` to ```fdtfile=rockchip/rockchip-rk3588s-orangepi-5b.dtb```
3. I'm taking an image from a modified microSD card. Now I have an image with a dtb for Orange Pi 5B.

 

Getting the required part of the bootloader "idbloader.img":

1. I unpacked the uboot package from the official OrangePI image "linux-u-boot-current-orangepi5b_1.0.8_arm64.deb"
2. Now we get and save the file "idbloader.img"
 

It looks like the problem is somewhere in the uboot build. The solution is still generalized, but it works. I'll dig further to determine the exact cause.

idbloader.img

[Andrius Vainorius]

Thanks a million! I will try it today definitely 

[Andrius Vainorius]

One little thing... I'm not entirely sure what to do with this idbloader.img? Where should I put it or flash it? Thanks a million! I will try it today definitely 

 

 

[sns1081]

idbloader.img is the bootloader component obtained from the official Orange Pi manufacturer's image. 
To use it, I first write the Armbian image to the board’s eMMC, and then overwrite the bootloader portion. 
Writing starting from the 64th sector replaces the bootloader in the Armbian image, which allows the board to boot from the eMMC.
 

First I flashing the image from Armbian:

rkdeveloptool wl 0 Armbian_24.11.2_Orangepi5_noble_vendor_6.1.75_gnome-kisak_desktop-fixed-for-5b.img

And then I rewrite the bootloader over it starting from 64th sector:

rkdeveloptool wl 64 idbloader.img

Here is a link to the utility i use for flashing EMMC via MaskRom mode: rkdeveloptool

[Andrius Vainorius]

ups sorry... i see its linux app i thought you are talking about windows app from orange pi site will try this now

[Andrius Vainorius]

unfortunately rkdeveloptool was unable to do any flashing for unknown reason.. i guess i will try official app for windows

[sns1081]

For Windows, there's a utility like this, but I haven't used it myself: RKDevTool
When flashing the main image, you probably need to enter 0 in the "address" column as well, but what to use for the bootloader is another question. I couldn’t tell whether the address is specified in sectors or bytes. Try flashing the bootloader at 64, and if that doesn't work, try 64*512 = 32768.
And don't forget to switch the board into MaskROM mode by pressing the button before powering it up.

[Andrius Vainorius]

It worked! You need to keep .img files in the same folder as rkdeveloptool folder and run everything as sudo. Thank You very much!!!

andrius-vainorius@DELL-G5:~/rkdeveloptool$ sudo rkdeveloptool db rk3588_spl_loader_v1.15.113.bin
Downloading bootloader succeeded.
andrius-vainorius@DELL-G5:~/rkdeveloptool$ sudo rkdeveloptool wl 0 Armbianserver.img
Write LBA from file (100%)
andrius-vainorius@DELL-G5:~/rkdeveloptool$ sudo rkdeveloptool wl 64 idbloader.img
Write LBA from file (100%)
andrius-vainorius@DELL-G5:~/rkdeveloptool$

Edited February 4 by Andrius Vainorius

[sns1081]

No problem. This is a working solution, but the exact issue hasn't been identified yet. I'll keep digging into the Armbian build system and see what's up with uboot.

[thanh_tan]

Have same problem with Armbian kernel 6.1 not recognize eMMC on Orange Pi 5B too.

Can I use the RKDevTool from Orange Pi to flash the eMMC? 

Edited February 5 by thanh_tan

[sns1081]

Yes, in theory it should work. It also programs the chip through MaskRom mode. The only thing is that, previously, the Orange PI website only had the software available with a Chinese interface, so I downloaded it from another source that offered an English version.

[z28z34man]

For the RK dev tools from the Orange pi website you can change the language by going in to the config file and changing selected to 2 

 

[Language]
Kinds=2
Selected=2
LangPath=Language\

[Andrius Vainorius]

Sns1081 you're a genius. Your solution actually is the ONLY ONE working solution. For some reason armbian or dietpi or any other rockchip Linux just ignored this and claimed I was an idiot who's unable to "read official documentations "

[Igor]

2 hours ago, Andrius Vainorius said:

or any other rockchip Linux just ignored this

FYI. Fundamental problem is that users expectations are not matching resources open source developers have to sponsor you. You are not our customer. You are a customer from someone else, a company that are also using software from us, for free. Their official images are Armbian based and they never give us a cent for that. They also removed all our names from it and returned minimal (c) and "based on" after we applied substantial pressure.

Dietpi is a pirated copy pasted project. All problems we have, are copied too, nothing gets our way. Code is free, so this is hard to understand stealing, support and credits are not. They are stealing credits as they forget to tell you that "all their work and support" is originating from Armbian. They don't support anything. They fully rely on our support and they do everything to minimize value we product and glorify their (non existing) part. They even produce (fake) news on their (non existing) software development.

This piracy would be smaller problem if they would at least contribute to common problems. But they don't do that. In past 10 years, you won't find much, less then 5 trivial code commits! Its amazing, but customers of free of course don't care. Free stuff from Armbian or free stuff from its copy, its the same. There are several projects that are working with us, we work with them, share problems and we are all happy. Dietpi (and also Orangepi) works against us and against you (on a long run, so you don't see it). For different reasons. We still actively maintain software you use, even you also ignore us totally.

Nobody cover all hardware features on all boars. This is impossible.

 

Word "support" is generally and largely abused. There is little we can do about / and over-expectations. We had to invest substantial amount of efforts to develop rules under which term "support" is abused less. https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Board-Support-Rules/

 

Remember that not just all R&D but also all support costs, dealing with costumers, remain open source project financial expense. And our income are donations, which most people don't even notice. And you are telling us that we should do it better? Hardware support is hard work, not an art / cosmetic / philosophical value that is present on 90% of Linux distributions 

 

Orangepi want that software stays the same and they just want to sell you new products. So they are doing new models (illusion of progress and improvements) and each has something to tackle, bring support costs (which they don't have). Support is never improved by them. Its by us, never by Dietpi. For every 1000 contributions to common problems, they make perhaps one ... Its that bad and that obvious, but still, ordinary Joe don't see as anything wrong. Competition is healthy - yes, software doesn't need to be better, just you need be believe it is "supported".
 

2 hours ago, Andrius Vainorius said:

and claimed I was an idiot who's unable to "read official documentations "

 

Nobody claimed anything. Our support is "best effort". Support how we see it is different how you see it and we can't change that. Armbian is not a commercial product - we work for fun. If its no fun ... "there are sources, DIY, stop complaining".

 

End users donations only cover us 0.5% of time we lost instead of everyone, including supporting dirty players that doesn't help in resolving common problems and certainly doesn't make any donations. 

Donations have important motivation role. There is little developers / sponsors of software you use can do. Except placing a donate button, asking to support this. We are not doing this for money, we don't need better software and support. You do. 

[Andrius Vainorius]

ok ok.. i'm sorry if i somehow insulted you, btw i already donated.. i understand it's your free time and you don't owe or need any software or anything... Maybe at least you could add a little note to orange pi 5 page that ''orange pi 5b boot from EMMC is not supported'' that's it. No-one will ever say anything then... Because misleading info (even if it's done for free) doesn't really look good in the long run to anyone (including You). BTW i wouldn't mind to buy proper armbian OS for a reasonable fee, because as for now i wasted days trying just to simply boot an OS. And as you know time is money as well. Peace

[Andrius Vainorius]

Quote

Have same problem with Armbian kernel 6.1 not recognize eMMC on Orange Pi 5B too.

Can I use the RKDevTool from Orange Pi to flash the eMMC? 

If you know how to do all the above mentioned steps in it. I was only successful with orangepi Debian and Joshua-Riek / ubuntu-rockchip

[Andrius Vainorius]

And also Debian Cinnamon 6.12 has no hw support so you can remove Mesa/vpu tag

[SteeMan]

16 minutes ago, Andrius Vainorius said:

And also Debian Cinnamon 6.12 has no hw support so you can remove Mesa/vpu tag

I don't think you got the substance of Igor's comments.  This board isn't supported by Armbian.  It is community supported, which mostly means that is is unsupported unless someone cares enough to submit a PR to make any change/fix/improvements.  You saying this or that needs to be done, makes no difference as no one is around to do that work.  If you want something improved you either need to submit a PR yourself or pay to have someone do it.  Or wait until someone else finds it important enough to do it for you, which may be never.

 

[Andrius Vainorius]

Quote

This board isn't supported by Armbian

It comes under "Standard support"... Not sure what it means then, when you say otherwise. 

If I could edit that section, I would just add one line "unsupported/support very limited for Orange Pi 5B, unfortunately I'm not moderator and have no access to do that.

Third I was only responding to a guy (being grateful to him), who actually helped to find a kind of solution to the problem. If moderators had time to write longish meaningless response (which was meaningless as this topic was only about "booting from EMMC" and not global armbian issues with everyone) , instead of changing one line in main page for the board to "community supported/unsupported"... Then I don't know... 

 

[Krzysztof Kowolik]

Gentlemen, is there any chance that Armbian will officially support hassle-free installation to eMMC for the Orange Pi 5B

[Andrius Vainorius]

Probably no. And don't you dare to ask, unless you want to hear a long sermon about global warming and hunger in Africa :D

[Werner]

I suggested to split 5 and 5B again since one works well, the other not. If it cannot be fixed consequence will be dropping it to csc or eos.

[Andrius Vainorius]

The only solution is to do it as sns1081 suggested. Or you can try nano pi M6 dietpi IMG. That one works actually albeit with some glitches. I was never able to flash any of img from armbian directly. Images that actually works: rockchip Ubuntu (Joshua riek), but I read it's not maintained anymore (install via rkdevtool [Windows] or rkdeveloptool [Ubuntu, Linux mint doesn't work, didn't try other OS]. It supports VPU, that is you can watch 4K 60fps YouTube with few dropped frames (meaning that GPU/VPU drivers still not optimal, as android runs 8k). There is bredOS for rockchip3588 devices, which is arch based. If you're familiar with arch, it's easy. I kinda liked it as it boots from 90s BIOS style UEFI with clean and simple interface, where you can do some basic configs like changing .dtb and stuff :), but does not support you/gpu. Unfortunately all of OS'es installation done via mask ROM. Life would be much easier if it was possible to flash SD, insert into orange pi, copy OS to Emmc, change boot order to EMMC... Like you do in raspberry pi. What else? Btw building armbian or dietpi yourself bricks the device and then you need reflash it again. Will update if find anything else: haven't tried fedoras or SUSEs yet..