Orange Pi 4 LTS does not boot with kernel 6.12.16

[renard]

Seems like the kernel 6.12.16 just does not boot - either updated regularly or from "rolling" minimal image.
Steps to reproduce:
-
1 way - just burn and run current "rolling" minimal image (Armbian_25.5.0-trunk.115_Orangepi4-lts_plucky_current_6.12.16_minimal).
Result: Getting no records on UART after "Starting kernel..." and only red led shining.
-
2 way
Enabling kernel updates from already up to date Armbian v25.2.2 with older 5.15.76-rockchip64 (`# sudo armbian-config` -> System -> Kernel -> SY201 - Install alternative kernels)
Result: same as above
-
3 way
Enabling kernel updates from older Armbian 22.08.10 without Armbian update itself.
Result: same as above
--
Tested with 2 different Orange Pi 4 LTS, same behavior on both of them. With two different Samsung A1 cards (with what had no problems before).
--
6.6.62 seems to work fine from the snapshot (Armbian_24.11.1_Orangepi4-lts_noble_current_6.6.62-kisak.img.xz).
--
Do you guys have some CI tests on the real hardware for rolling kernels? I am sure you do. But...
--
Stupid question. Is there a safer way to somehow fix updating to exact kernel, say 6.6.62 and stay there. I would rather do it from `armbian-config`, rather than manually:
```
$ sudo apt install linux-image-current-rockchip64=24.11.1 linux-dtb-current-rockchip64=24.11.1 linux-headers-current-rockchip64=24.11.1
$ dpkg -l | grep linux-image
ii  linux-image-current-rockchip64        24.11.1                                 arm64        Armbian Linux current kernel image 6.6.63-current-rockchip64
# It actually installed  6.6.63 instead expected 6.6.62, but seems fine
$ sudo mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr
# After reboot:
$ uname -a
Linux mxopi4lts01 6.6.63-current-rockchip64 #2 SMP PREEMPT Fri Nov 22 14:38:37 UTC 2024 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux
``` 
--

[Michael Robinson]

you can freeze kernel upgrades in armbian-config under updates.

 

[renard]

@Michael Robinson Thanks. This is done (or better say was like that), but looks like "SY201 - Install alternative kernels" requires disabling "SY203 - Disable Armbian kernel updates". 
What is the correct way to 1) upgrade to the certain kernel and 2) halt on that version; via `armbian-config`? Maybe we might need to add it to the manual.
I mean, I did it "manually" with `apt install` (gosh, the guys 15 years ago meant other things with words "manual kernel update"  ). 
Anyway this is kinda off-topic to the thread subject. 

[Marco Schirrmeister]

The real question is, why is is not booting or if it is supposed to be working.

The download page has all kinds of images for the OPi4 with kernel 6.12, but it seems they do not work? 

[Michael Robinson]

i'm showing current download on rolling release @ 6.12.17

[Michael Robinson]

You may want to check out https://github.com/armbian/build

You can make a custom build for your board.

[Marco Schirrmeister]

Of course can the OPi4LTS users install the rolling image. Which works fine, so no need for a custom build.

But typically you don't want to run this on a production or stable machine. You never know what else will break down the road. Given that this works, the question is why does the 6.12 kernel images break the stable supported version. There is also no good way to debug, since all you see is initializing the hardware and then it is stuck at one point. But it is not fully clear what it does not like.