patch u-boot

[Ian Goodacre]

I am adding support for a new board: NanoPi R2S Plus. I have added it to the kernel and it works in testing so far.

 

Now I am attempting to add the new board to u-boot. The u-boot configuration for NanoPi R2S does not enable the eMMC and I want to install to boot from eMMC. Using my modified kernel and u-boot for NanoPi R2S I am able to run armbian-install because in the system booted from SD card the eMMC is enabled. But after installing to eMMC, shutting down and removing the SD card, boot fails because u-boot cannot access the eMMC. Looking at the device tree for NanoPi R2S in u-boot, not surprisingly, eMMC is not enabled: NanoPi R2S does not have eMMC memory. So, I am attempting to patch u-boot to add support for the NanoPi R2S Plus board, enabling eMMC and the WAN network adapter, as I did in the kernel.

 

I am attempting to create a patch for u-boot using command: `./compile.sh nanopi-r2s-plus uboot-patch`

 

After a bit I see:

 

```

[✨] Starting [ interactive patching process for u-boot ]
[🌱] Creating commit to start from clean source
[🌱] Patches will be created [ with the following maintainer information ]
[🌱] MAINTAINER (Real name):  [ John Doe ]
[🌱] MAINTAINERMAIL (Email):  [ john.doe@somewhere.on.planet ]
[🌿] If those are not correct, set them in your environment, command line, or config file and restart the process
[🚸] Make your changes in this directory: [ /home/ian/ig3/armbian-build/cache/sources/u-boot-worktree/u-boot/v2022.07 ]
[🚸] Press <ENTER> after you are done [ editing files in /home/ian/ig3/armbian-build/cache/sources/u-boot-worktree/u-boot/v2022.07 ]
Press ENTER to show a preview of your patch, or type 'stop' to stop patching...

```

 

In a separate window I went to the indicated directory and added two files:

1. configs/nanopi-r2s-plus-rk3328_defconfig
2. arch/arm/dts/rk3328-nanopi-r2s-plus.dts

 

I didn't modify any of the existing files.

 

I returned to the window running compile.sh and pressed the ENTER key and I saw:

 

```
[🌱] OK, here's how your diff looks like [ showing patch diff ]
───────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       │ File: /home/ian/ig3/armbian-build/output/patch/
       │ u-boot-rockchip64-current.patch   <EMPTY>
───────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[🚸] Are you happy with this patch? [ Type 'yes' to accept, 'stop' to stop patching, or anything else to keep patching ]
Are you happy with the diff above? Type 'y' or 'yes' to accept, 'stop' to stop patching, anything else to keep patching: n

```

 

I was expecting to see a patch that creates the two new files. I presume '<EMPTY>" indicates that no changes were detected.

 

This is the first time I have tried using the uboot-patch command. I may be overlooking something very obvious.

 

I have checked to ensure I created the files in the correct location:

 

```

ian@armbianbuild:~/ig3/armbian-build/cache/sources/u-boot-worktree/u-boot/v2022.07$ ls -l configs/nanopi-r2s-plus-rk3328_defconfig
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2617 Mar  4 20:37 configs/nanopi-r2s-plus-rk3328_defconfig
ian@armbianbuild:~/ig3/armbian-build/cache/sources/u-boot-worktree/u-boot/v2022.07$ ls -l arch/arm/dts/rk3328-nanopi-r2s-plus.dts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 943 Mar  4 21:08 arch/arm/dts/rk3328-nanopi-r2s-plus.dts

```

 

All the existing files are owned by root, so I assume the permissions are OK.

 

Should it handle the creation of new files in the u-boot tree? Or does it only handle changes to existing files?

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Edited yesterday at 04:34 AM by Ian Goodacre

[Werner]

Hm indeed there is something wrong. Tested something similar but the patch file was shown empty. Though this used to work in the past.

 

I suggest to report this here https://github.com/armbian/build/issues since this is clearly an framework issue.

 

Edit: Alright, there seems to be a cosmetic bug. New files aren't shown for whatever reason in the patchfile  preview. However if you press y to finish up patching the patchfile in the output folder looks just fine.

 

 

From 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: John Doe <john.doe@somewhere.on.planet>
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2025 05:41:52 +0100
Subject: Patching u-boot rk35xx files arch/arm/dts/rk3328-nanopi-r2s-plus.dts
 configs/nanopi-r2s-plus-rk3328_defconfig

Signed-off-by: John Doe <john.doe@somewhere.on.planet>
---
 arch/arm/dts/rk3328-nanopi-r2s-plus.dts  | 1 +
 configs/nanopi-r2s-plus-rk3328_defconfig | 1 +
 2 files changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/arch/arm/dts/rk3328-nanopi-r2s-plus.dts b/arch/arm/dts/rk3328-nanopi-r2s-plus.dts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f33568d63c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/arch/arm/dts/rk3328-nanopi-r2s-plus.dts
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+gzuweggzuerguiwigwegi
diff --git a/configs/nanopi-r2s-plus-rk3328_defconfig b/configs/nanopi-r2s-plus-rk3328_defconfig
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..9561b6e6ed7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/configs/nanopi-r2s-plus-rk3328_defconfig
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+iuhgiuagiauhigahihgiawugiawugiwu
-- 
Created with Armbian build tools https://github.com/armbian/build

 

[Kwiboo]

Support for NanoPi R2S Plus was added in U-Boot v2025.01.

 

Suggest you update U-Boot from v2022.07 to v2025.01.

[Ian Goodacre]

Reported and updated: the indication of an 'empty' patch is false. Accept it and a non-empty patch file is produced.

[Ian Goodacre]

@Kwiboo Thank you very much! I wasn't aware. I'll look into how to update u-boot for my build. There's always something new to learn...

[Ian Goodacre]

So I tried adding "BOOTBRANCH='tag:v2025.01'" to my compile command and I can see that it gets u-boot with that tag but it then attempts to apply all the patches for the platform rockchip64 from patch dir u-boot-rockchip64 and fails because those patches are written against v2022.07 (I assume, because that's the version of u-boot that compile was using before I added BOOTBRANCH and those builds didn't fail).

 

Is there a way I can use the newer version of u-boot for my build without fixing the patches for all the other rockchip64 boards? For a first attempt, I would like to use u-boot v2025.01 as-is, without patches, merely selecting its configuration for nanopi-r2s-plus. I don't want to change what happens for the other boards.

 

My board is NanoPi R2S Plus and, as far as I know, Armbian build framework didn't have configuration specific for this board. I had been using the configuration for NanoPi R2S but now I would like to get the eMMC and WAN network adapter working. These don't work with the NanoPi R2S configuration because of hardware differences: NanoPi R2S doesn't have eMMC and the boards have different chip for the WAN network adapter.

 

I have patched the kernel so both eMMC and WAN port work. Now I would like to enable boot from eMMC which requires changing the device tree in u-boot to enable the eMMC and, while I am at it, I might as well change it to enable the WAN port too. Now that I have a workaround for the uboot-patch problem I could continue developing a patch for u-boot v2022.07 and worry about later versions later but using a more recent u-boot version where it 'just works' seems appealing. But I am not familiar with the Armbian build framework so don't immediately know how to proceed, other than to keep learning how the build framework works.

 

Edit: I just found config/boards/README.md - a wealth of information, and also BOOTPATCHDIR in many board configurations, which I expect will allow me to resolve the failing patches with v2025.01.

Edited yesterday at 08:59 AM by Ian Goodacre

[Ian Goodacre]

I have build completing with u-boot v2025.01. I can't test at the moment but building without errors is close and now I can add patches easily enough.

 

The essential parameters were `BOOTBRANCH="tag:v2025.01"` and `BOOTPATCHDIR="v2025.01"`. Not documented at [Build Switches](https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Switches/) but there are many examples in config/boards.

[Ian Goodacre]

I have tested my latest build. It boots from SD card.

 

I ran armbian-install to install the system to boot from eMMC with system on a USB drive, shut down, removed the SD card and applied power, and it booted up, proving that u-boot now has access to the eMMC. I haven't proven that the WAN network port works from u-boot. It isn't a priority for me but based on the change I made working in the kernel, I am optimistic that the device tree is correct.

 

So, success at last: I have modified the device tree for u-boot for nanopi-r2s-plus. Actually, I didn't edit the device tree for u-boot in any way, I just changed the board to use a more recent version of u-boot that has native support for NanoPi R2S Plus and proved that eMMC access works from e-boot.

 

Thanks to Werner and Kwiboo.

[Werner]

11 hours ago, Ian Goodacre said:

. Not documented at [Build Switches]

Probably because they are not intended to be used as build switches but in board configuration file