Kernels With EMMC Support

[Robert Pace]

Is there a list of Armbian Kernels that include EMMC support?

 

I've tried the vendor kernel build 6.1.99, the LTS 6.12.21, and Bleeding Edge 6.14.0 to find they all  lack the mmcblk0 under /dev/ , and lack overlays for it under /boot/dtb/rockchip/overlays/. I have wiped SPI and SPNOR without success.

[Werner]

I just put a random emmc module on my 5+ with vendor kernel and got detected as /dev/mmcblk0.

 

So...cannot reproduce

[eselarm]

4 hours ago, Robert Pace said:

I have wiped SPI and SPNOR without success.

I assume 'without success' refers to: all zeros in 'SPI flash chip'. There could be other effects as well.

 

All Armbian Rockchip kernels have eMMC (just '/dev/mmcblk*' essentially) fixed/builtin in the kernel so in vmlinuz, no initrd or overlays needed. I don't know OP5+ HW, but note that you can have 3 bootable storage devices on a Rockchip based SBC where U-Boot can be loaded from. So besides SPI, also eMMC and/or SD-card can contain a U-Boot bootloader (see first 16MiB of those devices). If so, then the question is what version of U-Boot?

 

Besides lacking a mmcblk dev, like is the case for example if I use an old version of EDK2 UEFI on my NanoPi-R6C (RK3588s) on the eMMC(!), It might be that a mainline U-Boot version does not work with vendor kernel. I had that for my Rock3A for example (kernel crash).

Edited April 6 by eselarm

[Robert Pace]

The wiping of SPI & SPNOR were themselves successful processes, the access to EMMC was not.

 

I note this is the 32gb ram variant of the Orange Pi 5 Plus. I have also tried multiple 256 GB EMMC modules, each zeroed out via RKDevTool 3.19.

Quote

Linux Atlas 6.1.99-vendor-rk35xx #1 SMP Wed Mar 19 11:16:36 UTC 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Quote

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda           8:0    0 18.2T  0 disk
└─sda1        8:1    0 18.2T  0 part /mnt/Elements
sdb           8:16   0  7.3T  0 disk
└─sdb1        8:17   0  7.3T  0 part /mnt/MyBook
mtdblock0    31:0    0   16M  0 disk
zram0       252:0    0 15.5G  0 disk [SWAP]
zram1       252:1    0   50M  0 disk /var/log
zram2       252:2    0    0B  0 disk
nvme0n1     259:0    0  1.8T  0 disk
└─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0  1.8T  0 part /var/log.hdd
                                     /

Quote

root@Atlas:/dev# ls -l m*
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root  10, 118 Apr  5 20:19 mali0
crw-r----- 1 root kmem   1,   1 Apr  5 20:19 mem
crw------- 1 root root 240,   0 Apr  5 20:19 mpp_service
crw------- 1 root root  90,   0 Apr  5 20:19 mtd0
crw------- 1 root root  90,   1 Apr  5 20:19 mtd0ro
brw-rw---- 1 root disk  31,   0 Apr  5 20:23 mtdblock0
 

Quote

root@Atlas:/dev# strings /dev/mtd0 | grep U-Boot\ 2
U-Boot 2017.09-armbian-2017.09-S3ba9-P0ef3-Hbe75-Ve691-Bb703-R448a
U-Boot 2017.09-armbian-2017.09-S3ba9-P0ef3-Hbe75-Ve691-Bb703-R448a (Mar 11 2025 - 08:33:40 +0000)

Quote

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Generated with Armbian(tm) build framework https://github.com/armbian/build
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vendor:         Armbian-unofficial
Revision:       25.05.0-trunk
Board:          Orangepi5-plus
Kernel:         Linux 6.1.99 (vendor)
Build date:     28.03.2025
Sources:       https://github.com/armbian/build
Sources rev:    756dff9
Authors:       https://www.armbian.com/authors
Maintainer:     John Doe <john.doe@somewhere.on.planet>
Support:       https://community.armbian.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Partitioning configuration: gpt offset: 16
Boot partition type: (none) (0 MB)
Root partition type: ext4

CPU configuration: 408000 -  with ondemand
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let me know if any other details would be handy in the diagnosis of this issue.

 

https://paste.armbian.com/rakukijuju

[eselarm]

2 hours ago, Robert Pace said:

root@Atlas:/dev# strings /dev/mtd0 | grep U-Boot\ 2
U-Boot 2017.09-armbian-2017.09-S3ba9-P0ef3-Hbe75-Ve691-Bb703-R448a

So SPI flash is not all zeros, you have it filled with that U-Boot version.

In the log I see mmc0, but I might be that this old U-Boot in SPI flash somehow hides it.

I would make sure you boot a mainline U-Boot. You need a serial console cable to check which U-Boot from which device is loaded and used.

[Robert Pace]

20 minutes ago, eselarm said:

So SPI flash is not all zeros, you have it filled with that U-Boot version.

In the log I see mmc0, but I might be that this old U-Boot in SPI flash somehow hides it.

I would make sure you boot a mainline U-Boot. You need a serial console cable to check which U-Boot from which device is loaded and used.

 

It was wiped, and U-Boot from the sdcard (from a armbian build image) so the unit can boot to NVME.

[eselarm]

6 minutes ago, Robert Pace said:

U-Boot from the sdcard (from a armbian build image)

Yeah what version...

You need to be more precise, but I guess you don't have a serial console/debug cable connected so you can show at least yourself what the board is doing. This way, at least I can't help you.

Also you can interrupt U-Boot and via commands (see U-Boot help on various websites) check for existence of storage interfaces/devices. It is before the kernel is loaded.

[Robert Pace]

32 minutes ago, eselarm said:

You need to be more precise, but I guess you don't have a serial console/debug cable connected so you can show at least yourself what the board is doing. This way, at least I can't help you.

Also you can interrupt U-Boot and via commands (see U-Boot help on various websites) check for existence of storage interfaces/devices. It is before the kernel is loaded.

 

I used the following image on a microsd card as the source of the bootloader.

 

Quote

Generated with Armbian(tm) build framework https://github.com/armbian/build
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vendor:         Armbian-unofficial
Revision:       25.05.0-trunk
Board:          Orangepi5-plus
Kernel:         Linux 6.1.99 (vendor)
Build date:     01.03.2025
Sources:       https://github.com/armbian/build
Sources rev:    2b7cb0d1a
Authors:       https://www.armbian.com/authors
Maintainer:     John Doe <john.doe@somewhere.on.planet>
Support:       https://community.armbian.com/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Partitioning configuration: gpt offset: 16
Boot partition type: (none) (0 MB)
Root partition type: ext4 

CPU configuration: 408000 -  with ondemand
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

I note that most of the armbian website's Orange Pi 5 Plus images either fail to support EMMC for me, or lack I2C-2 support in the overlays. I thought perhaps this issue is due to me using a 32 gb ram variant of the SBC, but the missing EMMC is present on 16gb variants as well.

 

I reinstalled a ubuntu environment and compiled the vendor 6.1.99 image for Orange Pi 5 Plus (Debian Bookworm, Full Desktop image), and it boots fine, but no EMMC. A boot from an orangepi5.org debian 12 image does include emmc support, and i2c2-m0 functionality, but does lack functional xrdp.

[Werner]

I am not 100% certain but I think one of these images are installed (and upgraded) on my boards spi/nvme where I confirmed emmc working:

 

http://fi.mirror.armbian.de/.testing/Armbian-unofficial_25.02.0-trunk_Orangepi5-plus_noble_vendor_6.1.84_kde-neon-kisak_desktop.img.xz

http://fi.mirror.armbian.de/.testing/Armbian-unofficial_25.02.0-trunk_Orangepi5-plus_noble_vendor_6.1.99_kde-neon_desktop.img.xz

 

 

[Robert Pace]

On 4/6/2025 at 11:49 PM, Werner said:

http://fi.mirror.armbian.de/.testing/Armbian-unofficial_25.02.0-trunk_Orangepi5-plus_noble_vendor_6.1.84_kde-neon-kisak_desktop.img.xz

http://fi.mirror.armbian.de/.testing/Armbian-unofficial_25.02.0-trunk_Orangepi5-plus_noble_vendor_6.1.99_kde-neon_desktop.img.xz

 

Domain resolves, but ftp is not responding, hence links don't work.

[Werner]

There is no ftp available. http/https only.

[Robert Pace]

2 hours ago, Werner said:

There is no ftp available. http/https only.

https link isn't functioning. I click and a new window opens and rapidly closes without automatic download. Using the latest Chrome (Version 135.0.7049.85 (Official Build) (64-bit)) within Windows 11 Pro, no pop-up blocker enabled.

[eselarm]

9 hours ago, Robert Pace said:

https link isn't functioning

works for me using wget in Linux terminal

[Robert Pace]

24 minutes ago, eselarm said:

works for me using wget in Linux terminal

wget in WSL works with the links for me. I think the issue the within chrome may have something to do with http (not https), when I change http in the link to https it works, or if I browse to the .testing folder. Odd.

 

[Robert Pace]

I figured out the issue, after testing multiple EMMC modules. A pin on the connector on the SBC was bent and contacting a neighboring pin. A small needle tool was used to separate the overlapping pins of the connector followed by a clearing of MTD and reinstall of OS from 6.1.99 vendor image of Debian 12 was all that was needed to detect the 233GB emmc modules via lsblk command. I note that attaching the emmc module to connector is easier when the emmc has a heatsink added to assist in seating the module.