Cannot boot a built linux image from SD card.

[Krishna0]

Hi,

   I am currently using rock-5-itx to setup a NAS. Everything is working fine.

uname -a:

 

Linux amberbyte 6.1.75-vendor-rk35xx #1 SMP Thu Nov 28 03:16:11 UTC 2024 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Now, I wanted to update RKNPU version from 0.9.7 to 0.9.8. So, again I recompiled the image with the updated drivers. Using Pi-imager flashed it onto an SD card. When I tried to boot I am getting the following error message from the serial output: 
 

./compile.sh build BOARD=rock-5-itx BRANCH=vendor BUILD_DESKTOP=no BUILD_MINIMAL=yes EXPERT=yes KERNEL_CONFIGURE=yes RELEASE=bookworm

DDR 9fffbe1e78 cym 24/02/04-10:09:20,fwver: v1.16
LPDDR5, 2400MHz
channel[0] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=16 CS0 Row=16 CS1 Row=16 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB
channel[1] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=16 CS0 Row=16 CS1 Row=16 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB
channel[2] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=16 CS0 Row=16 CS1 Row=16 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB
channel[3] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=16 CS0 Row=16 CS1 Row=16 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB
Manufacturer ID:CH0 RX Vref:26.3%, TX Vref:21.0%,21.0%
CH1 RX Vref:27.1%, TX Vref:22.0%,22.0%
CH2 RX Vref:27.1%, TX Vref:24.0%,21.0%
CH3 RX Vref:27.5%, TX Vref:21.0%,20.0%
change to F1: 534MHz
change to F2: 1320MHz
change to F3: 1968MHz
change to F0: 2400MHz
out
U-Boot SPL board init
U-Boot SPL 2017.09-armbian-2017.09-S2284-P8c48-Hfac6-Ve5ad-Bda0a-R448a (Nov 20 2024 - 17:06:35)
Trying to boot from MMC2
spl: partition error
Trying fit image at 0x4000 sector
## Verified-boot: 0
## Checking atf-1 0x00040000 ... sha256(7612223b82...) + OK
## Checking uboot 0x00200000 ... sha256(af1962bdff...) + OK
## Checking fdt 0x00324010 ... sha256(e3b0c44298...) + OK
fdt_record_loadable: FDT_ERR_BADMAGIC
## Checking atf-2 0xff100000 ... sha256(70505bb764...) + OK
fdt_record_loadable: FDT_ERR_BADMAGIC
## Checking atf-3 0x000f0000 ... sha256(b2af21b504...) + OK
fdt_record_loadable: FDT_ERR_BADMAGIC
Jumping to U-Boot(0x00200000) via ARM Trusted Firmware(0x00040000)
Total: 813.644/1063.106 ms

INFO:    Preloader serial: 2
NOTICE:  BL31: v2.3():v2.3-868-g040d2de11:derrick.huang, fwver: v1.48
NOTICE:  BL31: Built : 15:02:44, Dec 19 2024
INFO:    spec: 0x1
INFO:    code: 0x88
INFO:    ext 32k is not valid
INFO:    ddr: stride-en 4CH
INFO:    GICv3 without legacy support detected.
INFO:    ARM GICv3 driver initialized in EL3
INFO:    valid_cpu_msk=0xff bcore0_rst = 0x0, bcore1_rst = 0x0
INFO:    l3 cache partition cfg-0
INFO:    system boots from cpu-hwid-0
INFO:    disable memory repair
INFO:    idle_st=0x21fff, pd_st=0x11fff9, repair_st=0xfff70001
INFO:    dfs DDR fsp_params[0].freq_mhz= 2400MHz
INFO:    dfs DDR fsp_params[1].freq_mhz= 534MHz
INFO:    dfs DDR fsp_params[2].freq_mhz= 1320MHz
INFO:    dfs DDR fsp_params[3].freq_mhz= 1968MHz
INFO:    BL31: Initialising Exception Handling Framework
INFO:    BL31: Initializing runtime services
WARNING: No OPTEE provided by BL2 boot loader, Booting device without OPTEE initialization. SMC`s destined for OPTEE will return SMC_UNK
ERROR:   Error initializing runtime service opteed_fast
INFO:    BL31: Preparing for EL3 exit to normal world
INFO:    Entry point address = 0x200000
INFO:    SPSR = 0x3c9
No valid device tree binary found - please append one to U-Boot binary, use u-boot-dtb.bin or define CONFIG_OF_EMBED. For sandbox, use -d <file.dtb>
initcall sequence 00000000002b8500 failed at call 00000000002aaf6c (err=-1)
### ERROR ### Please RESET the board ###

 

I get the same error when I use the desktop image too:

 

./compile.sh build BOARD=rock-5-itx BRANCH=vendor BUILD_DESKTOP=yes BUILD_MINIMAL=no DESKTOP_APPGROUPS_SELECTED='browsers desktop_tools internet programming' DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT=gnome DESKTOP_ENVIRONMENT_CONFIG_NAME=config_base EXPERT=yes KERNEL_CONFIGURE=yes RELEASE=bookworm

 

But when I use the image downloaded from the armbian website is getting booted up without any issue and it has updated RKNPU drivers. But I have to build a kernel because I want the LSI MEGARAID drivers enabled. 

Also when I want to make RKNPU driver modular <M> it is unable to finish building the image with an error saying it is unable to find rknpu.ko.

 

So, why is this happenning and is there a way to update the drivers without going through building the kernel?

Thank you in advance and any help will be helpful.

[Werner]

Hm if an image works but self-made won't either means something has been messed up which I doubt since it fails at uboot level. Or a change in the code broke it in the mean time.

 

Also interesting that kernel building fails when RKNPU is a module rather than built-in. I guess that goes to poor implementation on Rockchip's side.

 

Which exact pre-built image did you test that works well?

 

Quote

6.1.75-vendor-rk35xx

This is quite old. We had a few version bumps in the mean time. More recent vendor kernels should already contain 0.9.8

 

What you could also try is to integrated the most recent patch series for mainline npu driver into edge kernel: https://patchwork.kernel.org/project/linux-rockchip/cover/20250519-6-10-rocket-v4-0-d6dff6b4c0ae@tomeuvizoso.net/