How to enter maskrom boot for emmc flashing, from software instead of using button?

[grixm]

Hi. I have Rock Pi S0 boards that I install in an enclosure.
It works, but it is conceivable that some critical bug or change with the image is discovered in the future so that customers later need to flash a new image to the emmc. But for them to do this, they would have to open the enclosure and locate the maskrom button, very inconvenient.
Is there a way to trigger rebooting into maskrom from software instead of pushing the button?
Apparently this is possible on the official radxa OS image by running command "reboot loader" instead of just "reboot", but not on armbian it seems.

After investigating I see linux patches made by the rockchip team for kernel modules like “syscon-reboot-mode” and from the code I see something like that it’s supposed to write the value 0x5242C301 to the RK3308’s GRF OS register 0, and I guess this is supposed to be read by the bootloader to direct the boot to bootmask mode instead of the OS? But the armbian distribution is already built with this kernel module by default, and I even tried to manually write this value to the appropriate registers and then rebooting, and yet nothing works, it just boots to Linux like usual. Anyone have any ideas?

[usual user]

On 8/27/2025 at 8:00 PM, grixm said:

need to flash a new image to the emmc.

 

On 8/27/2025 at 8:00 PM, grixm said:

Is there a way to trigger rebooting into maskrom from software instead of pushing the button?

To replace an image on the eMMC, the MASKROM mode is not necessary. It is only required when the firmware is so damaged that it no longer works, but the signature is still intact and the MASKROM code still executes it.
To replace an image, it is sufficient to boot from a rootfs that is not on the eMMC and replace it from there.
And the good thing about it is that no device-specific hacks are necessary, just a properly configured bootflow. Furthermore, it is also self-contained, as no external devices with special software or other dependencies are necessary. It can also be automated in such a way that it runs unattended and the user only has to start the process initially.

[grixm]

@usual user I don't think there is any storage device on the rock s0 other than the emmc that I can boot from. Other than SD card but that negates the point of not having the customer disassemble the device.

[usual user]

1 hour ago, grixm said:

 I don't think there is any storage device on the rock s0 other than the emmc that I can boot from.

If I have not researched incorrectly, the Rock Pi S0 has microSD, USB, and Ethernet to access external storage, but you have not provided any information about which options are available in your specific case.

[grixm]

@usual user The USB and Ethernet ports are exposed, but how would that work exactly? I don't know how to make the software boot from USB or Ethernet and even if I did I don't know what to boot into that can write an image file to the emmc chip. I can find no info on this on radxa or armbian sources.