KickPi K2B not booting up: DRAM setup not supported

[Nasko]

Thanks @c0rnelius

 

Is there a sustainable way of building working images for kickpi k2b v2?

[c0rnelius]

49 minutes ago, Nasko said:

Is there a sustainable way of building working images for kickpi k2b v2?

 

Short of KIckPi opening a contract with Armbian and providing the units they want worked on. I don't see how?
 

[韦尔奇]

Quote

Hello, Do you still have this Armbian SDK?which includes kickpi-k2b-v2 and v1.
https://we.tl/t-wtmI81zB5e, is expired.
Thanks.

 

[Nasko]

After long break, I have found some free time to test latest updates that can be found in github
It seems that pyavitz made a great progress there with his DTS implementation over Debian.
https://github.com/pyavitz/debian-image-builder

Now i am able to boot Debian out of the reproduced image. No uboot patching:

Here is a copy of my work inside above repository:

make config
make all board=kickpik2b-v2
sudo dd if=output/kickpik2b-v2/image/sun50i-h618-kickpi-k2b-debian-trixie-6.12.84-arm64-ext4-2026-04-29-1923.img of=/dev/mmcblk0

And boom. 
Flawless boot into Debian Linux

 

U-Boot SPL 2026.01 (Apr 29 2026 - 18:28:52 +0300)
DRAM: 2048 MiB
Trying to boot from MMC1    
NOTICE:  BL31: v2.12.9(debug):lts-v2.12.9
NOTICE:  BL31: Built : 18:28:34, Apr 29 2026
NOTICE:  BL31: Detected Allwinner H616 SoC (1823)
NOTICE:  BL31: Found U-Boot DTB at 0x4a0cd628, model: KickPi K2B
INFO:    ARM GICv2 driver initialized
INFO:    Configuring SPC Controller
INFO:    Probing for PMIC on I2C:
INFO:    PMIC: found AXP313
INFO:    BL31: Platform setup done
INFO:    BL31: Initializing runtime services
INFO:    BL31: cortex_a53: CPU workaround for erratum 855873 was applied
INFO:    BL31: cortex_a53: CPU workaround for erratum 1530924 was applied
INFO:    PSCI: Suspend is unavailable
INFO:    BL31: Preparing for EL3 exit to normal world
INFO:    Entry point address = 0x4a000000
INFO:    SPSR = 0x3c9
INFO:    Changed devicetree.


U-Boot 2026.01 (Apr 29 2026 - 18:28:52 +0300) Allwinner Technology

CPU:   Allwinner H616 (SUN50I)
Model: KickPi K2B
DRAM:  2 GiB
Core:  74 devices, 23 uclasses, devicetree: separate
WDT:   Not starting watchdog@30090a0
MMC:   mmc@4020000: 0, mmc@4021000: 2, mmc@4022000: 1
Loading Environment from FAT... Unable to use mmc 0:1...
In:    serial@5000000
Out:   serial@5000000
Err:   serial@5000000
Allwinner mUSB OTG (Peripheral)
Net:   eth0: ethernet@5020000using musb-hdrc, OUT ep1out IN ep1in STATUS ep2in
MAC de:ad:be:ef:00:01
HOST MAC de:ad:be:ef:00:00  
RNDIS ready
, eth1: usb_ether
starting USB...
USB EHCI 1.00
USB OHCI 1.0
USB EHCI 1.00
USB OHCI 1.0
USB EHCI 1.00
USB OHCI 1.0
Bus usb@5101000: 1 USB Device(s) found
Bus usb@5101400: 1 USB Device(s) found
Bus usb@5200000: 1 USB Device(s) found
Bus usb@5200400: 1 USB Device(s) found
Bus usb@5310000: 1 USB Device(s) found
Bus usb@5310400: 1 USB Device(s) found
      scanning usb for storage devices... 0 Storage Device(s) found
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
Scanning mmc 0:1...
Found /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf
Retrieving file: /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf
KickPi K2B V2
1:      Debian Trixie
Enter choice: 1:        Debian Trixie
Retrieving file: /boot/extlinux/../Image
Retrieving file: /boot/extlinux/../uInitrd
append: earlyprintk console=tty1 console=ttyS0,115200n8 rw root=PARTUUID=e0688e9b-01 rootwait rootfstype=ext4 fsck.repair=yes loglevel=1 net.ifnames=0 video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080 init=/sbin/init
Retrieving file: /boot/extlinux/../allwinner/sun50i-h618-kickpi-k2b.dtb
Moving Image from 0x40080000 to 0x40200000, end=0x41930000
## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 4ff00000 ...
  Image Name:   initramfs-6.12.84
  Image Type:   AArch64 Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
  Data Size:    11668168 Bytes = 11.1 MiB
  Load Address: 00000000   
  Entry Point:  00000000   
  Verifying Checksum ... OK
## Flattened Device Tree blob at 4fa00000
  Booting using the fdt blob at 0x4fa00000
Working FDT set to 4fa00000
  Loading Ramdisk to 494df000, end 49fffac8 ... OK
  Loading Device Tree to 00000000494d2000, end 00000000494de815 ... OK
Working FDT set to 494d2000

Starting kernel ...

Loading, please wait...
Starting systemd-udevd version 257.9-1~deb13u1

 

 

Most important part - communication devices are available:
Pyavitz did a great job!

kickpik2b-v2root~: dmesg | grep -i "eth0\|wlan0"
[   19.638015] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: Register MEM_TYPE_PAGE_POOL RxQ-0
[   19.784938] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: PHY [stmmac-0:00] driver [MAE0621A-Q2C Gigabit Ethernet] (irq=POLL)
[   19.784980] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: No Safety Features support found
[   19.784991] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: No MAC Management Counters available
[   19.784999] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: PTP not supported by HW
[   19.785390] dwmac-sun8i 5020000.ethernet eth0: configuring for phy/rgmii link mode
[   19.826219] [chip1][SKWIFI6621S DBG] skw_ndo_open: dev: wlan0, type: STA
[   19.826262] [chip1][SKWIFI6621S DBG] skw_ndo_set_rx_mode: wlan0, mc: 1, uc: 0
[   19.826723] [chip1][SKWIFI6621S DBG] skw_ndo_set_rx_mode: wlan0, mc: 2, uc: 0
[   19.826885] [chip1][SKWIFI6621S DBG] skw_set_power_mgmt: wlan0, enabled: 0, timeout: -1

 

 

I haven't tried Armbian yet, but the heavy lifting part is already done.  

 

 

Big kudos to pyavitz
@c0rnelius

Thanks,
Nasko

Edited 1 hour ago by Nasko