CrOS boot from sd, now pinebook doesn't boot anymore
#1
Recently I've received the pinebook pro, really happy! Worked great. Then I had in mind to try out Chromium.

I formatted my SD card, and DD'ed the chromium image on it:
https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=...e#Chromium

Turned of my pinebook pro, and tried to boot from the sd card. Yet all I got was a black screen. I've then turned off the device by holding the power key, removed the SD card, yet it seems it's not even booting Manjaro anymore.

I really don't get how booting from the SD could break boot in general. Maybe any of you has a clue? What can I best do next?

Thank you so much in advance!
#2
If you're running Manjaro, it's due to changes in the current u-boot that ships withit. You can get around it by overwriting the u-boot with a BSP uboot, like mrfixit's.
#3
Hi tophneal, thank you so much for your reply!

I've since flashed a new sd card with Chromium, and same issue, I only get an orange power light and a black screen.

The same happens when I don't have an SD card in it.

Then I tried to flash Manjaro ARM with KDE to the SD card. Tried to boot, still a black screen, yet at some point the light changes from orange to green.

I don't get why changes to the u-boot would have happened, and how to overwrite the u-boot.

I assume you are referring to this debian image?
https://github.com/mrfixit2001/debian_desktop/releases

Yet my PBP came with Manjaro, which seems it should not have been removed from the eMMC just by trying to boot Chromium from the SD card.
#4
(06-19-2020, 06:12 AM)qdoy55d9wkn8zw Wrote: Hi tophneal, thank you so much for your reply!

I've since flashed a new sd card with Chromium, and same issue, I only get an orange power light and a black screen.

The same happens when I don't have an SD card in it.

These lights have a meaning during the boot process, I apologize I can't recall this one, but it's definitely having issues with booting the installed OS.

Quote:Then I tried to flash Manjaro ARM with KDE to the SD card. Tried to boot, still a black screen, yet at some point the light changes from orange to green.

Green during boot typically indicated that the OS has been found and is booting. (Though that's not always the case.) Have you verified that the SD you're using is fast enough, or has no errors? It could be a bunk card for the high speeds required to run an OS from an SD card.

Quote:I don't get why changes to the u-boot would have happened, and how to overwrite the u-boot.

The u-boot changes are pretty normal in the same sense that we get kernel updates. The community has found ways to improve upon it and updates it. Unfortunately in this case, there is an issue with this u-boot update.

Quote:I assume you are referring to this debian image?
https://github.com/mrfixit2001/debian_desktop/releases
Yes, more specifically, you want the idbloader.img, uboot.img, and trust.img files from here: https://github.com/mrfixit2001/updates_r...filesystem
If you look in the update script in that repo, you'll find the commands needed to write those uboot files to your emmc.

Quote:Yet my PBP came with Manjaro, which seems it should not have been removed from the eMMC just by trying to boot Chromium from the SD card.

To make sure I'm understanding you correctly, are you saying Manjaro no longer boots from your emmc? You're correct here, booting an OS should not overwrite/erase your emmc (unless your booting an emmc installer img.)
#5
OK, a few months ago I got the SD cards mixed up,
put in a card for armbian 3328 TV box
Shit, I"ve bricked it!!!! No boot, SD or emmc, nothing
So, just on a hunch, tried an extra long press, 15 sec (on pwr button)
Nothing, much torn hair later, just to be sure, a 30 sec press
Whoa,, you're alive. Let's call you Lazurus
I couldn't believe my eyes, did the cycle 3 or 4 times, it
turned out that it needed about a 22-23 sec press
Give it a try
Just to be clear,, after the extra long press, then a normal startup press, ~1 sec
#6
Again thank you so much for your replies!!

(06-19-2020, 06:38 AM)tophneal Wrote: Green during boot typically indicated that the OS has been found and is booting. (Though that's not always the case.) Have you verified that the SD you're using is fast enough, or has no errors? It could be a bunk card for the high speeds required to run an OS from an SD card.

Got myself another SD card which is faster with more memory. At first, I flashed chromium again, this time it gave a green light, yet it doesn't boot up after half a minute.

I then decided to flash manjaro on this new SD card. And this time, it actually started booting, yet it fails and gives this error:
EXT4-fs error (device mmcxxxxx): ext4_journal_check_start:83: Detected aborted journal
EXT4-fs (mmcxxxxx): Remounting filesystem read-only

So this seems to be related to the actual emmc. Could be wrong tho

(06-19-2020, 06:38 AM)tophneal Wrote: The u-boot changes are pretty normal in the same sense that we get kernel updates. The community has found ways to improve upon it and updates it. Unfortunately in this case, there is an issue with this u-boot update.

Yes, more specifically, you want the idbloader.img, uboot.img, and trust.img files from here: https://github.com/mrfixit2001/updates_r...filesystem
If you look in the update script in that repo, you'll find the commands needed to write those uboot files to your emmc.

Not sure what I'm supposed to do here. First flash the idbloader.img, then the uboot.img and the nthe trust.img to the sd card and run a few commands when booted?

(06-19-2020, 06:38 AM)tophneal Wrote: To make sure I'm understanding you correctly, are you saying Manjaro no longer boots from your emmc? You're correct here, booting an OS should not overwrite/erase your emmc (unless your booting an emmc installer img.)
Exactly, booting from the eMMC seems broken as well. I only used the chromium image mentioned on the pine wiki, which is not an emmc installer as far as I know.


@wdt Thanks for your reply! I've executed exactly what you mentioned yet there doesn't seem to be any difference in behaviour. It turns on, shows the orange power light, and nothing.
#7
OK, you have orange light,, I had NO lights, aside from charging (red) light
>So this seems to be related to the actual emmc. Could be wrong tho
If you can mount SD on computer you wrote image,
cd / of SD
touch This-Is-SD ,, this makes an empty file in the / of SD file system, so ,
even if it is ro you can do ,, ls / and either it will be there or error is referring to the emmc
(and you are on the emmc)
You could try fsck.ext4 -p /dev/mmc....pX
but likely this will not work
>Not sure what I'm supposed to do here
just dd the 3 files to right place, 64 sectors, 8M,12M (Idbloader, uboot, trust) (and of course the right device)
no other commands (BTW, bs=64k seek=128 is equivalent to bs=1M seek=8, I find latter easier)
#8
(06-20-2020, 04:14 AM)qdoy55d9wkn8zw Wrote: Got myself another SD card which is faster with more memory. At first, I flashed chromium again, this time it gave a green light, yet it doesn't boot up after half a minute.

I then decided to flash manjaro on this new SD card. And this time, it actually started booting, yet it fails and gives this error:
EXT4-fs error (device mmcxxxxx): ext4_journal_check_start:83: Detected aborted journal
EXT4-fs (mmcxxxxx): Remounting filesystem read-only

So this seems to be related to the actual emmc. Could be wrong tho
Have you tried opening the PBP's back and ensuring that your emmc is securely seated in its socket? There have been many that slipped through QC in this latest batch. Since the functional uboot lives on the emmc, that could cause a lot of boot issues.

Quote:Not sure what I'm supposed to do here. First flash the idbloader.img, then the uboot.img and the nthe trust.img to the sd card and run a few commands when booted?
No, using a live SD, you would write those uboot files to your emmc, using the comands from the uboot update script in the repo.

Quote:Exactly, booting from the eMMC seems broken as well. I only used the chromium image mentioned on the pine wiki, which is not an emmc installer as far as I know.
Correct, it is not an installer image. If your emmc won't boot and you haven't done anything to it, then I certainly suggest opening the back and making sure the emmc is properly seated. There's an image on the wiki that will show you where the emmc is located on the board. Be careful with the bottom panel, the edges are sharp!


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