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Pinebook Pro bricked? - Printable Version

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Pinebook Pro bricked? - wofam - 06-06-2020

Hi there. I booted into a Kali img from an SD card and then proceeded to try to flash a Kali img file to the eMMC. The flash crashed part way through and when I try to reboot I can no longer boot from either the eMMC or SD card. I tried flashing several OS's (Manjaro SD/eMMC img, Debian SD/eMMC img, etc) to an SD card and then rebooting, but no luck. My understanding is that both the Manjaro and Debian images also include the boot program, and the boot order prioritizes SD over eMMC, so I should be able to boot onto an SD img even if the eMMC is corrupted? All I get when I power on is a solid red power LED, but nothing boots. 

When I'm flashing the SD cards, I download the OS img and then use 'unxz -d osname.img.xz' to decompress the OS img and then use etcher to flash it.

I tried flashing the Kali img to eMMC with the following command: 'sudo dd if=kali-linux-2020.2-pinebook-pro.img of=/dev/mmcblk1 status=progress' when it crashed.

If anyone could let me know what I'm doing wrong or where to go from here that would be much appreciated!


RE: Pinebook Pro bricked? - tiagoespinha - 06-06-2020

I also thought that the boot sequence would prioritise SD over eMMC but my experience has shown something that appears to be different.

I was in a similar situation where I was sure my SD card was bootable, but the PBP was stuck with a black screen and an orange power light.

Ultimately I had to open the back plate, flip the eMMC switch, start the boot, and flip it back immediately after. From what I read, you have a few seconds to do so. Then I could finally boot my Manjaro SD and carry on flashing the eMMC.

You need switch #24 in the diagram on this page: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebook_Pro

You can also completely remove the eMMC module if you just want to be 100% sure. But then you won't be able to flash it, naturally.


RE: Pinebook Pro bricked? - xmixahlx - 06-06-2020

you need to fix the uboot on your emmc.

disable emmc. boot a known-good uboot on sdcard, like danielt debian. enable emmc. enable emmc in sys. rewrite emmc.


RE: Pinebook Pro bricked? - wofam - 06-26-2020

(06-06-2020, 03:13 PM)xmixahlx Wrote: you need to fix the uboot on your emmc.

disable emmc. boot a known-good uboot on sdcard, like danielt debian. enable emmc. enable emmc in sys. rewrite emmc.

I've resolved this issue but I'm curious, is there a way to enable the eMMC after booting from SD? Ive so far used the method of hardware disabling the eMMC module, booting from SD and then quickly switching the eMMC module back on in order for it to be recognized. This requires a bit of timing and is a pain. Is there another way?


RE: Pinebook Pro bricked? - Syonyk - 06-26-2020

Buy the eMMMC to USB adapter? Smile IMO, that should come with the system.

There are two different "boot priorities" on the PBP - the firmware, and the OS.

The firmware priority (uboot, ATF, etc) is SPI, eMMC, SD.

The OS boot priority is then set by the firmware, but is typically SD, eMMC.

This means that if you've fouled out something with the firmware on the eMMC to a point where it is recognized as firmware but doesn't work properly, booting from SD won't work - because the system fails somewhere before it tries to load a kernel from the SD card.

It's... admittedly an interesting design decision (I disagree with it). I'd personally prefer it to be the other way, because it makes firmware development a lot easier, but if you're doing that, you can always just disable the eMMC and work from SD card. I'd prefer SPI, SD, eMMC for firmware search order, because that makes it far harder to get the system into a "requires more fiddling than usual to recover" state - you could always put a good SD card in and boot to recover eMMC.


RE: Pinebook Pro bricked? - bcnaz - 06-26-2020

*
As stated in the boot order in the wiki,
  The actual 'boot order' (Not boot loader) is on the eMMC
      so if your eMMC is corrupted it will not boot without some extra measures,  like turning off your eMMC switch inside.

>>The "easy" fix is to use the eMMC to USB adapter and flash the eMMC directly. <<

  IF you look at some of the older posts this was discussed a lot last year.

  The SPI is shipped blank, but some flash their boot order on to that to be able to boot from their added SSD drive.
      but That should only be done after some very serious investigating !


RE: Pinebook Pro bricked? - wofam - 06-27-2020

Fair, but is there a command to manually enable the eMMC module after booting with it disabled? i.e. if you miss the "sweet spot" to turn the module back on before kernel load and therefor the eMMC is not recognized.....


RE: Pinebook Pro bricked? - wofam - 06-27-2020

(06-26-2020, 03:02 PM)Syonyk Wrote: Buy the eMMMC to USB adapter? Smile  IMO, that should come with the system.

There are two different "boot priorities" on the PBP - the firmware, and the OS.

The firmware priority (uboot, ATF, etc) is SPI, eMMC, SD.

The OS boot priority is then set by the firmware, but is typically SD, eMMC.

This means that if you've fouled out something with the firmware on the eMMC to a point where it is recognized as firmware but doesn't work properly, booting from SD won't work - because the system fails somewhere before it tries to load a kernel from the SD card.

It's... admittedly an interesting design decision (I disagree with it).  I'd personally prefer it to be the other way, because it makes firmware development a lot easier, but if you're doing that, you can always just disable the eMMC and work from SD card.  I'd prefer SPI, SD, eMMC for firmware search order, because that makes it far harder to get the system into a "requires more fiddling than usual to recover" state - you could always put a good SD card in and boot to recover eMMC.

I'd have to agree that the current set up is a bit inconvenient in this sort of circumstance. Unscrewing the case and manually switching the eMMC module on/off should be a last resort. Maybe it will be taken into consideration during future improvements Smile

According to PBP wiki "The Pinebook Pro is capable of booting from eMMC, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, or an SD card." Is this recent? I thought USB booting wasn't supported....


RE: Pinebook Pro bricked? - Syonyk - 06-27-2020

I think there are some recent uboots that support the rk3399 USB stack. Haven't tried, though. If you wanted to boot from USB without the SD card or eMMC, you'd have to put that on the SPI.

I'm considering just blowing away edbloader.img on my eMMC and keeping a uSD card in the machine for boot firmware. I've been experimenting with the firmware a bit, and it's really annoying to have to pull the case bottom off...


RE: Pinebook Pro bricked? - xmixahlx - 06-27-2020

i've not tried it, but mrfixit2001 supposedly supports usb, see:
https://github.com/mrfixit2001/rockchip-u-boot/commits/next-dev