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+--- Thread: Debian (Vanilla) on Rock64 and eMMC - how ? (/showthread.php?tid=11316)
Debian (Vanilla) on Rock64 and eMMC - how ? - as365n4 - 09-07-2020
Hi all,
I have downloaded the 2 files (partition.img.gz + firmware.rock64-rk3328.img.gz) from https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/daily/netboot/SD-card-images/ and build the final image with zcat firmware.rock64-rk3328.img.gz partition.img.gz > debian_rock64.img and flashed that image to an SD-Card.
Inserted the SD-Card, installed an empty eMMC-Module, attached the serial cable to UART and powered-up the Rock64.
The Board boots from SD-Card into the Debian Installer and installs Debian onto the eMMC, once the installation is finished I remove the SD-Card and reboot the Rock64 and then the board is stuck and won't boot at all (no sign of life). Only if I reinsert the SD-Card and reset the board it then boots from eMMC, so the SD-Card has to be present otherwise it won't boot.
How can I setup the system so that it does not require the presence of an SD-Card to boot directly from the eMMC-Module?
Any ideas or adivce?
edit: attached the output of lsblk
Code:
Debian GNU/Linux bullseye/sid debian-rock64 ttyS2
debian-rock64 login: root
Password:
Linux debian-rock64 5.7.0-3-arm64 #1 SMP Debian 5.7.17-1 (2020-08-23) aarch64
The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.
Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
permitted by applicable law.
Last login: Mon Sep 7 12:15:32 BST 2020 on ttyS2
root@debian-rock64:~# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
mmcblk0 179:0 0 14.8G 0 disk
└─mmcblk0p1 179:1 0 81.7M 0 part
mmcblk1 179:256 0 14.5G 0 disk
├─mmcblk1p1 179:257 0 487M 0 part /boot
├─mmcblk1p2 179:258 0 13G 0 part /
└─mmcblk1p3 179:259 0 961M 0 part [SWAP]
mmcblk1boot0 179:512 0 4M 1 disk
mmcblk1boot1 179:768 0 4M 1 disk
root@debian-rock64:~#RE: Debian (Vanilla) on Rock64 and eMMC - how ? - as365n4 - 09-18-2020
After many unsuccessful attempts in getting the Rock64 to boot from eMMC post Vanilla Debian install, it seems that the Debian installer is unable to flash a working u-boot to the eMMC.
Then I compiled U-Boot from scratch and flashed it to the eMMC which broke the Vanilla Debian installation, as Debian uses a similar setup to Arch with boot.scr file and U-Boot from scratch seems to expect a extlinux.conf file. :-\
So in the end I followed and amended this guide https://www.kulesz.me/post/140-debian-devuan-arm64-install/ here so that it fits my needs.
Credit goes to user @kuleszdl
Now my Rock64 boots Debian from eMMC and works quite fine, except every time when UART0 is not connected the HDMI output is also not activated. When I attach UART0 my HDMI output comes back.
I suspect something is missing from my extlinux.conf file
Code:
TIMEOUT 2
PROMPT 1
DEFAULT debian
LABEL debian
MENU LABEL Debian
KERNEL /vmlinuz
INITRD /initrd.img
DEVICETREEDIR /dtbs
APPEND console=tty1 console=ttyS2,1500000 root=LABEL=root rw rootwaitRE: Debian (Vanilla) on Rock64 and eMMC - how ? - kuleszdl - 09-19-2020
Happy to hear my guide helped you getting your rockpro64 running. However, especially regarding the rockpro64 (and pinebook pro) I also had strange behavior with the microSD card using the 5.7 kernel. Did this get better with the current 5.8 kernel?
Regarding the HDMI I really can't tell. You could try to leave out the following line:
Code:
console=ttyS2,1500000Also, trying a newer uboot version (like the current RC version) might help. Good luck!
RE: Debian (Vanilla) on Rock64 and eMMC - how ? - as365n4 - 09-20-2020
Yeah 5.8 kernel is problematic as Arch and Manjaro also had issues after update to this Kernel.
Maybe that's causing my issue too but I am not sure. I am using Arm Trusted Firmware v2.3 and U-Boot v2020.07 at the moment.
I made a detailed write-up on github to document how things go.
Rock64 --> https://github.com/as365n4/Debian_on_Rock64
H64B --> https://github.com/as365n4/Debian_on_Pine64_H64B
RE: Debian (Vanilla) on Rock64 and eMMC - how ? - as365n4 - 09-21-2020
Upgraded to U-Boot v2020.10rc4 and removed console-ttyS2,1500000 from extlinux.conf but still no HDMI video when UART0 is not connected.
Will try again when U-Boot v2020.10 becomes available, also worth noting USB3 is not recognised. I think the dtb-file which comes with u-boot might be the culprit.
Edit:
It turns out that the dtb-file provided by U-Boot is incomplete or they turnoff HDMI output.
As a workaround one can extract a working dtb-file from ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz provided by https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/rockchip/rock64 with the added benefit of USB3 fully working, downside is NO HDMI-Audio and the screen flickers a lot when any Desktop Environment is running, in Terminal it is just fine.