PINE64
Is some u-boot required on the SPI for installing debian with the official installer? - Printable Version

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+--- Thread: Is some u-boot required on the SPI for installing debian with the official installer? (/showthread.php?tid=17406)



Is some u-boot required on the SPI for installing debian with the official installer? - callegar - 09-27-2022

Hi,

https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/ROCKPro64_Software_Release reports the possibility of installing debian on the ROCKPro64 using the Official Debian Installer via the installer image to be found at https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/

I have verified that the installer image boots and does its job of downloading and installing stuff.  However, installing (at least installing on the EMMC) delivers a system incapable of booting.

I now wonder if this is because the official debian installer does not install a bootloader and expects a bootloader to be already present on the SPI.

If this is the case, the page at https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/ROCKPro64_Software_Release shouild probably say so.

I have tried to install tow-boot on the SPI expecting it to be the best option for a general bootloader.  Unfortunately, It does not appear to work. After coming up, it hangs at

Code:
Booting using the fdt blob at 0x1f00000

It is unclear to me if this is a bug in tow-boot (also looking at https://github.com/Tow-Boot/Tow-Boot/issues/186).

If it is, what would be an appropriate uboot for running debian?


RE: Is some u-boot required on the SPI for installing debian with the official installer? - ratzzupaltuff - 10-25-2022

Hi,

i had exactly the same problem you describe. Following the guide at https://github.com/sigmaris/u-boot/wiki/Flashing-U-Boot-to-SPI with the SPI Image from https://github.com/sigmaris/u-boot/releases/download/v2021.04-rockpro64-ci/flash_spi.img.gz worked for me. It seems that the wiki should be updated, that updating the spi might help to resolve boot problems.

I hope updating the SPI to that version helps you too. I didn't need to reinstall debian to my emmc, it just worked after inserting it back after updating the SPI.

best wishes