Installing r2kaw and Tow-Boot to the SPI

[ethical_haquer]

I am trying to get r2kaw and Tow-Boot installed to the SPI of the PPP at the same time.
I can install Tow-Boot to the SPI, and I can install r2kaw to the SPI, but I haven't figured out how to have both on the SPI.

For installing Tow-Boot to the SPI, I can follow the Tow-Boot installation instructions for the PPP, under the "Installing to SPI (recommended)" section.
For installing rk2aw, I can follow the rk2aw installation instructions for the PPP, under the "Installation to SPI NOR flash" section.
Here is the relevant part of the rk2aw installation instructions:

Installation steps are:

1) Erase the SPI NOR flash compeltely and install rk2aw

  # for RK3399:

  ./rk2aw-spi-flasher --erase-all --rk2aw rk2aw/debug.img.spi

  # for other SoCs:

  ./rk2aw-spi-flasher --erase-all --rk2aw rk2aw/debug.img

2) Install U-Boot or other bootloader

  a) U-Boot
 
    ./rk2aw-spi-flasher \
      --uboot-spl u-boot-spl.bin \
      --uboot-tpl u-boot-tpl.bin \
      --uboot-itb u-boot.itb

    (The above 3 files are normal build artifacts of U-Boot. You get them from
    a regular defconfig U-Boot build for your board.)

  b) Other bootloaders

    ./rk2aw-spi-flasher \
      --spl levinboot-emmc.img

  If flashing fallback bootloader add --replace-fallback to the above commands.

Although the instructions mention U-Boot and "other bootloaders", they don't directly mention Tow-Boot. So my first question was, what category does Tow-Boot fall under? U-Boot, since it's based off U-Boot, or "other bootloaders".

After downloading and extracting the "pine64-pinephonePro-2023.07-007.tar.xz" file from the latest Tow-Boot release, this is what I got:

Code:

$ tree ./pine64-pinephonePro-2023.07-007
./pine64-pinephonePro-2023.07-007
├── binaries
│   ├── Tow-Boot.noenv.bin
│   └── Tow-Boot.spi.bin
├── config
│   ├── noenv.config
│   └── spi.config
├── shared.disk-image.img
└── spi.installer.img

3 directories, 6 files

So there aren't the three "u-boot-spl.bin", "u-boot-tpl.bin", and "u-boot.itb" files mentioned in the U-Boot instructions, nor are there Tow-Boot equivalents.

Next I tried using the "shared.disk-image.img" file for the "Other bootloaders" method:

Code:

./rk2aw-spi-flasher --spl shared.disk-image.img
...
ERROR: File shared.disk-image.img is too big for the buffer size 1048576

Then I tried with "spi.installer.img":

Code:

./rk2aw-spi-flasher --spl spi.installer.img
...
ERROR: File spi.installer.img is too big for the buffer size 1048576

That's what I've tried so far. Any tips would be appreciated!
TIA, ethical_haquer

[Kevin Kofler]

I would guess Tow-Boot.spi.bin is what you want to install with rk2aw-spi-flasher.

[ethical_haquer]

I would guess Tow-Boot.spi.bin is what you want to install with rk2aw-spi-flasher.

Sadly, that also failed:

Code:

$ ~/rk2aw $ sudo ./rk2aw-spi-flasher --spl Tow-Boot.spi.bin
...
ERROR: File Tow-Boot.spi.bin is too big for the buffer size 1048576

[Kevin Kofler]

Then it looks like Tow-Boot is unfortunately too big to be installed as a secondary bootloader next to rk2aw. Though I am not sure whether Tow-Boot is necessarily that big or whether those .bin files are padded and could be recompiled without the padding or with less padding.

[dukla2000]

I have rk2aw on my PPP.
It is an alternative to Tow-boot and uses uboot.
See here https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_P...sing_rk2aw

[ethical_haquer]

I have rk2aw on my PPP.
It is an alternative to Tow-boot and uses uboot.
See here https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_P...sing_rk2aw

I tried using it with U-Boot, but U-Boot couldn't find the pmOS installation I have on the eMMC.
I'm just surprised that no one has tried using Tow-Boot with rk2aw before. It should be possible, seeing as Tow-Boot is based off U-Boot.

[dukla2000]

I tried using it with U-Boot, but U-Boot couldn't find the pmOS installation I have on the eMMC.
...

rk2aw includes its own flavour of uboot (as does Tow-Boot): I had problems with pmOS and rk2aw as pmOS wasn't happy to have its boot directory in the same partition as /. So if I did a "default" pmOS where /boot had its own partition, and didn't bother with extlinux stuff, rk2aw happily picked up the EFI hooks and it loaded fine. However it kept randomly rebooting so I went with arch.

...
I'm just surprised that no one has tried using Tow-Boot with rk2aw before. It should be possible, seeing as Tow-Boot is based off U-Boot.

I am perplexed as to why you would want to? Both Tow-Boot & rk2aw are "facilitators" between the board startup firmware and (their own flavour of) uboot. As such they flash LEDs, make disks available over USB and give some options which is your OS of choice for the day. I prefer rk2aw as it (better) supports multiple OSs on each disk.

[ethical_haquer]

I tried using it with U-Boot, but U-Boot couldn't find the pmOS installation I have on the eMMC.
...

rk2aw includes its own flavour of uboot (as does Tow-Boot): I had problems with pmOS and rk2aw as pmOS wasn't happy to have its boot directory in the same partition as /. So if I did a "default" pmOS where /boot had its own partition, and didn't bother with extlinux stuff, rk2aw happily picked up the EFI hooks and it loaded fine. However it kept randomly rebooting so I went with arch.

...
I'm just surprised that no one has tried using Tow-Boot with rk2aw before. It should be possible, seeing as Tow-Boot is based off U-Boot.

I am perplexed as to why you would want to? Both Tow-Boot & rk2aw are "facilitators" between the board startup firmware and (their own flavour of) uboot. As such they flash LEDs, make disks available over USB and give some options which is your OS of choice for the day. I prefer rk2aw as it (better) supports multiple OSs on each disk.

I was under the impression that rk2aw was a loader for boot-loaders.
When you flash rk2aw to the SPI and there are no boot-loaders present on the SPI, eMMC, and microSD, rk2aw won't do anything.
And I was able to flash Tow-Boot to the microSD, and rk2aw to the SPI, and it worked. rk2aw would start up, and after pressing the power key Tow-Boot would load pmOS.
But that was not ideal, as having Tow-Boot on the microSD made it so I couldn't test out other installations easily.

How do you like Arch on the PPP?

[dukla2000]

I was under the impression that rk2aw was a loader for boot-loaders.
When you flash rk2aw to the SPI and there are no boot-loaders present on the SPI, eMMC, and microSD, rk2aw won't do anything.
...

Yes it is. But if you install it as per the multiboot instructions I first linked above it also installs uboot. (use sudo ./spinor-flash-initial-setup.sh ). Thereafter sudo ./rk2aw-spi-flasher with no parameters will report what is there as per this copy/paste (I wrote the eMMC section of that page!)

...
How do you like Arch on the PPP?

My real poison is SXMO - love it. On arch or pmOS is pretty much the same: I just updated my signature and have arch on my PPP as it does not reboot randomly and has 6.12 kernel. (I am sure pmOS will be 6.12 on the PPP very shortly if not already in edge.) Arch is always quirky: at the moment wpa-supplicant and conky require exceptional TLC. But that is the pain/pleasure of arch ;-) Also arch is still SXMO 1.16 whereas pmOS is 1.17 (hardly game changer but I do tend to be a latest revision freak!)

Have pmOS on my PP which kinda makes sense as the PP is soo short of horsepower. And on PP it is 6.12 kernel already.



More rk2aw documentation here.
 
Also check this

[ethical_haquer]

I was under the impression that rk2aw was a loader for boot-loaders.
When you flash rk2aw to the SPI and there are no boot-loaders present on the SPI, eMMC, and microSD, rk2aw won't do anything.
...

Yes it is. But if you install it as per the multiboot instructions I first linked above it also installs uboot. (use sudo ./spinor-flash-initial-setup.sh ). Thereafter sudo ./rk2aw-spi-flasher with no parameters will report what is there as per this copy/paste (I wrote the eMMC section of that page!)

...
How do you like Arch on the PPP?

My real poison is SXMO - love it. On arch or pmOS is pretty much the same: I just updated my signature and have arch on my PPP as it does not reboot randomly and has 6.12 kernel. (I am sure pmOS will be 6.12 on the PPP very shortly if not already in edge.) Arch is always quirky: at the moment wpa-supplicant and conky require exceptional TLC. But that is the pain/pleasure of arch ;-) Also arch is still SXMO 1.16 whereas pmOS is 1.17 (hardly game changer but I do tend to be a latest revision freak!)

Have pmOS on my PP which kinda makes sense as the PP is soo short of horsepower. And on PP it is 6.12 kernel already.



More rk2aw documentation here.
 
Also check this

Thanks for all the info! I'll be sure to try it on my PPP in the near future.
I haven't tried SXMO out yet, I'll have to try it. And yeah, pmOS got the 6.11.11 kernel for the PPP a few days ago (for edge and stable).
I must admit that I haven't used Arch yet, on desktop or mobile. I probably should though, as I like having the latest packages (I run Debian testing on my laptop).

What is the camera situation like for the PPP with Arch? On pmOS edge it got a lot better with the kernel update, but the back camera stops working after a suspend. And you mention you have pmOS on the PP, since it's so under-powered - does Arch use more power or something? TIA.