Official Debian support

[moonwalkers]

CONFIG_ROCKCHIP_CDN_DP=y in 5.10.0-7-arm64 stock with u-boot by  pcm720 also fine

Yup. I believe 5.10.0-7 (actual version 5.10.38) is the one that first introduced whatever fix that got CONFIG_ROCKCHIP_CDN_DP=y and BSP u-boot working together for a functional built-in display. Earlier stock kernel versions wouldn't work with built-in screen at all, not unless rebuilt with CONFIG_ROCKCHIP_CDN_DP unset.

[moonwalkers]

MicroSD card installer probably didn't work for me because it's using u-boot-rockchip from unstable, version 2021.01+dfsg-5. Just now I was upgrading eMMC, and after cloning the old eMMC to the bigger new one I tried installing Debian's u-boot before removing the old eMMC, and it booted fine, with actual menu shown on built-in display. The u-boot-rockchip I installed is 2021.07~rc4+dfsg-1 from experimental. All I had to do was run `sudo u-boot-install-rockchip /dev/mmcblk2` and reboot. Haven't yet tested other things, like deep sleep, though I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work properly. But then it wasn't working properly on BSP u-boot for me any more either, not since I started running stock Debian kernel.

So at this point the only non-stock Debian things present on my system are WiFi firmware blobs and couple sound-related hacks, like tweaked and marked immutable alsa.state file and acpid hack for muting speakers when headphones are connected, and the only possible missing functionality that I'm aware of is deep sleep. Yay! As I mentioned before though, my setup is simple as a nail - single bootable ext4 partition starting at 16MiB, no LUKS/LVM, no separate /boot, no UEFI, no GRUB, no etc., just u-boot reading /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf automatically generated by u-boot-menu. I don't have flash-kernel either, since I don't use separate /boot in this setup.

[sepp]

MicroSD card installer probably didn't work for me because it's using u-boot-rockchip from unstable, version 2021.01+dfsg-5. Just now I was upgrading eMMC, and after cloning the old eMMC to the bigger new one I tried installing Debian's u-boot before removing the old eMMC, and it booted fine, with actual menu shown on built-in display. The u-boot-rockchip I installed is 2021.07~rc4+dfsg-1 from experimental. All I had to do was run `sudo u-boot-install-rockchip /dev/mmcblk2` and reboot. Haven't yet tested other things, like deep sleep, though I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work properly. But then it wasn't working properly on BSP u-boot for me any more either, not since I started running stock Debian kernel.

So at this point the only non-stock Debian things present on my system are WiFi firmware blobs and couple sound-related hacks, like tweaked and marked immutable alsa.state file and acpid hack for muting speakers when headphones are connected, and the only possible missing functionality that I'm aware of is deep sleep. Yay! As I mentioned before though, my setup is simple as a nail - single bootable ext4 partition starting at 16MiB, no LUKS/LVM, no separate /boot, no UEFI, no GRUB, no etc., just u-boot reading /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf automatically generated by u-boot-menu. I don't have flash-kernel either, since I don't use separate /boot in this setup.

any news on deep sleep?

[moonwalkers]

ny news on deep sleep?

Doesn't seem to work yet. Can't say I'm surprised, TBH.

[alpopa]

Ok I'm getting closer.  I think the problem is with the linux kernel, specifically the option CONFIG_ROCKCHIP_CDN_DP=y is set on the Debian 5.10.40 kernel.  This may cause issues, as I have found a couple of references (https://www.kulesz.me/post/150_devuan_pinebookpro/) to recompiling a kernel without this option and it fixes the display.  Curiously, the working Manjaro image runs 5.12 with this option set to yes, so I'm wondering if it's fixed in the latest stable kernel.

I'm going to try recompiling 5.10.40 with that option unset and see if it fixes it, and then I'll try building the latest 5.12 with that option set to yes/defaulted.  With this done, all that's left is to get the wifi firmware included into somehow (linux-firmware-nonfree?).  You'll need to use u-boot in experimental or grab the itb/u-boot.img/dtbs from the Manjaro image.

Finally I figured it out: Debian bullseye stock on nvme:

Here is what I did:

Prerequisite: bulleye sd card created with https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm6...rd-images/

Installed this u-boot to emmc: the modified u-boot images provided by forum user pcm720
be sure to have not boot partition on emmc

create an ext4 and a swap partition on nvme0n1
ext4 nvme0n1p1
swap nvme0n1p2

debootstrap into nvme0n1p1 following this https://gist.github.com/varqox/42e213b6b2dde2b636ef
(instead of debootstrap the Debian install can also be use but then a serial interface is needed - for debootstrap any Distro booted from SD card works)

create symlinks for vmlinuz-5.10.0-7-arm64 (vmlinuz) and initrd.img-5.10.0-7-arm64 (initrd.img)
cp dtb, dtb-5.10.0-7-arm64 and dtbs folders recursive from boot on debian sd card

to have the following boot folder on nvme0n1p1
root@Pine64:/# ls -ltra boot
total 53548
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 27400064 May 28 10:31 vmlinuz-5.10.0-7-arm64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root  254127 May 28 10:31 config-5.10.0-7-arm64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root      83 May 28 10:31 System.map-5.10.0-7-arm64
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root    4096 Jun 29 07:13 ..
-rw-r--r--  1 root root 27147997 Jun 29 07:14 initrd.img-5.10.0-7-arm64
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      52 Jun 29 07:22 dtb -> dtbs/5.10.0-7-arm64/rockchip/rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      52 Jun 29 07:22 dtb-5.10.0-7-arm64 -> dtbs/5.10.0-7-arm64/rockchip/rk3399-pinebook-pro.dtb
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    4096 Jun 29 07:22 dtbs
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      22 Jun 29 07:23 vmlinuz -> vmlinuz-5.10.0-7-arm64
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root      25 Jun 29 07:23 initrd.img -> initrd.img-5.10.0-7-arm64
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    2210 Jun 29 08:47 boot.cmd
drwxr-xr-x  3 root root    4096 Jun 29 08:47 .
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    2282 Jun 29 08:47 boot.scr


you cannot just copy the boot.scr from debian. you have to strip the 72 long u-boot header like so https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/EditBootscr to get a boot.cmd

insert a line into boot.cmd (the one I use is attached)

setenv bootargs  ${bootargs} quiet
(this one) setenv bootargs root=/dev/nvme0n1p1 rootwait ${bootargs}

if test -z "${fk_kvers}"; then

and
mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr

issues remaining:
nvme not detected sporadically though rootwait
wakening from suspend
sound: es8316.c in linux-source is outdated. Upstream contains the necessary patch by Tobias Schramm. so this will come (and I want to stick to stock as this is "Official Debian support")

Any chance to upstream / document these findings in Debian?

[sepp]

[quote pid='96752' dateline='1624954285']

issues remaining:
nvme not detected sporadically though rootwait
wakening from suspend
sound: es8316.c in linux-source is outdated. Upstream contains the necessary patch by Tobias Schramm. so this will come (and I want to stick to stock as this is "Official Debian support")
USB issues (esp 2.0

Any chance to upstream / document these findings in Debian?
[/quote]
Debian devs are probably busy with the release day approaching - let's see after that
and at the end it is an ugly hack just to get things going

[sepp]

I am stuck!!!
and obviously too stupid to figure it out myself

I went away from stock 5.10.07 linux-image and use @"xmixahlx" debian packages from here https://github.com/xmixahlx/debian-packa...inux/5.8.5.
Very stable and no issues for me.

So I got adventurous and wanted to build my own (make deb-pkg: .config copied from @xmixahlx build)
Builds and installs without an error but does not boot.

I figured I"d need some magic (mkimage?) to convert the vmlinuz into something u-boot can work with.

mkimage -l vmlinuz-5.8.5-0.40-1-pinebookpro-hwaccel (this is xmixahlx"s)
GP Header: Size 4d5a0091 LoadAddr ffff5114

mkimage -l vmlinuz-5.10.48-0.40-1-pinebookpro-hwaccel (this mine)
shows no output

as said stuck and any help is appreciated

[moonwalkers]

I am stuck!!!
and obviously too stupid to figure it out myself

I went away from stock 5.10.07 linux-image and use @"xmixahlx" debian packages from here https://github.com/xmixahlx/debian-packa...inux/5.8.5.
Very stable and no issues for me.

So I got adventurous and wanted to build my own (make deb-pkg: .config copied from @xmixahlx build)
Builds and installs without an error but does not boot.

I figured I"d need some magic (mkimage?) to convert the vmlinuz into something u-boot can work with.

mkimage -l vmlinuz-5.8.5-0.40-1-pinebookpro-hwaccel (this is xmixahlx"s)
GP Header: Size 4d5a0091 LoadAddr ffff5114

mkimage -l vmlinuz-5.10.48-0.40-1-pinebookpro-hwaccel (this mine)
shows no output

as said stuck and any help is appreciated

Sorry, the only issue I ran into when building own kernels was forgetting to disable generating compressed image - IIRC u-boot have some issue with those. Considering mkimage is a part of u-boot-tools package, could it be that it shows no output because of that?

[sepp]

....
I figured I"d need some magic (mkimage?) to convert the vmlinuz into something u-boot can work with.

mkimage -l vmlinuz-5.8.5-0.40-1-pinebookpro-hwaccel (this is xmixahlx"s)
GP Header: Size 4d5a0091 LoadAddr ffff5114

mkimage -l vmlinuz-5.10.48-0.40-1-pinebookpro-hwaccel (this mine)
shows no output

as said stuck and any help is appreciated

Sorry, the only issue I ran into when building own kernels was forgetting to disable generating compressed image - IIRC u-boot have some issue with those. Considering mkimage is a part of u-boot-tools package, could it be that it shows no output because of that?

Not sure. vmlinuz-5.10.07 stock as well as @xmixahlx 's vmlinuz-5.8.5-0.40-1-pinebookpro-hwaccel seem to be to small for an uncomressed kernel image

[moonwalkers]

Not sure. vmlinuz-5.10.07 stock as well as @xmixahlx 's vmlinuz-5.8.5-0.40-1-pinebookpro-hwaccel seem to be to small for an uncomressed kernel image

I wouldn't say that. E.g. the kernels on my x86 work laptop that is a-OK with compressed ones are all less than 10MiB, but the kernels on my PBP are all over 25MiB+. What's the size of your kernels, the problematic one included?