need help booting off USB 3.0 HDD/SSD

[idontgetit]

For the past week I've been trying to get this board to actually boot off a usb attached drive. Here's where I am:

- compiled my own u-boot following instructions here: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...9#pid55839
- tried so many ayufan and other u-boot (like https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...+usb+3+3.0) I can't keep track anymore
- I have a seagate backup drive + usb 3.0 to sata interface, a JMS578/567 (sold officially by pine too?), and another weird Toshiba (Bus 002 Device 015: ID 0480:a00c Toshiba America Inc) usb 3.0 to sata interface
- upgraded firmware on the JMS578/567 from another SBC forum

There is no common theme among u-boot versions:
- some will power-cycle the usb 2.0 drive to death, some will only do it 2-3 times.
- Some will detect my seagate (external power) usb to sata interface, some won't.
- USB 2.0 is more likely to detect something connected to it, but it doesn't boot. It's just stuck before the point where it should say "Starting kernel...". While using Toshiba interface, the hard drive powers off after the kernel selection prompt.

Now here's the nut-kicker:
- I have a sandisk extreme usb 3.0 thumbdrive which *DOES* boot off of usb 3.0 with *some* u-boot versions. So that confirms usb 3.0 port is fine, and the image I'm trying to boot is also fine.

What I believe I ruled out:
- damaged HDD/SSD
- non-working usb to sata interfaces
- inadequate power supply to rockpro64: I can duplicate all of the above with a 12V 1.5A as well as a 12V 3.5A brick. I'm sure I can rig up a 12V 25A from a desktop power supply if that's going to make some of you obsessed people happy (IRC people kept pestering me about this being power related). On top of that, on a fully booted system (from sd card), anything I throw in the usb ports gets adequate power and works
- shit linux images; I'm able to boot the same image(s) off of the usb thumbdrive connected to usb 3.0
- usb port damage (I can see all devices connected to usb 3.0 A, both usb 2.0 ports, cannot test usb-c, no dongle/device)

I also tried a sata_sil24 compatible card; u-boot sees it but it doesn't go any further than that. Drives connected to the PCIe eSATA (Sonnet Tempo SATA E2P) do not power on while in u-boot, but they will power on and get discovered once a linux kernel is booted. I'm guessing u-boot inadequate sata_sil24 drivers?

I don't know much about grub, or uboot, or compiling my own kernels but I can follow directions.

Code:

# This is u-boot from this dude: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=8685&highlight=boot+usb+3+3.0 # but not the official release, the latest compiled stuff U-Boot SPL 2020.10-07965-g0ce9b07852 (Oct 12 2020 - 21:45:42 +0000) Trying to boot from SPI NOTICE:  BL31: v2.3(release):v2.3-797-g7ad39818b NOTICE:  BL31: Built : 21:43:53, Oct 12 2020 U-Boot 2020.10-07965-g0ce9b07852 (Oct 12 2020 - 21:45:42 +0000) SoC: Rockchip rk3399 Reset cause: POR Model: Pine64 RockPro64 v2.1 DRAM:  3.9 GiB PMIC:  RK808 MMC:   mmc@fe310000: 2, mmc@fe320000: 1, sdhci@fe330000: 0 Loading Environment from SPIFlash... SF: Detected gd25q128 with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 4 KiB, total 16 MiB *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment In:    serial Out:   vidconsole Err:   vidconsole Model: Pine64 RockPro64 v2.1 Net:   eth0: ethernet@fe300000 starting USB... Bus usb@fe380000: USB EHCI 1.00 Bus usb@fe3a0000: USB OHCI 1.0 Bus usb@fe3c0000: USB EHCI 1.00 Bus usb@fe3e0000: USB OHCI 1.0 Bus dwc3: usb maximum-speed not found Register 2000140 NbrPorts 2 Starting the controller USB XHCI 1.10 scanning bus usb@fe380000 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found scanning bus usb@fe3a0000 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found scanning bus usb@fe3c0000 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found scanning bus usb@fe3e0000 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found scanning bus dwc3 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found        scanning usb for storage devices... 1 Storage Device(s) found Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 Card did not respond to voltage select! Card did not respond to voltage select! PCIe link training gen1 timeout! Device 0: unknown device failed to find ep-gpios property scanning bus for devices... Device 0: unknown device Device 0: Vendor: TOSHIBA Rev: 5438 Prod: External USB 3.0             Type: Hard Disk             Capacity: 476940.0 MB = 465.7 GB (976773164 x 512) ... is now current device Scanning usb 0:7... Found /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf Retrieving file: /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf 1055 bytes read in 45 ms (22.5 KiB/s) select kernel 1: kernel-4.4.190-1233-rockchip-ayufan-gd3f1be0ed310 2: kernel-4.4.190-1233-rockchip-ayufan-gd3f1be0ed310-memtest Enter choice: 1: kernel-4.4.190-1233-rockchip-ayufan-gd3f1be0ed310 Retrieving file: /boot/initrd.img-4.4.190-1233-rockchip-ayufan-gd3f1be0ed310 5140884 bytes read in 74 ms (66.3 MiB/s) Retrieving file: /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.190-1233-rockchip-ayufan-gd3f1be0ed310 20545544 bytes read in 220 ms (89.1 MiB/s) append: rw panic=10 init=/sbin/init coherent_pool=1M ethaddr=2e:68:c4:77:e9:11 eth1addr= serial=f671f593e6dba571 cgroup_enable=cpuset cgroup_memory=1 cgroup_enable=memory swapaccount=1 root=LABEL=linux-root rootwait rootfstype=ext4 Retrieving file: /boot/dtbs/4.4.190-1233-rockchip-ayufan-gd3f1be0ed310/rockchip/rk3399-rockpro64.dtb 96273 bytes read in 58 ms (1.6 MiB/s) ## Flattened Device Tree blob at 01f00000    Booting using the fdt blob at 0x1f00000 # ^ this is where it halts. No loading kernel. # This is U-boot I compiled using instructions linked above, same PS, same drive connected to usb 3.0 # via the toshiba interface. Booting with Pins 20&21 bridged to bypass SPI U-Boot TPL 2020.10-00787-g7ec87e4192 (Oct 21 2020 - 11:07:54) Channel 0: LPDDR4, 50MHz BW=32 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=15 CS1 Row=15 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=2048MB Channel 1: LPDDR4, 50MHz BW=32 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=15 CS1 Row=15 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=2048MB 256B stride lpddr4_set_rate: change freq to 400000000 mhz 0, 1 lpddr4_set_rate: change freq to 800000000 mhz 1, 0 Trying to boot from BOOTROM Returning to boot ROM... U-Boot SPL 2020.10-00787-g7ec87e4192 (Oct 21 2020 - 11:07:54 -0400) Trying to boot from MMC1 U-Boot 2020.10-00787-g7ec87e4192 (Oct 21 2020 - 11:07:54 -0400) SoC: Rockchip rk3399 Reset cause: POR Model: Pine64 RockPro64 v2.1 DRAM:  3.9 GiB PMIC:  RK808 MMC:   mmc@fe310000: 2, mmc@fe320000: 1, sdhci@fe330000: 0 Loading Environment from SPIFlash... Invalid bus 0 (err=-19) *** Warning - spi_flash_probe_bus_cs() failed, using default environment In:    serial Out:   vidconsole Err:   vidconsole Model: Pine64 RockPro64 v2.1 Net:   eth0: ethernet@fe300000 starting USB... Bus usb@fe380000: USB EHCI 1.00 Bus usb@fe3a0000: USB OHCI 1.0 Bus usb@fe3c0000: USB EHCI 1.00 Bus usb@fe3e0000: USB OHCI 1.0 Bus dwc3: usb maximum-speed not found Register 2000140 NbrPorts 2 Starting the controller USB XHCI 1.10 scanning bus usb@fe380000 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found scanning bus usb@fe3a0000 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found scanning bus usb@fe3c0000 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found scanning bus usb@fe3e0000 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found scanning bus dwc3 for devices... cannot reset port 2!? 1 USB Device(s) found        scanning usb for storage devices... 0 Storage Device(s) found

Questions:
1. Do I have a shit rockpro64 board?
2. Is u-boot not able to work with usb to sata bridges? (hopefully yet)
3. any other magic method you can think of to get usb 3.0 to boot?