Mobian Boot Problem

[rogerwegmann]

Hi,

I followed the instructions on https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PineTab2_Releases and https://github.com/Kwiboo/u-boot-build#s...mmc-module to install Mobian. But the pinetab2 doesn't boot from the prepared SD card. The screen stays black.

What I did:

Code:

dd if=mobian-pinetab2-phosh-20230619.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M status=progress conv=fsync
dd if=u-boot-rockchip.bin of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=32k seek=1 conv=fsync

What did I wrong and/or how can I debug?

Best,

Roger

[rogerwegmann]

It works, I connected the USB adapter. And after a time I have seen that it booted.

[spenk]

It works, I connected the USB adapter. And after a time I have seen that it booted.

Hi, I have the same problem . I tried to flash the sd with both images then connected the usb adapter but the tablet didn't boot. Did you use a pc connected to the usb adapter? The switch was on or off? How many seconds/minutes did you wait before the boot?
thanks

[spenk]

It works, I connected the USB adapter. And after a time I have seen that it booted.

Hi, I have the same problem . I tried to flash the sd with both images then connected the usb adapter but the tablet didn't boot. Did you use a pc connected to the usb adapter? The switch was on or off? How many seconds/minutes did you wait before the boot?
thanks

ok, now it works. I used the wrong image mobian-pinetab2-phosh-20230625.img.gz instead of  mobian-pinetab2-phosh-20230619.img.gz.

[GloriousCoffee]

I'm trying to use the UART adapter as described in :
https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PineTab2

But it feels very inconsistent, and I don't really understand it.

When I set it to boot from SD and plug it in, the yellow light turns on and I see a blue light flashing twice now and then.

At this point it doesn't boot anything.


I unplug it all, set it to internal boot and the blue light flashes again but nothing happens. I've had to remove the UART adapter several times, with the internal boot setting before I see an orange light flash and it boots up the pre-installed OS.

I have no idea why it wont boot the SD. Could someone provide any clue to this?

[alpopa]

I also seem more comfortable with Mobian than with Arch. I read this and several other topics and wan unable to boot any Mobian images flashed to SD card. The problem is: these images do not have u-boot installed (they expect u-boot to be flashed in SPI) and also their partition scheme leaves no room to install u-boot. I even tried to create a custom image with bootfs and rootfs partitions moved so that the first 16 MB of the image is clean and it is possible to put u-boot there. I had a partial success. But this procedure is very inconvenient.

Then, I found this document:
https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/blob/ma...ip.rst#spi
In the section 1, subtitle SPI I found:

Write u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin to offset 0 of SPI flash.
Copy u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin into SD card and boot from SD:

Code:

sf probe
load mmc 1:1 $kernel_addr_r u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin
sf update $fileaddr 0 $filesize

So, I just flashed the Mobian image to SD card with Etcher and then copied u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin file to the bootfs partition (1st) on SD. And voila, Mobian successfully starts from SD card.

The u-boot is already flased in SPI of PineTab2 and its searches for SD card before eMMC. So, no UART adapter is necessary. If you want to see the boot logs, you can of course attach it, but do not switch on the SD boot maskrom on the adapter.

[flanders51]

I also seem more comfortable with Mobian than with Arch. I read this and several other topics and wan unable to boot any Mobian images flashed to SD card. The problem is: these images do not have u-boot installed (they expect u-boot to be flashed in SPI) and also their partition scheme leaves no room to install u-boot. I even tried to create a custom image with bootfs and rootfs partitions moved so that the first 16 MB of the image is clean and it is possible to put u-boot there. I had a partial success. But this procedure is very inconvenient.

Then, I found this document:
https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot/blob/ma...ip.rst#spi
In the section 1, subtitle SPI I found:

Write u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin to offset 0 of SPI flash.
Copy u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin into SD card and boot from SD:

Code:

sf probe
load mmc 1:1 $kernel_addr_r u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin
sf update $fileaddr 0 $filesize

So, I just flashed the Mobian image to SD card with Etcher and then copied u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin file to the bootfs partition (1st) on SD. And voila, Mobian successfully starts from SD card.

The u-boot is already flased in SPI of PineTab2 and its searches for SD card before eMMC. So, no UART adapter is necessary. If you want to see the boot logs, you can of course attach it, but do not switch on the SD boot maskrom on the adapter.

Hi.  Thanks for this post.  I am having the same problem.  The link to the u-boot on the DebianOn wiki no longer works and returns a 404:  https://gitlab.com/julianfairfax/u-boot-...s/download

Can you help me locate the Uboot build for the PineTab2?  I believe you were doing that but I am not familiar with Gitlab.  My apologies.

[alpopa]

Hi flanders51. I also observed the u-boot link is returns http error 404. But the 2nd mention of u-boot in the link https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebian...4/PineTab2, the one under the title "Reinstalling U-Boot to the SPI" successfully fetches the u-boot from https://gitlab.com/julianfairfax/u-boot-...s/download. Hopefully you can boot Mobian using this u-boot build.

[flanders51]

Hi flanders51. I also observed the u-boot link is returns http error 404. But the 2nd mention of u-boot in the link https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebian...4/PineTab2, the one under the title "Reinstalling U-Boot to the SPI" successfully fetches the u-boot from https://gitlab.com/julianfairfax/u-boot-...s/download. Hopefully you can boot Mobian using this u-boot build.

Hi.  Thank you very much.  That is helpful.  Unfortunately, I am not able to get Mobian to install and boot yet.  I get close and then it crashes.  

Do you mind posting clear instructions on what you did?  Sorry, I would really to use Debian with this tablet.  I am running Phosh as a desktop but I am hoping it runs smoother with Mobian install.

Any help would be most appreciated.

[alpopa]

Hi flanders51,

I did not fresh install mobian on PineTab2 recently, however, I regularly update already installed mobian. The first time I succeed, I did the following:

1. Download the latest mobian image (not installer) from https://images.mobian.org/pinetab2/weekly/.
2. Download u-boot from https://gitlab.com/julianfairfax/u-boot-...s/download.
3. Flash the downloaded mobian image to microSD card of at least 8 GB. I use Balena Etcher for this.
4. Mount microSD card, it has 2 partitions: boot and rootfs, both with Ext4 filesystem. Copy u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin from u-boot archive file to boot partition:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  4025731 Jul 14 15:35 System.map-6.3-rockchip
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  220243 Jul 14 15:35 config-6.3-rockchip
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root    1024 Sep  3 03:57 dtb-6.3-rockchip
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    1024 Sep  3 04:02 extlinux
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 17242346 Sep  3 04:00 initrd.img-6.3-rockchip
drwx------ 2 root root    12288 Sep  3 03:56 lost+found
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1485824 Jul 14 13:20 u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin # This file is manually copied
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  9793886 Jul 14 15:35 vmlinuz-6.3-rockchip

5. Power off PineTab2, insert microSD card in it and power on. Mobian should be able to boot. Default user is mobian, default password is 1234.

Attention: At the very first boot, the filesystem resizes to actual microSD card size, so it is a bit longer.