rk2aw questions

[antanas]

Hi. I have installed rk2aw and primary/fallback bootloaders from https://xff.cz/kernels/bootloaders-2024.04/ppp/ with spinor-flash-initial-setup.sh script. Then, I have installed mobian to emmc with installer image booted from SD card. Mobian does not load when just turning on the phone but if I enter rk2aw LED based menu and select primary (2 flashes) or fallback (3 flashes) bootloader, then selecting mobian option from uboot will actually load the OS. Looking at https://xnux.eu/log/098.html I was hoping that EFI stuff will work but I'm getting invalid elf header magic errors.
So I have few questions:
1. How to diagnose what is preventing booting with "Perform a normal rk2aw boot." option (1 flash)
2. What are the differences for ppp between floss and rkbin bootloaders? (menu looks the same for me).
3. Maybe primary bootloader does not work for me and I'm always taken to the fallback bootloader, so how can I verify which uboot bootloader menu is being shown?

[mikehenson]

Hi. I have installed rk2aw and primary/fallback bootloaders from https://xff.cz/kernels/bootloaders-2024.04/ppp/ with spinor-flash-initial-setup.sh script. Then, I have installed mobian to emmc with installer image booted from SD card. Mobian does not load when just turning on the phone but if I enter rk2aw LED based menu and select primary (2 flashes) or fallback (3 flashes) bootloader, then selecting mobian option from uboot will actually load the OS. Looking at https://xnux.eu/log/098.html I was hoping that EFI stuff will work but I'm getting invalid elf header magic errors.
So I have few questions:
1. How to diagnose what is preventing booting with "Perform a normal rk2aw boot." option (1 flash)
2. What are the differences for ppp between floss and rkbin bootloaders? (menu looks the same for me).
3. Maybe primary bootloader does not work for me and I'm always taken to the fallback bootloader, so how can I verify which uboot bootloader menu is being shown?

I do not think this answers your question, but this is how I understand boot loaders.

PinePhonePro boot loaders:
**I am not sure about most of this. Please be kind and help me understand**

Tow-Boot[1] - Flash to SPI, Phone can be used as a USB Mass Storage device to access both eMMC and MicroSD. Boot via MicroSD with the phone volume/power buttons. Boot order is SPI, eMMC, MircoSD.

rk2aw[2] - Allows charging with the phone off (dead/flat battery)[2]. Provides the boot list on the phone. Allows turning the phone into a USB mass storage device. It looks for boot devices in this order MicroSD, eMMC, SPI. Hard to "brick" the boot loader[2].

rk2aw[2] + proprietary rkbin - Is really efficient on power[3]. (This is the default of spinor-flash-initial-setup.sh)

rk2aw[2] + foss u-boot - foss is required to use Levinboot[5]. Phone can be used as a USB Mass Storage device to access both eMMC and MicroSD[4]

I am personally running rk2aw + proprietary rkbin + DanctNIX Arch with Phosh on the eMMC.

[1] https://tow-boot.org/devices/pine64-pinephonePro.html
[2] https://xnux.e[2] https://xnux.eu/rk2aw/
u/rk2aw/
[3] https://xnux.eu/log/091.html
[4] https://xnux.eu/log/098.html
[5] Not I can not find the source.

[antanas]

Hi. I have installed rk2aw and primary/fallback bootloaders from https://xff.cz/kernels/bootloaders-2024.04/ppp/ with spinor-flash-initial-setup.sh script. Then, I have installed mobian to emmc with installer image booted from SD card. Mobian does not load when just turning on the phone but if I enter rk2aw LED based menu and select primary (2 flashes) or fallback (3 flashes) bootloader, then selecting mobian option from uboot will actually load the OS. Looking at https://xnux.eu/log/098.html I was hoping that EFI stuff will work but I'm getting invalid elf header magic errors.
So I have few questions:
1. How to diagnose what is preventing booting with "Perform a normal rk2aw boot." option (1 flash)
2. What are the differences for ppp between floss and rkbin bootloaders? (menu looks the same for me).
3. Maybe primary bootloader does not work for me and I'm always taken to the fallback bootloader, so how can I verify which uboot bootloader menu is being shown?

I do not think this answers your question, but this is how I understand boot loaders.

PinePhonePro boot loaders:
**I am not sure about most of this. Please be kind and help me understand**

Tow-Boot[1] - Flash to SPI, Phone can be used as a USB Mass Storage device to access both eMMC and MicroSD. Boot via MicroSD with the phone volume/power buttons. Boot order is SPI, eMMC, MircoSD.

rk2aw[2] - Allows charging with the phone off (dead/flat battery)[2]. Provides the boot list on the phone. Allows turning the phone into a USB mass storage device. It looks for boot devices in this order MicroSD, eMMC, SPI. Hard to "brick" the boot loader[2].

rk2aw[2] + proprietary rkbin - Is really efficient on power[3]. (This is the default of spinor-flash-initial-setup.sh)

rk2aw[2] + foss u-boot - foss is required to use Levinboot[5]. Phone can be used as a USB Mass Storage device to access both eMMC and MicroSD[4]

I am personally running rk2aw + proprietary rkbin + DanctNIX Arch with Phosh on the eMMC.

[1] https://tow-boot.org/devices/pine64-pinephonePro.html
[2] https://xnux.e[2] https://xnux.eu/rk2aw/
u/rk2aw/
[3] https://xnux.eu/log/091.html
[4] https://xnux.eu/log/098.html
[5] Not I can not find the source.

Does archlinux boot for you by just turning on the phone? Did you need to do any modifications for uboot selection?

I've noticed that uboot version is actually displayed on the top so my primary bootloader is:
U-Boot 2024.04-rc1-megi-ppp-00176-g6dc0a49f522d-dirty (Feb 15 2024 - 22:51:58 +0100)
Backup bootloader is:
U-Boot 2024.04-rc1-megi-ppp-00176-g6dc0a49f522d-dirty (Feb 15 2024 - 22:51:46 +0100)

As you can see the only difference is the seconds in the timestamp. Could you please share which uboot versions are on your ppp?

I am also seeing these errors on uboot screen:
...
No EFI system partition
Failed to persist EFI variables
...
But mobian loads when I select it

[antanas]

Hi. I have installed rk2aw and primary/fallback bootloaders from https://xff.cz/kernels/bootloaders-2024.04/ppp/ with spinor-flash-initial-setup.sh script. Then, I have installed mobian to emmc with installer image booted from SD card. Mobian does not load when just turning on the phone but if I enter rk2aw LED based menu and select primary (2 flashes) or fallback (3 flashes) bootloader, then selecting mobian option from uboot will actually load the OS. Looking at https://xnux.eu/log/098.html I was hoping that EFI stuff will work but I'm getting invalid elf header magic errors.
So I have few questions:
1. How to diagnose what is preventing booting with "Perform a normal rk2aw boot." option (1 flash)
2. What are the differences for ppp between floss and rkbin bootloaders? (menu looks the same for me).
3. Maybe primary bootloader does not work for me and I'm always taken to the fallback bootloader, so how can I verify which uboot bootloader menu is being shown?

I do not think this answers your question, but this is how I understand boot loaders.

PinePhonePro boot loaders:
**I am not sure about most of this. Please be kind and help me understand**

Tow-Boot[1] - Flash to SPI, Phone can be used as a USB Mass Storage device to access both eMMC and MicroSD. Boot via MicroSD with the phone volume/power buttons. Boot order is SPI, eMMC, MircoSD.

rk2aw[2] - Allows charging with the phone off (dead/flat battery)[2]. Provides the boot list on the phone. Allows turning the phone into a USB mass storage device. It looks for boot devices in this order MicroSD, eMMC, SPI. Hard to "brick" the boot loader[2].

rk2aw[2] + proprietary rkbin - Is really efficient on power[3]. (This is the default of spinor-flash-initial-setup.sh)

rk2aw[2] + foss u-boot - foss is required to use Levinboot[5]. Phone can be used as a USB Mass Storage device to access both eMMC and MicroSD[4]

I am personally running rk2aw + proprietary rkbin + DanctNIX Arch with Phosh on the eMMC.

[1] https://tow-boot.org/devices/pine64-pinephonePro.html
[2] https://xnux.e[2] https://xnux.eu/rk2aw/
u/rk2aw/
[3] https://xnux.eu/log/091.html
[4] https://xnux.eu/log/098.html
[5] Not I can not find the source.

One more question. For me U-Boot both primary and fallback does not have a background image like in this video:
https://xff.cz/dl/tmp/ppp-uboot-2014.04-megi.mp4

Does it look like that for you?

[mikehenson]

Does archlinux boot for you by just turning on the phone? Did you need to do any modifications for uboot selection?

No, I always get the u-boot screen and have to select an option. (Personally, I like this option)

I've noticed that uboot version is actually displayed on the top so my primary bootloader is:
U-Boot 2024.04-rc1-megi-ppp-00176-g6dc0a49f522d-dirty (Feb 15 2024 - 22:51:58 +0100)
Backup bootloader is:
U-Boot 2024.04-rc1-megi-ppp-00176-g6dc0a49f522d-dirty (Feb 15 2024 - 22:51:46 +0100)

As you can see the only difference is the seconds in the timestamp. Could you please share which uboot versions are on your ppp?

Mine is:
U-Boot 2023.07-rc6-megi-ppp-00050-g222aa75acee-dirty

One more question. For me U-Boot both primary and fallback does not have a background image like in this video:
https://xff.cz/dl/tmp/ppp-uboot-2014.04-megi.mp4

Does it look like that for you?

Mine does not look like that. Here is a video of mine:
https://youtu.be/kLOHfYhM7XQ?si=P38C1DErchHUzWUa&t=1418
https://youtu.be/kLOHfYhM7XQ?si=DhOyk5tO29mPCrk4&t=1550

[teekay]

On my device, after pulling the battery then booting up, I always get a failed boot (red light flashes a few times and it switches off). Powering on the second time always works. Does this happen for everyone? This is the last thing I see on the serial port before it shuts down:

Code:

U-Boot SPL 2024.04-rc1-megi-ppp-00176-g6dc0a49f522d-dirty (Feb 15 2024 - 22:51:58 +0100)
Battery status: vol=3884 cur=5846 ocv=2423 plugin=0 status=off usb_fault=1 usb_exist=0 bat_exist=1

---

I suspect it has to do with the ocv (battery open circuit voltage) being too low (probably due to cur value being impossibly high), because on a subsequent boot, it looks better:

Code:

U-Boot SPL 2024.04-rc1-megi-ppp-00176-g6dc0a49f522d-dirty (Feb 15 2024 - 22:51:58 +0100)
Battery status: vol=3845 cur=-436 ocv=3954 plugin=0 status=off usb_fault=1 usb_exist=0 bat_exist=1
Trying to boot from SPI

[antanas]

On my device, after pulling the battery then booting up, I always get a failed boot (red light flashes a few times and it switches off). Powering on the second time always works. Does this happen for everyone? This is the last thing I see on the serial port before it shuts down:

Code:

U-Boot SPL 2024.04-rc1-megi-ppp-00176-g6dc0a49f522d-dirty (Feb 15 2024 - 22:51:58 +0100)
Battery status: vol=3884 cur=5846 ocv=2423 plugin=0 status=off usb_fault=1 usb_exist=0 bat_exist=1

---

I suspect it has to do with the ocv (battery open circuit voltage) being too low (probably due to cur value being impossibly high), because on a subsequent boot, it looks better:

Code:

U-Boot SPL 2024.04-rc1-megi-ppp-00176-g6dc0a49f522d-dirty (Feb 15 2024 - 22:51:58 +0100)
Battery status: vol=3845 cur=-436 ocv=3954 plugin=0 status=off usb_fault=1 usb_exist=0 bat_exist=1
Trying to boot from SPI

I am experiencing this behavior not always but more like 50% of the time after battery removal.