RockPro64 boot questions

[misterc]

Hi

I just got a new rockPro64 (v2.1) for a project I'm working on.

I have experience with Rockchip SBCs but not the rockpro in particular.

My preferred OS for them is Armbian so I downloaded both the CLi and XFCE versions 22.11.1 (Jammy current) from the armbian site.

I first burned the CLI img to a known-good 32GB micro sd card with Etcher.

This would boot u-boot when the SD card was enabled but would fail to go further.

If I had the emmc installed (uninitialized) it would complain about that and then start a PXE boot loop.

If I remove or bypass the emmc, it complains there is no partition found on MMC 1 (It is looking for MMC1:1)

Looking at the SD card there is one Linux partition and that's it.

I then burned a Debian image and was able to boot up the installer, but because Debian lacks support for the Wifi module, I couldn't get very far since I don't have Ethernet in my workshop yet.

I then tried the XFCE Armbian image and has the exact same issue as the CLI image.

Usually when working with SBCs I've noticed there are 2 partitions on the SDcard, DOS and Linux, is Armbian different?

Is there another recommended Linux image that supports the Wifi module?

Thanks!

(Edit: Just for grins I tried an edge community build of armbian and same exact thing even though the uboot was 2 months newer)

(Edit 2: breaking out of u-boot and running "mmc part" returns "Unknown partition table type 0")

(Edit 3: I checked and the Debian image is also MBR but with a single FAT32L partition showing probably because it's the installer only?
I also tried the latest auyufan which is a GPT instead of MBR and it booted just fine but lacked the firmware for the wireless device when it tried to load the module, so far this issue seems exclusive to Armbian images, I would be interested in hearing from anyone who had had success with them)

[dukla2000]

...

If I remove or bypass the emmc, it complains there is no partition found on MMC 1 (It is looking for MMC1:1)

...

I then tried the XFCE Armbian image and has the exact same issue as the CLI image.

...

Something is not right! I do not use Armbian so have no suggestions but seems to me there is a problem with those images. I sort of remember having a similar problem a year or more back ...

...

Is there another recommended Linux image that supports the Wifi module?

...

I use a PineBook Pro Arch image and just tweak it for the RockPro64 - basically same CPU and just use the RockPro64 devicetree. I would guess that has some wifi support (for the Pinebook - you may need to tweak things?)

My notes to get booted (I start with a Ayufan SDcard but a MrFixit will probably do):

Code:

Boot anything off Sdcard, then build eMMC as follows:
https://github.com/SvenKiljan/archlinuxarm-pbp/blob/main/INSTALL.md

edit /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf and swap dtb for rockpro64-v2.dtb

After first boot

Login as root/root

etc...

[misterc]

...

If I remove or bypass the emmc, it complains there is no partition found on MMC 1 (It is looking for MMC1:1)

...

I then tried the XFCE Armbian image and has the exact same issue as the CLI image.

...

Something is not right! I do not use Armbian so have no suggestions but seems to me there is a problem with those images. I sort of remember having a similar problem a year or more back ...

...

Is there another recommended Linux image that supports the Wifi module?

...

I use a PineBook Pro Arch image and just tweak it for the RockPro64 - basically same CPU and just use the RockPro64 devicetree. I would guess that has some wifi support (for the Pinebook - you may need to tweak things?)

My notes to get booted (I start with a Ayufan SDcard but a MrFixit will probably do):

Code:

Boot anything off Sdcard, then build eMMC as follows:
https://github.com/SvenKiljan/archlinuxarm-pbp/blob/main/INSTALL.md

edit /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf and swap dtb for rockpro64-v2.dtb

After first boot

Login as root/root

etc...

Thanks, I'll check this out.

[misterc]

Turns out it was an issue with the SD card? The same card can boot Armbian on my DevTerm A06 (also rk3399) but not RockPro64.

Different SD card works just fine.