PPP not booting: Missing DTB
#1
My Pinephone Pro doesn't start and it seems like the bootloader itself is not working. 


Whether I press or hold the power button or connect the charging cable or combine the former with holding any of the volume buttons, nothing happens - no vibration, no LED light, no display output. 

The battery does not seem to be the problem - it works reliably in my older Pinephone. 

I tried flashing a fresh Manjaro image to an SD card and booting it in the PPP by holding the RE button during the startup. Again, no visible response

The following output from the PPP console is the only response I am able to get. It is shown right after a startup attempt.


U-Boot TPL 2021.10 (Oct 04 2021 - 15:09:26)
sdram_init: LPDDR4 - 50MHz failed!
rk3399_dmc_init DRAM init failed -22
Missing DTB



After this the console remains mute. However, the device seems to be "running" - for lack of a better word - the chipset cover is slightly warm and to replicate the former console output again, the power button needs to be pressed for a few seconds - just like in regular reset.


Could you please help me with an advice? Is the device dead for good? Have anyone encountered a similar behavior?
  Reply
#2
(03-01-2023, 12:48 PM)andy.lynx10 Wrote: My Pinephone Pro doesn't start and it seems like the bootloader itself is not working. 


Whether I press or hold the power button or connect the charging cable or combine the former with holding any of the volume buttons, nothing happens - no vibration, no LED light, no display output. 

The battery does not seem to be the problem - it works reliably in my older Pinephone. 

I tried flashing a fresh Manjaro image to an SD card and booting it in the PPP by holding the RE button during the startup. Again, no visible response

The following output from the PPP console is the only response I am able to get. It is shown right after a startup attempt.


U-Boot TPL 2021.10 (Oct 04 2021 - 15:09:26)
sdram_init: LPDDR4 - 50MHz failed!
rk3399_dmc_init DRAM init failed -22
Missing DTB



After this the console remains mute. However, the device seems to be "running" - for lack of a better word - the chipset cover is slightly warm and to replicate the former console output again, the power button needs to be pressed for a few seconds - just like in regular reset.


Could you please help me with an advice? Is the device dead for good? Have anyone encountered a similar behavior?

Best if you write the exact command and tool you used here. Flashing is usually where most of the issues are. Does the button on the backside of the phone underneath the back cover have the label "RE" or "RESET"?

The volume keys are not a shortcut on the PinePhone Pro, unless you flashed Tow-Boot.
  Reply
#3
(03-01-2023, 04:17 PM)fxc Wrote:
(03-01-2023, 12:48 PM)andy.lynx10 Wrote: My Pinephone Pro doesn't start and it seems like the bootloader itself is not working. 


Whether I press or hold the power button or connect the charging cable or combine the former with holding any of the volume buttons, nothing happens - no vibration, no LED light, no display output. 

The battery does not seem to be the problem - it works reliably in my older Pinephone. 

I tried flashing a fresh Manjaro image to an SD card and booting it in the PPP by holding the RE button during the startup. Again, no visible response

The following output from the PPP console is the only response I am able to get. It is shown right after a startup attempt.


U-Boot TPL 2021.10 (Oct 04 2021 - 15:09:26)
sdram_init: LPDDR4 - 50MHz failed!
rk3399_dmc_init DRAM init failed -22
Missing DTB



After this the console remains mute. However, the device seems to be "running" - for lack of a better word - the chipset cover is slightly warm and to replicate the former console output again, the power button needs to be pressed for a few seconds - just like in regular reset.


Could you please help me with an advice? Is the device dead for good? Have anyone encountered a similar behavior?

Best if you write the exact command and tool you used here. Flashing is usually where most of the issues are. Does the button on the backside of the phone underneath the back cover have the label "RE" or "RESET"?

The volume keys are not a shortcut on the PinePhone Pro, unless you flashed Tow-Boot.

I used following dd command to flash the image to the microSD card. In past I used it successfully to flash working OS images to Pinephone/Pinephone Pro/SD: 


sudo bash -c "xz -d < Downloads/Manjaro-ARM-phosh-pinephonepro-beta29.img.xz - | dd of=/dev/sdc status=progress"

It finished without errors.


The reset button is labeled "RE".

As far as I know, the phone doesn't have Tow-Boot. That is why I relied on the "RE" button in my attempts to boot it from the SD card. 


In my previous post I forgot to mention that the Pinephone Pro worked without issues before with Manjaro+phosh in eMMC. Above problems started sometimes in December 2022. I don't recall doing anything unusual with the phone back then. As far as I know, it either stopped working out of the blue, or after a restart or after a regular system update.
  Reply
#4
(03-02-2023, 08:10 AM)andy.lynx10 Wrote:
(03-01-2023, 04:17 PM)fxc Wrote:
(03-01-2023, 12:48 PM)andy.lynx10 Wrote: My Pinephone Pro doesn't start and it seems like the bootloader itself is not working. 


Whether I press or hold the power button or connect the charging cable or combine the former with holding any of the volume buttons, nothing happens - no vibration, no LED light, no display output. 

The battery does not seem to be the problem - it works reliably in my older Pinephone. 

I tried flashing a fresh Manjaro image to an SD card and booting it in the PPP by holding the RE button during the startup. Again, no visible response

The following output from the PPP console is the only response I am able to get. It is shown right after a startup attempt.


U-Boot TPL 2021.10 (Oct 04 2021 - 15:09:26)
sdram_init: LPDDR4 - 50MHz failed!
rk3399_dmc_init DRAM init failed -22
Missing DTB



After this the console remains mute. However, the device seems to be "running" - for lack of a better word - the chipset cover is slightly warm and to replicate the former console output again, the power button needs to be pressed for a few seconds - just like in regular reset.


Could you please help me with an advice? Is the device dead for good? Have anyone encountered a similar behavior?

Best if you write the exact command and tool you used here. Flashing is usually where most of the issues are. Does the button on the backside of the phone underneath the back cover have the label "RE" or "RESET"?

The volume keys are not a shortcut on the PinePhone Pro, unless you flashed Tow-Boot.

I used following dd command to flash the image to the microSD card. In past I used it successfully to flash working OS images to Pinephone/Pinephone Pro/SD: 


sudo bash -c "xz -d < Downloads/Manjaro-ARM-phosh-pinephonepro-beta29.img.xz - | dd of=/dev/sdc status=progress"

It finished without errors.


The reset button is labeled "RE".

As far as I know, the phone doesn't have Tow-Boot. That is why I relied on the "RE" button in my attempts to boot it from the SD card. 


In my previous post I forgot to mention that the Pinephone Pro worked without issues before with Manjaro+phosh in eMMC. Above problems started sometimes in December 2022. I don't recall doing anything unusual with the phone back then. As far as I know, it either stopped working out of the blue, or after a restart or after a regular system update.

The command and used image looks correct, as well as using the RE button at boot. I suspect there might be an issue with 1) the timing of the RE button or 2) how the microSD card is connected or working.

If you remove the microSD card from the phone and you try to hold RE at boot, the phone should boot into MaskROM mode, which can be verified by connecting the phone to a computer using USB and typing "lsusb" there. If MaskROM mode appears there, it is not an issue with the timing. If U-Boot continues to boot and MaskROM mode does not appear it is an issue with the timing.

If MaskROM mode appears it is an issue with the microSD card or how it is read. In that case I would suggest checking if a microSD card reader pin is missing.
  Reply
#5
ok, I tried the steps with following outcomes:


I am consistently able to boot into the MaskROM mode, confirmed by lsusb output. While there, the serial console shows nothing and reacts to nothing.

I've inspected the Pinephone Pro's microSD card reader visually and I didn't see any signs of damage. I also checked the content of the card in another reader again and the files seemed to be ok. The card had only been flashed once before this - it contained a working Pinephone Jumpdrive before I have reflashed it with the current Manjaro.

Based on further analysis I was able to confirm that I have actually never used the PPP's microSD port to flash OS images to eMMC so I don't know whether the reader did ever work. I used the USB Mass Storage mode for flashing to this PPP's eMMC multiple times back then, which I now understand is only possible with Tow-Boot. Sorry for the confusion with U-boot. 

When I try to boot from the microSD card by using the "RE" button, the serial console consistently shows only a bunch of gibberish characters and then goes mute.

Without the "RE" button, with or without pressing the volume buttons, I am getting the output written in my first post.


Out of nowhere, in one of my attempts the phone managed to partially boot from the eMMC. In serial console it came until the login prompt. My credentials were rejected. The phone's display stayed stuck on the splash screen. I am sure this boot was from the eMMC because the system I had flashed last to the eMMC was Arch as opposed to Manjaro on the SD card and they have different default users. I can confirm that the Arch worked correctly in December before any problems begun. 

After this half-lucky boot I reset the device by holding the power button and the next time I was able to login in the serial console with the same credentials that were being rejected previously. The display stuck on the splashscreen again. phosh service complained about missing files. 

Only then then I realized that I didn't have any screen log running, so I started one and rebooted the device to capture whole boot output. It stopped sooner this time with the output below. It has never managed to boot again since then and any attempts default to the output in my first post. 


\0
U-Boot TPL 2021.10 (Oct 04 2021 - 15:09:26)
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 CS=1 Die BW=16 Size=1024MB
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 2021.10 (Oct 04 2021 - 15:09:26 +0000)
Trying to boot from SPI
NOTICE:  BL31: v2.6(release):
NOTICE:  BL31: Built : 00:00:00, Jan  1 1980


Tow-Boot 2021.10 (Oct 04 2021 - 15:09:26 +0000)004 [variant: spi]

SoC: Rockchip rk3399
Reset cause: POR
Model: Pine64 PinePhonePro
DRAM:  3 GiB
PMIC:  RK8180 (on=0x40, off=0x04)
MMC:  mmc@fe310000: 3, mmc@fe320000: 1, mmc@fe330000: 0
Loading Environment from SPIFlash... SF: Detected gd25lq128e with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 4 KiB, total 16 MiB
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

In:    serial
Out:  serial
Err:  serial
Model: Pine64 PinePhonePro
Net:  No ethernet found.
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
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... 2 USB Device(s) found
scanning bus usb@fe3e0000 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found
      scanning usb for storage devices... 0 Storage Device(s) found
Please press [ESCAPE] or [CTRL+C] to enter the boot menu.
off
off
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0(part 0) is current device
Scanning mmc 0:1...
Found U-Boot script /boot.scr
1736 bytes read in 10 ms (168.9 KiB/s)
## Executing script at 00500000
gpio: pin 105 (gpio 105) value is 1
gpio: pin 157 (gpio 157) value is 1
Booting from eMMC
Loading kernel...
8479698 bytes read in 389 ms (20.8 MiB/s)
Uncompressing kernel...
Uncompressed size: 20873224 = 0x13E8008
Loading initramfs...
7856539 bytes read in 361 ms (20.8 MiB/s)
Loading dtb...
90212 bytes read in 41 ms (2.1 MiB/s)
Booting...
gpio: pin 157 (gpio 157) value is 0
gpio: pin 105 (gpio 105) value is 0
Moving Image from 0x2080000 to 0x2200000, end=3660000
## Flattened Device Tree blob at 01f00000
  Booting using the fdt blob at 0x1f00000
  Loading Ramdisk to bc774000, end bcef219b ... OK
  Loading Device Tree to 00000000bc75a000, end 00000000bc773063 ... OK

Starting kernel ...

[    0.853155] gpio gpiochip4: (gpio4): gpiochip_lock_as_irq: tried to flag a GPIO set as output for IRQ
[    0.863513] gpio gpiochip4: (gpio4): unable to lock HW IRQ 27 for IRQ
[    0.863523] genirq: Failed to request resources for stk3310_event (irq 75) on irqchip rockchip_gpio_irq
[    0.863654] stk3310 3-0048: request irq 75 failed
[    1.044092] pinephone-keyboard 5-0015: error -ENXIO: Failed to read device ID
[    1.054455] OF: graph: no port node found in /i2c@ff3d0000/typec-portc@22




It now seems to me like symptoms of a corrupted eMMC content, possibly corrupted eMMC itself, combined with a faulty microSD reader. I just don't understand the coincidence with no obvious cause.
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