Rock64 4Gb variant bricked
#1
Hi there,

I had debian installed on the board for a few months and decided to run one of the scripts to update the u-boot spi.
After rebooting the board could not boot up anymore.
I tried to flush a new u-boot-flash-spi-rock64.img.xz image from the sd card but it could not get to the card at all.
I needed to short pins 20 and 21 to get to the card and the white light started flushing but keeps flashing for many hours without doing anything.
Used USB to TTL Serial UART RS232 Adaptor and I was able to see output on the screen but not anymore (connect black to 6, green to 8 and white to 10).
Looks like the board is bricked.

Any help would be greatly appreciated :-)

Cheers
#2
try reading this thread
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...=erase+spi
#3
(09-06-2018, 10:27 AM)dkryder Wrote: try reading this thread
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...=erase+spi
Thank you for the quick reply.

I have been through the details of this thread but nothing helped.

It looks like the device can't get to the SD card no matter what I do and the u-boot is corrupt and does not let me talking to the sd card.
When I short 20 and 21 the white LED flashes but it does not do anything. Stays like that for days (assuming going in a loop somewhere).
I tried to flash u-boot-erase-spi-rock64.img.xz, u-boot-flash-spi-rock64.img.xz, and the latest version of armbian without success.

Before the issue happened I tried to boot the device with NetBSD-evbarm-aarch64-201809020900Z-rock64.img flashed to the SD card and then the problem started. Sorry, initially I said I flashed dome u-boot SPI image and that is wrong. Got confused with another board.

Anyhow, someone said this board in unbrickable, hmmm I must be the first one :-)

Thanks for your time .....
#4
When pin 20 clamped to GND, "SPI-FLASH-ROM" can not be read.
Therefore, boot-loader skips "SPI-FLASH-ROM", and boot from SD-Card.

However, in the clamped state, virtually "SPI-FLASH-ROM" is disable (it can not be read), so probably can not erase it.
I think that it is necessary to release the clamp promptly, after boot starts from the SD-Card.

What is the procedure you performed?

Sorry, it was a mistake
x "pin 20" -> o "pin 21"
#5
(09-06-2018, 07:57 PM)t4_4t Wrote: When pin 20 clamped to GND, "SPI-FLASH-ROM" can not be read.
Therefore, boot-loader skips "SPI-FLASH-ROM", and boot from SD-Card.

However, in the clamped state, virtually "SPI-FLASH-ROM" is disable (it can not be read), so probably can not erase it.
I think that it is necessary to release the clamp promptly, after boot starts from the SD-Card.

What is the procedure you performe
Thanks for your help.
1. Power off the board
2. insert the SD card with either u-boot-erase-spi-rock64.img.xz or u-boot-flash-spi-rock64.img.xz loaded onto the card.
3. short pin 20 and 21
4. Power on the board
5. Remove the bridge from the pins in 5 seconds. I tried longer and shorter time and it was all the same.
6. White LED starts flashing with one second intervals. Keeps flashing for ever.
7. Power off the board.
8. insert an SD card with latest Armbian image on it.
9. Power on the board
10. All LED are on and nothing happened.
Hope the situation is a bit clearer.
Thanks for helping out !!!
Cheers.
#6
OK,
Then, please obtain OS-Image from url below and write it on SD-Card and try it.
https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/linux-build/releases
OS-Image can be small in size, for example the following one
 "bionic-minimal-rock64-0.7.9-1067-arm64.img.xz"

If you have eMMC, insert a clamp jumper and disable it.
You should be able to boot from SD-Card with Pin 21 clamped to GND.
Pin 21 does not need to release clamps on the way.
If you can boot it, you can erase the SPI by another means.

If it can not be started with this method,
Please check the connection of pin 21 & pin 20 again.
---
If there is no problem with connection but startup is impossible,
It may be in a serious condition.

If unfortunately the situation is above, I do not have any more useful information for you
#7
I haven't tried this by myself with spi nor, but it could unbrick your board. There is rockchip devtool. Get it. Install it on a linux host, which you will attach rock64 to. another SBC for example. You need to connect rock64 through usb-usb to the host, without SD and eMMC, holding some button when powering it on. I haven't done this with rock64, but I did so with a rk3368 settopbox. it's probably a reset button. you hold it and while holding, power the board on. for the host it's seen as a otg client. then use rkdevtool utility on the host. it kinda can (should be able to) erase the flash. read the commands on the page in the link.
ANT - my hobby OS for x86 and ARM.
#8
(09-07-2018, 05:27 AM)t4_4t Wrote: OK,
Then, please obtain OS-Image from url below and write it on SD-Card and try it.
https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/linux-build/releases
OS-Image can be small in size, for example the following one
 "bionic-minimal-rock64-0.7.9-1067-arm64.img.xz"

If you have eMMC, insert a clamp jumper and disable it.
You should be able to boot from SD-Card with Pin 21 clamped to GND.
Pin 21 does not need to release clamps on the way.
If you can boot it, you can erase the SPI by another means.

If it can not be started with this method,
Please check the connection of pin 21 & pin 20 again.
---
If there is no problem with connection but startup is impossible,
It may be in a serious condition.

If unfortunately the situation is above, I do not have any more useful information for you

I don't have eMMC installed but somehow connecting 21 to ground makes difference (well used to).

The image you suggested did not manage to boot the board. I am not a 100% sure anymore if there is something else that I am missing.
The sd card is fine as it boots another rock64 board.
I have tried another card and it does not work either.

TTL serial to UART on 6,8,10 does not show anything. All LEDs are on when power on but no sign of life.

Probably should give up and not waste any more time on this.

Thanks for the help anyway.

Cheers

(09-07-2018, 06:39 AM)z4v4l Wrote: I haven't tried this by myself with spi nor, but it could unbrick your board. There is rockchip devtool. Get it. Install it on a linux host, which you will attach rock64 to. another SBC for example. You need to connect rock64 through usb-usb to the host, without SD and eMMC, holding some button when powering it on. I haven't done this with rock64, but I did so with a rk3368 settopbox. it's probably a reset button. you hold it and while holding, power the board on. for the host it's seen as a otg client. then use rkdevtool utility on the host. it kinda can (should be able to) erase the flash. read the commands on the page in the link.

I will have a look. Not sure what the USB to USB cable is but will google it.

Thanks for the suggestion.
#9
oh, I forgot totally to say that you need to attach USB cable into the OTG port! I told I did it with another rockchip board. and to my shame I cannot say now what exactly of them is OTG. you need to find it out. it's important.
But now when I looked into the rockchips' boot sequence, it doesn't look as optimistic as I thought. because USB OTG interface is tried at the end if nothing succeeded, oppositely to what I thought. Fortunately, for rk3328, but NOT for rk3399, ROM code tries eMMC first. So preparing a properly flashed eMMC module could save your board. If the problem is in the partially working/screwed up SPI NOR flash code.
For rk3399, spi is checked before eMMC and SD which is uh oh. because it can brick the board.
Forget about the rkdevtools, in short, :lol: use an eMMC module. if that doesn't work (but don't be hasty). that means the problem is not in SPI NOR flash.
ANT - my hobby OS for x86 and ARM.
#10
It sounds difficult.

In the state where the serial console is connected, there are the following disadvantages.

TX from the serial console becomes the voltage source ("rock 64" RX)
A small amount of voltage will remain even when the power is turned off.
Since the residual voltage value depends on the individual difference of "rock 64" and the driving ability of "TX"
There are reports that due to the above, reset does not work well and "boot" fails.

If you are lucky (unless it is broken), you still have the possibility of "booting" by removing the serial console TX.

For details, please refer to.
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=5008
- -
I do not have any more information that I know is useful to you.
I wish you good luck.


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Rock64 No Audio @ Debian 12 dmitrymyadzelets 1 112 03-18-2024, 06:56 AM
Last Post: diederik
  Rock64 bricked shawwwn 7 5,448 03-17-2024, 12:22 PM
Last Post: dmitrymyadzelets
  Rock64 won't boot luminosity7 10 3,863 03-16-2024, 08:33 AM
Last Post: dmitrymyadzelets
  Rock64 doesn't boot dstallmo 1 253 03-16-2024, 08:29 AM
Last Post: dmitrymyadzelets
  How well does Rock64 deal with HDR and Atmos on Kodi? drvlikhell 3 1,769 04-29-2023, 04:24 AM
Last Post: newestssd
  OpenWRT on the Rock64 CanadianBacon 12 7,790 04-24-2023, 12:40 PM
Last Post: arunkhan
  Rock64 board not working, no HDMI no Ethernet. EDited 3 3,393 01-17-2023, 02:31 PM
Last Post: Flagtrax
  ROCK64 v3 can it boot from USB? Tsagualsa 4 1,972 11-29-2022, 11:31 AM
Last Post: Macgyver
  rock64 v3 spiflash Macgyver 0 703 11-28-2022, 02:18 PM
Last Post: Macgyver
  my rock64 dosen't work rookie_267 0 904 10-07-2022, 07:50 PM
Last Post: rookie_267

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)