U-Boot with direct NVMe boot support for eMMC/SPI Flash
Question 
I'm using pcm720's U-Boot v2020.07-1. I installed it to eMMC on my Pinebook Pro, due to new problems that crept into my PBP with the latest Manjaro U-Boot.

I'm currently booting Manjaro 21 from my NVMe SSD ( /boot and /). Using the Manjaro-supplied U-Boot, sometimes it doesn't boot At other times it will go a few days with no failures. When it fails to boot, It can take several subsequent attempts to achieve boot. Sometimes unplugging the power supply seems to help. The Pine64-supplied barrel connector wall wort or a USB-C PD supply behave the same

I've had this problem since the day I unboxed my PBP but the most recent U-Boot in Manjaro proved to be even less reliable than the previous version, including displaying new status and error messages on the screen and momentary screen corruption (flashy colored lines) when transferring control from U-Boot to OS, so I installed pcm720's U-Boot on my eMMC and it is mostly functioning so far.

The one remaining problem is I must always Shut Down the machine and power it back on. Restart never works, because it always shuts down and results in a black screen and a perpetual red LED annunciation upon boot attempt.

Is anyone else seeing this Restart failure?

I'm not the only PBP user having such problems. From https://forum.manjaro.org/t/nvme-support-in-uboot-pinebookpro-2021-04-1/63774/5
Quote:Also, is anyone else having trouble booting from EMMC?

Frequently my uboot fails to find the EMMC, which has the uboot installed onto it. Weird.

I'm tempted to flash my SPI with pcm720's code and see if Reset works. If I experience any more failures to boot from cold start, I'll definitely be ready to flash the SPI!

Any suggestions are most appreciated!
  Reply
Hi @calinb
Yes I have the same issue here.
  Reply
I think reset is a APM 'thing', so flashing pcm uboot to SPI will not likely make any difference
You could try mrfixits uboot to see if it is better, it does have nvme0 in the list of boot_targets
  Reply
Hello,

I am also using manajro on my pinebookpro on NVMe SSD.
I installed the tow-boot to the SPI.

And everythinks is ok.
Just when the pbp boot I have to go to the tow-boot menu and chose to boot from NVMe.

Ivaylo
  Reply
(09-16-2022, 03:07 AM)olyavi Wrote: Hello,

I am also using manajro on my pinebookpro on NVMe SSD.
I installed the tow-boot to the SPI.

And everythinks is ok.
Just when the pbp boot I have to go to the tow-boot menu and chose to boot from NVMe.

Ivaylo
Will your PBP suspend/resume with NVMe?
  Reply
(09-26-2022, 10:04 PM)calinb Wrote:
(09-16-2022, 03:07 AM)olyavi Wrote: Hello,

I am also using manajro on my pinebookpro on NVMe SSD.
I installed the tow-boot to the SPI.

And everythinks is ok.
Just when the pbp boot I have to go to the tow-boot menu and chose to boot from NVMe.

Ivaylo
Will your PBP suspend/resume with NVMe?

When pbp boot (need to go the tow-boot menu) and I login to manajro and every thing is ok.

If I try to suspend/resume the graphical gui freeze and need to reboot.
  Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  uboot wont boot to SD card after upgrade jbradley419 7 546 01-19-2024, 02:29 PM
Last Post: wdt
  Video Flashing/adjusting on boot and reboot jbradley419 0 216 01-16-2024, 09:17 AM
Last Post: jbradley419
  Brand new Pinebook Pro doesn't boot after Manjaro update johnboiles 8 1,943 12-15-2023, 02:11 PM
Last Post: wdt
  PBP won't boot after trying to reinstall Manjaro ARM soupgirl 3 540 12-13-2023, 08:17 PM
Last Post: trillobite
  Various freezes during boot & while running several Linux distros - hardware error? donuts 1 489 11-22-2023, 11:47 AM
Last Post: fxc
  Happy eMMC and SDcard OS usage for Pinebook Pro Newbies... Paulie420 42 58,784 11-20-2023, 06:22 PM
Last Post: wdt
  Selling my Pinebook Pro with a bootable NVMe WD SSD drive pinemouth 0 688 09-27-2023, 08:53 PM
Last Post: pinemouth
  Cannot boot to Kali SD card after uboot upgrade jbradley419 4 1,025 09-19-2023, 08:48 AM
Last Post: dachalife
  Does latest Tow-Boot install/work correctly for everyone? tophneal 4 1,611 08-03-2023, 03:30 PM
Last Post: tophneal
  Boot into NVME drive, no wifi, sound, buttons... PaulQ 0 737 07-13-2023, 01:50 PM
Last Post: PaulQ

Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)