U-Boot with direct NVMe boot support for eMMC/SPI Flash

[mamboman777]

Hi all,

This is mi experience trying boot with the NVMe SSD Intel 660p M.2 1 TB SSDPEKNW010T8X1 on PBP for now:

After dd if=Manjaro-ARM-i3-pbpro-20.06.img of=/dev/nvme0n1
and flashing SPI following @pcm720 
https://github.com/pcm720/u-boot-build-scripts/releases/tag/v2020.07-1 
# flash_erase /dev/mtd0 0 0
# dd if=spiflash.bin of=/dev/mtd0
and unplug/remove SD and eMMC

1. when i boot the pinebook pro with the new SPI config, the power led stay ambar 10 seconds then turns green and boot. (On firsts boots after unboxin PBP the power led tuns green after 1 second.)
   
2. the screen resolution don't work correctly and can log in. I pluged the eMMc and reboot the PBP. then it boot from emmc correctly before reboot the first wrong boot with no screen.
   
3. can't boot from SD.
   

I decided delete the spi due to https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebo...le_Storage  and return to factory boot. If i undestood it well (At this time, the Pinebook Pro ships with a Manjaro + KDE build with uboot on the eMMC. Its boot order is: SD, USB, then eMMC.)  
# flash_erase /dev/mtd0 0 0

but the power led remain ambar for 10 seconds when i power up the PBP. Then boot normal from emmc or sd without problems.

I have bought a UART cable and a USB Type-A to USB-C cable and this weekend i will have it to see what is happen during ambar power led boot stage.

some info/help are welcome, thanks.

I ran into issues with my PBP and getting the spiflash to work, too.  I am also running a PBP with an Intel 660P 1tb NVME drive.  With pcm720's awesome help I was able to get everything running smoothly.  

I don't know your experience level and I have made these mistakes myself, so please forgive me if some of these suggestions sound a little basic. 

If you haven't done so already, you'll need to install mtd-utils.  You can use the package manager to do this or run "sudo pacman -S mdt-utils" in a terminal.  Please note, capatilization is important in the Manjaro/Arch terminal (I only say this because I had to learn the hard way that "pacman -s" is not "pacman -S"

Next, you have to navigate the terminal to the directory where you saved the spiflash.bin file.  Example "cd /home/username/Downloads" 

I noticed in your post that you ran 'flash_erase/mtd0 0 0' and 'dd if=spiflash.bin of=/def/mtd0'.  Next, you'll need to make sure that you run the commands listed above as sudo.  So, "sudo flash_erase/mtd0 0 0" If that works correctly I get a readout that takes about a minute and goes through a percentage as the spiflash is erased.  The second command should be "dd if=spiflash.bin of=/dev/mtd0"

That should get the spiflash.bin up and running for you.  What is currently on the NVME drive?  You won't be able to boot from it unless you've installed manjaro on it.  ( I know this sounds basic, but like I've said, I have made this mistake before)

I hope this helps, but if not, you may want to reach out in a private message to pcm720 to see if they can help.

-Josh