PINE64 - General Discussion on ROCKPRO64

HDMI missing, SPI fail & continuos reboots

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 17:34:41 +0000

Hello,

I had my Rockpro64 V2.1 board running fine with Debian bookworm and U-Boot built from sources written to SPI. The board was run only occasionally so did not have a lot of stress so far (I believe less than 100 operating hours total). In normal usage the CPU temperature reported by the internal sensor was around 48°C.

Some days ago I had problems booting: the white led would not come on. I tried shorting 23-25 to bypass SPI and I was able to boot from the SD card I originally used to flash U-Boot. Even if the jumper was removed during boot, trying "sf probe" resulted in an error message saying "unrecognised jedec_spi_nor flash".

After this, every further attempt to reboot to reboot with the same SD card resulted in the following:

HDMI completely dead
white led comes on, no matter if the 23-25 jumper is installed or not (seems like the SPI is dead, so it skips to SD anyway)
U-Boot boots fine as reported by serial terminal
the following error is reported by U-boot:
Loading Environment from SPIFlash... jedec_spi_nor flash@0: unrecognized JEDEC id bytes: 00, 00, 00*** Warning - spi_flash_probe_bus_cs() failed, using default environment

after some minutes the board self-reboots
after this, the board keeps rebooting over and over every few minutes

In the process above, I realised the heatsink (tall profile type) got very hot (over 80° measured by IR thermometer), even if the case was open and only U-boot was running (actually not doing anything).

I also tried flashing another fresh SD card with Debian bookworm files and booting from it, but the result is the same: no HDMI output, unrecognised SPI, overheating and reboots.

I suspect something has gone wrong with the hardware of the board and there is no chance of salvaging it, but I am trying anyway to ask here for possible further checks. Thanks in advance for any suggestion.

Log from fresh Debian boot attempt (disregard the errors for missing Debian installer files, here I was just trying to bring up U-Boot to the HDMI screen):

Code:

␍␊

U-Boot TPL 2023.01+dfsg-2+deb12u3 (Jun 22 2026 - 08:38:07)␍␊

lpddr4_set_rate: change freq to 400MHz 0, 1␍␊

Channel 0: LPDDR4, 400MHz␍␊

BW=32 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=16/15 CS=1 Die BW=16 Size=2048MB␍␊

Channel 1: LPDDR4, 400MHz␍␊

BW=32 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=16/15 CS=1 Die BW=16 Size=2048MB␍␊

256B stride␍␊

lpddr4_set_rate: change freq to 800MHz 1, 0␍␊

Trying to boot from BOOTROM␍␊

Returning to boot ROM...␍␊

␍␊

U-Boot SPL 2023.01+dfsg-2+deb12u3 (Jun 22 2026 - 08:38:07 +0000)␍␊

Trying to boot from MMC2␍␊

␍␊

␍␊

U-Boot 2023.01+dfsg-2+deb12u3 (Jun 22 2026 - 08:38:07 +0000)␍␊

␍␊

SoC: Rockchip rk3399␍␊

Reset cause: POR␍␊

Model: Pine64 RockPro64 v2.1␍␊

DRAM:  3.9 GiB␍␊

Core:  305 devices, 33 uclasses, devicetree: separate␍␊

MMC:   mmc@fe310000: 3, mmc@fe320000: 1, mmc@fe330000: 0␍␊

Loading Environment from SPIFlash... jedec_spi_nor flash@0: unrecognized JEDEC id bytes: 00, 00, 00␍␊

*** Warning - spi_flash_probe_bus_cs() failed, using default environment␍␊

␍␊

In:    serial␍␊

Out:   serial␍␊

Err:   serial␍␊

Model: Pine64 RockPro64 v2.1␍␊

Net:   eth0: ethernet@fe300000␍␊

starting USB...␍␊

Bus usb@fe380000: ehci_generic usb@fe380000: Failed to get clocks (ret=-19)␍␊

Port not available.␍␊

Bus usb@fe3a0000: USB OHCI 1.0␍␊

Bus usb@fe3c0000: ehci_generic usb@fe3c0000: Failed to get clocks (ret=-19)␍␊

Port not available.␍␊

Bus usb@fe3e0000: USB OHCI 1.0␍␊

Bus usb@fe800000: Register 2000140 NbrPorts 2␍␊

Starting the controller␍␊

USB XHCI 1.10␍␊

Bus usb@fe900000: Register 2000140 NbrPorts 2␍␊

Starting the controller␍␊

USB XHCI 1.10␍␊

scanning bus usb@fe3a0000 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found␍␊

scanning bus usb@fe3e0000 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found␍␊

scanning bus usb@fe800000 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found␍␊

scanning bus usb@fe900000 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found␍␊

       scanning usb for storage devices... 0 Storage Device(s) found␍␊

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  2 <0x08><0x08><0x08> 1 <0x08><0x08><0x08> 0 ␍␊

switch to partitions #0, OK␍␊

mmc1 is current device␍␊

Scanning mmc 1:1...␍␊

Found U-Boot script /boot.scr␍␊

1575 bytes read in 4 ms (383.8 KiB/s)␍␊

## Executing script at 00500000␍␊

Mainline u-boot / new-style environment detected.␍␊

This installer medium does not contain a suitable device-tree file for␍␊

this system (rockchip/rk3399-rockpro64.dtb). Aborting boot process.␍␊

6029824 bytes read in 270 ms (21.3 MiB/s)␍␊

Failed to load 'dtbs/rockchip/rk3399-rockpro64.dtb'␍␊

SCRIPT FAILED: continuing...␍␊

<0x1b>7<0x1b>[r<0x1b>[999;999H<0x1b>[6n<0x1b>8Card did not respond to voltage select! : -110␍␊

Card did not respond to voltage select! : -110␍␊

No EFI system partition␍␊

BootOrder not defined␍␊

EFI boot manager: Cannot load any image␍␊

Card did not respond to voltage select! : -110␍␊

␍␊

Device 0: unknown device␍␊

scanning bus for devices...␍␊

SATA link 0 timeout.␍␊

SATA link 1 timeout.␍␊

SATA link 2 timeout.␍␊

SATA link 3 timeout.␍␊

AHCI 0001.0000 32 slots 4 ports 6 Gbps 0xf impl SATA mode␍␊

flags: 64bit ncq led only pmp fbss pio slum part sxs ␍␊

␍␊

Device 0: unknown device␍␊

␍␊

Device 0: unknown device␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

missing environment variable: pxeuuid␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/01-26-54-fa-9e-d3-1a␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/00000000␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/0000000␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/000000␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/00000␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/0000␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/000␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/00␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/0␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/default-arm-rk3399-rockpro64_rk3399␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/default-arm-rk3399␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/default-arm␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Retrieving file: pxelinux.cfg/default␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

Config file not found␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

ethernet@fe300000 Waiting for PHY auto negotiation to complete......... TIMEOUT !␍␊

Could not initialize PHY ethernet@fe300000␍␊

jedec_spi_nor flash@0: unrecognized JEDEC id bytes: 00, 00, 00␍␊

Failed to initialize SPI flash at 1:0 (error 0)␍␊

=>

RockPro64 automatically run after power recovery - my solution

Mon, 25 May 2026 10:57:03 +0000

Motivation
Since some years my system (Rockpro64 V2.1 2018-07-02) is not starting properly after a power loss, with increasing occurrence. It seems after some hours of power loss (e.g. over night) it is working more reliable, but when waiting only a few minutes this is not working anymore at all. Only the power button can be used for startup my system reliable.

In the forum there can be find a similar thread with some general information about the schematic and some measurements with a new system. Many thanks to for his investigations on a new board. This was the base for my investigations and I solved it finally. I will describe my work step by step now, so others can repeat it and hopefully fix there system. If someone can give me an advice how to add/upload pictures, I will add my photos, so you can see what I have done.

Repeat the same measurement
"PMIC" is measured on C205 (right side) and "VCC5V0_SYS" is measured on C2006 (left side). Both can be found on top of the circuit board. The measurement results nearly equal the results from "Nikolay_Po" (the colours yellow and blue are interchanged in my measurement). So, perhaps, not the discrete components has changed its behavior but something inside RK808 changes over time. Or, the original values of the discrete components are chosen very close to the borders of the PMIC-system. No matter what it is, we can only change the discrete components - C204 catches my attention first.

Measure around and modify C204
The capacitor C204 can be found on the bottom of the circuit board (SD card slot at bottom left), in the area between C164 and C168, left of the resistor R89 and over the resistor R88. Another description: between the both big capacitor (C164 and C168) there are 4 small components in a flipped L-shape. C204 is the one in the corner of the "L".

The measurement was done with 2 channels, connected left and right of the C204 component. This means one is "VCC5V0_SYS" and the other one is the connection between C204, R89, D5 (soldered on the top side) and R88.

Try to increase the capacitor C204
Because it was working with a brand new board, most likely some aging process has changed the timings a bit. A second capacitor will increase the peak and the time a bit and maybe this can fix the problem. I added two connectors with wires left and right besides C204 and was able to add a second capacitor in parallel with an alligator clip.

1. choose 1uF --> working 100%
2. choose 100nF --> working 100%

Fix by soldering a SMD capacitor on top of C204
I disassembled some small SMD capacitors from a old circuit board and found one with around 150nF. This part I soldered on top of the C204 capacitor and this really fixed the problem for now.

installed devuan 5/6 - missing out on resolution

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:36:42 +0000

Hello ,

hjae installed Devuan 5/6 on a newly acquired RockPro64 -
very pleased overall with the system

https://devuan.bio.lmu.de/devuan/dists/d...rd-images/
https://devuan.bio.lmu.de/devuan/dists/e...ard-images

however iam missing out on resolutions,
since xrandr is reporting only resolutions on 16:9 format, however my monitor are mostly in 16:10;

do i need additional driver or firmware?

devuan is a derivative of debian, so devuan 5 iscorresponding to debian 12
devuan 6 to debian 13 trixie roughly.

thank you very much.

(real) Mainline U-boot finally works on SPI, boots SATA, throw away your SD cards NOW

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 12:21:32 +0000

This is on Arch ARM* or Manjaro installed on RP64. If compiling on amd64 machine, set CROSS_COMPILE variables accordingly.

Build ATF:

Code:
git clone --depth=1 -b v2.13.0 https://github.com/ARM-software/arm-trusted-firmware.git

make -j $(nproc) CC=gcc PLAT=rk3399 bl31

Build U-boot:

Code:
git clone --depth=1 -b v2025.04 https://source.denx.de/u-boot/u-boot.git

export BL31=/path/to/built/bl31.elf

make mrproper && make rockpro64-rk3399_defconfig

make menuconfig

Here are the changed variables in .config, but don't just copy them to your .config - search for them in menuconfig and change there, the menu will take care of dependencies.

Code:
CONFIG_BOOTDELAY=20

CONFIG_BOOTCOMMAND="bootflow scan -lbm"

CONFIG_CMD_ERASEENV=y

CONFIG_CMD_NVEDIT_LOAD=y

CONFIG_NO_NET=y

CONFIG_BAUDRATE=115200

CONFIG_USE_PREBOOT=y

CONFIG_PREBOOT="usb start"

CONFIG_PREBOOT_DEFINED=y

make -j $(nproc)

Writing to SD card first to test it (from doc/README.rockchip in U-boot source, "Option 3: Package the image with TPL"):

Code:
dd if=idbloader.img of=/dev/sdX seek=64

dd if=u-boot.itb of=/dev/sdX seek=16384

sync

Flashing to SPI is much simpler nowadays, see doc/board/rockchip/rockchip.rst in U-boot source. Create a partition with FAT filesystem on the same SD card, place u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin on it, reboot, get to U-boot cmdline and:

Code:
sf probe

load mmc 1:1 $kernel_addr_r u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin

sf update $fileaddr 0 $filesize

If sf probe returns an error or booting from SPI fails, short pins 23 and 25 on GPIO to temporarily disable SPI. After booting disconnect them again and erase SPI to at least get SD boot working.

U-boot environment section on SPI might be empty, broken or contain wrong variables. To get default environment for installed version of U-boot, remove situational partitions variable and save the environment to SPI, run in U-boot cmdline:

Code:
env default -a

env delete partitions

env save

Then create EFI partition on SATA disk and proceed like with a regular UEFI machine. U-boot from SPI will also scan SATA partitions for extlinux/extlinux.conf, boot.scr and other U-boot-specific boot configs.

* On Arch, pacman -U these 3 pkgs from Manjaro (choose a mirror close to you) to build ATF:

https://mirror.truenetwork.ru/manjaro/ar...kg.tar.zst

https://mirror.truenetwork.ru/manjaro/ar...kg.tar.zst

https://mirror.truenetwork.ru/manjaro/ar...kg.tar.zst

PS Screw this forum software inserting copious newlines on every press of preview button.

where to get debian 12 image for rockpro64?

Sun, 18 May 2025 16:35:44 +0000

Where do you get a debian 12 image for the rockpro64? Thanks.

Need help with spi incircuit programming

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 18:40:50 +0000

Hi@all
I have a rockpro64 V2.1 board with no reaction. Neither serial output, nor any blinking leds after power on. Now i want to flash the u-boot to to the spi chip for trying to boot from usb. Unfortunatley, the sd- and the emmc ports are not available, fixed with glue. (the rockpro is build in a test equipment for cars, bought 4 years ago from my cousin for about 4000 euros, these days was the first try, but this thing is dead, warranty is over and repair from the reseller is not possible)
Is there a way to flash the spi in circuit with the available *-img files? I can read and write the spi chip with my raspberry, but i can´t find a rom file, only img files..
thanks, wofei

Use android on RockPro64 without a LCD screen ?

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 05:15:11 +0000

I see there are Android images here https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/ROCKPro64_S...es#Android
But I don't have a LCD screen. Anyway I can use it without one ? I wish to control it from my PC, through scrcpy program. But this program need Android to enable usb debugging. Which again need LCD to enable manually.

Rock Pro 64 Won't power on

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 21:49:12 +0000

My board won't power on. No video. Nothing with serial either. Is this thing bricked, and is there any way to recover it. I've tried the SPI flash from https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/linux-b...ash-spi.md , but it won't power on, so I doubt it's doing anything.

Tried following this advice as well and still nada https://www.reddit.com/r/PINE64official/...mc_or_usd/

Video of symptoms: https://youtube.com/shorts/jDHW6B4bH5g?feature=share

How to use ROCKPro64 PCI-e X4 to M.2/NGFF NVMe SSD Interface Card

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 14:15:46 +0000

I connected a PCI NVMe adapter to the RockPro64, but nothing is added to

Code:
/dev/sd*

Code:
/dev/nvme*

. The products I tested are as follows:

PM9A1 500GB
FireCuda530 2TB

What could be the problem?

os : Armbian_24.5.1_Rockpro64_noble_current_6.6.31

No HDMI Video - Anything To Check?

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 10:58:51 +0000

Hello all, I am working on a RockPro64 that seems to have a non-functional HDMI output but I'm trying to see if there's anything else for me to check before I RMA the unit. Everything else seems to be working, for example I can load the minimal Armbian image to it, boot it, and then SSH into it and see that the computer itself is working. But at no point is there ever any video output. There's no boot screen visible either. I've tried two different HDMI cables on two different monitors, confirmed these cables/monitors work with other devices, tried to hook up a USB-C hub, etc.

I've tried a few other images as well, LibreELEC (originally I planned for this to be a media center so this was the first one I tried), a few different Armbian images including the XFCE Debian 12 version, the Cinnamon Debian 12 version, the Ubuntu Gnome version, and DietPi. I can't verify that any of these work, although I am pretty certain that these have SSH access disabled by default and without video there's no way for me to enable that to check on these distributions. I also used the "flash_spi" image here https://github.com/sigmaris/u-boot/wiki/...oot-to-SPI to make sure that was working properly.

I also tried to add the kernel module from this guide https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/ROCKPro64#N..._on_Debian but it seems like my problem is happening before the kernel loads since there's no video output at all when it boots in the first place.

Since I can boot and SSH into the minimal Armbian install, is there anything I should check before I send this unit back? I don't currently have a serial cable but hope that since I can SSH into a terminal I won't need one for looking around at anything.

power button not working

Wed, 08 May 2024 05:26:55 +0000

my power button does not turn off my rockpro64 anymore - i need to unplug to turn off. the unit is only a few weeks old. how can i troubleshoot this?
thanks

Installing Wifi drive for the RockPro64

Sun, 11 Feb 2024 05:32:20 +0000

I am trying to install Debian on the RockPro64 and I am having trouble getting the wifi drivers to be recognized by the installer. Without these I can not finish installing the OS.

At present I have tried formatting a USB stick to FAT32 and adding the files from here to a folder named "firmware" on the USB stick however the installer can not identify these files and keeps throwing an error stating the following files are missing:

brim/brcmfmac43455-sdio.bin
brim/brcmfmac43455-sdio.pine64,rockpro64-v2.1.bin

I can't install the OS without getting the wifi working so I am not entirely sure how to go about rectifying this problem. Does anyone have any suggestions? Should I be using a different OS? Is it a requirement to have a wired internet connection when you first install Debian?

If there are no other options I can go somewhere with a wired connection and install the OS and try and get the wifi firmware installed once the OS is already installed however I would like to avoid that if possible.

Another Fan Question

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 14:32:43 +0000

I recently purchased an 80mm Noctua NF-A8 ULN fan for the Rock NAS case along with a Noctua 2pin to 3pin adaptor. Fan is indeed 12v.

Plugging it in I get nothing...no fan movement at all. I'm using a recent version of Armbian if that matters.

I believe I see this device under /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon4/ since is see pwm1 as well as pwm1_enable.

Code:
cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon4/pwm1_enable

returns 1

Code:
/sys/class/hwmon/hwmon4$ cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon4/pwm1

returns 0

Code:
echo 255 | sudo tee /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon4/pwm1

still no fan response

Code:
cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon4/pwm1

to verify my adjustment but this still returns 0. Fan is motionless.

At this point i'm ready to give up and connect to the boards 12v out but I have questions there.

The original cable it comes with splits to 2 different SATA connection leads, leading me to believe this is not a conventional connection? This is for the CON15 DC out header.

the Noctua includes a big 4pin adapter but I'm not confident in what to order. I also didn't see anything relevant in the Pine store for accessories.

FYI I'm currently not running any SATA drives as I recently opted for NVMe (mostly due to availability).

any help please!!??

Overclock of RAM, CPU and GPU

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 15:54:32 +0000

Hi there,

For those who wants to take out the most performance out of the rk3399 on your RockPro64, I have here a u-boot and a DTS where on Manjaro works perfectly.

This includes a 1.6GHz on the little cores, a 2.2GHz on the big cores, and 1GHz on the GPU, as well as setting the RAM to 933MHz LPDDR4.

Please find it on the Pine64 > rock64 discord channel:
https://discord.com/channels/46323792798...1534507058

Here are the gains:

GPU and CPU stressed out in a roshambo case, no more than 70ºC.

Unfortunately, on Batocera which I'm most interested, there's no audio using this u-boot.
Any help will be appreciated to fix this on Batocera.

Please note that it's not my work, I just followed these threads and info available:
=> https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=13506
https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/ROCKPro64_H...g_the_RAM)
So, credits to them.

SPI

Sun, 03 Dec 2023 14:23:30 +0000

Hi there i've messed up with my spi
I'm able to boot the netbsd emmc only shorting the pin 20-21.How can i reset as a default spi?
I do not want to connect via the serial console but just run the NETBSD 10RC1 and connect via ssh
Any tips would be very appreciated