v1.29

[Joshua-Riek]

Hello everyone! I want to share a few essential changes made in the recent release.

I created a few new commands to assist with flashing the bootloader and installing your current Ubuntu 22.04 system onto other media, such as an NVMe.

For users with any version before v1.29, you can update your system with sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y to install the U-Boot commands.

I have yet to package the new ubuntu-rockchip-install command, so it will only be found in the latest v1.29 release. I will package this in the future to issue improvements and bug fixes to the specific command.

u-boot-install

The command u-boot-install can update the bootloader on your SD Card or eMMC.

sudo u-boot-install /dev/mmcblk0

u-boot-install-mtd

The command u-boot-install-mtd can install the bootloader to the SPI Flash.

sudo u-boot-install-mtd /dev/mtdblock0

u-boot-install-sata-mtd

The command u-boot-install-sata-mtd can install the bootloader with SATA support to the SPI Flash. Right now, this command is only available on the Orange Pi 5.

sudo u-boot-install-sata-mtd /dev/mtdblock0

ubuntu-rockchip-install

The command ubuntu-rockchip-install can copy your currently running system onto an NVMe, eMMC, or USB drive.

sudo ubuntu-rockchip-install /dev/mmcblk0

[JFLim1]

Hi @Joshua-Riek,

On Orange Pi 5 Plus. I am interested in installing https://github.com/Joshua-Riek/ubuntu-rockchip/releases/download/v1.29/ubuntu-22.04.3-preinstalled-desktop-arm64-orangepi-5-plus.img.xz on SD card then use "sudo ubuntu-rockchip-install" to copy to "NVMe".

The both the SPI and NVMe is new blank NO partition at all. Question after boot up v1.29 on SD Card, do I jsut issue command:

sudo ubuntu-rockchip-install /dev/nvmeXXX? Where nvmveXXX is the NVMe. Or are there more steps to be done first?

[Joshua-Riek]

You will need to update the SPI first, this will take a few minutes. But after that, you can use the ubuntu-rockchip-install command on your NVMe, as shown below.

sudo u-boot-install-mtd /dev/mtdblock0
sudo ubuntu-rockchip-install /dev/nvme0n1

[BaconSoong]

how to update the SPI？use any command or something else.

[JFLim1]

@Joshua-Riek , Thank you for the guidance. So there is no requirement to have any partition pre-setup on the NVMe or SPI?

[Joshua-Riek]

Correct, the commands will create the correct partitions automatically.

[emk2203]

What is the current u-boot version written by the u-boot-install command? I couldn't find this in the source or elsewhere.

Also, is kernel 6.6.0 useable with the Rock 5B? I saw that you bumped the version yesterday for mainline, but the Rock 5B 1.29 image is still running stock 5.10.160-rockchip.

[Joshua-Riek]

What is the current u-boot version written by the u-boot-install command? I couldn't find this in the source or elsewhere.

The complete packaged source code for u-boot can be found on my PPA linked below. But all boards use the vendor u-boot v.2017 except for the Turing RK1, which uses v2024.01-rc1.

The u-boot version can also be seen in the UART logs during boot time.

https://launchpad.net/~jjriek/+archive/ubuntu/rockchip

Also, is kernel 6.6.0 useable with the Rock 5B? I saw that you bumped the version yesterday for mainline, but the Rock 5B 1.29 image is still running stock 5.10.160-rockchip.

Yes, the 6.6.0 kernel is usable, but it does not have all the hardware features available, such as HDMI, GPU, and NPU. So, I promote the BSP kernel that uses 5.10.160 first, as all hardware will work as expected.

I prefer not to be bombarded with mainline Linux issues or questions, as it's a work in progress. There is a tagged 6.6.0 release that can be downloaded below.

https://github.com/Joshua-Riek/ubuntu-rockchip/releases/tag/v1.29.1

[Ukhupacha]

Hello @Joshua-Riek,

Do we need to sudo u-boot-install-mtd /dev/mtdblock0 even if I dd the image directly to the nvme drive?

[Joshua-Riek]

Yes

[Joshua-Riek]

Weird. Try running the command sync then try to install it onto nvme again. If you run into problems, please try to reboot.

It looks like the nvme is busy.

[JFLim1]

Weird. Try running the command sync then try to install it onto nvme again. If you run into problems, please try to reboot.

Ok on second try it seems to work without having to issue command "sync". Will reboot to see whether it will boot successfully from NVMe. Will revert later.

[Joshua-Riek]

Got it, thanks for reporting this. Since the installation script has only been released for a few days, it may contain a few bugs, I will try to do some research and improve where I can.

[JFLim1]

@Joshua-Riek, Thank you for your great support. Successfully booted from NVMe without SD Card image.

jfl@jfl-opi5plus:~$ lsblk
NAME         MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda            8:0    1   3.6G  0 disk 
└─sda1         8:1    1   3.6G  0 part /media/jfl/EADAD935DAD8FEAF
mtdblock0     31:0    0    16M  0 disk 
mmcblk0      179:0    0   233G  0 disk 
mmcblk0boot0 179:32   0     4M  1 disk 
mmcblk0boot1 179:64   0     4M  1 disk 
nvme0n1      259:0    0 476.9G  0 disk 
├─nvme0n1p1  259:1    0   512M  0 part /boot/firmware
└─nvme0n1p2  259:2    0 476.4G  0 part /
jfl@jfl-opi5plus:~$ 

Have a question on the system boot up priority? Is going to be:

1. SD Card
2. USB
3. NVMe
4. EMMC

Or is based on different boot sequence?

[Joshua-Riek]

The boot order should be as below. (I forget if USB is before or after NVMe).

• SD Card
• USB
• NVMe
• eMMC

[emk2203]

This boot order would be the most sensible for repair purposes, I hope USB comes before NVMe.

[Joshua-Riek]

You can install the same package on ubuntu.

[JFLim1]

Hi @Joshua-Riek,
Yes, "ntfs-3g" is available on Ubuntu and is preinstalled on Ubuntu-22.04.3_v1.29 (SD Card. I supposed on NVMe SSD image too, will confirm later).

On NVMe SSD "ntfs-3g" is also installed.

jfl@jfl-opi5plus:~$ apt list ntfs-3g
Listing... Done
ntfs-3g/jammy-updates,jammy-security,now 1:2021.8.22-3ubuntu1.2 arm64 [installed]
N: There is 1 additional version. Please use the '-a' switch to see it
jfl@jfl-opi5plus:~$

So "ntfs-3g" is not the solution. It is weird why when boot up with NVMe SSD the system do not give permission to access/view any USB drives not just NTFS formatted drives. Boot up with SD Card all the USB Drives are accessible!

Question: Do you or any other OPI5 Plus users with NVMe SSD having the same or similar issue as I am encountering?

[JFLim1]

Hi @Joshua-Riek,

Would you think these command to change owner is safe?

sudo chown $USER /media/$USER

sudo chown jfl /media/jfl

or

cd /media
sudo setfacl -m u:$USER:rwx $USER

[Joshua-Riek]

@JFLim1 Please open a separate issue, this is borderline spam.

[JFLim1]

Hi @Joshua-Riek,

OPI 5 Plus. With the bootloader installed on SPL and Ubuntu-22.04.3_v1.29 installed on NVMe SSD when tried to boot from USB Flash (with mainline kernel) but OPI 5 Plus boot up NVMe SSD Ubuntu-22.04.3_v1.29 instead of with USB.

Is there a way to set the priority of the boot sequence from the storage devices? Example SD->USB->NVMe->EMMC? or USB->SD->NVMe->EMMC?

[Joshua-Riek]

The bootloader is a terrible hack from rockchip, and I would prefer not to go digging through it. I'm not even sure if all the usb ports are defined in the device tree and work.

[JFLim1]

Thanks for the info. It is beyond my skill set to dig through the bootloader.

Just thought that SD->USB->NVMe->EMMC or USB->SD->NVMe->EMMC sound logical booting priority as both USB drive and SD Card are external drives which should be given priority in case the EMMC or NVMe have issue.

[theflyingape]

To clarify, NIC was working originally as I was able to do an apt update / apt upgrade. After this flash / copy:

sudo u-boot-install-mtd /dev/mtdblock0
sudo ubuntu-rockchip-install /dev/nvme0n1

... but the issue posted here about the missing ethernet interface is the same I am seeing: MichaIng/DietPi#6663
Even after pulling the NVMe and booting off the SD card again, I see a different MAC hardware address.

[Joshua-Riek]

I don't follow, I fixed the mac address issue. Are you saying there is no ethernet interface?

[theflyingape]

Correct, no NIC.
After booting SD card, NetworkManager shows me what /sys/class/net/eth0/address has: 82:78:C6:83:CA:19 but any attempts to use eth0 (ifconfig eth0 up, dhclient eth0) fails with 'No such device'.
When booting off NVMe, it shows eth0 as ae:ab:a4:65:42:b4 and no joy lighting the interface up.
I just re-imaged the SD card from this image download, booted, and it shows yet another MAC a6:03:11:0e:e6:df but no device to attach an IP.
So, I re-ran your two steps and re-booted (warm first, then cold) and got different MAC addresses each time.

[Joshua-Riek]

Sorry, im so confused. You dont have a network interface but you have a mac address? I dont see how that is possible.

[theflyingape]

Yes, it's behaving like the recent issue I posted, whereas it's randomly assigning a new MAC hardware address -- I can only guess when devices are enumerated, it captures the address at that point-in-time, but then somehow it's getting assigned a new address later on causing a disconnect with the userspace controls?

This was not happening before, until after that flash. I'll go back to an earlier image and see if I can negate this "feature".

[theflyingape]

Attempted to use v1.21 with #274 fix, re-flash, but to no avail. Re-booted under v1.29 and gathered some log info if it helps.
Perhaps the NIC itself got "fried" as it shows the hardware attached but "disabled"?
rk_gmac-dwmac.log

[acruvium]

I have a orange pi 5 plus with 16GB memory and installed nvme ssd. a few days ago, I installed 1.29 version and ssh connection lost about 20 minutes later. especially I did not install any program.

[Joshua-Riek]

I need more information to know the cause of this. It could be your power supply or network.

[acruvium]

I use samsung 25w PD charger(C to C) and wired network(ASUS GT-AXE11000).

[Not-a-good-username]

I have an orange pi 5 plus and flash the os to the tfcard, then I use dd to transfer os to emmc, and it boot from emmc correctly when board has no tfcard. but when I plug an empty tfcard（only a ntfs partition）, the board just can't boot. i want to boot from emmc with a tfcard (no system, only for storage) , how should I do?

[emk2203]

You can not boot the machine remote, or can you do this?

Then, the answer is simple: Insert the TFCard after you boot.

[Joshua-Riek]

I think this is the problem, it also provides a fix.

orangepi-xunlong/u-boot-orangepi#11

[Not-a-good-username]

You can not boot the machine remote, or can you do this?

Then, the answer is simple: Insert the TFCard after you boot.

that‘s not elegant！(laugh)
but if there is no solution, i'll try that.

[Not-a-good-username]

I think this is the problem, it also provides a fix.

orangepi-xunlong/u-boot-orangepi#11

i'll try that, thanks.

[Joshua-Riek]

When I get home after work, I can apply the patch and push an update to the bootloader. Will take me a few hours from now.

[ebw44]

@Joshua-Riek
I tried to update my bootloader on the emmc of my orange pi 5b to fix the orangepi-xunlong/u-boot-orangepi#11
I use sudo u-boot-install /dev/mmcblk0 both from my current emmc install (after apt upgrade) and from an SD card with the latest version (v1.33). But I still have the issue of not booting (on the emmc) if there is a non-bootable SD card.

I saw that the uboot patch was applied but I'm not sure if u-boot-install uses a version of uboot that has the patch. Do I need to force a download of the latest version of uboot?

Thanks for the great work.

[Xeue]

You mentioned elsewhere you had an issue with hosting the image files as they are too large? Do you have any plan for this atm? If there's a way I can help, let me know, I can probably host something that can facilitate this if needed.
I primarily do webdev, so more than happy to help with hosting/building a page/site for it if that is of any use?