Tow-Boot gets stuck after EFI stub: Exiting boot services...

Hello all,

I can confirm this for the PINE64 RockPro64.

When using Tow-Boot and trying to boot any Linux System, it gets stuck at EFI stub: Exiting boot services...

EFI stub: Booting Linux Kernel...
EFI stub: ERROR: FIRMWARE BUG: kernel image not aligned on 64k boundary
EFI stub: Using DTB from configuration table
EFI stub: Exiting boot services...

When booting using Device Tree (A manjaro image for example)
Tow-Boot get's stuck at:

 Moving Image from 0x2080000 to 0x2200000, end=4060000
## Flattened Device Tree blob at 01f00000
Booting using the fdt blob at 0x1f00000 

I am unable to boot any Linux system when using Tow-Boot.
The error message may correlate with Tow-Boot being unable to boot into Linux but doesn't cause it.
BSDs are untested.

I get this error when using u-boot from the SPI and also when using it from the SD card.
I also get it when Tow-Boot is on the SPI and I'm trying to boot a Linux system from the SD card.

I do not get that error message with u-boot and am able to boot into Linux when using u-boot.

Many, if not all RockPro64 Tow-Boot users seem to have this issue.

So far, great work on the Tow-Boot project, I want to use it over u-boot in the future.

Thank you all in advance.

I have identified the root cause of the issue.
it's CONFIG_USE_PREBOOT=y together with the fact that tow-boot might be using an older version of u-boot
I just disconnected every usb-device and Tow-boot booted into Linux.
The EFI stub: ERROR: FIRMWARE BUG: kernel image not aligned on 64k boundary also goes away when having all usb devices unplugged.

https://lists.denx.de/pipermail/u-boot/2021-January/438309.html

Please consider to upgrade to the newest u-boot for Tow-Boot if possible.

Warning: This is experimental. Major credits go out to @samueldr for the development over at #178. Fix and build guide:

# if there is no nix installed:
curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh

# restart your shell.

git clone https://github.com/Tow-Boot/Tow-Boot/ -b development
cd Tow-Boot
git fetch origin pull/178/head
git checkout -b u-boot-2022.07 FETCH_HEAD
env -i nix-build -A pine64-rockpro64

# images are in Tow-Boot/results/ (which is a symlink into the /nix/store/name-of-result-dir/)

This is just a one-time thing.

idea of an update-script:

if [ $(cat ${XDG_PROJECTS_DIR}/verfiles/towboot-ver) != $(curl --silent "https://api.github.com/repos/Tow-Boot/Tow-Boot/releases/latest" | jq -r .tag_name | tr -d 'release') ]

then
        TOWBOOT_VER=$(curl --silent "https://api.github.com/repos/Tow-Boot/Tow-Boot/releases/latest" | jq -r .name | tr -d 'release')

        cd ${XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR}/rp64/
        rm -r pine64-rockpro64-*;
        wget https://github.com/Tow-Boot/Tow-Boot/releases/download/release${TOWBOOT_VER}/pine64-rockpro64${TOWBOOT_VER}.tar.xz
        tar -xvf pine64-rockpro64${TOWBOOT_VER}.tar.xz;
        rm -r pine64-rockpro64${TOWBOOT_VER}.tar.xz;
        cd pine64-rockpro64${TOWBOOT_VER}
        doas dd if=spi.installer.img of=/dev/mmcblk1;

        echo ${TOWBOOT_VER} > ${XDG_PROJECTS_DIR}/verfiles/towboot-ver
fi

This is done in the downloading-of-the-officially-released-binaries-way as the issue will be fixed in the next official release.