Hi all,

 

can anyone explain to me how the boot process of an ODROID-HC2 looks in detail, please? for example, my microSD card is /dev/mmcblk1 and it contains only one partition /dev/mmcbl1p1.

 

Questions:

 

a) I think the ODROID-HC2 can exclusively boot from a microSD card, is this correct? Without sdCard the boot process is not possible, right?

b) where exactly sits the bootloader? is it in a certain sector of the microSD card and if so where exactly and how long? or does the ODROID-HC2 trying to read at specific addresses and if so where?

c) can u-boot only process the first partition of the block device or would it be theoretically possible to have the /boot directory on /dev/mmcbl1p4 ?

d) does the partition that u-boot is looking for need to be formatted as ext4 or will ext3, ext2, vfat or even ntfs work, too ?

 

Looking for any helpful information. Thanks a bunch!

a) correct

b) below partition https://github.com/armbian/build/blob/master/config/sources/families/odroidxu4.conf#L83-L87

https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-xu4/software/partition_table#tab__odroid-xu34

c) not without hacking u-boot

d) vfat and ext* are supported, ntfs certainly not (too old u-boot and way too expensive to upgrade it)

Hi Igor,

 

thanks for the information provided. I have done several tests by starting with a functional uSD card. The bootloader is on the uSD card but I have problems with the first partition. I tried several partition types and file system combinations. When the first partition is formatted as ext4 or ext2 and containing the /boot folder the boot process finishes successfully. However when I format this partition with 'mkfs.vfat' or 'mkfs.fat' or 'mkfs.fat -F 16' the boot process will fail. According to the boot log it seems that U-Boot is expecting a ext* file system.

 

Zitat

U-Boot 2017.05-armbian (Oct 08 2021 - 19:51:17 +0000) for ODROID-XU4

CPU:   Exynos5422 @ 800 MHz
Model: Odroid XU4 based on EXYNOS5422
Board: Odroid XU4 based on EXYNOS5422
Type:  unknown
DRAM:  2 GiB
MMC:   EXYNOS DWMMC: 0, EXYNOS DWMMC: 1
MMC Device 0 ( SD ): 59.5 GiB
Card did not respond to voltage select!
mmc_init: -95, time 11
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   No ethernet found.
Press quickly 'Enter' twice to stop autoboot:  0
reading /boot.ini
13424 bytes read in 4 ms (3.2 MiB/s)
## Executing script at 43e00000
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading armbianEnv.txt
** Unable to read file armbianEnv.txt **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading zImage
** Unable to read file zImage **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading uInitrd
** Unable to read file uInitrd **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading .next
0 bytes read in 19 ms (0 Bytes/s)
Found mainline kernel configuration
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading dtb/exynos5422-odroidxu4.dtb
** Unable to read file dtb/exynos5422-odroidxu4.dtb **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
libfdt fdt_check_header(): FDT_ERR_BADMAGIC
No FDT memory address configured. Please configure
the FDT address via "fdt addr <address>" command.
Aborting!
Bad Linux ARM zImage magic!
reading /boot/boot.ini
13424 bytes read in 9 ms (1.4 MiB/s)
## Executing script at 43e00000
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading armbianEnv.txt
** Unable to read file armbianEnv.txt **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading zImage
** Unable to read file zImage **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading uInitrd
** Unable to read file uInitrd **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading .next
0 bytes read in 19 ms (0 Bytes/s)
Found mainline kernel configuration
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading dtb/exynos5422-odroidxu4.dtb
** Unable to read file dtb/exynos5422-odroidxu4.dtb **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
libfdt fdt_check_header(): FDT_ERR_BADMAGIC
No FDT memory address configured. Please configure
the FDT address via "fdt addr <address>" command.
Aborting!
Bad Linux ARM zImage magic!
reading /boot.scr
** Unable to read file /boot.scr **
## Executing script at 43e00000
** Invalid partition 2 **
## Executing script at 43e00000
** Invalid partition 2 **
## Executing script at 43e00000
** Invalid partition 2 **
## Executing script at 43e00000
mmc_init: -110, time 121
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
Scanning mmc 0:1...
starting USB...
USB0:   USB EHCI 1.00
USB1:   Register 2000140 NbrPorts 2
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.00
USB2:   Register 2000140 NbrPorts 2
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.00
scanning bus 0 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found
scanning bus 1 for devices... cannot reset port 1!?
1 USB Device(s) found
scanning bus 2 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found
       scanning usb for storage devices... 0 Storage Device(s) found
       scanning usb for ethernet devices... 1 Ethernet Device(s) found

USB device 0: unknown device
Waiting for Ethernet connection... unable to connect.
BOOTP broadcast 1

 

I check boot.ini and to be sure I not only copied /boot folder to the partition 1 but also all the files additionally to the root of that partition. That way u-boot can look for the necessary files in / or in /boot but it didn't help. What am I missing here, how can I make the boot work successful by using vfat or fat16 ?

 

thanks a bunch

Did I miss anything or what else do I need to configure so

Me again. I figured out what the problem was and I was able to solve this like that:

 

the original /boot structure contains three symbolic links, in my case on the ODROID-HC2 (which is equal to odroidxu4):

 

dtb -> dtb-5.4.151-odroidxu4

uInitrd -> uInitrd-5.4.151-odroidxu4

zImage -> vmlinuz-5.4.151-odroidxu4

 

The default boot.ini is seeking for that link names but on the fat system it's not possible to have symbolic links. I just renamed (or one can simply copy) the existing three files like that:

 

dtb-5.4.151-odroidxu4 ---to---> dtb

uInitrd-5.4.151-odroidxu4 ---to---> uInitrd

vmlinuz-5.4.151-odroidxu4 ---to---> zImage

 

I also found out that /boot folder is NOT being red by boot process, it looks at the root folder for those files. So I "mv /boot/* /" moved the complete content of the /boot folder into the root. That way the boot process works like a charm.

 

Thank you Igor for assistance. Have a nice weekend

 

U-Boot 2017.05-armbian (Oct 08 2021 - 19:51:17 +0000) for ODROID-XU4

CPU:   Exynos5422 @ 800 MHz
Model: Odroid XU4 based on EXYNOS5422
Board: Odroid XU4 based on EXYNOS5422
Type:  unknown
DRAM:  2 GiB
MMC:   EXYNOS DWMMC: 0, EXYNOS DWMMC: 1
MMC Device 0 ( SD ): 59.5 GiB
Card did not respond to voltage select!
mmc_init: -95, time 12
*** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   No ethernet found.
Press quickly 'Enter' twice to stop autoboot:  0
reading /boot.ini
13424 bytes read in 4 ms (3.2 MiB/s)
## Executing script at 43e00000
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading armbianEnv.txt
** Unable to read file armbianEnv.txt **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading zImage
7337840 bytes read in 489 ms (14.3 MiB/s)
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading uInitrd
13347465 bytes read in 872 ms (14.6 MiB/s)
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading .next
0 bytes read in 20 ms (0 Bytes/s)
Found mainline kernel configuration
Failed to mount ext2 filesystem...
** Unrecognized filesystem type **
reading dtb/exynos5422-odroidxu4.dtb
87877 bytes read in 37 ms (2.3 MiB/s)
libfdt fdt_path_offset() returned FDT_ERR_NOTFOUND
Kernel image @ 0x40008000 [ 0x000000 - 0x6ff770 ]
## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 42000000 ...
   Image Name:   uInitrd
   Image Type:   ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
   Data Size:    13347401 Bytes = 12.7 MiB
   Load Address: 00000000
   Entry Point:  00000000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
## Flattened Device Tree blob at 44000000
   Booting using the fdt blob at 0x44000000
   Using Device Tree in place at 44000000, end 44018744

Starting kernel ...

 

 

@Igor: I have one more question, maybe you can answer this, too? Is it possible to have u-boot look for 'foo.bar' instead of 'boot.ini' ? Is there any HowTo how this could be accomplished ?