Thank you for sharing the story. I think I also need to dive into the boot loader world during the winter holiday. Your post provided a lot of insights for newbies like me. I was lost because I hadn't known where to start to debug it. I appreciate that you didn't give up despite of the all challenges you encountered.  I will also share my info in case I have found something meaningful.

 

With crossed fingers,

 

Hyeokjin

Hello,

 

I have similar problem with  5.10.160 armbian   on orange pi 5 plus.  Could You tell me how to download joshua bootloader?

i just downloaded ubuntu-rockchip-1.33 package put cant see u-boot binary there.  ( only any small rk3588 elf binary). 

Secondly , joshua ubuntu uses its own install method (sudo u-boot-install-mtd /dev/mtdblock0) so did You just typed 

sth like 

sudo dd if=/lib/u-boot-orangepi-rk3588/rkspi_loader.img of=/dev/mtdblock0 conv=notrunc sync

 

regards.

ok I've manged to extract these uboot dir /lib/u-boot-orangepi-rk3588/  from  preinstalled img file. 

there are three files: 

idbloader.img  rkspi_loader.img  u-boot.itb

I wonder if 

sudo dd if=/lib/u-boot-orangepi-rk3588/rkspi_loader.img of=/dev/mtdblock0 conv=notrunc sync

will be sufficient on armbian. What about other files (idblocker and u-boot.itb) .DO I have to clean mtdblock0 before? 

Edited March 15, 20242 yr by nihilowy

ok I can confirm it works better .

just typed "sudo dd if=rkspi_loader.img of=/dev/mtdblock0 conv=notrunc sync " waited about five minutes and rebooted.

After 5 reboots it has always go on .. so probably it is better. Ah my os is armbian jammy 22 , I used file from ubuntu rockchip 23, nvme lexar

I wonder if works on all version , and how it differs. but it is rather low level buissnes.