November 6, 2025Nov 6 Hi all, sorry for a kiddy queston but it the first time when I'm using Armbian. I need to enter to u-boot menu/enviroment/shell and I can't I try to press any button when I'm rebooting but nothing happened and i've just have a booted system I have only UART to my system. In other devices I have some time to press any key to enter to u-boot shell but there I don't have time. U-boot exec bootcmd immediately I need to enter to u-boot shell and reconfigure some env for my work. I use Armbian 25.8.2 noble Edited November 6, 2025Nov 6 by BlackS
November 6, 2025Nov 6 I'm not sure bit IIRC there should be a 1 second delay which would allow interaction but again, not sure...
November 6, 2025Nov 6 4 hours ago, BlackS said: first time when I'm using Armbian If you have used RadxaOS before there might be an older U-Boot variant in SPI-flash and at least on ROCK3A SPI take preference over SD-cards, so the Armbian U-Boot from SD-card is not use. AFAIR Radxa OS ROCK5 U-Boot does not have the 1 sec autoboot timeout and also uses extlinux script and not bootcmd. But I might mix-up versions and platforms. So rewrite SPI-flash from Armbian is option to fix it.
November 7, 2025Nov 7 Author Thanks for answer I will try. Right now just waiting support from remote side. And maybe it can be helpful. I can see on my UART console only this [58160.278303] reboot: Restarting system ]DDR 9fa84341ce typ 24/09/06-09:51:11,fwver: v1.18 ch0 ttot10 ch1 ttot10 ch2 ttot10 ch3 ttot10 ch0 ttot16 LPDDR4X, 2112MHz channel[0] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=17 CS1 Row=17 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB ch1 ttot16 channel[1] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=17 CS1 Row=17 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB ch2 ttot16 channel[2] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=17 CS1 Row=17 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB ch3 ttot16 channel[3] BW=16 Col=10 Bk=8 CS0 Row=17 CS1 Row=17 CS=2 Die BW=16 Size=4096MB Manufacturer ID:0xff DQS rds:l0,h1 CH0 RX Vref:28.5%, TX Vref:23.8%,22.8% DQ rds:h4 h7 h1 h5 h5 l4 h6 h2, h6 h1 h6 h3 h3 h1 h2 h3 DQS rds:l0,l0 CH1 RX Vref:28.5%, TX Vref:23.8%,23.8% DQ rds:h4 h2 l0 h1 h1 h3 h1 h1, h3 h1 h6 h1 h1 l0 l0 h2 DQS rds:l0,l0 CH2 RX Vref:29.3%, TX Vref:23.8%,21.8% DQ rds:h2 h5 h7 h7 h6 l0 h3 h2, h1 h5 l0 h6 l0 h3 h7 h1 DQS rds:l1,h1 CH3 RX Vref:28.5%, TX Vref:24.8%,23.8% DQ rds:l0 h3 h7 l0 h3 h1 h2 h4, h1 h7 h7 h7 h2 h6 l0 h1 stride=0x2, ddr_config=0x4 hash ch_mask0-1 0x20 0x40, bank_mask0-3 0xa00 0x1400 0x2800 0x0, rank_mask0 0x401000 change to F1: 528MHz ch0 ttot10 ch1 ttot10 ch2 ttot10 ch3 ttot10 change to F2: 1068MHz 1;-1fdone. Begin: Mounting root file system ... Begin: Running /scripts/local-top ... done. Begin: Running /scripts/local-premount ... Scanning for Btrfs filesystems done. Begin: Will now check root file system ... fsck from util-linux 2.39.3 [/usr/sbin/fsck.ext4 (1) -- /dev/mmcblk1p1] fsck.ext4 -a -C0 /dev/mmcblk1p1 armbi_root: clean, 46692/7448320 files, 1142106/30126080 blocks done. done. Begin: Running /scripts/local-bottom ... done. Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom ... done. Welcome to Armbian 25.8.2 noble! [ OK ] Created slice system-modprobe.slice - Slice /system/modprobe. # CTRL-A Z for help | 1500000 8N1 | NOR | Minicom 2.8 And in addition, I've tried to use fw_printenv -c /tmp/fw_env.config from u-boot-tools package. Just to print current u-boot config but it doesn't work for rock5b. Maybe I've prepared a wrong config $ cat /proc/partitions major minor #blocks name 179 0 121753600 mmcblk1 179 1 120504320 mmcblk1p1 31 0 16384 mtdblock0 252 0 8174096 zram0 252 1 51200 zram1 $ cat /tmp/fw_env.config /dev/mmcblk1p1 0xE5D800000 0x4000 # Where E5D800000 i've get by such way for mmcblk1p1 # echo "obase=16; 120504320*512"| bc -l # E5D800000 $ fw_printenv -c /tmp/fw_env.config Cannot read environment, using default Cannot read default environment from file $ fw_printenv -V 0.3.5 773 Sorry for mixing all the stuff to one topic but it seems a bit relevant with this topic. Edited November 7, 2025Nov 7 by BlackS add additional info
November 7, 2025Nov 7 53 minutes ago, BlackS said: And maybe it can be helpful. I can see on my UART console only this And since it contains no firmware payload output, no one can tell what you are running.
November 7, 2025Nov 7 I usually fight a bit the default 80x25 serial terminal sizing (KDE konsole) via 'screen /dev/ttyUSB0 1500000', but tools like MidnightCommander can be used. Certainly all standard CLI stuff and copy-paste. So just some commands: apt list --installed linux-u-boot-rock-5b* dpkg -L linux-u-boot-rock-5b-edge cat /usr/lib/u-boot/platform_install.sh cat /dev/mtdblock0 > /tmp/spidump strings /tmp/spidump | grep -i U-Boot
November 7, 2025Nov 7 Author $ apt list -a --installed linux-u-boot-rock-5b* Listing... Done linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current/now 25.8.2 arm64 [installed,local] linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current/noble 25.8.1 arm64 linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current/noble 25.5.1 arm64 linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current/noble 25.2.3 arm64 linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current/noble 25.2.2 arm64 linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current/noble 24.11.3 arm64 linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current/noble 24.11.1 arm64 linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current/noble 24.8.2 arm64 $ dpkg -L linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current /. /usr /usr/lib /usr/lib/linux-u-boot-current-rock-5b /usr/lib/linux-u-boot-current-rock-5b/idbloader.img /usr/lib/linux-u-boot-current-rock-5b/rkspi_loader.img /usr/lib/linux-u-boot-current-rock-5b/u-boot-config-target-1 /usr/lib/linux-u-boot-current-rock-5b/u-boot-defconfig-target-1 /usr/lib/linux-u-boot-current-rock-5b/u-boot-metadata-target-1.sh /usr/lib/linux-u-boot-current-rock-5b/u-boot-metadata.sh /usr/lib/linux-u-boot-current-rock-5b/u-boot.itb /usr/lib/u-boot /usr/lib/u-boot/LICENSE /usr/lib/u-boot/platform_install.sh /usr/lib/u-boot/rock-5b-rk3588_defconfig /usr/share /usr/share/doc /usr/share/doc/linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current /usr/share/doc/linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current/changelog.gz $ cat /usr/lib/u-boot/platform_install.sh # Armbian u-boot install script for linux-u-boot-rock-5b-current 2017.09-Sa317-Pedb0-H5208-Vc393-Bb703-R448a # This file provides functions for deploying u-boot to a block device. DIR=/usr/lib/linux-u-boot-current-rock-5b write_uboot_platform () { local logging_prelude=""; [[ $(type -t run_host_command_logged) == function ]] && logging_prelude="run_host_command_logged"; if [ -f $1/u-boot-rockchip.bin ]; then ${logging_prelude} dd if=$1/u-boot-rockchip.bin of=$2 bs=32k seek=1 conv=notrunc status=none; else if [ -f $1/rksd_loader.img ]; then ${logging_prelude} dd if=$1/rksd_loader.img of=$2 seek=64 conv=notrunc status=none; else if [[ -f $1/u-boot.itb ]]; then ${logging_prelude} dd if=$1/idbloader.img of=$2 seek=64 conv=notrunc status=none; ${logging_prelude} dd if=$1/u-boot.itb of=$2 seek=16384 conv=notrunc status=none; else if [[ -f $1/uboot.img ]]; then ${logging_prelude} dd if=$1/idbloader.bin of=$2 seek=64 conv=notrunc status=none; ${logging_prelude} dd if=$1/uboot.img of=$2 seek=16384 conv=notrunc status=none; ${logging_prelude} dd if=$1/trust.bin of=$2 seek=24576 conv=notrunc status=none; else echo "Unsupported u-boot processing configuration!"; exit 1; fi; fi; fi; fi } write_uboot_platform_mtd () { FILES=$(find "$1" -maxdepth 1 -type f -name "rkspi_loader*.img"); if [ -z "$FILES" ]; then echo "No SPI image found."; exit 1; fi; MENU_ITEMS=(); i=1; while IFS= read -r file; do filename=$(basename "$file"); MENU_ITEMS+=("$i" "$filename" ""); ((i++)); done <<< "$FILES"; if [[ $i -eq 2 ]]; then dd if=$1/${MENU_ITEMS[1]} of=$2 conv=notrunc status=none > /dev/null 2>&1; return; fi; [[ -f /etc/armbian-release ]] && source /etc/armbian-release; backtitle="Armbian for $BOARD_NAME install script, https://www.armbian.com"; CHOICE=$(dialog --no-collapse --title "armbian-install" --backtitle "$backtitle" --radiolist "Choose SPI image:" 0 56 4 "${MENU_ITEMS[@]}" 3>&1 1 >&2 2>&3); if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then dd if=$1/${MENU_ITEMS[($CHOICE*3)-2]} of=$2 conv=notrunc status=none > /dev/null 2>&1; else echo "No SPI image chosen."; exit 1; fi } setup_write_uboot_platform () { if grep -q "ubootpart" /proc/cmdline; then local tmp part dev; tmp=$(cat /proc/cmdline); tmp="${tmp##*ubootpart=}"; tmp="${tmp%% *}"; [[ -n $tmp ]] && part=$(findfs PARTUUID=$tmp 2> /dev/null); [[ -n $part ]] && dev=$(lsblk -n -o PKNAME $part 2> /dev/null); [[ -n $dev ]] && DEVICE="/dev/$dev"; fi } $ cat /dev/mtdblock0 > /tmp/spidump $ strings /tmp/spidump | grep -i U.*Boot nothing $ du -h /tmp/spidump 16M /tmp/spidump It seems something installed and configured but for -current not for -edge I thought that -current version more stable. Am I wrong and I need to install -edge ?
November 7, 2025Nov 7 31 minutes ago, BlackS said: Am I wrong and I need to install -edge ? OK, it seems your SPI-flash is empty, so not used and skipped. I start to remember I think; ROCK5B -current is quite old and not from denx.de (or 'mainline') so I picked -edge, but I think I never wrote it to SPI, instead I have this in SPI: https://github.com/edk2-porting/edk2-rk3588?tab=readme-ov-file You need grub-efi or other efi capable and configured bootloader (hide boot.scr, add ESP partition) root@rock5b:~# strings /usr/lib/linux-u-boot-edge-rock-5b/u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin | grep "U-Boot SPL" U-Boot SPL 2024.04-armbian-2024.04-S830c-P0000-H1056-Vdfa5-Bb703-R448a (Jun 08 2025 - 03:38:17 +0000) My ROCK5B is 24/7 server, I won't reboot and do checks now, up to yourself to dig deeper and see how various versions are build. I remember there is a config option w.r.t. this 1 sec timeout, that I saw when building qemu arm64 u-boot a year ago. I currently have blocked u-boot and armbian packages, but will maybe configure/build for ROCK3A 2025.10, but that is completely other topic/issue. Edited November 7, 2025Nov 7 by eselarm
November 7, 2025Nov 7 Author Sigh ... Yeah I could see https://github.com/edk2-porting/edk2-rk3588?tab=readme-ov-file but for some reason I need exactly u-boot with enabled eth interface. So, it looks like I need to check -edge version too. However, you've mentioned qemu arm64 u-boot. So, It can be the way for me to check on my side all of these distributives before deploy it on a real hardware.
November 7, 2025Nov 7 Solution What is easiest depends on the situation. If you feel comfortable enough to use dd to write bootloader, I just downloaded the -edge package from the beta apt package pool, extracted the .bin file and wrote it to correct location on SD-card, after saving the first 32k sectors also with dd to a backupfile. Then reboot and you know it. The qemu experiment was to boot directly from U-Boot to Btrfs raid1 filesystem, it took a lot of time browing through U-Boot config/compile options. Better/formal method is to install -edge package, it will remove -current package, then use armbian-config to write the bootloader explicitly. Edited November 7, 2025Nov 7 by eselarm
November 7, 2025Nov 7 Author Hip hip hooray !!! Yep, this way worked. Will provide the all steps for people who have the same issue. $ apt install linux-u-boot-rock-5b-edge $ armbian-install # Just in case I've installed to the all partitions. I mean to 5th and 7th. > 5 Install/Update the bootloader on SD card (/dev/mmcblk1) > 7 Install/Update the bootloader on MTD Flash $ reboot And now I can enter to uboot shell change to F2: 1068MHz ch0 ttot12 ch1 ttot12 ch2 ttot12 ch3 ttot12 change to F3: 1560MHz ch0 ttot14 ch1 ttot14 ch2 ttot14 ch3 ttot14 change to F0: 2112MHz ch0 ttot16 ch1 ttot16 ch2 ttot16 ch3 ttot16 out U-Boot SPL 2024.04-armbian-2024.04-S830c-P0000-Hd72c-Vdfa5-Bb703-R448a (Oct 24 2025 - 02:33:30 +0000) Trying to boot from SPI ## Checking hash(es) for config config-1 ... OK ## Checking hash(es) for Image atf-1 ... sha256+ OK ## Checking hash(es) for Image u-boot ... sha256+ OK ## Checking hash(es) for Image fdt-1 ... sha256+ OK ## Checking hash(es) for Image atf-2 ... sha256+ OK ## Checking hash(es) for Image atf-3 ... sha256+ OK INFO: Preloader serial: 2 NOTICE: BL31: v2.3():v2.3-868-g040d2de11:derrick.huang, fwver: v1.48 NOTICE: BL31: Built : 15:02:44, Dec 19 2024 INFO: spec: 0x1 INFO: code: 0x88 INFO: ext 32k is not valid INFO: ddr: stride-en 4CH INFO: GICv3 without legacy support detected. INFO: ARM GICv3 driver initialized in EL3 INFO: valid_cpu_msk=0xff bcore0_rst = 0x0, bcore1_rst = 0x0 INFO: l3 cache partition cfg-0 INFO: system boots from cpu-hwid-0 INFO: disable memory repair INFO: idle_st=0x21fff, pd_st=0x11fff9, repair_st=0xfff70001 INFO: dfs DDR fsp_params[0].freq_mhz= 2112MHz INFO: dfs DDR fsp_params[1].freq_mhz= 528MHz INFO: dfs DDR fsp_params[2].freq_mhz= 1068MHz INFO: dfs DDR fsp_params[3].freq_mhz= 1560MHz INFO: BL31: Initialising Exception Handling Framework INFO: BL31: Initializing runtime services WARNING: No OPTEE provided by BL2 boot loader, Booting device without OPTEE initialization. SMC`s destined for OPTEE will return SMC_UNK ERROR: Error initializing runtime service opteed_fast INFO: BL31: Preparing for EL3 exit to normal world INFO: Entry point address = 0xa00000 INFO: SPSR = 0x3c9 ns16550_serial serial@feb50000: pinctrl_select_state_full: uclass_get_device_by_phandle_id: err=-19 U-Boot 2024.04-armbian-2024.04-S830c-P0000-Hd72c-Vdfa5-Bb703-R448a (Oct 24 2025 - 02:33:30 +0000) Model: Radxa ROCK 5 Model B DRAM: 16 GiB Core: 353 devices, 32 uclasses, devicetree: separate MMC: mmc@fe2c0000: 1, mmc@fe2d0000: 2, mmc@fe2e0000: 0 Loading Environment from SPIFlash... SF: Detected xt25f128 with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 4 KiB, total 16 MiB *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment In: serial@feb50000 Out: serial@feb50000 Err: serial@feb50000 Model: Radxa ROCK 5 Model B rockchip_dnl_key_pressed: no saradc device found Net: No ethernet found. Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0 => Great Thanks a lot
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