[solved] raspberrypi-bootloader-20240122 breaks boot on rpi4

[pelwell]

We've now provided a proper firmware release that fixes the issue (which we think was caused by U-boot not liking being loaded at 0x200000 like the kernel, so it's now loaded to 0x80000 as before) - seemake_clickable_callback(MAGIC_URL_FULL, ' ', 'https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-firmware/commit/aa26e60779e27d706f8ec3b8552cf68f511cf9e4.', '', ' class="postlink"')

[graysky]

Thanks pelwell. I pushed that commit out in raspberrypi-bootloader-20240214-1. This should be fixed,

[Musikolo]

Hi guys,

I have upgraded to the latest raspberrypi-bootloader package (20240214-1) and it worked for me. It also upgraded to the latest uboot-raspberrypi package released this week (2024.01) with no issues at all. So, I think this solves the issue entirely.

I'm still using linux-aarch64 package with version 6.2.10-1. I use my rpi4 as a headless server. After reading your comments, I'm considering replacing linux-aarch64 with linux-rpi, but I don't think I would enjoy any video hardware decoding benefit that comes with it. Do you still see any benefit or reason to switch to linux-rpi for a headless server?

Thanks a lot everyone for your contribution!

[graysky]

If it were my system, I would want a maintained kernel version running. Currently linux-aarch64 is shipping a deprecated kernel version. You can build your own based on my draft of an updated kernel (see below) or just switch over to linux-rpi.
make_clickable_callback(MAGIC_URL_FULL, '
', 'https://github.com/graysky2/PKGBUILDs/commit/7bd695c7cc23cbb4e62250720af05ead68776d2d', '', ' class="postlink"')

Note that you will have to bump that an build a new package as new upstream versions become available.

[puro]

Looks like I may have gotten bit by this on my rpi4. I upgraded to 20240122 bootloader and my boot process is broken after loading my sata drive.

I tried downgrading by booting a fresh image and using: pacman -U (pathto 20240118 bootloader) -r /mnt/root (location of my root) and rebooting, that did not solve my issue.

Any tips on what you've done to solve this/downgrade the packages properly?

EDIT: Note that Musikolo suggestion of manually copying the boot file from a known good image did not work for me.\

Here are my package versions and the last console log:

raspberrypi-bootloader 20240118-1
uboot-raspberrypi 2024.01-1

I can see it picks up my disk and partitions and then stops:
[ 5.207585] sda: sda1 sda2 sda3
[ 5.212157] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk

EDIT2:

Ok well I managed to fix it, for anyone else struggling like me save yourself a few hours:

Use another USB drive or whatever to boot a fresh image of Arch aarch64.
Mount your root partition on /mnt/root
Mount your boot partition on /mnt/root/boot

cd /mnt/root
mount -t proc /proc proc/
mount --rbind /sys sys/
mount --rbind /dev dev/

chroot /mnt/root

pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/raspberrypi-bootloader-20240118-1-any.pkg.tar.xz
pacman -U /var/cache/pacman/pkg/uboot-raspberrypi-2021.04-1-aarch64.pkg.tar.xz

cd /boot && ./mkscr

Reboot

You should hopefully have a working system.

I haven't done further testing to know which package breaks the boot process but I'm assuming its the uboot package as initially downgrading the bootloader to 20240118-1 did not solve the issue.

[jeancf]

[quote]I compiled the latest 6.8-rc4 upstream kernel today to test and I had no issues booting it with the latest raspberrypi-bootloader packages.[/quote]

Good to know, thanks. 6.2.10 is where the package linux-aarch64 is at though. I don't know why it did not get updated to a more recent version.

[Musikolo]

Hi,

I found the linux-aarch64 package has been upgraded to version 6.7.5-1. So, I decided to give it a try, but during the installation I found my root partition ran out of space, as it only has 200 MB. So, I changed my mind and gave it a try to linux-rpi. I did the way Graysky recommended:

[code]
pacman -S --needed raspberrypi-bootloader linux-rpi
[/code]

After rebooting, I noticed my device wasn't booting because it couldn't find my root partition. Since I'm using an external USB drive, all I had to do is to edit the /boot/cmdline.txt file and replace the "root" attribute from "root=/dev/mmcblk0p2 " to "root=/dev/sda2", and that's all I needed to do to have it working nicely again! Another cool thing is that the new configuration only uses 30% of space I have in my boot partition.

Lastly, I noticed the speed the green led blinks changed. It used to blink at much slower pace with linux-aarch64 than it does now with linux-rpi. I don't know what that means, but it guess it should unimportant.

Thanks every one for your help!