Raspberry Pi 2B vs. kernel7.img

[Axel]

Hi,
I installed the Raspberry Pi 2 microSD card following the manual. But when starting the raspberry, just the colorful bootimage appears and the ACT LED blinks repeatingly with 7x blinks in succession. Google suggests that this blink code means the kernel.img file is missing. And truely, it is missing, just a kernel7.img is available. I tried to duplicate kernel7.img to kernel.img but that doesn't work either.

Any suggestions? Did I miss a firmware update that tells the raspberry to search for kernel7.img instead of kernel.img?

Thx in advance!

EDIT: Raspberry boots with the ARMv6 package installed. (however CPU seems to run in a compatibility/degraded mode - only 1x core present).

[cachedrive]

What is your actual issue? You're telling us your RPi2 isn't booting up but you've not told us what you've actually done to prepare the microSD. Have you wiped the card and reinstalled a fresh image on the microSD? That would be step 1 and shouldn't take anyone more than 10 minutes assuming decent Internet connection.

I have no idea what kernel7.img is but I suggest you use the official Arch Arm image as described in the install instructions.

[Axel]

Sorry for being unclear.
1. I followed the installation instructions http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/broadcom/raspberry-pi-2#qt-platform_tabs-ui-tabs2 to the letter. In step 2a, fdisk clears an existing partition table from the microSD card - that should be close enough to a wipe.

Step 6 populates the /boot partition. However the boot partition files originate from ArchLinuxARM-rpi-2-latest.tar.gz. The boot directory contains the following files:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
#ls -lha root/boot/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 11K 14. Nov 04:15 bcm2709-rpi-2-b.dtb
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 18K 1. Dez 02:37 bootcode.bin
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 175 14. Nov 04:15 cmdline.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4,4K 14. Nov 04:15 config.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6,3K 1. Dez 02:37 fixup.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2,5K 1. Dez 02:37 fixup_cd.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9,5K 1. Dez 02:37 fixup_db.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 9,5K 1. Dez 02:37 fixup_x.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 5,5M 14. Nov 04:15 kernel7.img
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4,0K 26. Dez 16:45 overlays
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2,7M 1. Dez 02:37 start.elf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 591K 1. Dez 02:37 start_cd.elf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4,7M 1. Dez 02:37 start_db.elf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3,7M 1. Dez 02:37 start_x.elf
')
As you can see, there is no kernel.img included. Why???


2. I tried to cp the kernel7.img to kernel.img. Then the ACK LED does not blink any more - the system just hangs in the colorful splash.

3. I tried the instruction manual for the Rasperry Pi 1 http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/raspberry-pi#qt-platform_tabs-ui-tabs2 which is basically identical except for the download url. That package contains a kernel.img file which runs on the RPi 2 (RPi2 boots; login prompt appears). But - as to be expected - the kernel made for ARMv6 seems to run the newer CPU in a compatibilty mode. And of course I'd prefer the (hopefully) fully functional ARMv7 package. This experiment simply shows that I master the installation process and that the hardware is not broken.

4. I switched back to the RPi2 package and appended "kernel=kernel7.img" to config.txt. This has the same effect as in 2: the system just hangs in the splash.

===
Ok, the questions morphs somehow: what's different on my RPi2? Why does the package work for most (?) people but me? Is it a firmware question? If so: how can I update the firmware?

[WarheadsSE]

kernel7.img is the armv7h kernel for the bootloader to use.

Boot the other image, and check /proc/cpuinfo.

[Axel]

Here is the output of /proc/cpuinfo when booting armv6 image:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
[alarm@alarmpi ~]$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
model name : ARMv6-compatible processor rev 7 (v6l)
BogoMIPS : 2.00
Features : half thumb fastmult vfp edsp java tls
CPU implementer : 0x41
CPU architecture: 7
CPU variant : 0x0
CPU part : 0xb76
CPU revision : 7

Hardware : BCM2708
Revision : 0010
Serial : 00000000cfafb589
')
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
[alarm@alarmpi ~]$ uname -a
Linux alarmpi 4.1.15+ #830 Tue Dec 15 16:58:28 GMT 2015 armv6l GNU/Linux')

[WarheadsSE]

You sir, do not have a Pi 2 B, you have a Pi 1, B+ maybe.