autoboot.txt missing

[replabrobin]

I followed the instructions here https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv ... berry-pi-4 to install aarch64 on my brand new 8Gb rpi4. I used this

http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinux ... est.tar.gz

Everything worked as expected, but when I try to boot I get a message saying that autoboot.txt is not found.

Looked in the boot partition and I see nothing like autoboot.txt (I think that is a noobs thing). Boot dosen't contain any .txt files.

I tried this with manjaro aarch64 and that also failed with the autoboot message.

The recommended check for firmware corruption (no flashing green led on boot without sd card) indicates the firmware is OK.

I will check with noobs to ensure that the board is OK, but I would really prefer to run without all the noobs stuff.

[replabrobin]

Although I have executed the sed command

sed -i 's/mmcblk0/mmcblk1/g' root/etc/fstab

I see it makes no difference as root/etc/fstab looks like this

# cat root/etc/fstab
# Static information about the filesystems.
# See fstab(5) for details.

# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

[replabrobin]

I tried using the armv7 install as per https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv ... berry-pi-4

this time the system shows the video startup colour square, but the video flashes on and off periodically when the login prompt shows. I was able to login, but it's difficult doing anything serious at the prompt so in the end I just ran systemctl poweroff.

[mrtux]

Is there a reason you are using noobs? I would ditch noobs and just use uboot, all should be provided with the rootfs image. If you followed the instructions linked exactly, your /boot should at least contain a boot.txt, which points uboot to your rootfs. If you are trying to use a USB/SSD, you will need to update that file to reflect the correct drive, either by device, or UUID, then run ./mkscr in your /boot directory. Also, you will need to run the 2020.10 uboot package, which as of right now is not updated in the alarm repo. I have heard the 8gb models have issues with USB and all 8gb of ram, and only have working USB when the ram is limited. Hopefully this has been resolved now but if you happen to have an issue with it, at least you'll know where to start.

[replabrobin]

That's the puzzle; I did not use noobs I used the recommended

http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinux ... est.tar.gz

I tried other things later. Both manjaro and alarm aarch64 gave me this boot message about autoboot.txt. In desperation I tried raspios both 64bit and 32bit and as a last resort NOOBS all failed to give a stable video, but I didn't see any message regarding autoboot.txt.

I managed to get NOOBS video stable after changing a ****tech DVI-->micro hdmi for DVI-->hdmi male female --> micro hdmi so most of the problems must be down to a crap product. I thought the single dvi-->micro hdmi would be better than stringing two together, but no.

I now have a 64 bit raspios working. I will try later to get the archlinuxarm aarch64 to work.

I was puzzled that the boot folder in alarm /boot doesn't contain any config.txt etc etc. Also the /etc/fstab did not have an entry that the sed command could modify. So have i got the right process?

[replabrobin]

Well today after figuring out the hardware issue I managed to check raspios 64bit, manjaro xfce 64bit and had a try at archlinuxarm for the rpi. Seems my efforts yesterday were somewhat hampered by having the wrong tar ball.

Although the raspios and manjaro worked well it seems ArchLinuxARM-rpi-aarch64-latest.tar.gz has a way to go. The raspios boot worked with the hdmi nearest the power supply manjaro & alarm seem to set up the hdmi furthest from power.

I could see the whole boot for alarm up to the point at which a login prompt happened. However, I could not login as the keyboard was unresponsive. I guess that might be the usb problem I see elsewhere in the forum.

I managed to set up a serial console with a speed of only 4800; strange as my old rpi 2 b can do 115200. Seems that even doing almost nothing the alarm os made the board run warmer than manjaro running a desktop.

I'll have to take a look at the usb issue.

[mrtux]

That is odd. Seems like it could maybe be due to the adapters you are using. I am using a mini hdmi to hdmi and I have not experienced any issues on the OS's I've used, are you using the official power supply? I have had the hdmi ports be switched, but you can define which port to use in your config file. As far as the USB issues go, I would try getting the latest uboot and adding the module required for USB first. SSH works on the alarm OOB, so I would use ssh to install the packages. You can find the steps for USB here https://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=14672, at the end there is the latest uboot as a package you can just install. The 8GB model may require an extra step, but I would start there since currently they are still required.