"error -5 whilst initializing SD card"@20220315 aarch64 img

[tamjan]

I'm trying to setup a newly bought Raspberry Pi 4 B with 8GB memory and a 32GB sd-card using the instructions at
https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/broadcom/raspberry-pi-4 (so, fdisk, msdos partition layout, etc.), with the $this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'ArchLinuxARM-rpi-aarch64-latest.tar.gz') image.

So, I followed the guide, but on the first boot I get
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'error -5 whilst initializing SD card')
and hangs. Actually, the message is repeated ad infinitum. The sd-card is brand new, and thorough fsck of its boot and root partitions do not indicate any problems on my Linux laptop. dmesg also does not complain.

I'm not new to Arch Linux ARM and have been running it for years on my RPi 1 B units - until it was recently decided to end Arch Linux ARM support for them. Guess it was time to buy new units anyway. I run Gentoo on my x86_64 systems... The point is that I'm pretty sure that I set things up as instructed.

I haven't tried the 32-bit variant yet... but I'm not sure what the gain would be anyway. I might rather go for the 64-bit variant of the Debian-based Raspberry Pi OS if I can't run Arch Linux ARM.

I noticed that kernel8.img is almost a year old, but I guess that just contains u-boot, which might not be updated that often.
Googling the issue doesn't turn up anything really useful, unfortunately...

So, is there anything to be done to get it working? Any hints? TIA!

[tamjan]

Well, Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit) does work. But, there is no u-boot in that.
I'll try to make a Arch Linux ARM bootfs without u-boot.

[lategoodbye]

Can you please confirm that your Raspberry Pi 4 B has the BCM2711 Stepping C0?

https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2021/ ... 0-stepping

[robg]

The generic kernel (linux-aarch64) sometimes has trouble with the RPI. If you have another ARMv8 device, or a suitable VM setup, chroot into the RPI image and install linux-rpi; this provides the upstream RPI kernel along with their bootloader.

[tamjan]

I'll confirm the processor when I have a system again (I wiped Rasperry Pi OS from the sd-card already, and the board is inside a Flirc case).
My plan is exactly to chroot, but I ran out of time. I have setup an aarch64-chroot setup with qemu now and will resume experimentation later today. Was thinking of just upgrading the kernel first, but perhaps it's easier to change to the rpi-variant.

[tamjan]

Ok, after a
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
sed -i -E 's@^#(en_US[\.\ ].*)@\1@' /etc/locale.gen && locale-gen \
&& pacman-key --init && pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm \
&& pacman -Syy && pacman -S --needed f2fs-tools \
&& pacman -S --needed linux-rpi raspberrypi-bootloader raspberrypi-firmware
')
in an aarch64-qemu chroot it booted - after I had put the sd-card back into the board . My rootfs is f2fs, hence the addition of f2fs-tools. Also,
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
[alarm@alarm ~]$ od -An -tx1 /proc/device-tree/emmc2bus/dma-ranges
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
fc 00 00 00
')
indicates that the board is equipped with a BCM2711 Stepping C0.

[checkmate]

Hi tamjan,

just wondering, as you did not execute the mkinitcpio command for building the f2fs module into the initramfs, is f2fs built into the kernel8 nowadays?

Thanks.

[tamjan]

mkinitcpio is run by the post-install stage of linux-rpi.
And I have an f2fs entry in fstab. So, there is no real magic here.

[checkmate]

Did you put f2fs into the MODULES section of mkinitramfs.conf?
If not, I understand f2fs support is built into the kernel.

[tamjan]

I think mkinitcpio reads fstab and includes modules. But you seem to be right anyway. It’s compiled in.