Board will not boot, am I Missing something?

gielpet · August 17, 2013, 06:13:21 PM

Hi,

just received my A20-OLinuXino-MICRO-4GGB.

Hooked up a monitor on the hdmi port,
hooked up a mouse on a host USB port,
supplied power (12V-2A) and after 25 seconds the boot screen
of Android appeared. After a few more seconds the screen with
the date-time and the lock showed up.

Pulling the lock to the bottom works (mouse is functional!)
Releasing the (closed) lock gives me a black screen and that is it.

Waited for a very long time (more then 15 min) but nothing appears.
Resetting the device gives me the same sequence as described here above.

Is there something I am missing?
thanks in advance,
Giel Peters

tks · August 17, 2013, 10:38:37 PM

Can somebody shine some light on this?

On my board the same happens.
I made a sdCard with CP in ubuntu.
Ans succesfully see the card then as a 16MB boot and 3.x GB drive appearing.
I see various folders in the boot stating some script stuff.

When i turn the board on i see the ethernet light come on, the tx/rx blinks a couple of time.
My screen starts doing weird lines and then the lights go of again. The power light stays on.

Is there a how to on this board or am i missing something?

Where can i find more info?

Thanxs in advance for your answers

gielpet · August 23, 2013, 05:14:24 PM

Tried Debian (a20_debian_LAN_USB_Cards_LCD_HDMI_SATA_TS_X_GPIO_release_2.img), tried Fedora (Fedora-19-a10-armhfp-r1.img), Tried Android (A20_android_nand_preliminary_release_1.img and sun7i_android_wing-k70.img)

Debian: boots and I can login as root (olimex) after 25 seconds the screen goes black again, it doesn`t matter if I am typing something or just sit there. Both, on activity or inactivity the screen goes black after about 25 seconds.

Fedora: does nothing (nothing I`m aware of anyway) the only thing that happens is the green led (LED1 just below R32) is showing his colors. (not on Debian or Android)

Android Boots as stated on both the versions, but unlocking sends me still into the void...

For all three distributions, only a mouse or hub connected to the top port of the USB_HOST connector works, connected to the bottom port nothing works.

Connecting a scope to the UART0 TX0 I can see some activity. Can someone here explain (short tutorial?) how to connect the port to another computer so that I can see what the board has to tell me? (connection and which software and settings to use would be nice...)

thanks in advance,
Greets,
Giel Peters

Lurch · August 23, 2013, 07:45:35 PM

UART0 is 115200 baud. Connect a RS232-USB converter like this:
https://www.olimex.com/Products/Components/Cables/USB-Serial-Cable/USB-Serial-Cable-F/
to see the bootup log. You can find converters on the web as well (should be 3,3V).
The USB Ports are both active, but one (Linux) is high-speed only, so you can't connect a mouse to it directly, you'll need a powered hub. If you connect a usb-stick etc., you'll see that it works.
All three of my A20's (revision A and D) seem to work O=K with the image you are using. Maybe you have another problem on the board. How are you connecting the network?

tks · August 24, 2013, 03:55:50 PM

i can't believe it!

i have tried several images now.

on none of them the HDMI output works.
I just get to see some flickering like if it where trying and then it gaves up.

i don't have touched the images yet.

on ttsy0 i see what the kernel does and with the debian i can login.

With the fedora 19 i cant login because on the screen i neet to set root password first.

I have tested it on 2 boards (same order) rev. D

Both don't work!

So either they had holiday in their heads and something is broken/not soldered.
Or i'm doing something wrong (for example my HDMI to DVI cable) isn't compatible with this HDMI output board.
strange thing is that my Rasp HDMI works on same screen with same cable.

Will test later today on native HDMI screen what happens, else i start RMA procedure.

Also where is a mIRC channel where you can ask questions and stuff?

Lurch · August 24, 2013, 05:29:42 PM

You say you haven't made any changes - does that mean you haven't set up the script.bin on the boot partition?
I think the images are all set up for VGA - not LCD or HDMI. You do have to copy the correct script.bin to the boot partition (it's FAT32, so you can do that with a card reader, etc.).
Just a suggestion, if you haven't done that.

There is a support@olimex.com email address for hardware help (i.e., board defect, RMA etc.) if it really is a problem. They've sold a bunch of these, so it seems more likely to be a setup problem.

tks · August 24, 2013, 05:53:55 PM

Thanxs for following up on this.

If i interpret correctly the debian images are setup for HDMI output.
altough it looks like they aren't (i got no output).

Saying that the fedora images doesn't show up either.

I only burned the image to the card. (debian) and copied from the HDMI folder to the root.
(also tried without that)

Can you confirm that the olimex wiki debian image should work (HDMI wise)?
Did you tried on a rev. D?

Tested on a native HDMI device no output, so its not the screen.

Don't untherstand whats happening then...

Lurch · August 24, 2013, 10:08:30 PM

I have run Rev. D A20 with HDMI - no problems.
I don't recall if the Debian images were for LCD or HDMI - I always put the sdcard into a card reader and copy the script.bin from the "script_a20_linux_HDMI_sd" folder to the root. My monitor had no problems with that.
I was using "A20 Debian 4GB SD-card image release-2" from the Wiki page. I only used LCD with release-1, so I don't know if there was a problem with that one.

tks · August 26, 2013, 11:51:45 AM

Well then its clear.

If i install de debian image and copy the HDMI script.bin.
Nothing happens.

The standard Android doesn't work also (i got 4GB NAND).

Will send a mail to olimex.

gielpet · August 27, 2013, 07:00:30 PM

Quote from: Lurch on August 23, 2013, 07:45:35 PM
UART0 is 115200 baud. Connect a RS232-USB converter like this:
https://www.olimex.com/Products/Components/Cables/USB-Serial-Cable/USB-Serial-Cable-F/
to see the bootup log. You can find converters on the web as well (should be 3,3V).
The USB Ports are both active, but one (Linux) is high-speed only, so you can't connect a mouse to it directly, you'll need a powered hub. If you connect a usb-stick etc., you'll see that it works.
All three of my A20's (revision A and D) seem to work O=K with the image you are using. Maybe you have another problem on the board. How are you connecting the network?

Bought the cable as suggested, hooked it up with blue at GND, green at RX0 and red at TX0 plugged it in my laptop and on linux (openSuse) its visible as /dev/ttyUSB0.
tried to use minicom, but minicom locks on start and only killing it can remove it.
Any suggestions how to proceed?

Something I noticed: when there is no network connection (cable) then I don't get the login prompt on Debian.
Also my keyboard stopped working. I cannot login on Debian annymore.

If I find an email adress (anyone! pointers?) for this kind of failure I try to get another board, for the time beeing, I give up!

thanks...

Lurch · August 27, 2013, 07:12:20 PM

Quoteblue at GND, green at RX0 and red at TX0

Green is the INPUT for the converter, so it goes to the OUTPUT of the UART = TX0.
Red is the OUTPUT for the converter, so it goes to the INPUT of the UART = RX0.
I use Windows, so a COMx shows up when I connect. I then use TeraTerm as a terminal.
Not sure what to use on Linux.

gielpet · August 28, 2013, 04:27:16 PM

Lurch, thanks for the pointer, cable correct connected tried it with Tera term on windows 7, windows sees the cable and appoints port 4 to it. Tera term refuses to see it. Alas back to the Internet and Linux. After some digging I managed to get it working under Linux (surprisingly easy if you know how). I can now see what the board is doing but I am not happy with it. After about 75 to 90 seconds the board stops working. No output on the serial line and no response on keyboard or USB ports (removing and attaching).

P.S.
For people who cannot find what I was looking for:
connect the cable (mentioned a little bit up in this topic by Lurch) to an usb port on a Linux machine.
open a shell,
do: lsdev (to show the list of devices on your Linux)
look for /dev/ttyUSBX (mine showed up with ttyUSB0)
do: stty -F /dev/ttyUSB0 speed 115200 cs8 -cstopb -parenb && echo -n ^R^B > /dev/ttyUSB0 (enter)
the shell respond with the speed (115200)
to see what is happening:
do: cat /dev/ttyUSB0 (enter)
to catch it in a file
do: cat /dev/ttyUSB0 > whateverfile.txt (enter)
good luck!

Furthermore: Booting on Android and on Debian the screen color is pink.
Can someone tell me if this color is right for both Android and Debian?

I Hope that someone from Olimex can have a look at this!
This is the output with a boot without SD card (Android)

###HELLO! BOOT0 is starting!
boot0 version : 2.0.0#�#
read dram para.
dram size =1024MB
0xea00000a
super_standby_flag = 0
Succeed in opening nand flash.
block from 2 to 6
deal block 2
Succeed in reading Boot1 file head.
The size of Boot1 is 0x00068000.
The file stored in 0x00000000 of block 2 is perfect.
Check is correct.
Ready to disable icache.
Succeed in loading Boot1.
Jump to Boot1.
[ 0.150] boot1 version : 2.0.0
[ 0.159] script installed early ok
[ 0.160] pmu type = 3
[ 0.161] bat vol = 60 mv
[ 0.179] axi:ahb:apb=4:2:2
[ 0.179] set dcdc2=1400mv, clock=912M successed
[ 0.181] key
[ 0.194] no key found
[ 0.194] flash init start
[ 2.090] flash init finish
[ 2.116] fs init ok
[ 2.118] fattype FAT16
[ 2.118] fs mount ok
[ 2.123] nand good_block_ratio=944
[ 2.124] storage_type=0
[ 2.169] 0

[ 2.183] set pc

[ 2.185] usbdc_vol = 4000, usbdc_cur = 0

[ 2.186] usbpc_vol = 4400, usbpc_cur = 500

[ 2.189] init to usb pc

[ 2.191] set pc

[ 2.383] battery enough

[ 2.383] power_start=0x00000000

[ 2.384] pre sys mode
[ 2.386] key value = 0

[ 2.389] recovery key high 40, low 4

[ 2.483] show pic finish

[ 2.484] load kernel start

[ 2.512] load kernel successed

[ 2.512] start address = 0x4a000000

[ 3.243] power exit detect

[ 3.243] usb exit detect

U-Boot 2011.09-rc1-00000-geceb6aa-dirty (May 16 2013 - 10:16:54) Allwinner Technology

CPU: SUNXI Family
Board: SUN7I-EVB
DRAM: 1 GiB
NAND: NB1 : enter NFB_Init
[NAND] nand driver version: 0x2, 0x11, data: 20130104
[NAND] nand driver: secure debug v1.2.9, 20121103, 13:09
[NAND] set nand_good_block_ratio 944
NB1 : nand phy init ok
NB1 : init ok
3776 MiB
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
--------fastboot partitions--------
-total partitions:10-
-name- -start- -size-
bootloader : 8000 8000
env : 10000 8000
boot : 18000 8000
system : 20000 100000
data : 120000 100000
misc : 220000 8000
recovery : 228000 10000
cache : 238000 80000
databk : 2b8000 80000
UDISK : 338000 428000
-----------------------------------
bootcmd set setargs_nand
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0

Starting kernel ...

aw_clkevt_init: sun7i_timer0_clockevent mult 6442450, max_delta_ns 170000, min_delta_ns 1000, cpumask 0xc047e8c0, irq 54
[ 0.975789] init: /init.rc: 558: ignored duplicate definition of service 'iprenew_wlan0'
[ 2.067260] init: width = 1024
[ 2.070336] init: height = 600
[ 2.073485] init: s.st_size = 2457600
[ 2.773394] init: do_umount: /data
[ 3.077177] init: do_umount: /cache
[ 3.173637] init: dont need format /dev/block/UDISK
[ 3.193747] init: do_umount: /databk
[ 3.317495] init: cannot find '/system/etc/install-recovery.sh', disabling 'flash_recovery'
[ 4.211513] android_usb: already disabled
[ 4.216178] init: using deprecated syntax for specifying property 'sys.usb.config', use ${name} instead
[ 4.227086] init: using deprecated syntax for specifying property 'sys.usb.config', use ${name} instead
[ 6.029312] init: untracked pid 1492 exited
[ 6.033670] init: untracked pid 1497 exited
[ 6.037962] init: untracked pid 1501 exited
[ 6.043839] init: untracked pid 1507 exited
[ 33.428249] init: sys_prop: permission denied uid:1003 name:service.bootanim.exit
before init devices.
before power init.
before dram enter selfresh.
before gating off dram cl�#

thanks in advance...