Pi4 USB Boot is coming soon!!!! YAAAY

I made some experiment on my RPi4 but unsuccessful at this moment.

I updated eeprom firmware without problems and it looks ok:

LibreELEC:~ # vcgencmd bootloader_version
May 15 2020 11:05:52
version 23a9f59b85f5a81bb2eec455e064ef9905216322 (release)
timestamp 1589537152
LibreELEC:~ # vcgencmd bootloader_config
[all]
BOOT_UART=0
WAKE_ON_GPIO=1
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=0
DHCP_TIMEOUT=45000
DHCP_REQ_TIMEOUT=4000
TFTP_FILE_TIMEOUT=30000
ENABLE_SELF_UPDATE=1
DISABLE_HDMI=0
SD_BOOT_MAX_RETRIES=1
USB_MSD_BOOT_MAX_RETRIES=1
BOOT_ORDER=0xf41

The problem is that LE will no boot from SDCard or USB if I replace old start.elf and fixup.dat with newer version.

Any idea ?

I like to test and experiment with my RPI's.

Quote from myrpi

The problem is that LE will no boot from SDCard or USB if I replace old start.elf and fixup.dat with newer version.

Any idea ?

LE is a bit nasty in that regard, that http://start.elf/fixup.dat files for RPi4 are actually start4x.elf and fixup4x.dat.

I'm using this script (I named it "get-rpi4-fw.sh") when I need to manually test RPi4 firmwares:

#!/bin/sh
if [ $# -ne 1 ]; then
    echo "usage: $0 githash"
    exit 1
fi

set -e

wget -O /tmp/start.elf "https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/raw/$1/boot/start4x.elf"
wget -O /tmp/fixup.dat "https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/raw/$1/boot/fixup4x.dat"

mount -o remount,rw /flash
cp /tmp/start.elf /tmp/fixup.dat /flash
mount -o remount,ro /flash

Just pass in a githash from Commits · raspberrypi/firmware · GitHub (eg 27ba5b9 for latest version as of today) and then reboot.

I tested USB boot with LE master (and an alpha version of the firmware) a couple of days ago and LE booted fine both from the SD and when I put the SD card into an USB SD card reader. Haven't tested with LE 9.2 yet but I guess that should work, too.

so long,

Hias

Thank you for help.

I just put new files in flash, renamed and it worked, tested LE 9.2.0 SD card in USB SD reader adapter.

Need to buy a new USB stick as the old one I tested, rpi4 can't boot from him.

Updated the bootloader and am now successfully running LE off a 16GB SSD (M.2 drive in a cheap USB adapter). Pretty painless process. Did need the tip from HiassofT above.

Quote from Klojum

How long does it take the RPi4 to see the 16GB SSD drive and actually start booting? 1,2,4,10 seconds?
The RPi3B+ took some 5+ seconds with the USB boot.

From the time you see the Pi boot screen to the LE logo is about 6 seconds.

Hias,

do you recommend to upgrade also other files from /Flash ?

thank you

bcm2708-rpi-b-plus.dtb
bcm2708-rpi-b.dtb
bcm2708-rpi-cm.dtb
bcm2708-rpi-zero-w.dtb
bcm2708-rpi-zero.dtb
bcm2709-rpi-2-b.dtb
bcm2710-rpi-2-b.dtb
bcm2710-rpi-3-b-plus.dtb
bcm2710-rpi-3-b.dtb
bcm2710-rpi-cm3.dtb
bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb
bootcode.bin
kernel.img
overlays

Quote from myrpi

do you recommend to upgrade also other files from /Flash ?

Only if you want to brick your LE installation

The dtb/dtbo files from RPi firmware repo are for the 5.4 kernel, LE is using the 4.19 kernel. So keep everything else as is, only swap out the start.elf and fixup.dat files.

We're already preparing for a LE 9.2.3 release, with updated kodi and fixed RPi firmware, no ETA at this point though.

For now it'd be good to get some more feedback how LE 9.2.1 with the updated firmware works.

so long,

Hias

ok, thank you for info.

Until now I updated start.elf and fixup.dat to both rpi3b and rpi4b to latest date 22-05-2020 and all looks ok, no more artifact problem on rpi4 with 4k movies.

Keep in mind that for RPi0-3 you need to download start_x.elf/fixup_x.dat (and store it as http://start.elf/fixup.dat), for RPi4 it's http://start4x.elf/fixup4x.dat.

so long,

Hias

yes, I found it also for RPI3 after I looked at original files.

thank you

Quote from HiassofT

Keep in mind that for RPi0-3 you need to download start_x.elf/fixup_x.dat (and store it as http://start.elf/fixup.dat), for RPi4 it's http://start4x.elf/fixup4x.dat.

so long,

Hias

So with 9.2.3 those files will be inside or not?