Reboot not working on amlogic S905 (Odroid-C2) (LE11 Nightly 17-12-2022)

Orski · December 19, 2022 at 12:27 PM

I've been trying since last week to reboot my odroid but it always just shuts down, tho I should mention that the LE logo does appear and looks like its trying to start when it shuts off.

No matter what method I use whether it's from SSH (reboot or kodi-send --action="restart") or the gui it's always the same. And to turn my device back on i have to unplug and replug it, sometimes several times which is starting to worry me.

You will find the logs before the last reboot here and the next startup here.

Thank you.

smf007 · December 20, 2022 at 5:11 PM

There has been a continual up and down over the last couple years with regard to the reboot issue.

If you try a google, there is a back and forth breakage between the Kernel and u-boot. General summary seems to be related to the power for attached devices, e.g. SD-Card, USB, EMMC, so what you have attached also seems to impact whether you are impacted or not. Even just changing the speed of SD-Card has an impact.

For any of the Libreelec team, the following might be of some help if you hadn't already seen:

Armbian - meson64: edge: rework to kernel 5.19 which with regard to the reboot issue just references

This discussion of CONFIG_DRM_MESON=m vs. CONFIG_DRM_MESON=y in terms of a broadly acceptable solution.

Armbian's later update to Kernel 6.0.13 continued to follow suit on CONFIG_DRM_MESON=y

Armbian - Update kernel configs for Meson64 CURRENT / EDGE

Orski · December 20, 2022 at 7:07 PM

Thank you so much for your reply, I started looking at threads in odroid and I should mess around with the kernel to fix it?

Do you think it's possible for me to build the kernel? Or I should opt for another solution?

smf007 · December 20, 2022 at 10:19 PM

The current nightlies are using CONFIG_DRM_MESON=y, and has been for 4 years

You can also confirm from the currently running kernel by cat /proc/config.gz | gunzip | grep -i DRM_MESON

**chewitt** · December 21, 2022 at 9:19 AM

Quote from Orski

I've been trying since last week to reboot my odroid but it always just shuts down, tho I should mention that the LE logo does appear and looks like its trying to start when it shuts off. No matter what method I use whether it's from SSH (reboot or kodi-send --action="restart") or the gui it's always the same. And to turn my device back on i have to unplug and replug it, sometimes several times which is starting to worry me.

When the board boots (u-boot first, then kernel, then userspace) the kernel init script loads the LE boot splash. When Kodi starts, it renders to a full screen 'Window' and this overwrites/obscures the splash. If you manually stop Kodi the Window goes away to reveal the underlying layer with the splash again. If a shutdown is slow enough you'll see the same; Kodi stops and the splash is revealed again. If the screen then goes black, e.g. TV loses the HDMI signal and then you see the splash again; it suggests the board has rebooted. If you don't see the black loss of signal and the LE splash remains on-screen it suggests the board is never shutting down. If you only see the black/lost-signal it suggests the board shuts down and either never reboots; or it reboots and hangs before the kernel init runs.

I haven't boot tested a C2 for a while, but it was working fine last time I did, and nothing has really changed. For kicks you can try this on a clean SD card: https://chewitt.libreelec.tv/testing/LibreE…droid-c2.img.gz (removing all add-ons and such from scope is never a bad thing). If you see the same and have an old shitty SD card (no fancy fast speeds) lying around that's also worth testing to rule out issues with voltage changes not happening (not resetting the card to a state where it can be seen on boot). Testing a clean card also proves it's not just an old/bad/dying card (they don't last forever) - the same applies to emmc modules.

The best way to really understand what's happening is connecting a UART cable as this will clearly show the early stages of boot (u-boot and kernel) and where things get stuck or not.

And (as has already been said) whatever the issue is, it is guaranteed to have nothing to do with CONFIG_MESON_DRM in the kernel.

Orski · December 21, 2022 at 11:36 AM

Quote from chewitt

When the board boots (u-boot first, then kernel, then userspace) the kernel init script loads the LE boot splash. When Kodi starts, it renders to a full screen 'Window' and this overwrites/obscures the splash. If you manually stop Kodi the Window goes away to reveal the underlying layer with the splash again. If a shutdown is slow enough you'll see the same; Kodi stops and the splash is revealed again. If the screen then goes black, e.g. TV loses the HDMI signal and then you see the splash again; it suggests the board has rebooted. If you don't see the black loss of signal and the LE splash remains on-screen it suggests the board is never shutting down. If you only see the black/lost-signal it suggests the board shuts down and either never reboots; or it reboots and hangs before the kernel init runs.

Judging from what you said my board shuts down and never reboots, TV loses signal and that's it nothing else happens.

Quote from chewitt

I haven't boot tested a C2 for a while, but it was working fine last time I did, and nothing has really changed. For kicks you can try this on a clean SD card: https://chewitt.libreelec.tv/testing/LibreE…droid-c2.img.gz (removing all add-ons and such from scope is never a bad thing). If you see the same and have an old shitty SD card (no fancy fast speeds) lying around that's also worth testing to rule out issues with voltage changes not happening (not resetting the card to a state where it can be seen on boot). Testing a clean card also proves it's not just an old/bad/dying card (they don't last forever) - the same applies to emmc modules.

The card I have is brand new and it should be an SDHC 10, I'm going to look for another one and test if anything changes with your image, thank you so much for your help.

I unfortunately don't have a UART cable and it's probably really hard to find here, it took me around a month to get this odroid and RPIs were either sold out or very very expensive, which is why i opted for the C2 knowing it has HEVC decoding capabilities which is why I got it.

For now, I will try your image and keep you updated on what happens.

Thank you.

Orski · December 21, 2022 at 7:06 PM

Unfortunately, it didn't work but I have an idea and I don't know if it's feasible.

Can I network boot, I'm writing this before researching it so I will now. If you guys have any idea about it please let me know.

Thank you again for all your help.

**chewitt** · December 22, 2022 at 10:22 AM

mainline u-boot supports network booting, but I've never personally set it up, so can't guide on the process

I'll see if I can dig out a C2 for testing over Christmas .. it's been a while.

Orski · December 22, 2022 at 10:41 PM

Thank you chewitt for your help, looks like I can boot using tftp.

I'm going to try setting it up but for the meantime I'm going to restore my old configuration.

Orski · January 11, 2023 at 2:49 PM

It was indeed an sd card issue, I got an older one and it worked flawlessly. But now it restarts if its paused for a minute or so. I have no idea why.

It's quitting with this error : failed to create egl sync fence (EGL_BAD_ALLOC)

Log.