Wetek Hub LE11 AMLGX, uboot stops half way...

gonp · March 11, 2023 at 9:36 AM

Dear LE team,

So happy to get LE11 support for our good/old Wetek Hub, I installed AMLGX wetek Hub box image to flash.

Following the wiki page, I booted the 'box' image from SD card, then used emmctool to write the 'wetek-hub board' image to eMMC.
(I had to first 'zero' the eMMC because emmctool did not like the labels on it).

But now on boot, I can see from the serial port that the boot process stops halfway (console log below).

if I type 'boot' on the uboot prompt, it will continue and complete booting, and I get LE running just fine...

Any idea how to make boot complete at once?

Thanks!

Quote

GXBB:BL1:08dafd:0a8993;FEAT:EDFD718C;POC:3;RCY:0;EMMC:0;READ:0;CHK:0;

no sdio debug board detected

TE: 117751

BL2 Built : 09:01:42, Oct 11 2016.

gxb g88b04d6 - haixiang.bao@droid05

set vcck to 1100 mv

set vddee to 1000 mv

Board ID = 1

CPU clk: 1536MHz

DDR chl: Rank0+1 same @ 912MHz

DDR0: 1024MB(auto)-2T-13

DataBus test pass!

AddrBus test pass!

-s

Load fip header from eMMC, src: 0x0000c000, des: 0x01400000, size: 0x00004000

New fip structure!

Load bl30 from eMMC, src: 0x00010000, des: 0x01000000, size: 0x0000d460

Sending bl30......................................................OK.

Run bl30...

Load bl31 from eMMC, src: 0x00020000, des: 0x1010[000, size: 0x00018190

Image: gxb_v1.1.3135-18177fc 2016-06-24 11:00:09 yun.cai@droid06]

OPS=0x13

7d e0 7e 24 97 14 ac a7 7d 21 38 a3 [0.203101 Inits done]

secure task start!

high task start!

low task start!

Load bl33 from eMMC, src: 0x0003c000, des: 0x01000000, size: 0x0008ecf0

NOTICE: BL3-1: v1.0(debug):bc3419d

NOTICE: BL3-1: Built : 14:16:22, Aug 15 2016

INFO: BL3-1: Initializing runtime services

WARNING: No OPTEE provided by BL2 boot loader

ERROR: Error initializing runtime service opteed_fast

INFO: BL3-1: Preparing for EL3 exit to normal world

INFO: BL3-1: Next image address = 0x1000000

INFO: BL3-1: Next image spsr = 0x3c9

<debug_uart>

U-Boot 2022.10 (Feb 27 2023 - 22:22:07 +0000) wetek-hub

Model: WeTek Hub

SoC: Amlogic Meson GXBB (S905) Revision 1f:c (13:1)

DRAM: 1 GiB

Core: 161 devices, 25 uclasses, devicetree: separate

MMC: mmc@70000: 0, mmc@72000: 1, mmc@74000: 2

Loading Environment from nowhere... OK

In: serial

Out: serial

Err: serial

[BL31]: tee size: 0

Net: eth0: ethernet@c9410000

Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0

=>

Display More

**chewitt** · March 11, 2023 at 6:33 PM

I've seen this on my own board, and I think the cause is noise on the UART pins which is interpreted as a keypress (hence it enters u-boot). If you remove the UART cable does it boot normally?

gonp · March 12, 2023 at 5:49 PM

sadly, even with the UART cable removed it will not complete the boot.

I noticed that this only happens on first booting after connecting the unit to power. Once manually 'boot'ing the first time, one can use the remote or 'shutdown now' to 'sleep' the device. Turning on the device with the remote after sleeping results in a complete boot.

is there any way to configure uboot to use a specific character to stop booting? like 'press space to stop booting process'...

Thanks,

**chewitt** · March 13, 2023 at 4:21 AM

Wake from suspend works as you've already gone past the initial cold boot stage where the problem occurs. To be honest I have no idea how to solve this. On my own Hub box boot fails reliably with UART connected and works once I disconnect it. I've believed this to be a self-created problem, because I had to resolder the UART pins to get it working due to joints on the PCB going dry and breaking connections, and my poor quality soldering job (at the time done with a prehistoric plumbing soldering iron) was the cause of the problem.

I'll have to speak to kernel maintainers for ideas.

gonp · March 19, 2023 at 5:47 PM

just wanted to update this issue in case someone else hit the same problem.

the only way I could 'fix' this problem was to solder a wire and hold the RX line of the UART to high (3.3V)... not the nicest solution, but at least it allows me to keep using the 'hub' for a longer time....

**chewitt** · March 20, 2023 at 3:14 AM

gonp that kind of confirms the issue is noise on the UART pins. Have you tried resoldering the UART pins?

**chewitt** · March 20, 2023 at 10:06 AM

gonp Can you boot from SD card (so emmc is not in-use) and then (re)write this image to emmc:

https://chewitt.libreelec.tv/testing/LibreELEC-AMLGX.arm-11.0.1-wetek-hub.img.gz

I've modifed U-Boot with the content from this patch, but I'm nowhere near a Hub board to test it:

Bootloader-Builder/0003-Autoboot-keyboard-beaglebone-fixes.patch at fix/autoboot · BrianAdams/Bootloader-Builder

create sanity in the insanity. Contribute to BrianAdams/Bootloader-Builder development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

The patch should cause u-boot to pause if input is detected on the <space> key, and then you have 15 seconds to type "stop" to enter the u-boot console else it resets and boots again. The possible flaw is that constant noise might result in persistent triggering of the pause and reset cycle, but the first step is to ensure the changes are present in the image linked above. If yes, then we can fine-tune the behaviour.

gonp · March 24, 2023 at 6:10 PM

Hi chewitt,

I wrote that image to flash... but still the same, gets stuck on uboot.

see UART output below.

Thanks,

Quote

GXBB:BL1:08dafd:0a8993;FEAT:EDFD718C;POC:3;RCY:0;EMMC:0;READ:0;CHK:0;

no sdio debug board detected

TE: 126569

BL2 Built : 09:01:42, Oct 11 2016.

gxb g88b04d6 - haixiang.bao@droid05

set vcck to 1100 mv

set vddee to 1000 mv

Board ID = 1

CPU clk: 1536MHz

DDR chl: Rank0+1 same @ 912MHz

DDR0: 1024MB(auto)-2T-13

DataBus test pass!

AddrBus test pass!

-s

Load fip header from eMMC, src: 0x0000c000, des: 0x01400000, size: 0x00004000

New fip structure!

Load bl30 from eMMC, src: 0x00010000, des: 0x01000000, size: 0x0000d460

Sending bl30......................................................OK.

Run bl30...

Load bl31 from eMMC, src: 0x00020000, des: 0x1010[000, size: 0x00018190

Image: gxb_v1.1.3135-18177fc 2016-06-24 11:00:09 yun.cai@droid06]

OPS=0x13

7d e0 7e 24 97 14 ac a7 7d 21 38 a3 [0.211947 Inits done]

secure task start!

high task start!

low task start!

Load bl33 from eMMC, src: 0x0003c000, des: 0x01000000, size: 0x0008ecf0

NOTICE: BL3-1: v1.0(debug):bc3419d

NOTICE: BL3-1: Built : 14:16:22, Aug 15 2016

INFO: BL3-1: Initializing runtime services

WARNING: No OPTEE provided by BL2 boot loader

ERROR: Error initializing runtime service opteed_fast

INFO: BL3-1: Preparing for EL3 exit to normal world

INFO: BL3-1: Next image address = 0x1000000

INFO: BL3-1: Next image spsr = 0x3c9

<debug_uart>

U-Boot 2022.10 (Mar 20 2023 - 09:48:02 +0000) wetek-hub

Model: WeTek Hub

SoC: Amlogic Meson GXBB (S905) Revision 1f:c (13:1)

DRAM: 1 GiB

Core: 161 devices, 25 uclasses, devicetree: separate

MMC: mmc@70000: 0, mmc@72000: 1, mmc@74000: 2

Loading Environment from nowhere... OK

In: serial

Out: serial

Err: serial

[BL31]: tee size: 0

Net: eth0: ethernet@c9410000

Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0

=>

Display More

**chewitt** · March 25, 2023 at 6:13 AM

I've dug my own Hub out, and mine is definitely bad joints on the UART connector. If I press the connector from a certain angle (forcing the bad joint to connect) it boots fine. If the cable is just connected it always ends up in the u-boot console. In current state, that means it's great for experimenting with u-boot though.