[Odroid-C2] GXBB / S905 and LE 11.06 or 12 does not boot

karotrape · August 13, 2024 at 8:10 PM

Hello,

I have same issue with my c2, did you found a way to get it booting ?

ilovebytes · August 14, 2024 at 5:18 PM

no i am sorry but up do date my c2 still just freezes when trying to boot a new le 11.06 or 12 image.

chewit seems to be quite busy with real life now, but i hope when he maybe has some more spare time again, he might just have another idea to get this running on our c2

we just need some more patience

sputnik1969 · August 25, 2024 at 8:43 PM

my c2 boots. but only the first time. reboot doesn't work, i have to remove the psu and after plugging it on again, it boots again.

but then i have my tv to search for a cec device and set it up again every time. the c2 doesn't log in correctly either.

cosmos · August 26, 2024 at 6:13 AM

No boot-related issues on my end and have been running LE11 and now 12 for some time now, on Samsung EVO and the Sandisk orange/gray SD cards (don't recall the exact model sorry).

Posting here because I recall the following, don't know if they help. One, a couple of times after a power loss, C2 would not boot. I went ballistic checking things out. Even re-wrote a new SD card. Same result. By mistake, left the box at that unusable state, turned off the tv and went to bed. The other day tv was on, and I was greeted with the LE installation wizard. Installing the old, working SD card also worked just fine.

Two, on another occasion, issue was traced to a faulty power unit, simple as that...

Marcin · August 26, 2024 at 9:16 AM

Good day all.

Yesterday my EMMC for Odroid C2 died, so I had to install LibreElec on micro sd card.

Tried LibreELEC-AMLGX.aarch64-12.0.0-odroid-c2.img.gz first, but got :

*** Error in mount_flash: mount_common: Could not mount LABEL=LIBREELEC ***
### Starting debugging shell for boot step: mount_flash... type exit to quit ###

Then tried LibreELEC-AMLGX.arm-11.0.6-odroid-c2.img.gz and got only black screen.

The only image that worked was LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.arm-9.0.2.img.gz. Booted on first attempt without any problems. Is there anything that can be done, or am I stuck with Kodi 18.2?

Kind regards

cosmos · August 27, 2024 at 8:29 AM

Marcin have you tried to update to 11, via 9 as per the wiki instructions at https://wiki.libreelec.tv/support/update ?

That is, copy the appropriate LE11 .img.gz file under /storage/.update/ and do a reboot.

Marcin · August 27, 2024 at 2:03 PM

Hi cosmos

Thank's for reply. No I did not try an upgrade. Actually I'm in the middle of troubleshooting. Not sure if the unstable power supply may be the issue. I flashed LibreELEC-AMLGX.aarch64-12.0.0-odroid-c2.img.gz on a new sd card and it booted, but in 1024x768p with no higher resolutions available in Kodi interface. Swapped HDMI cables but still same thing. I have to make sure that my PSU is definitelly ok and that my emmc module is definitely dead.

Kind Regards.

EDIT

Ok flashed the 12.0.0 again on a new sd card and tried yet another hdmi cable and this time maybe after 30 seconds of inactivity system booted with full hd.

However restart option does not work. Neither when initiated from kodi nor from ssh. It just shuts down the system but does not boot back up.

Also managed to update to 12.0.1 just a moment ago by placing the new image in /storage/.update folder.

special · September 12, 2024 at 10:27 PM

chewitt I am coming back to this now. Can I get one of those test images to try?

I am currently writing a 12.0.1 image to my microSD card to test. Will report here if it works.

So actually the 12.0.1 image seems to be working for me. I do get some screen flicker, but will see how it goes over the next couple of days.

I spoke too soon. I think the only reason it was working was because I still had the UART adapter connected (but not plugged into my PC). Very odd. I am going to connect it again and see what happens...

LibreEd · September 13, 2024 at 8:00 AM

Quote from special

I still had the UART adapter connected (but not plugged into my PC).

Exactly the same problem here. My C2 (LibreElec 12) boots at most 1 or 2 times in 20 power-up attemps. When i connect a CP2102 UART adapter (only to the C2 is enough), it boots every time. Very odd...

special · September 13, 2024 at 5:04 PM

Yeah, it is pretty strange. So I have the UART wiring harness connected to GND, RXD, and TXD, and then the wiring harness plugged into the USB dongle. And the dongle is just sitting on top of my C2, not plugged into a computer. In this state it will boot. But if I disconnect the wiring harness from the UART port on the C2, it sits there with a red light and does not boot.

It is almost like it needs to see some kind of connection on one of those terminals to boot. I hope chewitt is able to take a look at this and have an idea as to what might be going on.

**chewitt** · September 19, 2024 at 6:10 AM

Does the C2 exhibit the same behaviour when only GND and TX are connected (leave RX disconnected)?

Does the C2 exhibit the same behaviour when only GND and RX are connected (leave TX disconnected)?

Just wondering if this has something to do with RX pull-up..

ilovebytes · September 20, 2024 at 12:04 PM

special

thx for your finding, i have the same behavoiur with my c2 with the uart connected the c2 boots every time without any problem using the newest nightly le 12 build for the c2 from https://test.libreelec.tv/12.0/Amlogic/odroid-c2/

chewitt

i tried what you suggested and my c2 boots whether i connect RX, TX and GND or just GND, TX or GND and RX it always boots up without any problem.

could i do anything more to investigate this behaviour ?

**chewitt** · September 21, 2024 at 12:49 PM

ilovebytes Just to confirm .. if you connect only GND, the device boots?

ilovebytes · September 22, 2024 at 3:15 PM

chewitt

GND alone i did not trey i did GND and RX without TX and GND with TX without RX ...

but i will try GND alone also and report back

LibreEd · September 23, 2024 at 6:51 PM

I tested something...
I only connected a 10K resistor from RX to GND. Seems like the C2 always boots now. A 20K resistor seems to work too...

ilovebytes · September 28, 2024 at 2:10 PM

chewitt

sorry i have some time problems lately and therefore i am not always able to test things immedeatly. but here we go..

with a pin connected to GND of uart alone the C2 with your latest LE 12 does not boot up, same with a pin connected just to TXD it does not boot up.

but with anything just connected to the RXD Pin of the UART Console Connector from the C2, my C2 always boots up with no Problem with LE 12

hope this helps to maybe find a solution to get it boot up without the need to connect something tho RXD Pin...

**chewitt** · October 8, 2024 at 7:59 AM

Diff

--- a/arch/arm/dts/meson-gxbb-odroidc2-u-boot.dtsi
+++ b/arch/arm/dts/meson-gxbb-odroidc2-u-boot.dtsi
@@ -35,6 +35,13 @@
 	snps,reset-active-low;
 };
 
+&uart_ao_a_pins {
+	mux {
+		/delete-property/ bias-disable;
+		bias-pull-up;
+	};
+};
+
 &usb0 {
 	status = "disabled";
 };

Display More

ilovebytes Please test https://chewitt.libreelec.tv/testing/LibreE…droid-c2.img.gz. This bumps the u-boot version to 2024.10 and includes the experimental patch above suggested by MartinB. Any difference?

ilovebytes · October 8, 2024 at 3:07 PM

chewitt

finally this version with the patch for the uart connector boots up just fine without the need to connect anything to the uart on my c2

great work and thanks a lot for your patience to get a working solution . Hope there is a way that this patch find its way into all future libreelec versions for the C2