I originally updated u-boot at the end of December when I first purchased the board.
I hope I do not have to do this again…
As stated, I have re-imaged the SD card and rebooted again, everything is working again.
I am NOT going to run this - “install_package_and_dependencies.sh” again however.
Why has nobody the posted what they see in the serial console when they encountered such a situation like myself?
Aubrey
If you use the minimal SDcard.img from the github releases then you need to run install_package_and_dependencies.sh to get all the desktop stuff. This is why this step is only documented in the ‘Minimal Image’ section of the guide.
If you are using the pre-configured Google / Baidu drive images (SD or eMMC) you do not need to run the installer. The image already has these updates and a working lightdm/xfce install; attempting to ‘upgrade’ the pre-configured development images it will generally break the GUI.
EDIT: I was wrong about the google/baidu images, they still need the installer to be run. Apologies if this has mislead anyone.
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I am not near the machine (board) now, but I recall the preconfigured Google SD image (202302) had no Firefox or Libreoffice.
How does one react to this situation?
Regards
Aubrey
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@Stromkiller You can download it, as explained in the release notes.
wget https://github.com/starfive-tech/Debian/releases/download/v0.7.0-engineering-release/install_package_and_dependencies.sh
chmod +x install_package_and_dependencies.sh
sudo ./install_package_and_dependencies.sh
https://rvspace.org/en/project/VisionFive2_Debian_Wiki_202302_Release
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That is exactly what I DO NOT WANT to do. Please read the start of this topic.
Aubrey
You should never have bought an Earlybird. You are always complaining about things that are quite normal at this stage. So please stop annoying us with your bad purchase.
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I agree with @SunWukong. It is a very new architecture (which is still undergoing major changes, just speed read the RISC-V Profiles, which was ratified 18 hours ago.) in a new SoC on a new board with a lot of software that is being worked on right now. My advise to you @Stromkiller if you are frustrated by this, is to shelf the board until mainline kernel support is finished and fully upstreamed, and by then you will probably be able to install official Debian, official Ubuntu, official …
This board exists to put a very reasonably priced RISC-V platform into the hands of those who will help make that happen. And those who wish to optimise performance of applications under RISC-V.
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I am not complaining about anything, I want this board to fly just as much as anyone else.
@sunwukong I find your comments inappropriate and unhelpful.
Aubrey
Yes, you are correct on that. Apologies for the bad advice. You will still need to run the install script for the extra utilities. …which is not ideal, but is how it is.
Engineering Release.
… the clue is the lack of either the words ‘production’ or ‘distro’ in there. Starfive are not going to waste time building upgrade-ability or easy installers into this. They will deliver code to upstream repos and leave it up to the real distro builder to do that later.
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I thought they were quite appropriate. so another thing we can disagree on.
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Hello Stromkiller,
I experienced something like you I wasn’t seeing anything on the hdmi display at all, just the red LED. Afterwards, I wiped sdcard and dd’ed the newest engineering image, booted it up, installed the mtd-utils, fetched the newer spl/payload, flashcp’ed spl/payload, “shutdown -h now”, and finally powered it up. It behaved correctly afterwards.
You did mention all these steps being tiresome. We are EARLY-BIRD EDITION PRE-ALPHA TESTERS. Call me masochist, but I enjoy having hands on this hardware to try stuff. Sure I made mistakes, but isn’t all this fun to try? Isn’t it why you got this board? It’s true I do have some expectations from the board and they are well on their way being met.
I’m already rooting for a VF3 with more cores, more pcie lanes, more RAM, more powerful GPU LOL 
Go Starfive GO!!!
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In general, if you want help, perhaps you should change your attitude.
In the end the VisionFive 2 doesn’t care what you want or don’t want to do. As far as I know, there is only one procedure to get the patched software packages.
It doesn’t work for you? So far it seems nobody else encountered your situation, so there is no reason for us to post the output of the serial console.
You want a working image? Consider falling back to an older image with the software included, or try 202303.
The Debian images of Starfive are too tiresome for you?
Perhaps consider installing one of the other images/procedures you can find in the forums.
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Hello LivingLinux, I did encounter something similar to Stromkiller. I also encounter errors when I attempted to flash the new spl/payload from the older 69 image on the sdcard. Oddly enough, after booting from the newer engineering image, the flashing of the newer spl/payload with flashcp worked successfully from there. I don’t get the inconsistency, but I did welcome the newer spl/payload on the sbc itself. All I’m saying, I understand Stromkiller’s comments. The experience might not be perfect and painless when attempting the exact steps described on the forum and documentation, but with a little finagling here and there, it’s possible to get it to the expected behaviour with corrective steps. We just need to be patient and take those corrective steps and share with the rest of the community when we succeed and when we fail. It makes for a stronger vf2 community in the long-run.
I’ll agree with others, when we are here expressing ourselves with feelings, It’s ok. Please try to encourage others rather than criticizing others. I apologize if any of what I’ve stated offended anybody, but please keep in mind it’s all in the lens of constructive criticisms to make the VF2 and subsequent VF SBC’s stronger and more enjoyable to use.
Finally, LivingLinux I enjoy your videos. They helped me to progress in my VF2 user experience. You’re awesome and a superhero in my books.
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All’s well that end well.
Doubtless, we all want to see this board perform reliably and well, despite the initial teething problems.
Regards
Aubrey
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@omac777
You state “fetched the newer spl/payload”
Is that a “must” with 202302, as I have not updated the firmware since I purchased the board
in early January?
I cannot find the changelog for the newer firmware.
Regards
Aubrey
@Stromkiller All the information is here: VisionFive 2 Debian Image 202302 Released
It has a link to the firmware: Release VisionFive2 Software v2.10.4 · starfive-tech/VisionFive2 · GitHub
You only need u-boot-spl.bin.normal.out and visionfive2_fw_payload.img .
The instructions to update the firmware are here: https://doc-en.rvspace.org/VisionFive2/PDF/VisionFive2_QSG.pdf (Section 4.3)
Or you can try to change the boot switches.
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Thanks for the information.
I will try the update process using flashcp and report back - without touching the switches.
Regards
Aubrey
No need to change the switches. Just new engineering image to sdcard. boot the new sdcard. DONT apt-get update/upgrade, just install mtd-utils, then download and flashcp the spl.bin.normal.out and payload.img in their respective mtd locations. shutdown and power up and then you should be good.
It’s not a must, but you’ll want to because it will improve your experience and it will facilitate the next upgrade cycle.
I learned my lesson. I don’'t apt-get update/upgrade LOL. We all need to wait until Starfive makes an official announcement that we can proceed to apt-get update/upgrade.
I cannot emphasize how spot on the sound quality is through the hdmi! It’s excellent. Through USB audio dongles it’s luck of the draw at the moment.