VisionFive 2 Debian Image Released

[mzs]

@Andres.Jose

then i noticed that my board is the 4 GB RAM version.

One of the “Known Issues / Limitation” currently listed in the pdf is “Auto-selection of 4GB/8GB ddr in uboot”, which I interpreted as the software failing somehow to differentiate between 4 and 8 GiB of RAM. Probably best to confirm the part number of 2/4/8GB LPDDR4 chip on the board, and lookup what the hardware really is, at least until the software issue is resolved.

“cat /proc/meminfo” - Using software to check what hardware is there only works correctly when the software is working.

[andre]

Release jammy-server-visionfive2_20221219 · initdc/rootfs-tools

i tried this image but unfortunately it seems to be missing some functionality (device tree/kernel module?) for display… after setting up kde it get the following when trying to startx (other things seems to run well)

open /dev/fb0: No such file or directory

[dtometzki]

Hello,

my experience is, boot with SDK shows 8 GB RAM and boot with Debian it shows 4 GB.

I buyed a 8GB board.

Best regards
Damian

[Koepi]

Hi,

the -v55 image works on my VisionFive2. Unfortunately, I’m stuck with updating uboot/firmware. There was no procfs, thus I added proc to /etc/fstab. I installed mtd-tools like suggested in the QSG-PDF.
Yet no MTD devices are available, the kernel doesn’t spit out anything usable during booting neither (dmesg | cat mtd).

I really don’t want to setup a tftp environment.

How do I get MTD to start, so I can update the firmware and use the -v69 debian image?
Lost a few hours yesterday only to find out that you are serious about the firmware update. V69 doesn’t boot without the update. I tried switching GPT to MBR on the SDCard and several other things …

Any help here would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Best regards
Dirk

[Koepi]

Post Scriptum: The description in the QSG is lacking details on how to boot into tftp at all. Setting to boot switches to UART?
Both ways described do not work to update the firmware.

[Bertcay]

I had the same case

VisionFive 2 Debian Image(December) Released

As expected, image55 (v2.3.0) was not able to mount mtd devices then switched to the other solution (flashing through TFTP server). As expected too, using image69 without updated u-boot & SPL failed booting and forced the boot to u-boot. From here the tftp procedure worked fine for updating u-boot and SPL → Reboot : debian booted directly. Thx

And wouldnt setup tftp: but finaly did it.
As suggested by @dtometzki i could have compile uboot by myself but wasn’t confident

VisionFive 2 Debian Image(December) Released

Hello, i build u-boot and opensbi and then installed the the mtd utilities via apt and the update wasnt a problem without tftp.

Then i decided to setup tftp
→ macos (sierra) it is already installed in cli
→ for linux, seems to be one apt install
→ for both you place files in right folder and it should just works

But definitly àll commands in VF2 side were executed through UART.

[Michael.Zhu]

I have an alternative way if you don’t want to update firmware by tftp.

1. flash sdcard.img into tf card;
2. power on and login system(user/password: root/starfive);
3. transfer the latest uboot/spl files into board by USB or Ethernet;
4. flashcp command to update;
5. re-insert the debian tf card and reboot;

[Koepi]

Thank you for your replies. A little fiddling worked:

• Windows → PumpKIN TFTP-Server. Make sure that you enable it in the firewall for public and local networks as Windows will see the ethernet connection as public (lost some time there).
• Connect USB-2-Serial. Connection setting for Terminal 8N1, 115200bps. Open COM-port in Putty, for example.
• Set your ethernet adress to 192.168.120.99 in Windows, no gateway, netmask 255.255.255.0
• When booting VisionFive2, make sure to press any key during the 3 seconds countdown which will stop the booting process and makes you reside in the firmware environment.
• Now the commands work like shown in the QSG.

Thank you for the headsup!Feels a bit like bleeding edge.

[jwh20]

So I was able to get my VisionFive 2 board working using the sdcard.img on the TF card and using the USB serial cable. I then was able to manually configure the eth1 network interface and get an ssh session going.

At least I know the board is working and that’s something.

What I don’t quite get is what is this sdcard.img file? It’s a Linux image of some sort but appears to be only a minimal set of things without any way to add more packages.

Does anyone have any tips on how to get the Debian image to boot? When I try it on the TF card I get nothing. Either the image is bad or I’m preparing it wrong.

Also, I’d really like to run from an NVMe device instead of the TF device. Has anyone been able to master that? If so, what’s the secret?

Thanks!

[Bertcay]

Image69 should work as is.
Nvme not yet supported for booting OS, only for storage.

[antoinecarme]

@jwh20

did you try this debian image ?

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xTdKqBMGLqI_MslVfeZaHrCDiklDJ3J4

[Stromkiller]

Again, my pet rant… an image with no NVME boot capability or indeed, an image/firmware release that does not support NVME booting is a non-starter for me.

[jwh20]

@Bertcay @antoinecarme

I downloaded the “69” image and flashed it to the TF card. When I try to boot I see only this on the USB serial console:

BOOT fail,Error is 0xffffffff

[dtometzki]

@Admin

QSPI flash to boot.

Hello @jwh20
Please check your boot switches. you have to set QSPI flash to boot.
Second do you have updated your u-boot and SPL ? Is required for Image “69” ?

[jwh20]

I tried all 4 switch positions and get the same error. As far as u-boot and SPL, I’m unclear on how to accomplish that. Is there are procedure? I saw a couple of mentions but it seemed that you had to know how to do it in order to do it.

[LivingLinux]

If I’m correct, you can boot the minimal image v69 with the original firmware.
As you have the serial console working, you can copy the files to the VF2 and use flashcp (instead of tftp).
See the link “Updating SPL and U-Boot” inside the post below to update.

Newbie Getting Started Help Please

Yes, the only way to update spl/uboot is by USB/TTL serial port adapter. please see the detail how to setup serial converter then, please move to this step Updating SPL and U-Boot setup tftp sever in your linux PC; download spl/uboot binaries to your tftp server path; visionfive2(eth0 or eth1) is connected to the pc over network cable; power on and serial port will pop-up startup log, then press any key to stay on uboot command line; config ipaddr for board and serverip for pc; tranfer and…

[dtometzki]

@Michael.Zhu

I have an alternative way if you don’t want to update firmware by tftp.

1. flash sdcard.img into tf card;
2. power on and login system(user/password: root/starfive);
3. transfer the latest uboot/spl files into board by USB or Ethernet;
4. flashcp command to update;
5. re-insert the debian tf card and reboot;

I think that is the best and easiest way

[Stromkiller]

Whats is the difference between the sdcard.img and the Debian (69) image?
Is the sdcard.img a kickstarter/rescue image?

[mzs]

The sdcard is a “buildroot” image (everything was cross-compiled from source code). And I have not fully dug into the details (yet), but I assume that the Debian image is a “debootstrap” with apt pointed to a point in time of sid binary packages for the risc-v architecture. There is currently no Debian Stable release that supports risc-v (yet). Now that more RISC-V hardware is in the hands of developers that will probably change, there are some packages in .Debian Testing (so maybe the next release will see an official risc-v Debian stable).

[Stromkiller]

I downloaded the sdcard.img and would agree with your assumptions.

Regards

Aubrey