A definitive guide to getting a VisionFive2 board running on a Debian (69) version

Much appreciate the contributions made here and progress to date.
Because there are usual snippets of information scattered/dispersed all over the forum, would it not be a good idea to have a checklist/cookboot here in PDF format to help the uniniated?
PS I received my board yesterday.

Aubrey
PPS Here is a link to an article (German) which is very detailed and succint.
001-Druckversion - RISC-V-Board Erste Schritte mit Starfive Visionfive 2 Make.pdf (5.7 MB)

The link takes a while to download. Please be patient with it.

Don’t read german, but any ideas why some people find the minimal image boots but not the full image 69?

I went through the doc. Yes German, but the console commands are mentioned.

That said, I prefer this method with flashcp.
Updating the VisionFive 2 Firmware (Read video description!)

I haven’t tried it yet since I only receive my board end February.

The up-and-running thread, VisionFive 2 up and running instructions, has several good checklists. Problem is that it’s quite a moving target so the instructions change over time, I tried to collect all the latest stuff in my post towards the end which is known to work, well, as of a few hours ago.

The URL to the article (which could be translated to any language by most web browsers) can be found at:

The pdf file because its contents were generated from a website, also tries to connect to all the websites anyhow, so it is not like the pdf file is helping you avoid any tracking and monitoring that would typically be blocked with browser plugins (noscript, ABP AdblockPlus, Privacy Badger,…etc.).

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As of now you dont need to flash firmware with the UART Dongle. It is not needed anymore.
You can do it much easier with the sdcard.img on the github repo.

This will boot and get a DHCP Adress then log in and patch the firmware.
Then you can reflash the sdcard with the 69er image.

It will then boot. IP will stay the same.

There are inscrutions in the other thread mentioned here.

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Here is my wiki with some notes:

For basic boot look into the SDcard page.

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Sorry, I can see nothing enlightening here. Only scraps of text.
At least a more comprohensive checklist would be preferable.

Aubrey

Hey Aubrey

here you go:

  1. Download “sdcard.img” from: Releases · starfive-tech/VisionFive2 · GitHub

Note: the sdcard.img is not a full image with GUI it is just used to easily patch the firmware.

  1. Write the image sdcard.img onto the sdcard. You can use balea etcher for this. Stick sdcard into the TF slot on the underside.

  2. Plug in the ethernet cable on the “middle” ethernet port. The one on the edge does not give you a DHCP adress.

  3. Power on the Board

  4. Monitor your router so see what new IP adress gets handed out.

Now the Router should assign a new IP adress to your VF2. The name is “buildroot”

  1. Open a Terminal on linux or Download Putty.exe on Windows.

  2. Login to the risc v with the user root and the password starfive and the ip you read from your router. Use Putty for this or the Linux Terminal

Now you should be connected to the VF2 and be logged in now you can flash the firmware and after that shutdown the sdcard.img

  1. Download the Firmware files inside the connected VF2 board.

Use the commands:

wget https://github.com/starfive-tech/VisionFive2/releases/download/VF2_v2.6.0/u-boot-spl.bin.normal.out
wget https://github.com/starfive-tech/VisionFive2/releases/download/VF2_v2.6.0/visionfive2_fw_payload.img

  1. Flash firmware. See here for a video:Updating the VisionFive 2 Firmware (Read video description!) - YouTube

With forum post: VisionFive 2 Debian Image(December) Released - #43 by LivingLinux Or here for text instructions (Can be translated with google): Starfive VisonFive2(RISC-V SBC) で遊ぶ – その2 ファームウェアの書き換え | ず@沖縄

  1. After the successful firmware flash, flash the debian69 image onto the SDcard and boot it up. You can download the image from the Google drive. It will be zipped with bz2 you need to extract it first! Then flash.

  2. you should have hdmi output.

To better help you please indicate in what step you need assictance with.

Best
Manux

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