Re: Unable to boot Pi 3b+

On Aug 16, 2023, at 01:49, Peter G <list-freebsd-arm@box559.com> wrote:

> Mark Millard wrote on 2023-08-15 20:25:
>> On Aug 15, 2023, at 19:17, Peter G <list-freebsd-arm@box559.com> wrote:
>>> I am unable to get FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64 to boot on either of two brand new Raspberry Pi 3B+ boards. (Just as a diagnostic, I checked that both work perfectly well with Raspberry Pi OS.)  I have tried several different brands and sizes of SD card (which all boot fine with Raspberry Pi OS). I have redone the image downloads multiple times and verified the checksums. I burn images to the SD card on another machine using dd with bs=1M. If I mount the prepared SD cards on that other machine, I can confirm the files are readable.
>>> 
>>> I have tried both
>>> /ftp/releases/arm64/aarch64/ISO-IMAGES/13.2/FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img
>> It may not be likely to be the issue, but you did not mention
>> it explicitly, so . . .
>> I instead see:
>> http://ftp3.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/13.2/FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz
> 
> Yes, this is what I used. Sorry to not have been more explicit; I used unxz -k to extract the .img file before dd'ing it to the SD card.
> 
>> Note the *.xz naming. I do not see a: FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img
>> to download
>> After downloading FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz ,
>> using:
>> # unxz FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz
>> would produce a:
>> FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img
>> That, in turn, would be dd'd to the microsd card.
>>> and
>>> /ftp/releases/arm64/aarch64/ISO-IMAGES/13.2/FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-disc1.iso.
>> Definitely the wrong media: no RPi* firmware, no U-Boot for the
>> aarch64 RPi* , and so on.
> 
> Lack of a boot loader would explain why I get no green LED at all with the disc1.iso
> 
> The other image, the RPI.img one, at least tries to boot, as evidenced by the 4 long and 7 short blinks of the green LED. As a further diagnostic, I took that same SD card that blinks the LED and fails to boot in the 3B+ and put it in a Pi 4, where it boots fine.
> 
> So the RPI.img, the one you suggested above, is booting and working well in the Pi 4 but the exact same SD card fails to boot in the Pi 3B+. Since my two Pi 3B+s both work fine with other (non-FreeBSD) images, it seems that there must be a problem with that FreeBSD image on the PI 3B+. Are there any known issues with the boot loader on the Pi 3B+?
> 
> Again, perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't know what else to try. Suggestions most welcome.

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=259438 comment #4 indicates 13.2 booting
an example (older) RPi3B+ for someone that has one. (I do not have access to any vintage
of RPi3B+ .)

This, with your finding that your media does boot a RPi4B, suggests that modern RPi*3B+'s
have some sort of technical change that requires newer RPi* firmware than releng/13.2
contains. (I do not expect that U-Boot would do the blinking activity, for example.)

You could try a microsd card made from a modern snapshot. If that works, you
could replace appropriate msdosfs material on the releng/13.2 media with
materials from the modern snapshot and then see if that boots.

I've used:

http://ftp3.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/ISO-IMAGES/14.0/FreeBSD-14.0-ALPHA1-arm64-aarch64-RPI-20230811-136fc495615f-264678.img.xz

and know it has the modern RPi* firmware. Likely the following would as well,
but I've done nothing that would confirm or deny that:

http://ftp3.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/snapshots/ISO-IMAGES/13.2/FreeBSD-13.2-STABLE-arm64-aarch64-RPI-20230810-5abba9619cbb-256019.img.xz


Do you have a serial console environment for the RPi3B+'s? It is hard to get
evidence from early problems without such. Capturing and reporting the serial
console output (if any) would be relevant evidence. For example, it would
likely be obvious if it reached the U-Boot stage or not.

>>> Neither boots.
>>> The first image gives green LED blinks: slow four and then fast seven. The second never blinks.
>>> 
>>> Any advice on what I'm missing would be appreciated.
> 


===
Mark Millard
marklmi at yahoo.com