Fastboot error: (remote: 'locked device')

#1

I was following thru the steps in erasing emmc, when i run the fastboot erase commands, it tends to fail due to locked device.

sudo fastboot flashing unlock_critical
sudo fastboot flashing unlock
sudo fastboot erase bootloader
sudo fastboot erase bootloader-boot0
sudo fastboot erase bootloader-boot1
OKAY [ 0.034s]
Finished. Total time: 0.034s
OKAY [ 0.037s]
Finished. Total time: 0.037s
Erasing ‘bootloader’ FAILED (remote: ‘locked device’)
fastboot: error: Command failed
Erasing ‘bootloader-boot0’ FAILED (remote: ‘locked device’)
fastboot: error: Command failed
Erasing ‘bootloader-boot1’ FAILED (remote: ‘locked device’)
fastboot: error: Command failed

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Updating instructions for reflashing and booting off EMMC?
Problem with nexus-tools and fastboot
#2

I had this same problem. Installing fastboot with apt fixed it.

sudo apt install fastboot

Managed to get the emmc erased but have not been able to install anything on the emmc yet

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#3

what’s your fastboot version? Maybe we should make a note on the wiki.

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#4

I went back to document what I did and got the original negative results. I don’t think installing fastboot with apt was the solution. I now think that my usb cable may have a intermittant fault and just happened to work that one time. I have some new cables comming.

I did get TwisterOS installed on the eemc using the SD to emmc install script ‘install-aml.sh’ found in the /root directory on the SD image. Works great.

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#5

getting same issue now. Just cant erase bootloader. Received my stick few days ago, 4GB 32eMMC, onboard prints says its V1.4. Any ideas?

#6

SOLVED:
I’m using intel mac, using the following steps in here.
wget https://dl.radxa.com/zero/images/loader/factory-loader.img
boot-g12.py factory-loader.img
then:
fastboot flashing unlock_critical
fastboot flashing unlock
for erasing bootloader, use this img (unplug and plug usb boot mode):
wget https://dl.radxa.com/zero/images/loader/rz-fastboot-loader.bin
boot-g12.py rz-fastboot-loader.bin
then:
fastboot erase bootloader
fastboot erase 0
fastboot erase 1

Using these steps i can erase the bootloader.

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Updating instructions for reflashing and booting off EMMC?
Updating instructions for reflashing and booting off EMMC?
#7

I am also having issues with fastboot. I’ve tried both the Nexus Tools version and the version in the Ubuntu repos installed with apt. Host machine is Ubuntu x86_64.

Using the steps in the Wiki results in the same errors as the original issue:

alex@deku:~/projects/radxa-zero$ sudo -E PATH=$PATH boot-g12.py factory-loader.img 
Firmware Version :
ROM: 3.2 Stage: 0.0
Need Password: 0 Password OK: 1
Writing factory-loader.img at 0xfffa0000...
[DONE]
Running at 0xfffa0000...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=16384, offset=65536, seq=0...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=49152, offset=393216, seq=1...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=16384, offset=229376, seq=2...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=49152, offset=81920, seq=3...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=16384, offset=65536, seq=4...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=49152, offset=393216, seq=5...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=16384, offset=229376, seq=6...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=49152, offset=180224, seq=7...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=16384, offset=65536, seq=8...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=49152, offset=393216, seq=9...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=16384, offset=229376, seq=10...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=49152, offset=245760, seq=11...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=49152, offset=294912, seq=12...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=16384, offset=65536, seq=13...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=1207664, offset=81920, seq=14...
[DONE]
[BL2 END]
alex@deku:~/projects/radxa-zero$ sudo fastboot flashing unlock_critical
...
OKAY [  0.562s]
finished. total time: 0.562s
alex@deku:~/projects/radxa-zero$ sudo fastboot flashing unlock
...
OKAY [  0.037s]
finished. total time: 0.037s
alex@deku:~/projects/radxa-zero$ sudo fastboot erase bootloader
erasing 'bootloader'...
FAILED (remote: locked device)
finished. total time: 0.030s
alex@deku:~/projects/radxa-zero$ sudo fastboot erase bootloader-boot0
erasing 'bootloader-boot0'...
FAILED (remote: locked device)
finished. total time: 0.030s
alex@deku:~/projects/radxa-zero$ sudo fastboot erase bootloader-boot1
erasing 'bootloader-boot1'...
FAILED (remote: locked device)
finished. total time: 0.030s

I then tried mrkprdo’s second solution using the other .bin, and it looks like the bootloader has been overwritten since Android no longer boots up:

alex@deku:~/projects/radxa-zero$ sudo -E PATH=$PATH boot-g12.py rz-fastboot-loader.bin 
Firmware Version :
ROM: 3.2 Stage: 0.0
Need Password: 0 Password OK: 1
Writing rz-fastboot-loader.bin at 0xfffa0000...
[DONE]
Running at 0xfffa0000...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=16384, offset=65536, seq=0...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=49152, offset=393216, seq=1...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=16384, offset=229376, seq=2...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=49152, offset=245760, seq=3...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=49152, offset=294912, seq=4...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=16384, offset=65536, seq=5...
[DONE]
AMLC dataSize=1406320, offset=81920, seq=6...
[DONE]
[BL2 END]
alex@deku:~/projects/radxa-zero$ sudo fastboot erase bootloader
erasing 'bootloader'...
OKAY [  2.270s]
finished. total time: 2.270s
alex@deku:~/projects/radxa-zero$ sudo fastboot erase 0
erasing '0'...
OKAY [  1.876s]
finished. total time: 1.876s
alex@deku:~/projects/radxa-zero$ sudo fastboot erase 1
erasing '1'...
FAILED (remote: too large for partition)
finished. total time: 0.003s

fastboot still couldn’t erase partition 1, but that might be ok, not sure. However, both Twister and Ubuntu still will not boot via uSD.

Anything else I should try?

Updating instructions for reflashing and booting off EMMC?
#8

I followed the steps here to flash TwisterOS on uSD.

#9

Perfect, that was the missing piece! I’m booting into Armbian off of eMMC now :smiley:

#10

Having similar issues. When in fastboot mode the board shows as:

Bus 001 Device 018: ID 1b8e:c003 Amlogic, Inc. GX-CHIP

It lists the device as “Bus 001 Device 014: ID 18d1:0d02 Google Inc. Celkon A88” after pushing the factory-loader image.

Trying to do the erasing, the flashing unlocks appear to run okay with the “fastboot flashing unlock_critical / unlock”, however, the erase shows the locked device error listed above.

Similarly, the board never switches to USB mode after sending the disk-loader image.
Running “sudo boot-g12.py rz-udisk-loader.bin” appears to work ok, but lsusb still reports the same device address, the c003 doesn’t change to 2200 and won’t show in the lsblk drive list. I’ve tried on a couple of different PCs now both Linux and Windows 10.

Currently the device won’t boot from the eMMC, so it’s either erased and I can’t flash it because it won’t show up as a USB drive, or possible a dead eMMC.

Has anyone else had this issue?

Edit - Okay, have managed to get this going now - it seems the device is a bit finicky with some USB ports, front panel USB I had been using on both machines I tried this on had issues. With a rear USB 3.0 port the drive showed up straight after running the “sudo boot-g12.py rz-udisk-loader.bin” command and showed up with the :2200.

Twister OS also ran fine from a uSD card and was able to see the eMMC in GParted - so it seems there’s some incomptibility there somewhere in the mix - so if you’re having problems with this, it might be worth trying different ports as there may be more than one USB controller in the PC and the board might like one more than the other.

Still seems that even tho I can now write to the eMMC tho, the Zero still doesn’t want to boot from the eMMC drive :confused:

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