Flash SPI on 4SE with Debian 11 bullseye

[Eduard_Iten]

Can anybody tell me how to flash the SPI on a 4SE with Debian 11 bullseye? (I soldered a SPI in).

Thanks!

[TonyRockPi4]

I am going to try this workaround of not being able to boot to NVME. i.e no SPI chip. Rock 4 SE – NVME boot? - ROCK 4 Series - Radxa Forum

Rock 4 SE -- NVME boot?

Yep, spent days trying the various methods. I’ve installed/mounted NVME disk, 4 SE recognizes it. Installed images (a few times), but 4 SE doesn’t boot from NVME. Get a green light, but never a blue. If I boot from SD card with NVME installed, I can see the NVME with system files and all partitions. Instructions on Rockpi4/install/NVME - Radxa Wiki show methods that require SPI which is not present on the 4SE. So, that’s why I’m stuck.

[marekk17]

I will try Step 1 Method 2 from this article most likely later this week:
https://wiki.radxa.com/Rockpi4/Linux_system_runs_on_M.2_NVME_SSD

Rockpi4/install/NVME - Radxa Wiki

[TonyRockPi4]

Interesting. I ordered some SOP-8 GD25Q127 SPI chips yesterday and will be trying the SPI route when they come in from China. Rockpi4/hardware/spi flash - Radxa Wiki

[marekk17]

I have a stupid question I’ve got a circle in one of the corners of SPI. On the Rock SE board I’ve got something that looks like triangle or arrow. How exactly shall I place the SPI?

[TonyRockPi4]

Download the datasheet. Pin 1 is usually clearly identified.

W25Q64FV Datasheet by Winbond Electronics | Digi-Key Electronics (digikey.co.uk)

[TonyRockPi4]

So on the board, pin 1 is here… That should ensure which way round the part is soldered.

[marekk17]

Done. Thx !

[TonyRockPi4]

Yep that looks good. Nice job. No such thing as a stupid question btw. We all get it wrong at times. So looks like you are first up to get the SPI chip to work. I will try in about a week when mw chips come in.

The way I Iook at it is either this board boots from Nvme or it gets blown up in the process and I move on to a better board.

[marekk17]

not yet. still waiting for a power supply. And I need to find usable sd card

[marekk17]

It works !
Uploaded image to SPI using Step1 Method2 on Ubuntu 20.04
https://wiki.radxa.com/Rockpi4/Linux_system_runs_on_M.2_NVME_SSD

Had to install these packages manually:
https://apt.radxa.com/bionic-stable/pool/main/r/rockpi4b-rk-ubootimg/rockpi4b-rk-ubootimg_2017.09-2700-g70b4cfe057_all.deb
https://apt.radxa.com/bionic-stable/pool/main/r/rockpi4b-rk-u-boot-latest/rockpi4b-rk-u-boot-latest_2017.09-2700-g70b4cfe057_all.deb

I had also to uncomment one of the lines at the end of this file to write iamge to SPI flash.
/usr/local/sbin/rockpi4b_upgrade_bootloader.sh

I’ve tried to upgrade from Ubuntu 20.04 to 22.04 using do-release-upgrade however system wasn’t able to boot anymore. So I had to go back to 20.04

From what I see, there is an option to create a custom image. Maybe I will try to install 22.04 this way.
https://radxa-doc.github.io/software/build.html

[TonyRockPi4]

My SPI chips arrived today. Now I have to figure out how to solder them in. I have a suitable iron, going to research the technique.

[careyer]

Hey @marekk17,

great news! Can you please more precisely specify the steps you have performed from “Step1 Method2”?

• For example in the step “Update u-boot in uSD card or eMMC:” there are three possible options for for ROCK Pi 4A / for ROCK Pi 4B and for ROCK Pi 4C. Which one have you chosen?

• Can you please specify which line at the end of file /usr/local/sbin/rockpi4b_upgrade_bootloader.sh you had to uncomment?

I bet a lot of users will be thankful - because a good tutorial how to flash the SPI on ROCK Pi 4SE is yet missing.

P.S: Can the same be performed e.g. on a Debian based Armbian system?

Best regards.
careyer