The DP Alt mode cable adapter breaks powering off (was: How to power off the Rock 5B?)

#1

I’m sorry if I’m asking something which has an obvious solution or has been already discussed in the past. But I cannot recall such discussion since I joined this community one year ago or so.

When I plug the USB-C power cable into the board, it immediately powers on without the need to press the power button. That’s not a big issue for me. But I’m not able to power off the board unless I cut the power. Because right after the power off procedure is being finished, it starts immediately booting again.

Do I miss something obvious, or is my board defected?

#2

You will have to share more information about your build. Which OS? SD card, EMMC or NVME boot?

#3

Yeah, sure, sorry. I use the up to date Joshua Riek’s Ubuntu build and run the KDE Plasma on Wayland. Although the NVMe is installed, I’m booting from the EMMC.

In the past I tried other OSes too like Armbian and BredOS, but unfortunately I do not remember if I had the same issue with those too.

#4

You could try again without using usb pd. If it’s also restarting with fixed voltage/supply it’s a different problem :>

#5

Could you provide information about the kernel being used? A quick “uname -a” in a terminal will provide you with that output.

#6

Thank you guys for trying to help. I use the fixed 12V (now testing 19V) power supply for ages already. The problem persists with both PD and (both 12V and 19V) fixed power sources.

I do update the system regularly when new updates are available, so the kernel is as follows:

Linux rock5b 5.10.160-rockchip #32 SMP Sat Mar 9 18:08:47 UTC 2024 aarch64 aarch64 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Thanks to your replies I understand now, that rebooting instead of powering down is not the normal behavior and should not happen. Maybe I just need to do a fresh reinstall of my system. Couple of months ago I tried various OS alternatives and did a lot of tries and errors, This issue might be some residual from that time.

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#7

Well. It should just work. My huch was either a non standard kernel or something with the powersupply (Voltage drop when the load stops, which could look to the rock as if the power supply was disconnected). However you appear to have tasted all that. I’m running this 6.1 kernel and have no problem whatsoever. Might be worth a try. It’s based on Rockchips current 6.1 kernel with some additions by Joshua Riek, tailored for his Ubuntu builds (I’m on Debian though).

#8

The cause already discovered. My issue is caused by the DP Alt Mode which I’ve been using for some time now. I do not have the USB-C monitor, so I use the USB-C -> power/DP cable adapter. If I change it to the classic dual cable solution, one cable for the USB-C power and the other for the HDMI output, it powers off as it should.

So it turned out I’m facing the similar problems as @amazingfate did earlier here: My final choice for pd power on rock5b. But as he didn’t mentioned the powering off issues, I’m not sure if his solution would solve it too.

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