How to update uboot in Debian 11 image

#1

Hello. I’m trying to boot a 4C+ with LTSP. I have made some progress so far, but the first obstacle I have is to boot properly from PXE

I am able to do that, but I must get into uboot shell and send the dhcp, pxe get and pxe boot every single time. That’s not nice.

I’ve read the totorial for uboot compiling, etc., but don’t really know how to update the boot stuff properly. First of all, I think the tutorial abou uboot updating is not made for booting from the Debian 11 image (I think the partitions are not equal as the tutorial, so when I do the dd stuff to update the uboot img and stuuf, the card won’t boot anymore)

On the other hand I have managed to update boot parameters making use of uboot-update as stated in eEnv.txt file at Debian 11 image fro 4C+. But is not convenient either, because in this case I must boot once and modify the sd card image and reboot to be able to boot from the network… but in this case, because the remote root image doesn’t have users, I can’t get into the system even when I get graphical interface.

So the most important question here is: how to update uboot in that image (DEBIAN 11) so the new uboot has a differente bootcmd to don’t start from the SD card but from the netowok?

All the best

Jorge

#2

With Armbian this is easy.

  1. Running Armbian image is prerequisition
  2. Build new u-boot package with Armbian build tools. You can edit sources and change what you need in this process
  3. Install generated u-boot .deb package and run armbian-install, choose update u-boot

Haven’t tried PXE with this HW so I am unware of the status or how much work and pain is needed to get this working.

#3

Thanks in advance for your answer. You mean:

  1. Having a SD card with raspbian already in
  2. Creating the package in my desktop pc for instance
  3. Boot the Rockpi with the SD, copy the uboot deb package and install it
  4. Reboot the Rockpi

Thanks!!!

#4

Also I see Rockpi 4C plus is not present among the boards in the compiling menu. Anyway I’ll give a try to see how easy (or not is the proccess)

#5

If there is no human behind, HW is not in the 1st level menu. There is a button “Show CSC/WIP/…” or there is a switch EXPERT=“yes” or there is documentation :slight_smile: and support for Armbian is perhaps better to seek on their forum.

#6

Thanks for your answer. So far I tried to compile the thing with the Show CSC… option, where 4C+ is available and I have some compiling issues. However, I’ll give more tries later.

All the best