Release image for Rock PI 4B+?

ROCK 4 Series Beginners
1

Hi everyone,

I got a 4B+ and having an issue on the most basic thing to do: getting a working/release image of Debian:

When approaching from the radxa page via products, I land on the github-page where “PreReleases” only are available (https://github.com/radxa-build/rock-pi-4b-plus/releases).
Don’t get me wrong, I like that there can be seen progress - but I want to start from a confirmed stable state.

When approaching from the Documentation page of radxa.com, I end up on the “resource download summary” where I can download a bookworm (Debian12) version: (rock-pi-4b-plus_bookworm_kde_b1.output_512.img.xz) which is a file that is listed on github under a “Pre-release” tag, labeled “b1 (rsdk)” - so therefore no stable version - even though it states “Build image for release channel”.

I ask explicitly because I have issues with this image when trying to update - which I will cover in a new topic if the beforementioned images are the correct ones to use.

Thank you all in advance

2

Hi I believe the b1 image you mentioned should be the stable version image you are looking for. I think you can post the issue you came across.

3

I tried a lot - now I got running system even though it misses the wifi and BT:
Had to use an older image for the 4B (without plus), edit the Pubkeys since those where missing and also had to change the backport-entries for the package from “deb” to archive…

The image of b1 does not even boot correctly. There can be seen only some lines for a second before the system crashes.
The bullseye kde t2 does not even do this. The display wakes up for an moment and then switches off (“no signal”) again.

It’s a bad experience when there is no stable release and the documentation also links to something not working.
Not going to buy another radxa…

Thanks for the response anyways, @chenw

4

@Xaledrean If you want I think you can paste the serial console output you got when using the b1 image. I can help diagnosing the issue you came across.

5

@chenw: Thanks for the offer. I’ll get back to that once I received another micro-SD card and can start from scratch without messing with the currently running system.

6

@chenw: I retried with image b1.
I only see the monitor come alive, then it quickly shows some lines (only for a split second), then the monitors goes blank again since there is no signal anymore.
Unfortunately, I cannot get a picture with a failure - the picture I managed to get contains (cannot attach here):

[ 26.113532] cpu cpu0: Failed to get leakage
[ 26.114425] cpu cpu4: Failed to get leagage
[… other stuff …]
[ OK ] Mounted proc-sys-fs-binfmt_misc.mount - Arbitrary Executable File Formats File Systems.

The failure that leads to a crash (with no reboot) is not “catchable” with this.
I guess I could get more information when connecting directly to the serial console vie the UART as described here https://docs.radxa.com/en/rock4/rock4ab-se/radxa-os/serial
I ordered one, will take same days to get delivered.

Or maybe is there a crashlog-file on the SC-card?

7

Yes the information from the serial console will be helpful.

I’m not sure about it, but I think you can give it a try by reading the SD card on another computer and browsing the log files under /var/log. The important ones may be boot.log.*.

8

Unfortunately, those log files are all completely empty.
Hopefully, the serial output will provide more information.

9

@chenw
I figured it out - and I’m feeling stupid :sweat_smile:

The USB power brick wasn’t powerfull enough.
It was sufficient to boot the image of 4A+ (without bluetooth and WLAN).
It wasn’t sufficient enough to boot the image of 4B+ through the initialisation of of bluetooth and WLAN.

With a proper power brick both images boot without any problems…

Thanks for you time and effort.

10

You are welcome :). Nice to hear you have solved the issue. Happy hacking.