I am working with a Rock Pi S v1.3 and thus far the only Linux image I have been able to get to boot is Armbian 21.05.9 Focal with Linux 4.4.247-rockpis . I have tried the recent Armbian Bookworm, Armbian Jammy and a few other variations I have come across on various forums.
With the above working image I can communicate with it via UART and get to the terminal. With everything else I don’t even get the blinking blue LED; just two solid green LEDs. I have a few of these boards and have confirmed this issue across all of them.
I am not sure what next steps to take so any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much for your feedback! I just uploaded the provided image and it successfully booted.
My intention is Kernel development, and being able to upgrade the Linux Kernel is a critical requirement.
Is there any documentation as to why only legacy 4.4.* Kernels boot on the Rock Pi S and what the required workaround is to get newer Kernels to work on this platform?
I honestly have no idea since I’m no Kernel developer nor do I work for Radxa in anyway. I’m pretty much in the same boat as you and happen to figure out the answer to your question when I was playing around with the Rock Pi S myself and encountered the same issue.
I do know I recently bought a new Rock Pi S about a week ago that apparently was manufactured after 2022 and it seems to boot with a 5.x linux kernel, specifically the most recent Armbian “current” version. So it seems like it was a hardware issue.
