RockPi S doesn't survive reboot

#1

Hey there,
this is my first time using a RockPi, but I’m fairly expierienced with Raspberry Pis and Linux in general.

I’ve downloaded the Ubuntu Image from the RockPi-Website, installed it using Etcher, exactly like the documentation stated.
It boot’s fine with a freshly flashed SD card, I can access it via SSH, configure it to my liking but as soon as it’s being rebooted, it’s not accessible anymore. Not responding to pings aswell.
The green LED is on permanently, the blue LED is blinking two times every second (approximately).
Here’s a video: https://imgur.com/a/SrFYDz2

I’ve got to RockPiS, they’re both set up identical and I’m expieriencing this problem with both of them.

About sudo apt-get upgrade
#2

This is not mainstream Linux …

For start move to Armbian where a serial console is enable by default via USB-C. Probably just IP address is changing ?

#3

I don’t think it’s an IP address change.
IPs in my network are assigned statically via DHCP, identified by the MAC address. So as long as the MAC doesn’t change or the RockPi, for whatever reason, tries to force another, static IP, an address change shouldn’t happen.
I’ve also tested this in a dedicated VLAN for testing: Untagged port, no filters whatsoever, standard DHCP - there’s not a single IP responding to pings apart from the gateway in the whole subnet.

#4

In this development world its quite common that MAC does changes on each power cycle / reboot.

#5

Shouldn’t the mac address, since it’s a physical address, like… never change? Isn’t that the point of them?
Anyways, that still wouldn’t explain why it isn’t connecting to a wide open network, without any restrictions and a default dhcp…

#6

If MAC is stored nowhere and if there is an invalid MAC or if someone thinks its more secure to provide random by default …

Again. This is not a Linux on your PC or Raspberry pi. This Ubuntu has little in common with Ubuntu, like you are used to, on the kernel space.

Agree. Then it could be a bug that reboots is just not successful … nothing unusual either. Check alternative.

#7

Okay, it seems as you just shouldn’t update the packages. I’ve been doing that instinctivly after every install and didn’t thought about it.

I believe, since some networking stuff is being updated aswell, that something’s broken after that. If I’m not updating my packages it works perfectly. Good thing they won’t have internet access, once they’re installed :smiley:

#8

Bad things is that you are still on the POC level of OS :wink: But, well its your time.

#9

我也遇到同样的问题！！！并不是ip地址的变化的问题

#10

@Stephen : confirmed, even with your latest official Ubuntu, after apt update + apt upgrade, the board does not boot anymore (stuck somewhere in the boot process without networking).
A re-flash is needed.
That’s quite bad.
Not even adb shell works.

1 Like
#11

Yep. I’ve switched to Buster in the meantime.

#12

Does Debian behave? Can you apt upgrade without issues?

#13

ROCK Pi S Ubuntu system: The issue of failing to boot ROCK Pi S after executing command, apt upgrade

The following log is shown on screen.

ln: failed to create hard link '/boot/initrd.img-4.4.143-48-rockchip-geacd15ae244f.dpkg-bak' => '/boot/initrd.img-4.4.143-48-rockchip-geacd15ae244f': Operation not permitted
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.143-48-rockchip-geacd15ae244f

And after restarting ROCK Pi S, the following log is also shown.

[    1.734152] write error
[    1.734548] Waiting for root device UUID=82f14560-7f3d-4431-aeaa-dc1a28929c54...
[    4.642399] vendor storage:20160801 ret = -1

This is because when installing some packages, command update-initramfs is hooked, which causes the original initrd.img to be damaged.

To restore the needed initrd.img, we need to reinstall the damaged version of linux-image* package before rebooting ROCK Pi S. Here it is linux-image-4.4.143-48-rockchip-geacd15ae244f package.

Try the following steps to restore the initrd.img

Firstly, add these two lines in file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/apt-radxa-com.list

deb http://apt.radxa.com/bionic-stable/ bionic main
deb http://apt.radxa.com/bionic-testing/ bionic main

Secondly, reinstall the kernel package.

apt-get update
apt-get remove linux-image-4.4.143-48*
apt-get install linux-image-4.4.143-48*

Finally, reboot ROCK Pi S.

#14

Since it did the same with the previous Ubuntu image, one would have hoped you fixed the image; instead, even the newest image has the same problem.

Does your Debian image work correctly, instead?

#15

Replying to myself: the Debian Buster official image works and survives “apt upgrade”.

#17

Debian image is working well with “apt upgrade”.

#18

Hi, the new ROCK Pi S Debian/Ubuntu system images with this issue fixed are released.

Check https://wiki.radxa.com/RockpiS/downloads.

2 Likes
#19

Sorry,
this issue is not fixed:
[ 0.000000] Linux version 4.4.143-65-rockchip-g58431d38f8f3
[ 3.974560] vendor storage:20160801 ret = -1

Happen after ‘apt install udisks2’
this will trigger rebuild initrd.

Is there a guide how to repair this issue, when still trapped into it.

This hapend to me now the 3 times. And every time, I must reinstall and configure everything again.
Not really a good expirience
I have fear to use apt because of this behavior. Can we hope, that this will be really get fixed ?