Re: Support for Rock PI-4b

From: Mostafa Saleh <smostafa@google.com>
To: Sjoerd Simons <sjoerd@collabora.com>
Cc: devicetree@vger.kernel.org,
	"moderated list:ARM SMMU DRIVERS"
	<linux-arm-kernel@lists.infradead.org>,
	linux-rockchip@lists.infradead.org,
	open list <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
	Rob Herring <robh@kernel.org>,
	krzk+dt@kernel.org, conor+dt@kernel.org,
	Heiko Stuebner <heiko@sntech.de>
Subject: Re: Support for Rock PI-4b
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2025 15:02:07 +0000	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <aNaq72xKS4QaNjwx@google.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <638b9565b90714f56caa9535b7b9b96cd86100d6.camel@collabora.com>

On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 04:28:48PM +0200, Sjoerd Simons wrote:
> On Fri, 2025-09-26 at 15:07 +0100, Mostafa Saleh wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I am trying to run Linux[1] on my Rock PI-4b, which I see is supported in
> > the kernel in “rk3399-rock-pi-4b.dts”.
> > 
> > However, compiling “defconfig” (ARM64) and flashing my Image doesn’t
> > work,
> > It just hangs before any console (even with earlycon), I tried to also use
> > some of the vendor configs with no luck.
> > I did some research and found that [2], which indicates that the upstream
> > support has been broken for some years?
> 
> We've got the Rock 4b in our automated testing lab as part of kernelci and other
> efforts. Upstream works just fine on those boards, so it's likely an issue in
> your setup.
> 
> See e.g https://lava.collabora.dev/scheduler/job/19978558#L525 for a recent
> upstream kernel boot.

Thanks a lot for the quick response!

I can see some differences between this log and my setup.

1- My uboot seems ancient
   U-Boot 2017.09-00026-g2431fa34678 Compared to U-Boot 2024.07-rc4

2- The board model in this log is not 4b as mine
   Model: Radxa ROCK Pi 4A while mine shows Model: Radxa ROCK Pi 4B

3- I am using LLVM not GCC (I don't think that matters though)

4- I am using MMC to boot and not TFTP

I will try to look more into the differences, and update this thread in
case I was successful.

Thanks,
Mostafa

> 
> Regards,
>   Sjoerd
> 
> 
> > 
> > Has anyone tried to flash a recent kernel successfully on it? or any
> > tips are greatly appreciated.
> > Otherwise, maybe it can be removed to avoid misleading other developers
> > (I got this board to do some upstream kernel development on)
> > 
> > [1] base: 4ff71af020ae59ae2d83b174646fc2ad9fcd4dc4
> > [2] https://wiki.radxa.com/Rockpi4/dev/kernel-mainline
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Mostafa
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Linux-rockchip mailing list
> > Linux-rockchip@lists.infradead.org
> > http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-rockchip