Support for Rock PI-4b

Support for Rock PI-4b

[Mostafa Saleh]

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?

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

Re: Support for Rock PI-4b

[Sjoerd Simons]

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.

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

Re: Support for Rock PI-4b

[Mostafa Saleh]

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

Re: Support for Rock PI-4b

[Mostafa Saleh]

On Fri, Sep 26, 2025 at 4:02 PM Mostafa Saleh <smostafa@google.com> wrote:
>
> 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.
>

Update on this, in case someone have the same issue.

After updating u-boot the same issue persisted.
However, I was able to boot with eMMC instead of an SD card.
Which is strange, as I could boot an older kernel on an SD card with no problem.

Thanks,
Mostafa

> 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