flash precompiled binaries in BPI-R4 8Gb

[aLiArLa]

Hi, I have a question about flashing the 8GB binaries for the bpi-r4. I would like to be able to test it from the OpenWRT itself, carded from mmc. I haven't seen anything on the OpenWRT bpi-r4 wiki.

I have seen this as an example:
sudo dd if=bpi-r4_sdmmc_8GB_bl2.img of=/dev/sdX1 conv=notrunc,fsync

but I doubt that this is the correct parameter. Do you know how it should be done? Thanks in advance.

fdisk of my bpi-r4::

root@bpi-r4:/dev# fdisk -l
Disk /dev/ubiblock0_1: 59.7 MiB, 62599168 bytes, 122264 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/mtdblock0: 2 MiB, 2097152 bytes, 4096 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/mtdblock1: 126 MiB, 132120576 bytes, 258048 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
GPT PMBR size mismatch (1048607 != 15269887) will be corrected by write.
The backup GPT table is corrupt, but the primary appears OK, so that will be used.
The backup GPT table is not on the end of the device.

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 7.28 GiB, 7818182656 bytes, 15269888 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 5452574F-2211-4433-5566-778899AABB00

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1 8192 9215 1024 512K Linux filesystem
/dev/mmcblk0p2 9216 13311 4096 2M Linux filesystem
/dev/mmcblk0p3 13312 21503 8192 4M EFI System
/dev/mmcblk0p4 24576 90111 65536 32M EFI System
/dev/mmcblk0p5 131072 1048575 917504 448M unknown
/dev/mmcblk0p128 34 8191 8158 4M BIOS boot

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

Disk /dev/mmcblk0boot0: 4 MiB, 4194304 bytes, 8192 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/mmcblk0boot1: 4 MiB, 4194304 bytes, 8192 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/fit0: 119.25 MiB, 125046784 bytes, 244232 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/fitrw: 323.09 MiB, 338780160 bytes, 661680 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

[frank-w]

The sdX1 is from linux host system...on R4 it is mmcblk0p1.

I'm not sure if my binaries are compatible with openwrt. If you break this way you maybe cannot revert this step (if you cannot boot system with this card),so vetter flash this externally to allow reverting this by doind a backup of first partition first (partition as if param and an imgfile as of.

[aLiArLa]

Your files work fine in OpenWRT, as it detects 8 GB for me, but I want to update them to a newer version, and the last time I did so, I used the JTAG port, booting first with SD.
I would like to try it from OpenWRT. If I mess it up, no problem. I can always go back to using it via the serial port.

Another question that comes to mind. When I use the command cat /proc/mtd from OpenWRT, I get this:
root@bpi-r4:/dev# cat /proc/mtd
dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00200000 00020000 "bl2"
mtd1: 07e00000 00020000 "ubi"

Do I need to use bpi-r4_sdmmc_8GB_bl2.img for the ‘bl2’ partition and ‘bpi-r4_sdmmc_8GB_fip.bin’ for the ‘ubi’ partition?
There is little documentation on this subject. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[frank-w]

When using with openwrt only flash bl2,not fip as openwrt requires specific commands in builtin environment.

For nand/nor you need to use the ubi variant. For mmc imho the non ubi variant.

[aLiArLa]

Info update. I finally managed to update from OpenWRT itself to the latest 8Gb boot for mmc. Here are the commands so that people know which file to choose from the several available:

echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk0boot0/force_ro
dd if=/tmp/bpi-r4_emmc_8GB_bl2.img of=/dev/mmcblk0boot0
mmc bootpart enable 1 1 /dev/mmcblk0

[frank-w]

Are you sure the "mmc bootpart" command is needed again? It should be only needed once on first emmc flash to mark boot0 block as bootable.

[aLiArLa]

I honestly don't know. You're probably right. I put it in because I saw it in another forum. Anyway, nothing happened when I put it in. It started up fine :-)