Reference design does not appear to boot on Polarfire Discovery Kit

[klab-d]

I have reprogrammed the board with the reference design from here:

https://github.com/polarfire-soc/polarfire-soc-discovery-kit-reference-design/releases/tag/v2024.06

I have downloaded the prebuilt Linux Image for the Discovery Board from here:

https://github.com/polarfire-soc/meta-polarfire-soc-yocto-bsp/releases/download/v2024.06/core-image-minimal-dev-mpfs-disco-kit-20240703233429.rootfs.wic.gz

I have used USBImager to program the .wic file onto an SDCard.

The following output is seen on UART0

[0.778720] loop 3 took 417090204 ticks (max 417090204 ticks)
[0.786167] Initializing PMPs
[0.790273] PolarFire(R) SoC Hart Software Services (HSS) - version 0.99.41-v2024.06
MPFS HAL version 2.3.102 / DDR Driver version 0.4.024 / Mi-V IHC version 0.1.1 / BOARD=mpfs-disco-kit
(c) Copyright 2017-2022 Microchip FPGA Embedded Systems Solutions.

incorporating OpenSBI - version 1.2
(c) Copyright 2019-2022 Western Digital Corporation.

[0.825314] Build ID: 8c4c2f2ca49f8236d079f86da5e4e2bcec883c13
[0.832857] Built with the following tools:

• riscv64-unknown-elf-gcc (xPack GNU RISC-V Embedded GCC (Microsemi SoftConsole build), 64-bit) 8.3.0
• GNU ld () 2.35.1

[0.850712] Serial Number:
bd1d7006836b2efc3b87507a073afa0700000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
[0.864652] Segment Configuration:
Cached: SEG0_0: offset 0x0080000000, physical DDR 0x00000000
Cached: SEG0_1: offset 0x1000000000, physical DDR 0x00000000
Non-cached: SEG1_2: offset 0x00c0000000, physical DDR 0x00000000
Non-cached: SEG1_3: offset 0x1400000000, physical DDR 0x00000000
Non-cached WCB: SEG1_4: offset 0x00d0000000, physical DDR 0x00000000
Non-cached WCB: SEG1_5: offset 0x1800000000, physical DDR 0x00000000
[0.909623] L2 Cache Configuration:
L2-Scratchpad: 4 ways (512 KiB)
L2-Cache: 8 ways (1024 KiB)
L2-LIM: 4 ways (512 KiB)
[0.925568] DESIGNID: MPFS_DISCOVERY_KIT
[0.931011] DESIGNVER: 0000
[0.935212] BACKLEVEL: 0000
[0.939413] startup_service :: [init] -> [boot]
[0.945523] ipi_poll_service :: [Init] -> [Monitoring]
Press a key to enter CLI, ESC to skip
Timeout in 1 second
..
[4.49648] CLI boot interrupt timeout
[4.54517] loop 299461 took 606473341 ticks (max 606473341 ticks)
[4.62347] Initializing Boot Image ...
[4.67311] Trying to get boot image via MMC ...
[4.73136] Attempting to select SDCARD ... Passed
[4.245295] Preparing to copy from MMC to DDR ...
[4.251857] Validated GPT Header ...
[4.308147] Validated GPT Partition Entries ...
[4.314961] Boot Partition found at index 1
[4.320898] Attempting to read image header (1632 bytes) ...
[4.329257] Copying 742696 bytes to 0x103fc00000
[4.367700] MMC: Boot Image registered ...
[4.373117] Boot image set name: "PolarFire-SoC-HSS::U-Boot"
[4.380182] healthmon_service :: [init] -> [monitoring]
[4.387057] boot_service(u54_1) :: [Init] -> [SetupPMP]
[4.393931] boot_service(u54_2) :: [Init] -> [SetupPMP]
[4.400806] boot_service(u54_3) :: [Init] -> [SetupPMP]
[4.407680] boot_service(u54_4) :: [Init] -> [SetupPMP]

[4.414841] boot_service(u54_1)::Registering domain "u-boot.bin" (hart mask 0x1e)
[4.423912] boot_service(u54_1) :: [SetupPMP] -> [SetupPMPComplete]
[4.431932] boot_service(u54_2) :: [SetupPMP] -> [SetupPMPComplete]
[4.439953] boot_service(u54_3) :: [SetupPMP] -> [SetupPMPComplete]
[4.447973] boot_service(u54_4) :: [SetupPMP] -> [SetupPMPComplete]
[4.455993] u54 State Change: [Booting] [Booting] [Booting] [Booting]
[4.465350] boot_service(u54_1) :: [SetupPMPComplete] -> [ZeroInit]
[4.473371] boot_service(u54_2) :: [SetupPMPComplete] -> [ZeroInit]
[4.481391] boot_service(u54_3) :: [SetupPMPComplete] -> [ZeroInit]
[4.489411] boot_service(u54_4) :: [SetupPMPComplete] -> [ZeroInit]
[4.497432] boot_service(u54_1) :: [ZeroInit] -> [Download]
[4.504688] boot_service(u54_2) :: [ZeroInit] -> [Download]
[4.511944] boot_service(u54_3) :: [ZeroInit] -> [Download]
[4.519201] boot_service(u54_4) :: [ZeroInit] -> [Download]
[4.526457] boot_service(u54_1)::Processing boot image: "u-boot.bin"
[4.534287] boot_service(u54_2) :: [Download] -> [Complete]
[4.541543] boot_service(u54_3) :: [Download] -> [Complete]
[4.548800] boot_service(u54_4) :: [Download] -> [Complete]
[4.615749] boot_service(u54_1) :: [Download] -> [OpenSBIInit]
[4.623292] boot_service(u54_1)::Registering domain "u-boot.bin" (hart mask 0x1e)
[4.632362] boot_service(u54_1) :: [OpenSBIInit] -> [Wait]
[4.640860] boot_service(u54_1) :: [Wait] -> [Complete]
[4.696039] u54 State Change: [SBIHartInit] [Booting] [Booting] [Booting]
[4.740723] boot_service(u54_1) :: [Complete] -> [Idle]
[4.753709] boot_service(u54_2) :: [Complete] -> [Idle]
[4.773178] boot_service(u54_3) :: [Complete] -> [Idle]
[4.790651] boot_service(u54_4) :: [Complete] -> [Idle]
[4.886790] u54 State Change: [Running] [SBIWaitForColdboot] [SBIWaitForColdboot] [SBIWaitForColdboot]
[5.00576] SYSREG:PLL_STATUS_SR not equal to 0x707 (0x727)
[5.08788] SYSREG:MAINTENANCE_INT_SR changed since last read (0xf080)
[5.18049] SYSREG:DLL_STATUS_SR changed since last read (0xf0017)
[5.26929] IOSCB_PLL:pll_sw_0:PLL_CTRL changed since last read (0x1)

Somtimes I get the following on UART1:

** No partition table - mmc 0 **
Couldn't find partition mmc 0:1
ethernet@20110000: PHY present at 11
ethernet@20110000: Starting autonegotiation...
ethernet@20110000: Autonegotiation timed out (status=0x7949)
ethernet@20110000: link up, 1000Mbps full-duplex (lpa: 0x3c00)
BOOTP broadcast 1
BOOTP broadcast 2

But most of the time i get nothing all.

I have run the memory tests code which passes

[jsaunders-kbr]

Also having this exact same issue with multiple microSD cards.

[klab-d]

I appear to have made some progress while the error messages still appear from the Bootloader the memory test passes and I can now boot. The issue appears to be related to my PC’s ability to supply enough power on some ports.

[declano890]

I see the same issue on my discovery kit. I've tried multiple SD cards, and powering the board either over USB or the 5V jack, all with the same result. I can also see the following from the uboot console:

RISC-V # mmc info
Device: mmc@20008000
Manufacturer ID: 1b
OEM: 534d
Name: GD2S5
Bus Speed: 50000000
Mode: SD High Speed (50MHz)
Rd Block Len: 512
SD version 3.0
High Capacity: Yes
Capacity: 119.4 GiB
Bus Width: 4-bit
Erase Group Size: 512 Bytes
RISC-V # mmc part
Unknown partition table type 0
RISC-V # mmc read 0x80000000 0x0 0x1

MMC read: dev # 0, block # 0, count 1 ... 0 blocks read: ERROR

[rockoguido]

it's good that you are using pre-built images just to validate your environment. You could try moving to the latest revision. 2025.07 for both the reference design and pre-built Linux distro. I just did this for the Disco Kit and it all comes up without an issue
also consider using the balenaEtcher tool to create the bootable SD card, see https://etcher.balena.io
when you insert you SD card into a Linux box you will easily see a bootable partition and a root partition.
Regards.
Dave

[declano890]

Hi Dave,
Thanks for the quick reply. I ended up ordering some new sd cards and now have no issues booting linux. (Other than sd card, same process as described above using USBImager, etc.) For anyone interested, Samsung EVO Select cards were giving me the problems here, and SanDisk Ultra cards seem to work without issue.
Thanks,
Declan