Technical Case

SSD boot

This chapter introduces how to flash the firmware to the SSD and boot
the system from the SSD.

Ready to work:

RK356x Board

Good M.2 SSD or SATA SSD

Good Type-C cable

Update to the latest Linux SDK, go to the u-boot directory, make sure
to have the following commits:

   commit 9341129a705816604b7883313857307f248b57e5
   Author: weicz <wcz@t-chip.com.cn>
   Date: Mon Mar 21 11:43:00 2022 +0800

       configs: add firefly-rk3568-usb/pcie/sata.config
       
       Signed-off-by: weicz <wcz@t-chip.com.cn>

M.2 SSD boot

Enter the u-boot directory and execute the following commands to
compile and package the boot firmware:

   ./make.sh firefly-rk3568-pcie --spl-new

The generated firmware has "rk356x_spl_loader_*.bin" and "uboot.img".

RK356x enters Maskrom mode and flashes the boot firmware to Nor Flash
(default):

Under Windows platform, select "Loader", "Parameter" and "Uboot" and
flash:


Flash "Loader", "Parameter" and "Uboot" under Linux platform:

   upgrade_tool ul rk356x_spl_loader_*.bin
   upgrade_tool di -p parameter.txt
   upgrade_tool di -u uboot.img

Restart RK356x, connect the serial port, you will see the following
print:

   Bootdev: nvme 0

This means that RK356x can recognize the M.2 SSD in the uboot stage.
At this time, because the M.2 SSD does not have firmware, uboot will
fail to load the kernel!

Enter the following command in the uboot shell to flash the system
firmware to the M.2 SSD:

   => rockusb 0 nvme 0

Note that if the device uses extboot, it needs to be canceled.
Currently, M.2 SSD is not compatible with extboot.

Cancel extboot:

   diff --git a/rk356x/firefly-rk3568-ubuntu.mk b/rk356x/firefly-rk3568-ubuntu.mk
   index 8badc34..ee1610f 100644
   --- a/rk356x/firefly-rk3568-ubuntu.mk
   +++ b/rk356x/firefly-rk3568-ubuntu.mk
   @@ -18,7 +18,7 @@ export RK_IDBLOCK_UPDATE=true
    # update spl
    export RK_LOADER_UPDATE_SPL=true
    #Set extboot
   -export FF_EXTBOOT=true
   +export FF_EXTBOOT=false
    
    # Set rootfs type, including ext2 ext4 squashfs
    export RK_ROOTFS_TYPE=ext4

Then flash "boot.img" again.

After the firmware is flashed successfully, restart and start
normally:

   root@firefly:~# df -h
   Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
   udev 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /dev
   tmpfs 769M 816K 768M 1% /run
   /dev/nvme0n1p6 461M 363M 71M 84% /root-ro
   /dev/nvme0n1p7 219G 69M 219G 1% /userdata
   overlayroot 219G 69M 219G 1% /
   tmpfs 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /dev/shm
   tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
   tmpfs 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup
   tmpfs 769M 0 769M 0% /run/user/0

You can see that the device mounted on the "userdata" partition is
"/dev/nvme0n1p7"!

SATA SSD boot

The operation steps for SATA SSD booting are similar to those for M.2
SSD booting, with the following differences:

The command to compile and boot the firmware is as follows:

   ./make.sh firefly-rk3568-sata --spl-new

Enter the following command in the uboot shell to flash the system
firmware to the SATA SSD:

   => rockusb 0 scsi 0

Without Nor Flash

Since Maskrom does not support loading boot firmware from SSD, if
there is no Nor Flash, you need to flash boot firmware to eMMC memory.

If the eMMC memory itself has firmware, then directly enter the Loader
mode to flash rk356x_spl_loader_*.bin and uboot.img!

If the eMMC memory itself has no firmware, then Maskrom mode is
programmed to the eMMC memory by default.