Orange Pi One

[Milan Obuch]

On Wed, 13 Apr 2016 22:51:09 -0700
Russell Haley <russ.haley at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 9:44 PM, Milan Obuch <freebsd-arm at dino.sk>
> wrote:
> > On Thu, 14 Apr 2016 06:28:20 +0800
> > Erich Dollansky <erich at alogt.com> wrote:
> >  
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> On Wed, 13 Apr 2016 23:24:14 +0200
> >> Milan Obuch <freebsd-arm at dino.sk> wrote:
> >>  
> >> > today I got this cheap board. After verifying it works with
> >> > provided linux based image I am trying to put FreeBSD on it. I
> >> > would like to understand boot process, but I did not find much
> >> > info yet.

[ snip ]

> >> I think, all you want to know is u-boot. Sources for it are
> >> available. Just ask your search engine where to find it.
> >>
> >> Erich  
> >
> > Well, I am going to investigate /sysutils/u-boot-* ports for some
> > guidance - I think this should be a bit easier for me and, probably,
> > helpfull a bit for others if I succeed. Basically you are right -
> > this board uses u-boot, so I need to learn a bit more about it.  
> 
> The cubieboard (Allwinner) u-boot seems to use the mainline denx code
> with some significant patches. The cubieboard2 just references the
> original cubieboard.
> 
> Russ

Hi,

after some struggling I am able to produce working u-boot. With working
serial console, I see following when powering up the Orange Pi:

U-Boot SPL 2016.01 (Apr 17 2016 - 10:18:49)
DRAM: 512 MiB
Trying to boot from MMC


U-Boot 2016.01 (Apr 17 2016 - 10:18:49 +0200) Allwinner Technology

CPU:   Allwinner H3 (SUN8I)
DRAM:  512 MiB
WARNING: Caches not enabled
MMC:   SUNXI SD/MMC: 0
reading u-boot.env

** Unable to read "u-boot.env" from mmc0:1 **
Using default environment

In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   No ethernet found.
starting USB...
No controllers found
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 
Booting from: mmc 0 ubldr
reading ubldr
** Unable to read file ubldr **
=> 

So now it looks like I casn use neither ethernet nor USB boot, but as
long as SD is readable, which looks like it is, and after 'saveenv' on
u-boot prompt, it reduces a bit to

U-Boot SPL 2016.01 (Apr 17 2016 - 10:18:49)
DRAM: 512 MiB
Trying to boot from MMC


U-Boot 2016.01 (Apr 17 2016 - 10:18:49 +0200) Allwinner Technology

CPU:   Allwinner H3 (SUN8I)
DRAM:  512 MiB
WARNING: Caches not enabled
MMC:   SUNXI SD/MMC: 0
reading u-boot.env
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   No ethernet found.
starting USB...
No controllers found
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 
Booting from: mmc 0 ubldr
reading ubldr
** Unable to read file ubldr **
=> 

I think now it's time to build ubldr, kernel and world for this board.

This is just to let interested parties on partial success, if somebody
would like get some more details, just let me know. Just be prepared
for some dirty tricks used to overcome some issues :)

Regards,
Milan