Hi
Please forgive me to revive this old thread, but I faced the same issue
on my newly acquired R4S and OpenBSD 7.7. This email is divided in 2 parts:
1. Solution to the boot problem
2. Kernel panic when using the LAN network interface
1. Solution to the boot problem
-------------------------------
I managed to boot the kernel after installing the system by copying
`rk3399-rockpro64.dtb` instead of `rk3399-nanopi-r4s.dtb` to the
`/rockchip` folder on the boot partition. The idea came from this post
(in Chinese, but used Google Translate):
https://blog.starry-s.moe/posts/2022/nanopi-r4s/ .
Here are some relevant lines observed during the boot process:
```
[...]
dwmmc0 at mainbus0: 50 MHz base clock
sdmmc0 at dwmmc0: 4-bit, sd high-speed, mmc high-speed, dma
[...]
scsibus0 at sdmmc0: 2 targets, initiator 0
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 1 lun 0: <SD/MMC, 00000, 0000> removable
sd0: 59640MB, 512 bytes/sector, 122142720 sectors
vscsi0 at root
scsibus1 at vscsi0: 256 targets
softraid0 at root
scsibus2 at softraid0: 256 targets
root on sd0a (3ee1d4d5039301c4.a) swap on sd0b dump on sd0b
[...]
Automatic boot in progress: starting file system checks.
pf enabled
starting network
reordering: ld.so libc libcrypto sshd sshd-session sshd-auth ssh-agent.
starting early daemons: syslogd pflogd ntpd.
starting RPC daemons:.
savecore: no core dump
checking quotas: done.
clearing /tmp
kern.securelevel: 0 -> 1
creating runtime link editor directory cache.
preserving editor files.
starting network daemons: sshd smtpd sndiod.
starting local daemons: cron.
Sat Aug 16 20:37:38 JST 2025
OpenBSD/arm64 (openr4s.my.domain) (console)
```
It seems the following lines are missing from
`https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/devicetree/devicetree-rebasing.git/tree/src/arm64/rockchip/rk3399-nanopi-r4s.dtsi`
(used among others by `https://github.com/Tosainu/nanopi-r4s-u-boot` to
create the dtb file):
```
+&sdmmc {
+ status = "okay";
+};
```
Besides the problem detailed below, I have not encountered any other
problem while using OpenBSD.
2. Kernel panic when using the LAN network interface
----------------------------------------------------
The kernel panics when running iperf with another machine over the LAN
network interface (re0). This does not happen with the WAN network
interface (dwge0). While the MAC is set to 00:00:00:00:00:00 by default
as the board doesn't have the chip to store it, I've set it to a valid,
random value before the test.
```
# panic: pool_cache_item_magic_check: mcl9k cpu free list modified: item
addr 0xf
fffff801ecbd500+16 0x400000c9000045!=0xc3b51ecae9362bf1
Stopped at panic+0x140: cmp w21, #0x0
TID PID UID PRFLAGS PFLAGS CPU COMMAND
438354 35240 0 0x3 0x4000000 4 iperf
202876 99382 0 0x14000 0x200 1 softnet0
db_enter() at panic+0x13c
panic() at pool_cache_get+0x264
pool_cache_get() at pool_get+0x54
pool_get() at m_clget+0x1c8
m_clget() at re_newbuf+0x44
re_newbuf() at re_rxeof+0x390
re_rxeof() at re_intr+0xc0
ddb{0}> trace
db_enter() at panic+0x13c
panic() at pool_cache_get+0x264
pool_cache_get() at pool_get+0x54
pool_get() at m_clget+0x1c8
m_clget() at re_newbuf+0x44
re_newbuf() at re_rxeof+0x390
re_rxeof() at re_intr+0xc0
re_intr() at agintc_irq_handler+0x104
agintc_irq_handler() at arm_cpu_irq+0x44
arm_cpu_irq() at handle_el1h_irq+0x68
handle_el1h_irq() at cpu_idle_cycle+0x28
cpu_idle_cycle() at sched_idle+0x218
sched_idle() at proc_trampoline+0xc
```
By any chance, would you have any idea to debug or solve this problem?
Best regards
Pierre Louis
