As this is a rather long message I start with a brief summary: I try to install Debian Stretch (Stable, armhf) with the Debian Installer on a NextThing Chip v1.0 Allwinner board. After some initial problems I managed to complete installation but as far as I understand the kernel doesn't load the rootfs. I believe I am missing the correct U-Boot commands. I use a self-compiled mainline U-Boot via sunxi-fel to circumvent the U-Boot version on NAND provided by the manufacturer. I am glad for any help to make the board boot Debian Stretch.
...and now the longer story: Last week I tried to get the Debian Testing (Stretch) Installer work with my NextThing Chip v1.0 (R8 CPU, repurposed Allwinner A13). I am loading self-compiled mainline U-Boot via sunxi-fel u-boot (http://linux-sunxi.org/FEL/USBBoot) The installer booted and I could answer the first questions (timezone, language). Then the installer could not find the .iso image. Can anyone tell me possible reasons for this problem? Was it probably a non compatible combination of hd media tarball and *.iso? After the recent Stretch release I gave it another try and succesfully managed to install Debian Stretch (Stable) with the Debian Installer following this guide from the Debian Wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Allwinner#Installing_from_a_USB_stick I used the "debian-9.0.0-armhf-xfce-CD-1.jigdo" CD from: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/9.0.0/armhf/jigdo-cd/ and interacted with the Installer via serial connection. Installation completed and rebooted. I am still using my self-compiled mainline U-Boot via sunxi-fel and try to boot the installed Debian Stretch Image. Booting U-Boot "automatically" gave me following output: usb 0:2... Found U-Boot script /boot.scr 2458 bytes read in 172 ms (13.7 KiB/s) ## Executing script at 43100000 Mainline u-boot / new-style environment detected. 3701296 bytes read in 279 ms (12.7 MiB/s) 22913 bytes read in 213 ms (104.5 KiB/s) 16438413 bytes read in 916 ms (17.1 MiB/s) Booting Debian 4.9.0-3-armmp from usb 0:2... ## Flattened Device Tree blob at 43000000 Booting using the fdt blob at 0x43000000 Loading Ramdisk to 49052000, end 49fff48d ... OK Loading Device Tree to 49049000, end 49051980 ... OK Starting kernel ... [ 1.464003] sr_init: platform driver register failed for SR [ 2.036209] sunxi-mmc 1c0f000.mmc: smc 0 err, cmd 8, RTO !! Gave up waiting for suspend/resume device Gave up waiting for root file system device. Common problems: - Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline) - Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?) - Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev) ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/3b34108b-a873-43c6-be7d-95c091c22335 does not exist. Dropping to a shell! ...and dropped me to an initramfs shell. The output of "cat /proc/cmdline" is: console=ttyS0,115200 quiet With my limited U-Boot knowledge I have reached a dead end. I think I have to point U-Boot and the kernel to the rootfs on usb 0:3 - but don't know the right commands. I would aprreciate a pointer in the right direction. Please let me know if you need additional information. kind regards Pablo
