OTA Update / Additional partition

[medemi68]

Hello,

I am trying to build an over-the-air update mechanism for my RK3288-EVB based board. There are a couple of things I want to do. The first is I want to have a separate partition to store configuration files that will persist between updates. And the second is that I want to be able to replace the rootfs/boot/uboot partitions on the system without having to reflash the entire system using update.img. I was thinking of creating a script that would do this, check for an update (which I can easily do), download a zip containing the rootfs.img, boot.img, uboot.img etc. and then use dd (I think) to write to the partitions in /dev/mmcblk as a way to overwrite them.

Is there a better way to do this? How can I add an additional partition to my image?

[JeffyCN]

the rockchip official sdk would have an ota flow(similar with android's), it should not be too hard to write your own version with wget md5sum and dd

for adding new partitions, you can try to modify the .wic file, or hack the rockchip-common.inc's gen_rkparameter to use your custom parameter.txt(rockchip's legacy partition table file)

[medemi68]

I have been looking into RAUC and trying to see if I can use that. Part of it involves creating a uboot script.

[medemi68]

I know that mender has integration for rockchip.

[medemi68]

I am trying to use mender right now and I am getting the following error:

| install: cannot stat '/home/miguel/build/tmp/deploy/images/rockchip-rk3288-evb/uboot.env': No such file or directory
| + bb_sh_exit_handler
| + ret=1
| + [ 1 != 0 ]
| + echo WARNING: exit code 1 from a shell command.
| WARNING: exit code 1 from a shell command.
| + exit 1

It seems like the uboot.env file is not generated by meta-rockchip.

[JeffyCN]

there's no plan to support mender(too much hacks to make BSP things work)

there should be another meta-rockchip with upstream kernel and u-boot, that might be easier to work with mender: https://git.yoctoproject.org/meta-rockchip/

[medemi68]

Does the upstream kernel and u-boot support rockusb mode? Right now all I have to do to enter rockusb mode on my board is press and hold the u-boot button while it is turning on.

[JeffyCN]

i haven't used upstream u-boot, so no sure about that, maybe ask in the upstream u-boot's mail list or that meta-rockchip's issues.

but i think there's an android fastboot implememt, maybe try that.

[medemi68]

Because of your unwillingness to even take a look at whether or not it is possible to get it to output a uboot.env file, I went ahead and used the other branches' u-boot and ended up bricking my device. The community version of meta-rockchip sucks, and you've provided no solutions for updates.

[JeffyCN]

i mostly working on userspace, so yes, i'm not willing to debug u-boot. please ask u-boot maillist for upstream version or rockchip's u-boot maintainer for rk u-boot(check the committer).

and this meta-rockchip is highly hacked, it would be hard to adapt to things like mender, it should be much easier to start with standard upstream u-boot and kernel.

for other meta-rockchip, please fire issue there, there're lots of users using that version, i think they would know what happened to your board.

after all, the rockchip chip should have a maskrom key for recovery, it can enter maskrom mode(similar to rockusb), use 'upgrade_tool ul loader.bin' to download loader and enter rockusb mode again

[medemi68]

Sorry for being upset, thought I had completely bricked it beyond repair for a second. I was able to find two tiny pads located on two separate spots on the board (this board is a random chinese board, not a standard evb or a firefly) and I was able to short them and enter maskrom mode. Still, I do think that I can modify your u-boot to support mender. The mender docs make it clear enough as to what needs to be changed, I'm just not seeing a uboot.env file in the output. I think it is the same as u-boot-initial-env but I am not sure.

Your version of meta-rockchip is the only one that has worked right out of the get-go and seems to be better supported than the other meta-rockchip.

[medemi68]

If I am able to get it working with your version, will you accept a pull request?

[JeffyCN]

maybe, i can create a new branch if your patches break other cases

[medemi68]

So the missing u-boot.env file turns out might be the same as u-boot-rockchip-initial-env. I haven't tried modifying your source yet (I might just do the whole thing in another layer) (it's pretty late where I am so i'll try tomorrow). See https://hub.mender.io/t/compulab-iot-gate-imx8-does-not-generate-uboot-env-file-anymore/5948/8

[medemi68]

I think I am going to give up on using mender as it seems to do a lot of proprietary stuff (requiring major changes of the bootloader). I'm probably going to stick with RAUC. I'll open a new issue with that.