Support for g12a_u212_v1

[redfast00]

(I unfortunately don't understand Chinese, so I would be very happy for any replies to be in English. If not, I'll use an autotranslate application, but might not understand replies then)

Device Information

• SOC: S905X2, uboot prompt shows g12a_u212
• Model [e.g. HK1]: unknown

Armbian Version

• Kernel Version: 5.10.155
• Release: jammy

Describe the bug

I'm trying to run Armbian on a board that's not mentioned yet in the README. This set-top-box cannot be bought: an ISP gives this as part of a subscription to watch their TV channels with. I'm trying to repurpose this e-waste.

I was able to get a uBoot shell using the serial console on the device. Using that, I dumped the EMMC memory to a USB stick, from which I then copied it to my computer. Using ./split_bootimg.pl and aml-dtbtools on the boot partition, I was able to extract 2 dtbs: g12a-u212-2g.dtb and sm1-ac213-2g.dtb. I put these dtbs in the dtbs/amlogic folder on the Armbian USB stick and modified uEnv.txt to use the g12a-u212-2g.dtb device blob (since that matches the uBoot prompt).

I then read https://7ji.github.io/embedded/2022/11/11/amlogic-booting.html this blogpost on how to boot from a USB stick and executed the following commands in uBoot:

g12a_u212_v1#usb start
Host not halted after 16000 microseconds.
(Re)start USB...
USB0:   USB3.0 XHCI init start
Register 3000140 NbrPorts 2
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.10
scanning bus 0 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found
       scanning usb for storage devices... init_part() 282: PART_TYPE_DOS
1 Storage Device(s) found
g12a_u212_v1#fatload usb 0:1 0x1000000 uEnv.txt
349 bytes read in 31 ms (10.7 KiB/s)
g12a_u212_v1#env import -t 0x1000000
## Info: input data size = 350 = 0x15E
g12a_u212_v1#fatload usb 0:1 0x1000000 ${FDT}
80173 bytes read in 267 ms (293 KiB/s)
g12a_u212_v1#fatload usb 0:1 0x11000000 ${LINUX}
24734208 bytes read in 1622 ms (14.5 MiB/s)
g12a_u212_v1#fatload usb 0:1 0x13000000 ${INITRD}
17285150 bytes read in 1165 ms (14.1 MiB/s)
g12a_u212_v1#setenv bootargs ${APPEND}
g12a_u212_v1#booti 0x11000000 0x13000000 0x1000000
libfdt fdt_getprop(): FDT_ERR_NOTFOUND
## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 13000000 ...
   Image Name:   uInitrd
   Image Type:   AArch64 Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
   Data Size:    17285086 Bytes = 16.5 MiB
   Load Address: 00000000
   Entry Point:  00000000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
      Amlogic multi-dtb tool
      Cannot find legal dtb!
[store]Err:do_decrypt_dtb,L319:Fail in fdt check header
active_slot is normal
load dtb from 0x1000000 ......
      Amlogic multi-dtb tool
      Cannot find legal dtb!
ERROR: Did not find a cmdline Flattened Device Tree
load dtb from 0x0 ......
      Amlogic multi-dtb tool
      Cannot find legal dtb!
ERROR: Did not find a cmdline Flattened Device Tree
Could not find a valid device tree

What are the steps to get this working? I feel like I'm pretty close, but missing a crucial step. I've attached the DTBs.

dtbs.zip

[ophub]

Android dtb files cannot be used in armbian.

[redfast00]

Thank you for the fast answer! Could you please give some pointers on how to convert an Android dtb file to a dtb file that can be used for armbian?

[ophub]

https://github.com/unifreq/linux-5.15.y/tree/main/arch/arm64/boot/dts/amlogic

I don't know of a tool to do the conversion. I refer to similar boxes, combined with Android nodes, and manually debug.

[redfast00]

I managed to get it booting, I first chainbooted u-boot-s905x2-s922.bin, then used meson-g12a-radxa-zero.dtb as dtb. This mostly works, only Ethernet doesn't work yet. In the Android DTB, I read:

ethernet@ff3f0000 {
        compatible = "amlogic, g12a-eth-dwmac\0snps,dwmac";
        reg = <0x00 0xff3f0000 0x00 0x10000 0x00 0xff634540 0x00 0x08 0x00 0xff64c000 0x00 0xa0 0x00 0xffd01008 0x00 0x04>;
        reg-names = "eth_base\0eth_cfg\0eth_pll\0eth_reset";
        interrupts = <0x00 0x08 0x01>;
        interrupt-names = "macirq";
        status = "okay";
        clocks = <0x02 0x38>;
        clock-names = "ethclk81";
        pll_val = <0x9c0040a 0x927e0000 0xac5f49e5>;
        analog_val = <0x20200000 0xc000 0x23>;
        pinctrl-names = "internal_eth_pins\0internal_gpio_pins";
        pinctrl-0 = <0x0f>;
        pinctrl-1 = <0x10>;
        mc_val = <0x4be04>;
        internal_phy = <0x01>;
        phandle = <0x9c>;
    };

but in the meson-g12a-radxa-zero blob, I read

ethernet@ff3f0000 {
            compatible = "amlogic,meson-g12a-dwmac\0snps,dwmac-3.70a\0snps,dwmac";
            reg = <0x00 0xff3f0000 0x00 0x10000 0x00 0xff634540 0x00 0x08>;
            interrupts = <0x00 0x08 0x04>;
            interrupt-names = "macirq";
            clocks = <0x02 0x26 0x02 0x02 0x02 0x0d 0x02 0x02>;
            clock-names = "stmmaceth\0clkin0\0clkin1\0timing-adjustment";
            rx-fifo-depth = <0x1000>;
            tx-fifo-depth = <0x800>;
            status = "okay";
            power-domains = <0x03 0x01>;
            pinctrl-0 = <0x11 0x12>;
            pinctrl-names = "default";
            phy-mode = "rgmii";
            phy-handle = <0x13>;
            amlogic,tx-delay-ns = <0x02>;

            mdio {
                #address-cells = <0x01>;
                #size-cells = <0x00>;
                compatible = "snps,dwmac-mdio";
                phandle = <0x1d>;
            };
        };

I haven't found a driver that has g12a-eth-dwmac, is it an Android-kernel-only thing?

[ophub]

What is your equipment, find a product link on the Internet and send it, what soc, what type of wired network card.

[redfast00]

I'm unable to send a product link, this set-top box is not sold individually and I haven't been able to find a similar product. The only page I found is https://www.askey.com.tw/products-detail/sti6030/. However, I've gotten it to work with meson-g12a-sei510.dtb blob: network and video works.