[BUG] Raxda Rock Pi 4A serial console output stops prematurely

[Quentin Schulz]

Hi Anand,

On 11/28/25 6:50 AM, Anand Moon wrote:
> Hi Heinrich,
> 
>>> Thanks. I am having the same issue with my Radxa Rock Pi 4 B Plus.
>>>
>>> But I am booting from SPI flash, so I cannot stop this board in the
>>> U-Boot prompt.
>>>
>>> Is there any other way to flash the SPI flash u-boot-rockchip-spi.bin image
>>> in the user space to spi flash? using dd coammnd
>>>
>>>   From the schematics, it has W25Q64FWZPIG
>>>
>>> [1] https://dl.radxa.com/rockpi4/docs/hw/rockpi4/rockpi4_v13_sch_20181112.pdf
>>>
>>> I have tried to enable SPI flash, but it is not getting detected on
>>> the board in userspace.
>>
>>
>> https://wiki2.radxa.com/Rockpi4/dev/usb-install
>> has some guidance how to avoid booting from SPI NOR flash.
>>
> Thanks for your tip.
> 
> I've attempted this method, but it hasn't worked for me.
> Could you provide the SPI details for this board so I can map it in driver code
> and from userspace and then attempt to erase or reflash the image?
> 
> on my board
> [    1.282609] mmcblk0boot0: mmc0:0001 SLD64G 4.00 MiB
> [    1.285862] spi-nor spi1.0: unrecognized JEDEC id bytes: ff ff ff ff ff ff

I believe this just means that you have improperly set up the SPI 
controller, pinconf or whatnot and that it returns always the same thing?

> [    1.285967] mmcblk0boot1: mmc0:0001 SLD64G 4.00 MiB
> 
>> Set the jumper as shown in the picture to boot from SD-card.
>> Once booted remove the jumper to erase or update the SPI flash from U-Boot.
>>
> This board does not return to the U-Boot prompt.

If you write U-Boot (u-boot-rockchip.bin) at the proper address (block 
64, or 32KiB if you prefer) on an SD card, insert that into the board's 
SD card slot and make sure the SPI flash cannot be accessed and then 
power the board, then you should be able to boot into the U-Boot on the 
SD card. The process documented by Radxa to render the SPI flash 
non-operational seems to be grounding the SPI clock pin via the headers. 
Once you've booted into U-boot on the SD card, don't forget to remove 
the "short-circuit" contraption otherwise you won't be able to access 
the SPI flash.

> So I cannot debug this further.
> 

I would really recommend getting familiar with this process as if you 
flash a broken U-Boot on a non-removable storage medium and you don't 
know how to make the board NOT boot from it you'll have a bricked device.

Cheers,
Quentin