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

[Anand Moon]

Hi Quentin,

On Fri, 28 Nov 2025 at 15:41, Quentin Schulz <quentin.schulz at cherry.de> wrote:
>
> 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.
>
I have already tried these things, and I have checked  the pinctls
and configured correctly.

With the SPI boot, it will scan for all the bootable devices
like SD card or eMMC or NVMe, and it will boot from these modules.
But in my case, the SPI boot is fine, but without returning the U-Boot prompt
it's not responding to the keyboard keys.

I have checked the U-Boot source for Winbond flash ID
and tried to configure the missing w25q64 ID, but it's not getting
detected in userspace.

> > 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.

Since it boots to the userspace, my best option is to erase the flash.
>
> Cheers,
> Quentin
Thanks
-Anand