An unofficial method to solve instability problem

Banana Pi SBCs design BPI-M2 Ultra / BPI-M2 Berry(A40i)
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With this method, my bpi_m2u was able to normally run for 10 days since last manually restart. Many thanks to @charles. He suggested me the right way to work out this method.

This method is unofficial because @sinovoip or any other stuff of bpi_m2u maker never give any solution to solve instability problem, but instability seems to be a common problem among customers. See frequent-freeze-ups-of-m2u and what-can-i-do-with-a-defect-board.

#Principle We have to tweak frequency of ram in sys_config.fex. Someone says the default frequency of ram is to high(648MHz). The max frequency shoud be 576MHz. See http://www.cnx-software.com/2017/05/29/banana-pi-bpi-m2-berry-allwinner-v40-development-board-allwinner-business-units-sdksoftware-management/#comment-542610.

Besides frequency, voltage should also be tweak a litte higher. See frequent-freeze-ups-of-m2u.

#Solution The frequency of ram and voltage can only be tweaked by changing their values in sys_config.fex of source code, compiling the source code and writing it to SD card.

##Step 1. (I have pushed my revised source code to facat/BPI-M2U-bsp, you may skip this step)

First, you have to fetch kernel source from official code repository. At the time this article is written, it’s 3.10.65 version.

Go to sunxi-pack/allwinner/azalea-m2ultra/configs. You will see 7 folders.

snipaste20170709_151028.png1051×114 6.38 KB

I recommend you edit sys_config.fex in each of these folders.

For example, go to BPI_M2U_720P and edit sys_config.fex with any editor you like.

Replace

dcdc2_vol                  = 1001160
dcdc3_vol                  = 1001100
dcdc4_vol                  = 1100
dc5ldo_vol                 = 1100

with

dcdc2_vol                  = 1001280
dcdc3_vol                  = 1001150
dcdc4_vol                  = 1160
dc5ldo_vol                 = 1200

This is for tweaking voltage of ram.

Also, replace

dram_clk			= 648

with

dram_clk			= 576

This is for tweaking frequency of ram. #Step 2. Compile the source code as described in BPI-M2Ultra_Compiler_SOP.pdf When choosing what to compile, choose 1. Build all, uboot, kernel, and pack to download images. #Step 3. Write new images bach to your SD card as described in BPI-M2Ultra_Compiler_SOP.pdf

!Important: You must write back files in 100MB, BPI-BOOT-bpi-m2u.tgz and 3.10.65-BPI-M2U-Kernel.tgz. Do it as the pdf file says.

###For those who are not good at compiling kernel, I supply my kernel (my BPI-M2U kernel image).

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Only to give an acknowledge I can confirm the effcet of the upper procedure with my BananaPi M2Ultra. Currently the branch form dan-and has it also impemented and I have tested it now with 4 different processes running memtester 450 10 which executes the test with 450MB on all 4 cores of the board(=1800MB). As long as it is not certified by the manufacturer I have spend a heatsink on the R40 but not for the DDR-SDRAM-Chips, because it was originally specific for a RasberryPi and there the sizes for the other chips were incomatible. Without this change in the .fex-Files the board was running not longer than 15 minutes. With the change it is running up to now for a complete day. Additionally I coud oberve the running processes from another ssh-shell and HTOP. It seems that the stage from the current 3.10.107 is good enough to run the board in reliability application. Good job of the community :wink:

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Confirmed: board stable as rock. Later I’ll try to patch original Raspbian imageswith the fixed bootloader and kernel.

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Thanks. I am trying this.

Can I compile this using my BPI-M2U or do I need to use a different system?

when trying to install the tool chain at top of BPI-M2Ultra_Compiler_SOP.pdf four of the packages are not available when i try to apt-get install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf g+±arm-linux-gnueabihf gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi g+±arm-linux-gnueabi libssl-de

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try using the official docker bpi-build on your pc. Or just using my kernel (my BPI-M2U kernel image).

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Thank you.

Can you help me a little more? Is the following correct? What are the correct locations for the files?

Change BPI-M2Ultra Uboot: sudo bpi-bootsel BOOTLOADER-bpi-m2u.tar <???>

Change BPI-M2Ultra uImage: sudo tar –xvf BPI-BOOT-bpi-m2u.tar -C /dev/mmcblk0p1

Change BPI-M2Ultra Kernel: sudo tar -xvf 3.10.65-BPI-M2U-Kernel.tar -C /dev/root

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#First, take out SD card from your m2u and insert it in a PC. Second, mount your SD card. Remember there are tow partitions on the SD. On your condition, sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p0 /mnt/BPI-BOOT && mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/BPI-ROOT

Then

sudo bpi-bootsel BOOTLOADER-bpi-m2u.tar /dev/mmcblk0

sudo tar –xvf BPI-BOOT-bpi-m2u.tar -C /mnt/BPI-BOOT

sudo tar -xvf 3.10.65-BPI-M2U-Kernel.tar -C /mnt/BPI-ROOT

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Thanks so much. I have been trying to do this directly on my running M2U. Hadn’t even thought about turning it off and using another computer.

The only other computer I have is a Mac so I don’t think I can do this without quite a bit of work and installing all the build tools etc.

I will wait for the next jessie img to be released by the BPI team (might need to wait some time I guess).

Can you explain the difference between your build and the one released by dan-and: https://github.com/dan-and/BPI-M2U-bsp

Thanks again and really great that you are helping to move this project/board forward.

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My kernel only solves the instability problem. From dan-and’s commitment I can see he adopts my code end keeps up with official kernel. Besides, he makes his kernel to 3.10.107 when official kernel is still 3.10.65.

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OK. thanks for the info. Being really cheeky but is there any possibility that you could compile and upload dan-and’s kernel?

I am so close to getting a new kernel installed on my m2u, i really would like to make it work as I don’t expect anything good from the BPI team any time soon.

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You can ask dan-and to share his compiled kernel by posting an issue on his git repository. Also I can compile his kernel if I’m free.

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OK. Thanks. I understand and really appreciate your help.

I am very close to getting the kernel to compile myself on my M2U. It seems to work fine but there is one or 2 errors:

/bin/sh: 1: bc: not found /mnt/mmc/BPI-M2U-bsp/linux-sunxi/kernel/Makefile:141: recipe for target ‘kernel/timeconst.h’ failed make[2]: *** [kernel/timeconst.h] Error 127 Makefile:798: recipe for target ‘kernel’ failed make[1]: *** [kernel] Error 2

and then later:

make[1]: Leaving directory ‘/mnt/mmc/BPI-M2U-bsp/linux-sunxi’ Makefile:49: recipe for target ‘kernel’ failed make: *** [kernel] Error 2

Any idea what could be causing these?

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OK - I have found and solved the compile issue on my M2U. So now I have a 3.10.107 kernel.

I’m super happy right now!!!

Is it possible to copy kernel directly onto my M2U while it is running or do I need to connect the SD card to a PC?

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You need to connect the SD card to a PC.

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haha. Thanks but too late and I have broken my install. No problem though as I am only using the m2u to learn more about linux etc.

Will wait for the next BPI image release and take it from there.

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You can update Kernel and modules from BPI. You dont need PC. Last kernel can be found there: 3.10.107-BPI-M2U-Kernel https://mega.nz/#F!bc9VzLbS!hmo4D-ZxzBWE4nHl6uF8rQ

How install you can find there:

Its contain all changes from dan-and & facat. Also have modules mali.ko and ump.ko

1 Like
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Hi Oleksandr, I follow your guide but I get this error when I have to install modules:

root@bpi-iot-ros-ai:/home/pi# insmod /lib/modules/3.10.107-BPI-M2U-Kernel/kernel/drivers/gpu/umplock.ko

insmod: ERROR: could not insert module /lib/modules/3.10.107-BPI-M2U-Kernel/kernel/drivers/gpu/umplock.ko: Invalid module format

modules are copied here:

root@bpi-iot-ros-ai:/lib/modules/3.10.107-BPI-M2U-Kernel/kernel/drivers/gpu# ls -l

** total 4208 -rw-r–r-- 1 root root 3573676 Aug 10 00:34 mali.ko -rw-r–r-- 1 root root 607012 Aug 10 00:34 ump.ko -rw-r–r-- 1 root root 121624 Aug 10 00:33 umplock.ko

here dmesg output:

[ 3262.178491] ump: disagrees about version of symbol module_layout

[ 3621.399535] umplock: disagrees about version of symbol module_layout

[ 4183.485093] mali: disagrees about version of symbol module_layout

could you help me please ?