SATA mounts only every second start

Banana Pi SBCs design BPI-M3(A83T/R18)
1

I have Banana pi M3 with:

lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS
Release:	22.04
Codename:	jammy

I wanted to mount an external drive on SATA port, but it is mounting only every second start. Trying to mount it manuel fails with hanging of the mount process. dmesg -T shows the disk:

[So Feb 18 09:12:15 2024] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ST500LT0 12-1DG142        0016 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4
[So Feb 18 09:12:15 2024] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[So Feb 18 09:12:15 2024] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 976773164 512-byte logical blocks: (500 GB/466 GiB)
[So Feb 18 09:12:15 2024] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[So Feb 18 09:12:15 2024] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 03 00 00 00
[So Feb 18 09:12:15 2024] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] No Caching mode page found
[So Feb 18 09:12:15 2024] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
[So Feb 18 09:12:16 2024]  sda: sda1
[So Feb 18 09:12:16 2024] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk

First i thought the drive has a damage, but other drives failed too. Can anybody confirm that behavior ?

2

Kernel is communicating with Hardware, not “Ubuntu”. Nobody know what you are running …

3

Sorry, uname -a say: Linux bananapim3 5.16.11-sunxi #22.02.1 SMP Sun Feb 27 09:17:03 UTC 2022 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux

4

Some very old kernel that nobody knows much about … Try here for start: Bananapi M3 – Armbian Not warranty that it will work, but this is what you should try first.

6

Ok, it starts from SD, but it is not for EMMC ? I tried Armbian Jammy with:

dd if=/path/to/image.img of=/dev/mmcblk2

But it does not start. Did i miss something ?

7

No idea, this is very old stuff. In any case, installation to eMMC works this way. https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Getting-Started/#how-to-install-to-emmc-sata-nvme-usb

If not, then its possible that emmc chip is not supported by boot loader, something else … attache UART and see what you get.

8

Ok, i deleted the /dev/mmcblk2 and made a new partition with ext4 filesystem. Then i have new Options in armbian-install named: “Boot from eMMC - system on eMMC” but it gives me Errors:

Error: Could not stat device mmcblk2 /dev/mmcblk2 - No such file or directory. Error: Could not stat device mmcblk2 /dev/mmcblk2 - No such file or directory. mount: /mnt/armbian-install.cgBDNB/rootfs: special device mmcblk2 /dev/mmcblk2p1 does not exist. mount: /mnt/armbian-install.cgBDNB/bootfs: special device mmcblk2 /dev/mmcblk2p1 does not exist.

fdisk -l say:

Disk /dev/mmcblk2: 7,28 GiB, 7818182656 bytes, 15269888 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disklabel type: dos Disk identifier: 0x8aa5ce97

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type

/dev/mmcblk2p1 2048 15269887 15267840 7,3G 83 Linux

Disk /dev/mmcblk2boot0: 4 MiB, 4194304 bytes, 8192 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

Disk /dev/mmcblk2boot1: 4 MiB, 4194304 bytes, 8192 sectors Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

But armbian-install is just a bash script, maybe i can find the error there.

Edit: After rebooting i can try one time with armbian-install, if it fails i have to reboot to give another try. After deleting some big files. it is copying to eMMC now. Finished, but not booting without SD. I will use eMMC as Swap.

9

It must work. Please consider consulting armbian forum for further advices. HW makers has little to do with this.

10

I tried again, but it does not work. Then i choose boot from SD and system on SATA, this works. Choosing boot on SD and system on eMMC works. But not booting without SD. I made dist-upgrade, Banana Pi hangs by installing u-boot. No reaction, even with keyboard. I flash SD again, but now Banana Pi does not boot anymore. Not from SD or other. I think, the upgrade killed something. But thanks for your help.

Edit: It is working again. After i put it in the corner for some month, i flashed a new SD with Armbian 22.11.0-trunk 5.19.6 Now trying to put it on eMMC, but: “Counting files … few Seconds.” takes > 30 Minutes. But it is booting from eMMC. uname -a Linux bananapim3 6.10.9-edge-sunxi #1 SMP Sun Sep 8 05:56:41 UTC 2024 armv7l GNU/Linux Now trying to run update to Bookworm… And it works. If i have time, i will try SATA again.

11

FYI. It is better to tune into Armbian forums. Not sure if developer, that is maintaining this board and other similar Allwinner based, checks this forum.