The main menu doesn't let me choose any option

Banana Pi Router design BPI-R4(MT7988)
1

I have 2 banana pi r4, in one of them it doesn’t let me in the main menu, choose any option, can someone help me why it happens, I have put 2 different uart in case that was the fault, but I still can’t choose any option.

when the installation finishes completely it doesn’t let me write anything either.

before I had no problem I used uart cp2102 and now I have FT232 FT232BL FT232RL USB 2.0 to TTL installed.

but as I have commented the boot is blocked and I can’t choose any option, I had to use this method to be able to install on the nand Note: when you want to Update Nand device, Firstly Change boot switch to boot from SD device and insert one SD with SD boot Image, then after boot up,you need flash one nand image into nand device. Finally you change bootstrap to boot from Nand device.

Before burning image into Nand, please prepare a USB disk. Let’s take OpenWrt image (mtk-bpi-r4-NAND-20231030.img) for example, the steps are below:

  1. Copy Nand boot OpenWrt image(mtk-bpi-r4-NAND-20231030.img) to USB disk.

  2. Change boot switch Jumper, the board boot from SD device, then power up the board.

  3. Plug in USB disk to the board, and mount the USB to /mnt or other directory as follows: (you can skip mounting if it is mounted automatically)

  • mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt
  • change your directory to the mounting point, here is: cd /mnt
  1. Execute following command to erase the whole Nand flash and copy image to nand device:
  • mtd erase /dev/mtd0
  • dd if=mtk-bpi-r4-NAND-20231030.img of=/dev/mtdblock0
  1. Power off BPI-R4 board, unplug u-disk driver, change bootstrap to boot from Nand device.

and without problems the latest mtk-bpi-r4-MT76-NAND-20240202 image is installed on the nand, and it boots without problems. The screenshot is from this latest image.

u-boot boot menu Captura de pantalla 2025-02-15 112206

Does anyone know the reason why this happens?

Thanks

2

Can you type anything when in openwrt using your uart adapter? Maybe your uart rx (cable) is broken

3

Good afternoon @franco-w, I can’t write anything, but on the other banana pi with the 2 uarts I have no problem.

I can write without problems through putty, but it doesn’t respond through the com port

but it doesn’t let me select any menu option manually.

If I put the other banana I can write perfectly in the com3 and com4 ports that are enabled for each uart and they work correctly. I discard the rx of the uart that is broken… Also through tftpd64 I write openwrt in another kind of routers that I put openwrt on, but since it is a factory image there is only this way

If you can think of something I’m all ears.

Thanks for your interest

4

I meant not putty via ssh,i meant over serial but after uboot. So if your adapter including the cable works on another board (make sure you operating with 3.3v). And the same cobination does not work on this board sonething is wrong with uart rx on board. Maybe soldering is broken or the uart line on SoC.

5

Good morning, on the motherboard that works correctly, it lets me run through the menu and I can install on emmc, on the motherboard with the same image on the nand it doesn’t let me run through the menu.

At least I think it should stop running through the menu, I don’t know if uart influences being able to run and install on emmc.

I’m looking for this file bl2_emmc-r4.img but I can’t find it anywhere, to be able to install with this method on emmc, maybe you have it, and see if that way I can solve the problem.

the file I need is this bl2_emmc-r4.img, and with this method I can write to emmc.

Plug in USB disk to the board, and mount the USB to /mnt or other directory as follows: (you can skip mounting if it is mounted automatically)

  • mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt
  • change your directory to the mounting point, here is: cd /mnt
  1. Execute:
  • echo 0 > /sys/block/mmcblk0boot0/force_ro
  • dd if=bl2_emmc-r4.img of=/dev/mmcblk0boot0
  • dd if=mtk-bpi-r4-EMMC-20231030.img of=/dev/mmcblk0
  • mmc bootpart enable 1 1 /dev/mmcblk0

thanks for your help.

have a good day

6

You should fix first uart on sdcard before trying to install something on emmc. For bl2 maybe you can try one from my uboot repo releases. Imho it should have all necessary. If you want to use openwrt you may need another which searches fip in ubifs.

7

Good afternoon, I have the file for this image, but I have recorded the image BPI-R4-BE1350-WIFI_MT76-20240202, inside it had bl2_emmc-r4.img, I have been able to record the emmc, but I see that even though I have a paid VPN and I use the main router with it, it gives me 3 GB less speed,

apart from that I still can’t navigate through the menu.

I really don’t know what it is

I’ll put nand speeds first and then emmc

nand

nand
nand729×334 30.9 KB

emmc

emmc test speed
emmc test speed735×324 27.5 KB

fip in ubifs there’s no problem I also have it but tftpd64 doesn’t work and I can’t install it.

When I saw your post, emmc had already recorded it.

If you can think of anything else, I’d appreciate it.

8

Good afternoon, when I said putty I was referring to com4. I have noticed that since I recorded in emmc, if I go back to nand the image has been corrupted and I have to record it again.

With con 4 it doesn’t let me do anything.

I have images of com4, and then the image has become corrupted. The nand

COM4 PUTTY

ERR0R NAND 4 COM4

Now I have to re-record the NAND again, I think that once I re-record it, when I reboot it is no longer corrupted.

recorded image starts perfectly now

nand ok
nand ok711×986 17.4 KB

I have been able to burn

openwrt-mediatek-filogic-bananapi_bpi-r4-snand-bl31-uboot.fip

mtd write /tmp/openwrt-mediatek-filogic-bananapi_bpi-r4-snand-preloader.bin

I can change from nand to emmc without any problem, the nand is no longer corrupted.

but I still can’t navigate through the menus.

I don’t know what else to do.

can it be burned in some way through tftpd64, the nand directly, or can it only be done through the com4 uart menu.

thanks and best regards