Understanding BPI-M64 initial boot process

Banana Pi SBCs design BPI-M64(A64)
1

Hi all,

I have finally succeeded in booting my shiny new BPI-M64 and would like to get the boot process under control.

I read a lot but for me as a newbie it is very difficult to identify whether information found is general or only related to a specific build/image or if it maybe is no longer as described.

I’m currently using 2017-08-13-debian-8-jessie-mate-desktop-preview-aarch64-bpi-m64-sd-emmc and I found the inird.img as well as the kernel (Image) in bananapi\bpi-m64\linux of the dos partition.

So there has to be “something” that loads the kernel.:slight_smile: My main quesestion would be where that is located: some where in hardware or on the SD card (may be in boot sector)? And did I understand the postings right, that this piece of SW is a kind of older U-Boot?

Thanks for any help in advance!

2

Would I have found the answer also when I wouldn’t have asked? :slight_smile:

Ok, here are some links: 1) SUNXI delivers the A64 with a small boot rom (BROM) included
2) the linux image (as in my debian example) for the SD card contains a partition table for two partitions along with a secondary program loader and a U-Boot variant.

Thanks for your patience