Unable to use emmc drive

steini · Posted at 12/9/2018 23:23:43

Hi, folks.
I am now unable to boot from emmc drive. Did clean it with blkdiscard /dev/mmcblk1. I am unable to flash all firmware images with upgrade_tool (using debian 18.04 host) through usb-c cable. The error messages are "Test Device Fail" and "Creating Comm Object failed!" when using "upgrade_tool uf Firefly-RK3399_LinuxSDK_xubuntu16.04_20181011.img". I only able to boot from the Firefly-rk3399_xubuntu1604_SD_201705151725.img. This is getting frustrating. The documentation will not help in this case.

Is it somehow possible to flash the emmc drive with or without upgrade_tool?

penguin · Posted at 12/10/2018 15:31:38

Try to dd Firefly-rk3399_xubuntu1604_SD_201705151725.img directly to /dev/mmcblk1 . It might work.

Please try another USB port in your PC for upgrade_tool to work. In my case, I often find the USB 3.0 port
has more luck than the USB 2.0 port. YMMV.

Did you also try to flash the firmware to eMMC in MaskRom mode? (But if you clear the eMMC, it should go
to that mode. In case of something wrong, you can follow the instructions in the Wiki to force into MaskRom
mode. )

penguin · Posted at 12/11/2018 17:36:38

Seems you have found the solution: start with sd boot and wipe eMMC

steini · Posted at 12/12/2018 02:12:58

penguin Posted at 12/11/2018 17:36
Seems you have found the solution: start with sd boot and wipe eMMC

@penguin That is exactly what i did. Got the firefly SD image from 2017 and did use etcher to put in on SD. Then I could boot firefly rk3399 and wipe out emmc drive and make new ext4 file system. Thanks for your advice.