Re: Unable to boot Pi 3b+

Mark Millard wrote on 2023-08-15 20:25:
> On Aug 15, 2023, at 19:17, Peter G <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> I am unable to get FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64 to boot on either of two brand new Raspberry Pi 3B+ boards. (Just as a diagnostic, I checked that both work perfectly well with Raspberry Pi OS.)  I have tried several different brands and sizes of SD card (which all boot fine with Raspberry Pi OS). I have redone the image downloads multiple times and verified the checksums. I burn images to the SD card on another machine using dd with bs=1M. If I mount the prepared SD cards on that other machine, I can confirm the files are readable.
>>
>> I have tried both
>> /ftp/releases/arm64/aarch64/ISO-IMAGES/13.2/FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img
> 
> It may not be likely to be the issue, but you did not mention
> it explicitly, so . . .
> 
> I instead see:
> 
> http://ftp3.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD/releases/ISO-IMAGES/13.2/FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz

Yes, this is what I used. Sorry to not have been more explicit; I used 
unxz -k to extract the .img file before dd'ing it to the SD card.

> 
> Note the *.xz naming. I do not see a: FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img
> to download
> 
> After downloading FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz ,
> using:
> 
> # unxz FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img.xz
> 
> would produce a:
> 
> FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-RPI.img
> 
> That, in turn, would be dd'd to the microsd card.
> 
>> and
>> /ftp/releases/arm64/aarch64/ISO-IMAGES/13.2/FreeBSD-13.2-RELEASE-arm64-aarch64-disc1.iso.
> 
> Definitely the wrong media: no RPi* firmware, no U-Boot for the
> aarch64 RPi* , and so on.

Lack of a boot loader would explain why I get no green LED at all with 
the disc1.iso

The other image, the RPI.img one, at least tries to boot, as evidenced 
by the 4 long and 7 short blinks of the green LED. As a further 
diagnostic, I took that same SD card that blinks the LED and fails to 
boot in the 3B+ and put it in a Pi 4, where it boots fine.

So the RPI.img, the one you suggested above, is booting and working well 
in the Pi 4 but the exact same SD card fails to boot in the Pi 3B+. 
Since my two Pi 3B+s both work fine with other (non-FreeBSD) images, it 
seems that there must be a problem with that FreeBSD image on the PI 
3B+. Are there any known issues with the boot loader on the Pi 3B+?

Again, perhaps I'm missing something, but I don't know what else to try. 
Suggestions most welcome.

> 
>> Neither boots.
>> The first image gives green LED blinks: slow four and then fast seven. The second never blinks.
>>
>> Any advice on what I'm missing would be appreciated.
> 
> 
> 
> ===
> Mark Millard
> marklmi at yahoo.com
> 
>