U-Boot not configuring framebuffer? (was: Pinebook: possible backlight issue)

[Lex Wennmacher <lex.wennmacher%gmx.de@localhost>]

On Fri, Nov 30, 2018 at 08:54:55PM +0100, Lex Wennmacher wrote:
> I haven't yet got NetBSD running on my pinebook.
> 
> Here's what I did: I wrote Jared's image (I tried different versions)
> to SD card and booted from that. I can tell that the kernel gets loaded
> and run as I can see the keyboard leds flash and there's a cracking noise
> after a certain time when the sound chip gets probed. But I don't get
> any console messages or other output on the screen. No Pinebook cone, no
> logo, rien, nothing, nada. As even in darkness no glow can be seen from
> the display, I think that the backlight remains off during the entire boot
> sequence.
> 
> I know that (the pre-installed) Linux likes to play games with the backlight
> in order to suppress output during boot until user mode is reached. I
> disabled that, but to no avail. My suspicion is that Linux somehow
> influences the backlight settings stored in the sunxi flash memory.

It's not a backlight issue ...

Out of ca. 100 attempts to boot the pinebook from the emmc, I had output
to the screen in two cases. I finally managed to get boot logs via the
serial console and fortunately I have a boot log of one of the successful
boots to make a diff vs. boots with no screen output:

@@ -25,8 +25,8 @@
 Loading Environment from FAT... *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environmen
t
 
 In:    serial
-Out:   vidconsole
-Err:   vidconsole
+Out:   serial
+Err:   serial
 Net:   No ethernet found.
 starting USB...
 USB0:   USB EHCI 1.00
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@
 switch to partitions #0, OK
 mmc1(part 0) is current device
 Scanning mmc 1:1...
-32781 bytes read in 4 ms (7.8 MiB/s)
+32781 bytes read in 3 ms (10.4 MiB/s)
 Found EFI removable media binary efi/boot/bootaa64.efi
 Scanning disks on usb...
 Disk usb0 not ready
@@ -70,16 +70,14 @@
 FDT /memory [2] @ 0xb72a7000 size 0x1c59000
 FDT /memory [3] @ 0xb8f00000 size 0x24000
 FDT /memory [4] @ 0xb8f2b000 size 0x5027000
-FDT /memory [5] @ 0xbdf53000 size 0xad000
-FDT /memory [6] @ 0xbe7e9000 size 0x1817000
+FDT /memory [5] @ 0xbdf53000 size 0x20ad000
 initarm: memory start 40000000 end c0000000 (len 80000000)
 initarm: fdt_build_bootconfig
 Usable memory:
   40000000 - 47ef2fff
   47f0d000 - b8f23fff
   b8f2b000 - bdf51fff
-  bdf53000 - bdffffff
-  be7e9000 - bfffffff
+  bdf53000 - bfffffff
 fdt_map_efi_runtime: netbsd,uefi-runtime-code bdf52000-bdf52fff (ffff80000000c000-ffff80000000cfff)
 fdt_map_efi_runtime: netbsd,uefi-runtime-data 47efb000-47efffff (ffff800000000000-ffff800000004fff)
 fdt_map_efi_runtime: netbsd,uefi-runtime-data 47f08000-47f0cfff (ffff800000005000-ffff800000009fff)
@@ -93,8 +91,7 @@
   47f0d000 - b73fffff
   b814e000 - b8f23fff
   b8f2b000 - bdf51fff
-  bdf53000 - bdffffff
-  be7e9000 - bfffffff
+  bdf53000 - bfffffff
 ------------------------------------------
 kern_vtopdiff         = 0xffffffbf48c00000
 physical_start        = 0x0000000040000000
@@ -124,8 +121,8 @@
 
 NetBSD 8.99.31 (GENERIC64) #0: Wed Jan 23 16:57:01 UTC 2019
        mkrepro%mkrepro.NetBSD.org@localhost:/usr/src/sys/arch/evbarm/compile/GENERIC64
-total memory = 2026 MB
-avail memory = 1961 MB
+total memory = 2034 MB
+avail memory = 1969 MB
 armfdt0 (root)
 simplebus0 at armfdt0: Pinebook
 simplebus1 at simplebus0
@@ -211,9 +208,6 @@
 sunxii2s0 at simplebus1: Audio Codec (digital part)
 sun8icodec0 at simplebus1: Audio Codec
 sun8icodec0: interrupting on GIC irq 60
-genfb0 at simplebus2: Simple Framebuffer (1920x1080 32-bpp @ 0xbe000000)
-genfb0: framebuffer at 0xbe000000, size 1920x1080, depth 32, stride 7680
-wsdisplay0 at genfb0 kbdmux 1: console (default, vt100 emulation)
 sunximmc0 at simplebus1: SD/MMC controller
 sunximmc0: interrupting on GIC irq 92
 sunximmc1 at simplebus1: SD/MMC controller
@@ -293,11 +287,11 @@
 sdmmc0 at sunximmc0
 sdmmc1 at sunximmc1
 sdmmc2 at sunximmc2
-uhub0 at usb0: NetBSD (0000) EHCI root hub (0000), class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1
-uhub1 at usb1: NetBSD (0000) OHCI root hub (0000), class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub2 at usb2: NetBSD (0000) EHCI root hub (0000), class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1
+uhub0 at usb1: NetBSD (0000) OHCI root hub (0000), class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
+uhub1 at usb2: NetBSD (0000) EHCI root hub (0000), class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1
+uhub2 at usb0: NetBSD (0000) EHCI root hub (0000), class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1
 uhub3 at usb3: NetBSD (0000) OHCI root hub (0000), class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
-uhub4 at uhub2 port 1: vendor 05e3 (0x5e3) USB2.0 Hub (0x608), class 9/0, rev 2.00/88.32, addr 2
+uhub4 at uhub1 port 1: vendor 05e3 (0x5e3) USB2.0 Hub (0x608), class 9/0, rev 2.00/88.32, addr 2
 uhub4: single transaction translator
 Lid Switch: lid opened.
 ld2 at sdmmc2: <0x15:0x0100:AJTD4R:0x00:0x5340fa81:0x000>
@@ -307,7 +301,7 @@
 uhidev0 at uhub4 port 1 configuration 1 interface 0
 hidev0: HAILUCK CO.,LTD (0x258a) USB KEYBOARD (0x0c), rev 1.10/1.00, addr 3, iclass 3/1
 ukbd0 at uhidev0: 8 Variable keys, 6 Array codes
-wskbd0 at ukbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0
+wskbd0 at ukbd0 mux 1
 uhidev1 at uhub4 port 1 configuration 1 interface 1
 uhidev1: HAILUCK CO.,LTD (0x258a) USB KEYBOARD (0x0c), rev 1.10/1.00, addr 3, iclass 3/0
 uhidev1: 9 report ids


So it looks to me as if U-Boot for some reason does not configure the
frambuffer. I have no idea as to why it fails and occasionally succeeds.
Linux using a different branch of U-Boot always boots with screen output,
so it doesn't seem to be a hardware issue.

I also find it curious that the uhubs attach to different usbs.

The image I'm using is from invisible.ca, with versions:
U-Boot SPL 2018.11-rc3 (Nov 09 2018 - 07:33:10 -0400)
NetBSD/evbarm EFI Boot (aarch64), Revision 1.8 (Wed Jan 23 16:57:01 UTC 2019) (from NetBSD 8.99.31)


As always, any help to get the pinebook working is appreciated.


Cheers,
--Lex