How to boot pre-built debian images on cf-base. Missing cn9130-cf-base.dtb in boot/marvell

OCTEON CN9130
1

Hi i’ve decided to try out a pre-built image from images.solidrun. as i’ve been having a nightmare compiling a working ubuntu image.

anyway i’ve downloaded from cn913x_build/sdk12/2025-01-19_3bceda1
cn9130-cf-base-debian-bookworm-microsd.img.xz

On burning the img to sdcard. it drops to u-boot. previously my u-boot environment pointed to cn9130-cf-base.dtb in boot/marvell/. However that dtb doesn’t exist in the img file. only dtb’s which seem unrelated to the build.

virtual@virtual-VirtualBox:/mnt/md126/boot/marvell$ ls
armada-8040-clearfog-gt-8k.dtb  armada-8040-mcbin-singleshot.dtb  cn9130-crb-B.dtb  cn9130-db.dtb    cn9131-db.dtb    cn9132-db.dtb
armada-8040-mcbin.dtb           cn9130-crb-A.dtb                  cn9130-db-B.dtb   cn9131-db-B.dtb  cn9132-db-B.dtb

typically i’d set environment from uboot prompt. e.g from documentation

setenv get_images "load mmc 1:1 $kernel_addr_r boot/Image /
load mmc 1:1 $fdt_addr_r boot/marvell/cn9130-cf-base.dtb /
setenv root 'root=/dev/mmcblk1p1 rootwait rw' /
setenv ramdisk_addr_r -"
saveenv
boot

i didn’t think it’d work but i did try some of the dtb’s but obvioulsy didn’t work. Am i missing something stupid?

2

I’ve may have realised something. My device is a very early model, i had it on pre-order. December 2021, original build felt simple compared to this.

looks like devices pre April 2022, didn’t have uboot shipped on SPI. Does anyone know if I need to install u-boot on SPI to get it working with the pre-compiled images. I’m reluctant to go through the pain and risk of flashing SPI and alerting my jumper settings if it’s not that.

3

it shouldn’t be a problem to flash spi-nor. It should be accessible in u-boot for you to test.