NanoPi Neo - Can't start

Troubleshooting
1

Hi All.
I am new to DietPi and I wanted to try it on my NanoPi Neo.
I downloaded the image, plugged into my router and all I get are both lights on the ethernet port permanently on and the green led permanently on.

I know the board is OK because before trying DietPi, I use the FriendlyArm Ubuntu Distro.

Any clues on where I have gone wrong?

Thanks in advance.
V.

2

Hi V. ,

hmm, sounds like your device won’t boot up.

Have you the possibility to connect a serial communication board on the Debug Port（UART0）?

If not:

  • do you use a compatible microSD card?
  • connected a microUSB power with min. 5V/2A power ( > 2A it’s a must have!)
  • check the md5sum hash (md5=f6f8312602bb09474cecbccb47e42c66) of “DietPi_v127_NanoPiNEO-armv7-(Jessie).img” before you burn it to microSD card?

cu
k-plan

3

Hi,

This is normal for the NEO, its a bit of a nightmare to determine if the device is actually “Active”. The green eth LED will flicker when there is activity. Beyond that, there is no indication of activity.

I just tried the DietPi image on a fresh installation, it seems to be working ok here.

The only thing I can suggest is connect up serial line, as per K-Plan’s suggestion if you have one. Its enabled by default.
If not, just try to verify the IP address in your router “connected DHCP clients” page, or similar. Maybe try pinging the IP also.

Failing that, if you are still getting issues, please let us know.

4

Hi,

Yes!

No, my NanoPi Neo doesn’t do so. Green on board LED is configured as “power LED”, by "/boot/script.bin "

If you want to see sd card activity by the blue on board LED, you have to add at the end of /etc/rc.local just before exit 0:

#### switch on blue LED for sd card activity
echo 1 >/sys/class/leds/blue_led/brightness
echo mmc0 >/sys/class/leds/blue_led/trigger

exit 0

Now it will light, if where is any sd card activity. But this will be done first after booting up and load /etc/rc.local

If you want sd card boot activity, you have to edit script.fex and compile via Sunxi-tools.

apt-get install sunxi-tools

cp /boot/script.bin /boot/script.bin.bac

bin2fex -vq /boot/script.bin script.fex

nano script.fex

fex2bin -vq script.fex /boot/script.bin

https://github.com/igorpecovnik/lib/blob/master/config/fex/nanopineo.fex

Changes:

...

[card_boot]
logical_start = 40960
sprite_work_delay = 500
sprite_err_delay = 200
sprite_gpio1 = port:PA10<1><default><default><1>
next_work = 3

....

[boot_init_gpio]
used = 1
gpio0 = port:PL10<1><default><default><1>
gpio1 = port:PA10<1><default><default><0>

....

[leds_para]
leds_used = 1
green_led = port:PL10<1><default><default><1>
green_led_active_low = 0
blue_led = port:PA10<1><default><default><1>
blue_led_active_low = 0

...

If you will try it, download, unpack, copy to /boot/ and reboot. Don’t forget to edit /etc/rc.local before reboot.

cu
k-plan
script.bin.zip (10 KB)

5

Awesome :slight_smile:, i’ll have to give this a spin!

The green eth LED will flicker when there is activity.

Ah my bad. I meant to say “the green LED on Ethernet port will flicker when there is network activity”. So could of been used to determine if the device is powered.

6

Yes, the one and only activity indicator by default. :open_mouth: