ROCK Pi 4 Plus (v1.73, eMMC): no boot after upgrading to 26.11.0-trunk-dietpi2 (kernel 6.18.60)

Troubleshooting
1

Creating a bug report/issue

I have searched the existing open and closed issues

Required Information

  • DietPi version | G_DIETPI_VERSION_CORE=10 G_DIETPI_VERSION_SUB=8 G_DIETPI_VERSION_RC=2 G_GITBRANCH='master' G_GITOWNER='MichaIng'
  • Distro version | bookworm
  • Kernel version | Linux rockpi 6.18.54-current-rockchip64 #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Sep 25 14:35:54 UTC 2026 aarch64 GNU/Linux (rolled back; the failing kernel is 6.18.60)
  • Architecture | arm64
  • SBC model | ROCK 4 (aarch64): ROCK Pi 4 Plus, board revision v1.73
  • Power supply used | Stock PSU that shipped with the Nebra hotspot this board came from
  • SD card used | None; boots from the onboard 32 GB eMMC

Additional Information

  • Software title | Kernel: linux-image-current-rockchip64 and armbian-firmware
  • Was the software title installed freshly or updated/migrated? | Updated via apt upgrade, 26.11.0-trunk-dietpi1 → dietpi2
  • Can this issue be replicated on a fresh installation of DietPi? | Not tested. The fresh Oct 22 Bookworm image (6.18.54) boots fine from microSD. I haven’t upgraded it to dietpi2.
  • Bug report ID | n/a

Steps to reproduce

  1. ROCK Pi 4 Plus booting from eMMC, running linux-image-current-rockchip64 26.11.0-trunk-dietpi1 (6.18.54)
  2. apt upgrade installs linux-image-current-rockchip64, armbian-firmware and linux-u-boot-rockpi-4b-current 26.11.0-trunk-dietpi2 (6.18.60). The install completes without errors.
  3. reboot

Expected behaviour

  • The board boots on 6.18.60: blue heartbeat LED, HDMI console, network up.

Actual behaviour

  • Solid green power LED only. No blue heartbeat LED.
  • No HDMI output at all.
  • No network: no ARP reply, and the board doesn’t appear anywhere on the subnet.
  • A cold power cycle, and removing all USB devices, makes no difference.

Extra details

  • A fresh DietPi_ROCKPi4-ARMv8-Bookworm.img (Oct 22, 6.18.54) on microSD boots normally with the eMMC still installed. The bootloader on the eMMC seems fine.
  • Downgrading only the kernel and firmware on the eMMC to dietpi1, from a chroot in the SD system, fixed it. The board runs normally on 6.18.54 again.
  • The dietpi2 kernel package currently in all/rock4 matches the failing download’s size (Size: 68520240, SHA256: 077dbd1203d900af1902b40696177cd04a4be9741763c0204c87ce59e2d18991). It looks like no rebuild has reached rock4 yet.
  • I have a USB-serial adapter and can capture a boot log of 6.18.60 if needed.
  • Workaround used (from the SD-booted system):
mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/emmc
for d in dev dev/pts proc sys; do mount --bind /$d /mnt/emmc/$d; done
apt-get download linux-image-current-rockchip64=26.11.0-trunk-dietpi1 armbian-firmware=26.11.0-trunk-dietpi1
cp *.deb /mnt/emmc/root/
chroot /mnt/emmc dpkg -i /root/linux-image-current-rockchip64_26.11.0-trunk-dietpi1_arm64.deb /root/armbian-firmware_26.11.0-trunk-dietpi1_all.deb
chroot /mnt/emmc apt-mark hold linux-image-current-rockchip64 armbian-firmware linux-u-boot-rockpi-4b-current

apt upgrade output (excerpt):
Unpacking linux-image-current-rockchip64 (26.11.0-trunk-dietpi2) over (26.11.0-trunk-dietpi1) ...
Unpacking linux-u-boot-rockpi-4b-current (26.11.0-trunk-dietpi2) over (26.11.0-trunk-dietpi1) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-6.18.60-current-rockchip64
'/boot/Image' -> 'vmlinuz-6.18.60-current-rockchip64'
'/boot/dtb' -> 'dtb-6.18.60-current-rockchip64'
Setting up linux-u-boot-rockpi-4b-current (26.11.0-trunk-dietpi2) ...