Le Potato Not Booting (Read)

Hello, Just got my S905x and I am having trouble booting this thing. I took the liberty of reading all the documentation and posts on the forum but I cannot get this thing to boot. Here’s what’s going on

  1. Downloaded the correct S905 Image from the Distro and Unzipped
  2. Flashed with Raspberry Pi Imager, Etcher, Disk Utility (No success), and even the terminal commands
  3. Pop the SD Card into the Potato (This card)
  4. Connect Ethernet
  5. Power on device

I see the Libre logo, then it goes through the Ubuntu System check. The loading mouse appears momentarily before the device loops again to the beginning Libre logo and the cycle restarts.

Reading the forums, I see that a common issue with this is either the SD Card, Power Supply, or Imaging method. I can confirm that the red LED (indicates power) does not turn off at all during this process. Additionally, I can confirm that the image is flashed correctly as this is the process with all the imaging methods. I am seeking assistance as to why this is not starting up. Perhaps a thorough video tutorial for each operating system (Windows, Mac, Linux) would be helpful.

I have a long history of working with Pi and other computer boards, this one has me stumped. Thanks in advance

Hi, I’ve just finished the same thing. It worked for me. I saw the EFI screen, then a grub screen, and then a boot log until finally a black screen with the “wait” wheel. That churned for some time, and then I got the purple jellyfish and System Configuration started.

Only thing I can suggest is to check the download image file (there are 905 and 805 images that might be easy to mistake) - and then try a different power supply and cable. If you have one of those RPi supplies with USB-C and then the little adapter for micro USB - I would give that a try. I’ve had trouble in the past with the USB cable itself - so try both a different AC adapter and also a different USB cable.

One more thing - if you are used to RPi, then the uSD card holder is different, you need to push the card in until it clicks like a ballpoint pen. And push again to release it. (Sorry if I’m just typing the obvious)

Good Luck!

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First and foremost, thank you for a USEFUL answer instead of telling me to just read something. I appreciate it, truly. There is no such thing as the “obvious” in this tinkering world.

I got it to work! I tried switching the power supply and cable. First I was using an android phone charger and a standard Micro USB cable, I then switched to some other USB outlet and changed the cable and it worked! Unsure why the android charger wasn’t good enough – or perhaps it was the cable ( I was maintaining a solid red light the whole time).

Anyways, thanks again!

Just like on the previous threads, if the board reboots instanteously, it is the power supply not delivering enough current. Most old Android phone chargers are 500mA to 1A.

well, you’re getting more than me if you’re getting ANY video output. Two boards into this nightmare and i can’t even get a green light and zero video output.

Please do not double post. This device requires you to flash a MicroSD card correctly or it will not boot. See Libre Computer Start Here Guide

Le Potato

Same, except:

  • 3.0A 5V power supply, multiple cables attempted.
  • Tried building the SDCard from Etcher, dd (macos command line), same result. We don’t have any Windoze machines since around 2004.
  • No logo, nothing. Keyboard and mouse light up sometimes, other times not. No signs of life, and monitor eventually gets bored and shuts itself off due to ‘no signal’
  • Steady red light
  • Steady blue light
  • ‘reset’ (assuming…) button does nothing that I can see.
  • attempted multiple Samsung Class 10 Micro-SD cards. All work in other SBC’s before and after trying them in this thing.
  • Attempting to use image from here on S-905X_CC-V1.0-A

No manual to speak of outside the product page and various HOWTO articles scattered around, unless I am missing it somehow.

Extract the image. If you don’t extract it before dding, nothing will work.

What command are you using to flash?

There’s no reset button.

If your keyboard and mouse don’t light up after the bootloader has loaded, then it’s a power issue.

Extract the image. If you don’t extract it before dding, nothing will work.
- I did. It doesn't work either way.
What command are you using to flash?
- No command input allowed at any point during SDCard booting. UBoot button doesn't appear to do anything.
  • Following EMMC procedures for
    pyamlboot/run.sh aml-s905x-cc erase-emmc
    fails with USBTimeoutError
  • Following EMMC procedures for
    pyamlboot/run.sh ums-emmc
    fails with USBTimeoutError and no drive mounted.
  • 1 of my 3 Le Potato boards doesn’t even light/power up when connecting the USB-A to USB-A cable.
If your keyboard and mouse don’t light up after the bootloader has loaded, then it’s a power issue.
- Well, I'm using the power adapter I purchased [from a link on your weblog that you recommended](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C8V23K7Z/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1) in a support post to other users. If it IS the power supply, you recommended the wrong one...

AMD machines have buggy USB controllers that they have never bothered to fix. See Libre Computer AML-S905X-CC eMMC Flashing Steps from Linux with pyamlboot - #38 by Peter_Meigs

I am seeing in

/var/log/syslog
where the device is seen, but not registering?

Dec 27 08:43:40 Ayana-Angel kernel: [21240.441882] usb 1-9: new high-speed USB device number 26 using xhci_hcd
Dec 27 08:43:49 Ayana-Angel kernel: [21249.341963] usb 1-3: new high-speed USB device number 28 using xhci_hcd
Dec 27 08:43:49 Ayana-Angel kernel: [21249.511142] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=1b8e, idProduct=c003, bcdDevice= 0.20
Dec 27 08:43:49 Ayana-Angel kernel: [21249.511152] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Dec 27 08:43:49 Ayana-Angel kernel: [21249.511156] usb 1-3: Product: GX-CHIP
Dec 27 08:43:49 Ayana-Angel kernel: [21249.511160] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Amlogic
Dec 27 08:43:49 Ayana-Angel mtp-probe: checking bus 1, device 28: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.2/0000:02:00.0/usb1/1-3"
Dec 27 08:43:49 Ayana-Angel mtp-probe: bus: 1, device: 28 was not an MTP device
Dec 27 08:43:49 Ayana-Angel mtp-probe: checking bus 1, device 28: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.2/0000:02:00.0/usb1/1-3"
Dec 27 08:43:49 Ayana-Angel mtp-probe: bus: 1, device: 28 was not an MTP device

I will go check that out.

Ok. This is pretty strange.

Plugging in to the rear panel USBs allows me to mount the eMMC drive and write an OS to it:

Dec 27 08:51:40 Ayana-Angel kernel: [21720.625572] usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
Dec 27 08:51:40 Ayana-Angel kernel: [21720.774409] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=1b8e, idProduct=c003, bcdDevice= 0.20
Dec 27 08:51:40 Ayana-Angel kernel: [21720.774417] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=0
Dec 27 08:51:40 Ayana-Angel kernel: [21720.774421] usb 3-2: Product: GX-CHIP
Dec 27 08:51:40 Ayana-Angel kernel: [21720.774425] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: Amlogic
Dec 27 08:51:40 Ayana-Angel mtp-probe: checking bus 3, device 6: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:07.1/0000:0e:00.3/usb3/3-2"
Dec 27 08:51:40 Ayana-Angel mtp-probe: bus: 3, device: 6 was not an MTP device
Dec 27 08:51:40 Ayana-Angel mtp-probe: checking bus 3, device 6: "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:07.1/0000:0e:00.3/usb3/3-2"
Dec 27 08:51:40 Ayana-Angel mtp-probe: bus: 3, device: 6 was not an MTP device
Dec 27 08:51:57 Ayana-Angel wpa_supplicant[761]: wlxe84e06996f28: CTRL-EVENT-SIGNAL-CHANGE above=1 signal=-29 noise=9999 txrate=72200
spyderdyne@Ayana-Angel:~/Documents/Projects$ sudo pyamlboot/run.sh aml-s905x-cc ums-emmc
Using GX Family boot parameters
ROM: 2.4 Stage: 0.0
Writing /home/spyderdyne/Documents/Projects/pyamlboot/files/libretech-cc/u-boot.bin.usb.bl2 at 0xd9000000...
[DONE]
Writing /home/spyderdyne/Documents/Projects/pyamlboot/files/usbbl2runpara_ddrinit.bin at 0xd900c000...
[DONE]
Running at 0xd9000000...
[DONE]
Waiting...
[DONE]
ROM: 2.2 Stage: 0.8
Running at 0xd900c000...
[DONE]
Waiting...
[DONE]
Writing /home/spyderdyne/Documents/Projects/pyamlboot/files/libretech-cc/u-boot.bin.usb.bl2 at 0xd9000000...
[DONE]
Writing /home/spyderdyne/Documents/Projects/pyamlboot/files/usbbl2runpara_runfipimg.bin at 0xd900c000...
[DONE]
Writing /home/spyderdyne/Documents/Projects/pyamlboot/files/libretech-cc/u-boot.bin.usb.tpl at 0x200c000...
[DONE]
Writing scripts/libretech-cc-ums-emmc.scr at 0x8000000...
[DONE]
Running at 0xd900c000...
[DONE]

Amazing!

It would be awesome if there were operating systems and a way to put them on here that actually booted now.

Apparently there are none available.

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There are over a dozen operating systems. If you cannot find them, maybe look on the main website.

I ran into very similar behavior when attempting to boot my second Le Potato. It looked like all was well during the boot process, then “brain freeze”. I tried reflash, several re-boots, etc, sometimes making through to the desktop, but always broken in one way or another. I then compared to the first Le Potato I have that has been running 24/7 for months (using as a server) and discovered that it was using a Kinsington microSD. The second one that was “brain freezing” was using Kootion microSD, a brand I ordered online and never used before. I then replaced that using a PNY microSD for the second one and all is working great now! Tossed the Kootion microSD into the garbage.

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