Safe procedure to downgrade kernel for "minimal" image and resonably stable kernel

General Discussion
1

Hi,
My current situation is this:
. I am configuring a BBAI64 to do some work
. The image that fits my need is the “minimal” image
. There isn’t a reccommended “minimal”, only a reccomendend “IoT” for BBAI64 at the moment
=> I installed the latest “minimal” available and then i upgraded frequently, at the moment my kernel is “5.10.120-ti-arm64-r61”.
. PROBLEM. The kernels i tried so far a far too instable for my use, they crash very often.
. Q1. Do you know any reasonably stable kernel for the BBAI64, may be the one one the reccomendd “IoT” image ?
. Q2. If we have a quite stable kernel is there a procedure to downgrade it or do i simply follow the same procedure for a debian box ?

Bye
Nicola

2

@nmingotti there is a debian minimal version but it is hard to locate, and maybe not kept up to date.

Debian minimal 11.4
EMMC Flasher version

It won’t solve your kernel crashes though.

The best you can hope for is to wait for kernel updates that fix the crashes, assuming it is a software issue, or an issue that can be fixed by software.

If it is a particular kernel driver that is crashing, then assuming it is not needed in your use case, you could try removing it by creating a devicetree overlay to disable the modules, or you could just remove the kernel module (assuming it is not statically compiled in)

Are you using a good power supply ?
Are you using a fan ? The processor does get hot, and even though it is automotive rated, I do not know about other parts on the board. Especially the RAM.

I haven’t seen many posts here about system crashes, apart from yours, but then I don’t know how many people out there are actually using these boards. They are still very new.

It might be worth checking the TI forums (if any) to see if any of their customers are having issues with the TDA4VM EVM boards crashing.

1 Like
3

Hi @nmingotti there’s a minimal here:

updated once a month…

Regards,

4

It’s still very early in stabilizing this monster of a processor, what where you doing etc when this happened?

Regards,

5

what where you doing etc when this happened?

Oh, for the moment i do very little, oftent just
. login via serial console
. login via SSH (from on usb-ethernet)
Then, i leave the system like that, say a for a few hours and when
i go back to it crashed.

I realize the best is new so i figure there will be some time before the kernel
will be stable enough.

6

‘usb-ethernet’ are you powering and communicating thru the usb type-c input?

My regression testing BBAI64 is:

debian@BeagleBone:~$ uname -r
5.10.120-ti-arm64-r61
debian@BeagleBone:~$ uptime -p
up 3 days, 18 hours, 45 minutes

(Running ti edge demos 24/7)…

It’s powered via a Raspberry Pi usb-c powersupply, communicating over ethernet…

Regards,

7

Yes, correct.
One thing that i find exceptionally good is having only one wire to the laptop.

Same system. Quite strange mine dies.

p@bbai64:~$ uname -r
5.10.120-ti-arm64-r61

I might try to boot again the latest minimal image, without my configurations, and see if my board can stand 3 full days without crashing. :wink:

8

Sadly, we have found over the years, this is just not 24/7 stable. (BeagleBone Black, PocketBeagle, etc…) Random OS’s (Looking at you specially Windows) like to put the usb hub to sleep, which reset’s the board plugged in…

While the one cable setup is useful for debugging and development.

For any long time usage, you really need to add external power source.

Regards,

9

I am going to try right now to plug it to the power supply and let it run happily.

I will keep you posted.

10

after pluggining in the power supply the BBAI64 is running since about 24 hours without crashes. One serial console and one intermittent console visit via ssh.
bye
Nicola

1 Like
11

I spoke too fast.
Today I turned it on, with power supply, after say 20 minutes, it crashed.
I was doing nothing, just serial connection open waiting for crashes.
I will try with a recommended image and let you know
bye

image

12

Oh that does not look good… Pinging our TI contacts…

Regards,

1 Like
13

I want to inform anybody who will read this thread in the future that, at the time of Jan-2023, with kernel 5.10.153-ti-arm64-r86, everything seems working fine, system up since 2 days powered via USB. bye

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