Sticky: USB-MSD boot EEPROM third update - 2020-06-12

[HawaiianPi]

2020-06-15 bootloader still works great for me!

This time I left the configuration stock, but I'm still on the beta VL805 138a1 firmware. EEPROM flashed without error and my system still cold boots and reboots fine. The default configuration leaves the USB ports powered after shutdown, so I updated to my preferred configuration.
[all]
BOOT_UART=1
WAKE_ON_GPIO=0
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=1
DHCP_TIMEOUT=45000
DHCP_REQ_TIMEOUT=4000
TFTP_FILE_TIMEOUT=30000
ENABLE_SELF_UPDATE=1
DISABLE_HDMI=0
BOOT_ORDER=0xf41

Which does some things I prefer (like power off the USB ports and enable UART debugging). Boot and reboot both working fine.

So I decided to give the new configuration setting a try.
[all]
BOOT_UART=1
WAKE_ON_GPIO=0
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=1
DHCP_TIMEOUT=45000
DHCP_REQ_TIMEOUT=4000
TFTP_FILE_TIMEOUT=30000
ENABLE_SELF_UPDATE=1
DISABLE_HDMI=0
USB_MSD_PWR_OFF_TIME=0
BOOT_ORDER=0xf41

Setting it to zero should not power cycle the USB ports during reboot (not that it mattered to me before). And that seems to have worked. Still not entirely sure what power cycling USB was added for, but my system seems to work fine with or without it. So that's my configuration now.

• Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.1 (2GB).
• Bootloader version: 2020-06-15 (1592228179)
• VL805 firmware version: 000138a1 (beta)
• Raspbian Buster OS 32-bit with update/full-upgrade, but no rpi-update (4.19.118 kernel)
• Eluteng USB 3.0 to SATA-III adapter cable with SP A55 SSD (256GB)
• Official PSU (5.1V/3A)

[Kendek]

Setting it to zero should not power cycle the USB ports during reboot (not that it mattered to me before).

SSD users may don't hear a difference, but SSDs are more sensitive to hard power cuts than mechanical disks. Hdparm -Y (sleep mode / safely shut down completely) or -y (standby mode / safely spin down and head retract) is recommended before power cuts (reboot), and UDEV rule to set manage_start_stop values to 1 (poweroff or halt).

[BRX7]

2020-06-15 bootloader still works great for me!

This time I left the configuration stock, but I'm still on the beta VL805 138a1 firmware. EEPROM flashed without error and my system still cold boots and reboots fine. The default configuration leaves the USB ports powered after shutdown, so I updated to my preferred configuration.
[all]
BOOT_UART=1
WAKE_ON_GPIO=0
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=1
DHCP_TIMEOUT=45000
DHCP_REQ_TIMEOUT=4000
TFTP_FILE_TIMEOUT=30000
ENABLE_SELF_UPDATE=1
DISABLE_HDMI=0
BOOT_ORDER=0xf41

Which does some things I prefer (like power off the USB ports and enable UART debugging). Boot and reboot both working fine.

So I decided to give the new configuration setting a try.
[all]
BOOT_UART=1
WAKE_ON_GPIO=0
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=1
DHCP_TIMEOUT=45000
DHCP_REQ_TIMEOUT=4000
TFTP_FILE_TIMEOUT=30000
ENABLE_SELF_UPDATE=1
DISABLE_HDMI=0
USB_MSD_PWR_OFF_TIME=0
BOOT_ORDER=0xf41

Setting it to zero should not power cycle the USB ports during reboot (not that it mattered to me before). And that seems to have worked. Still not entirely sure what power cycling USB was added for, but my system seems to work fine with or without it. So that's my configuration now.

• Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.1 (2GB).
• Bootloader version: 2020-06-15 (1592228179)
• VL805 firmware version: 000138a1 (beta)
• Raspbian Buster OS 32-bit with update/full-upgrade, but no rpi-update (4.19.118 kernel)
• Eluteng USB 3.0 to SATA-III adapter cable with SP A55 SSD (256GB)
• Official PSU (5.1V/3A)

I will try USB_MSD_PWR_OFF_TIME=0 on my rpi4 8GB,, I think the 8GB 1.4 changes in PWR may have some issues for me.

[Kendek]

I will try USB_MSD_PWR_OFF_TIME=0 on my rpi4 8GB,, I think the 8GB 1.4 changes in PWR may have some issues for me.

Yeah, see my previous post with my videos. The 8GB Pi4 behaves differently than the models with revision code 1.1/1.2. So if the value of USB_MSD_PWR_OFF_TIME is greater than zero, there will be two USB power cuts on reboots. This is not so good and can cause - hardware - issues. I think the default value should be zero.

[timg236]

The USB port power resolves issues where USB devices don't come back after a reboot. There's a bug covering some them here
https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-eeprom/issues/151

This sort of thing tends to get fine-tuned over time but for now, it's on by default

[timg236]

Moved thread to new release 2020-06-16

viewtopic.php?f=63&t=277413