Re: Deep Computing DC-ROMA ii won't boot

[Kirk Reiser <kirk@reisers.ca>]

Hello folks: Thank you for the responses.

The laptop did infact come with ubuntu-24.04 installed, except it was
a greatly reduced package, they say because it wasn't expected that a
lot of people would login. It was kind of bogus in my mind.

I upgraded the OS to their most recent version of 24.04.3 except it
craps out when trying to upgrade to their idea of the latest kernel
6.14.0. The distro as shipped has kernel 6.6.36 except with many
kernel modules missing. The upgrade of the kernel dies while trying to
copy the dtb files from a nonexistant spacemit directory in /boot. I
have tried many things to attempt to spoof the new kernel from copying
over the installed dtbs to a new 6.14.0 directory with no joy.

Oh, and yes, it is using u-boot.

Unfortunately Some of the kernel modules which are missing are the
speakup modules which I must have to provide speech in text console
mode. That has also made it much more difficult because it means I
have to have a sighted person here to help me install/break/reinstall
various packages.

Upon examining the two debian images I tried to boot I realized that
the netinst is grub based so wouldn't boot. The dvd however does
appear to be u-boot based so I am still at a loss for the reason it
won't boot.

I don't really understand the booting mechanism of u-boot, even after
reading what I've been able to find.

Anyway, the spacemit is an 8-core SOC called K1X I believe. The
processor is a M1-8571. Here is the cpu line from dmesg on the system:

spacemit-socinfo soc:socinfo@0: Spacemit: CPU[M1-8571] REV[C] DRO[127] Detected

So thank you and if you have any other recommendations I would
appreciate them.

  Kirk


On Thu, 11 Sep 2025, Greg Sterling wrote:

> Hello!
>
> My boss thought I might be able to get you contact with the devboards community for help.  If you’re interested, you might be able to get some help by sending an email to devboard-community@riscv.org.  There are a lot of helpful people out there who may have experienced similar problems and may be able to offer some help or suggestions.
>
> Thanks and have a great day!
>
> Greg Sterling (RISC-V International)
> Phone: +1 603 321 7320
> E-mail: greg@riscv.org
>
> > On Sep 10, 2025, at 8:04 PM, Jeff Scheel <jeff@riscv.org> wrote:
> >
> > You might want to try and connect with Kirk with the DevBoard community to see  if someone can help here...
> >
> > --
> > Jeff Scheel (he/him/his)
> > Director of Technical Programs, RISC-V International
> >
> > Join me at RISC-V Summit NA (link <https://events.linuxfoundation.org/riscv-summit/>)
> >
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> > From: Lucy Mielke <lucymielke@icloud.com <mailto:lucymielke@icloud.com>>
> > Date: Wed, Sep 10, 2025 at 4:40 PM
> > Subject: Re: Deep Computing DC-ROMA ii won't boot
> > To: Kirk Reiser <kirk@reisers.ca <mailto:kirk@reisers.ca>>
> > Cc: <debian-boot@lists.debian.org <mailto:debian-boot@lists.debian.org>>, <debian-riscv@lists.debian.org <mailto:debian-riscv@lists.debian.org>>, <ellie@ravensong.ca <mailto:ellie@ravensong.ca>>, <kirk@reisers.ca <mailto:kirk@reisers.ca>>
> >
> >
> > Good evening Mr. Reiser,
> >
> > unfortunately, DeepComputing hasn't released any downloadable images, or documentation regarding the boot process.
> >
> > The description for your issue makes me believe that the FML13V03 board (your DC-ROMA gen II model) probably needs something like u-boot, similar to the FML13V01 board (the previous revision).
> >
> > That would explain why the two "generic" Debian images won't boot once flashed on any medium. AFAIK, the Gen II model is not supported by Debian yet either. Hopefully we can, once documentation and hardware is more readily available.
> >
> > Have you tried what distro DeepComputing shipped with the device (if they did)? If so, what CPU name is reported by fastfetch/neofetch/System Info under Settings?
> >
> > That info might possibly be able to clear up some stuff, and open the door to another port.
> >
> >
> > Thanks and best regards,
> > Lucy Mielke
> >
> > > Am 10.09.2025 um 22:03 schrieb Kirk Reiser <kirk@reisers.ca <mailto:kirk@reisers.ca>>:
> > >
> > > Hello folks: I have tried to boot with the CD image and the netinst
> > > images on my dc-roma ii laptop computer with no luck. I would
> > > certainly appreciate any clews or suggestions people could provide
> > > me. In both cases the machine acts like the images are not even
> > > there. I have dd'd the images to an sdcard because that seems to be
> > > the only choice available other than the built-in nvme drive.
> > >
> > > The images I've attempted to boot from are:
> > > debian-testing-riscv64-DVD-1.iso
> > > debian-testing-riscv64-netinst.iso
> > >
> > > Thank you for your consideration.
> > >  Kirk