# Artifact update error: Failed to read the current active partition: No match between boot and root partitions

**URL:** <https://hub.mender.io/t/artifact-update-error-failed-to-read-the-current-active-partition-no-match-between-boot-and-root-partitions/2808>\
**Category:** General Discussions\
**Tags:** ubuntu, nano-pi, uboot\
**Created:** [November 10, 2020, 4:09pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/artifact-update-error-failed-to-read-the-current-active-partition-no-match-between-boot-and-root-partitions/2808 "2020-11-10T16:09:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 5

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![johan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dec6dc/32.png) [@johan](https://hub.mender.io/u/johan)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2020, 5:21pm UTC](https://hub.mender.io/t/artifact-update-error-failed-to-read-the-current-active-partition-no-match-between-boot-and-root-partitions/2808/5 "2020-11-18T17:21:54Z")

</div>

Update: I finally made it work. Took a lot of time to dig into all the details, but I know a bit more about U-Boot and Mender now… Thanks @drewmoseley @mirzak and for helping me finding the right information.

My path to success to get Mender to run on **Nano Pi R1** (not all details are included):

## 1 Build U-boot for Mender

I concluded that I had to build the U-Boot image from original source and Mender patches. When we started looking at Mender as a system, we did not realize that this was necessary as the system only was tested using Raspberry devices.

### Steps to build U-Boot

- Read the following posts:
  - Mender from scratch: [Mender from scratch](https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-from-scratch/391)
  - Mender without Yocto: [https://mender.io/blog/notes-from-a-user-on-mender-without-yocto](https://mender.io/blog/notes-from-a-user-on-mender-without-yocto)

- Forked [U-boot for NanoPi R1 (link)](https://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/Building_U-boot_and_Linux_for_H5/H3/H2%2B)
- Installed necessary toolchain and cross compiler from [http://download.friendlyarm.com/nanopineo](http://download.friendlyarm.com/nanopineo)
- Modified/patched the forked U-Boot source to become Mender U-Boot
  - Added `include/config_mender_defines.h`
  - Downloaded and added [Mender patches (link)](https://github.com/mendersoftware/meta-mender/tree/master/meta-mender-core/recipes-bsp/u-boot/patches) (partly manually)

- Added the following lines to `configs/nanopi_h3_defconfig`:
  - `CONFIG_ENV_IS_IN_MMC=y`
  - `CONFIG_USE_BOOTARGS=y`
  - `CONFIG_BOOTARGS="console=ttyS0,115200 panic=10 rootfstype=ext4 rw rootwait fsck.repair=yes"`

- Remove the following lines from `configs/nanopi_h3_defconfig`:
  - `CONFIG_ENV_OFFSET ... `

- Added the following lines to ` include/configs/sun8i.h` (Note: should be in `include/friendlyelec/boardtype.h`, but this file is not included early enough…):
  - `#define CONFIG_BOOTCOUNT_LIMIT`
  - `#define CONFIG_BOOTCOUNT_ENV`
  - `#define CONFIG_SYS_REDUNDAND_ENVIRONMENT`(undocumented?)

- Removed/fixed the following lines from `Kconfig`
  - ENV\_OFFSET: `default 0x88000 if ARCH_SUNXI` (should be 0x400000)
  - ENV\_SIZE: `default 0x20000 if ARCH_SUNXI` (should be 0x4000)

- Fixed the `MENDER_LOAD_KERNEL_AND_FDT` by adding the following lines after loading fdt. This was a bit tricky, but necessary to load the kernel from correct partition and avoiding re-enumerating all the mmc’s). Also note that all boot files are lodead from /boot/ at root partition. I am not even sure if this is the _correct_ way to do it, but it works…:

```auto
# define MENDER_LOAD_KERNEL_AND_FDT \
    "if test \"${fdt_addr_r}\" != \"\"; then " \
    "load ${mender_uboot_root} ${fdt_addr_r} /boot/${mender_dtb_name}; " \
    "fdt addr ${fdt_addr_r}; " \
    "fdt set mmc${boot_mmc} boot_device <1>; " \
    "fi; " \
    "load ${mender_uboot_root} ${kernel_addr_r} /boot/${mender_kernel_name}; "
#endif

```

- Compiled U-Boot and fw\_printenv

```auto
$ export PATH=/opt/FriendlyARM/toolchain/4.9.3/bin:$PATH
$ make nanopi_h3_defconfig ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-
$ make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-
$ make envtools ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-

```

- Created `fw_env.config` (based on [Mender from scratch](https://hub.mender.io/t/mender-from-scratch/391))

The files `fw_env.config`, `fw_printenv` and `u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin` is then used as a bases (togehter with the base image) and fed into `mender-convert` to create the final complete image.

## 2 Create image using mender-convert

The trick to get the final image was to use basic mender-convert for Ubuntu/Debian and convert the image by injecting the U-Boot image directly into using dd. In addition, all boot files were placed in a folder called /boot/ at the root-fs. Finally `fw_printenv/fw_setenv` was installed together with the configuration file.

- Created a special configuration file (`configs/nanopi_r1_config`) for Nano Pi R1 to be used in `mender-convert`:

```auto
MENDER_DEVICE_TYPE="NanoPi_R1"
MENDER_GRUB_EFI_INTEGRATION=n
MENDER_KERNEL_IMAGETYPE="zImage"
MENDER_IGNORE_MISSING_EFI_STUB=1

# 8MB alignment
MENDER_PARTITION_ALIGNMENT="8388608"
MENDER_STORAGE_TOTAL_SIZE_MB="7456"
MENDER_COMPRESS_DISK_IMAGE="gzip"

function platform_modify() {
  log_info "Copying boot-files to /boot/"
  run_and_log_cmd "sudo cp -R work/boot/* work/rootfs/boot/"
  log_info "Installing fw_printenv and fw_setenv"
  run_and_log_cmd "sudo install -m 755 u-boot-files/fw_printenv work/rootfs/sbin/fw_printenv"
  run_and_log_cmd "sudo ln -fs /sbin/fw_printenv work/rootfs/sbin/fw_setenv"
  run_and_log_cmd "sudo ln -fs /sbin/fw_printenv work/rootfs/usr/bin/fw_printenv"
  run_and_log_cmd "sudo ln -fs /sbin/fw_printenv work/rootfs/usr/bin/fw_setenv"
  run_and_log_cmd "sudo ln -fs /sbin/fw_printenv work/rootfs/usr/local/bin/fw_printenv"
  run_and_log_cmd "sudo ln -fs /sbin/fw_printenv work/rootfs/usr/local/bin/fw_setenv"
  run_and_log_cmd "sudo cp u-boot-files/fw_env.config work/rootfs/etc"
}

function platform_package() {
  log_info "Writing pre-compiled U-Boot image to ${img_path}"
  run_and_log_cmd "sudo dd if=u-boot-files/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=${img_path} bs=1024 seek=8 conv=notrunc"
}

```

- Put files from U-Boot in a folder:  
`mender-convert/u-boot-files/fw_env.config`  
`mender-convert/u-boot-files/fw_printenv`  
`mender-convert/u-boot-files/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin`

- Run `mender-convert`

This image can finally be dd’d directly to the device…

## 3 Final notes

Final testing remains. I cannot guarantie that this will actually work. Remaining tasks:

- Test and verify that device is bootable from both partitions (p2 and p3)
  - Seems to be working by manually setting `mender_boot_part` and `mender_boot_part_hex`

- Test that and ferify device appears on Mender management server
- Test and verify that device can be updated with artifacts

* * *

_Edit: Realized that i could place all boot files (kernel and \*.dtb) in the folder `/boot/` at root. Changed `/u-boot/` -\> `/boot/`. Also fixed some typos._

---

_[View the full topic](https://hub.mender.io/t/artifact-update-error-failed-to-read-the-current-active-partition-no-match-between-boot-and-root-partitions/2808)._