I have a new NanoPI R2S with a metal case and USB C, so far so good. I pass the .IMG of the Core 162 version to a 16Gb MicroSD. All right. I insert the MicroSD into the NanoPI R2S and turn on the board once the USB-TTL is connected and with the Putty open. All right. I configure IPFire perfectly and it works perfectly.
Now, I turn off the NanoPI. I disconnect everything and insert it into its metal box and start it once the RJ45 cables are installed and it DOES NOT START. The red light stays fixed, wait what you expect.
I take it out of the metal casing. I connect the USB-TTL, the RJ45, the power cable of an original Raspberry PI4, the Putty and it starts perfectly.
I turn it off but now, before mounting it in its metal casing, I start it but without the USB-TTL and it DOES NOT START.
In short, it only starts when the USB-TTL is connected. If it isn’t, it won’t boot.
I have another old NanoPI R2S, the one with the plastic case and fan with MicroUSB connection and it works perfectly. I remove the MicroSD, I put it in the new one and it DOESN’T START.
To the new one, with that same MicroSD of the old one, I put the USB-TTL and it starts fine.
In summary:
The old NanoPI R2S (with plastic case and fan) work perfectly.
The new NanoPI R2S (with metal case and USB C) only boot when USB-TTL is connected.
Wow that sounds something familiar to me when I used NanoPiNeo device.
Exact same issue. So I sneaked in a uart inside the case some how and it turned out when inside the case the sdcard would not get detected coz of the sdcard detector not making the right contact.
In your case the only way to find it is to try and get a uart cable inside the case somehow and read logs.
I suspect some kind of shorting when inside the case.
Not all boards seems to be affected by this problem. The one that you have sponsored has the problem. (µUSB power, plastic case without fan). But i have seen others that are not affected.
I have a NanoPi R2S that won’t boot IPFire without the serial hook up as well. I’m not sure if it helps but I wanted to point out that OpenWRT boots just fine on mine. I’m not sure if there is a difference between how uBoot works on the different OSes.
Now, it’s funny, I have both models of R2S. The one with a yellow plastic case with a fan and micro USB and the new one with a metal case with USB C and only the first one works for me. Only the plastic one and fan works without the cable, the other one, if I don’t have the cable on, doesn’t start.