Orange Pi 3B: Generate alternate SPI image for booting from SATA

[dust-7]

Description

This PR enables generation of u-boot-rockchip-spi-sata.bin. Flashing this to SPI flash enables U-Boot to communicate with an attached SATA m.2 SSD, thereby allowing booting directly from SPI flash to SATA SSD.

The method for creating the secondary spi image is copied from orangepi5.conf.

The only change in the SATA defconfig is the addition of CONFIG_DWC_AHCI=y.

Quickstart for SATA SSD users

1. Flash image to SD card and boot.
2. Enable rockchip-rk3566-sata2 overlay and reboot.
3. From terminal, run nand-sata-install.
4. Select option Boot from MTD Flash - system on SATA, USB or NVMe.
5. After system is copied over to SSD, there will be a prompt to choose SPI image. Select u-boot-rockchip-spi-sata.bin.
6. Poweroff, remove SD card, enjoy!

How Has This Been Tested?

• Followed steps in quickstart above, works.
• From U-Boot command line, bootflow scan succcessfully detects boot.scr on SCSI bootdev.

Checklist:

• My code follows the style guidelines of this project
• I have performed a self-review of my own code
• I have commented my code, particularly in hard-to-understand areas
• My changes generate no new warnings
• Any dependent changes have been merged and published in downstream modules

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features
  • Orange Pi 3B now supports SATA/AHCI boot (M.2 SSD): device configuration, boot-image selection and packaging updated to automatically handle SATA-enabled and non‑SATA setups, providing correct boot paths and fallback behavior.
• Compatibility
  • Board device configuration now conditionally enables SATA hardware when present and falls back to the prior PCIe setup when not.

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Add SATA boot support for Orange Pi 3B: new BOOTCONFIG_SATA and build hooks in the board config, device-tree/binman changes to gate AHCI/SATA, and a new u-boot defconfig enabling AHCI/SCSI/PCI and related drivers for SATA boot.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Board config & hooks config/boards/orangepi3b.csc	Add BOOTCONFIG_SATA, modify UBOOT_TARGET_MAP to reference SATA/non‑SATA bootconfigs, and add three hooks to select, save (.config.sata), and copy SATA-specific .config into packages.
U-Boot board/device-tree patch patch/u-boot/v2026.01/board_orangepi3b/0003-rk3566-orangepi-3b-enable-boot-from-sata.patch	Introduce CONFIG_DWC_AHCI‑guarded changes: add binman SPI-backed SATA image entry when AHCI enabled, enable SATA2 regulator/boot-on wiring under AHCI, and provide PCIe fallback when AHCI is absent.
New defconfig patch/u-boot/v2026.01/defconfig/orangepi-3b-sata-rk3566_defconfig	Add a new rk3566 Orange Pi 3B SATA defconfig enabling RK3566/ROCKCHIP options, SPL/FIT, AHCI/SCSI, PCI, USB, device-tree list entries, and many drivers/boot parameters for SATA booting.

Sequence Diagram(s)

sequenceDiagram
  participant Builder as Build System
  participant Hooks as orangepi3b.csc hooks
  participant UBoot as U-Boot build
  participant DT as Device Tree / binman
  participant Pack as Packaging

  Builder->>Hooks: start pre-config
  Hooks->>Hooks: detect target_make for orangepi-3b-sata
  Hooks-->>Builder: set BOOTCONFIG_SATA and adjust target_make
  Builder->>UBoot: build U-Boot with chosen BOOTCONFIG
  UBoot->>DT: include SATA/binman entries if CONFIG_DWC_AHCI
  UBoot-->>Hooks: post-config (save .config or .config.sata)
  Builder->>Hooks: pre-package
  Hooks->>Pack: copy .config.sata into package (if present)
  Pack-->>Builder: produce final u-boot package

Loading

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

Poem

🐰 I nibbled code beneath the tree,

Pulled SATA threads and set them free,
DT leaves rustled, hooks hopped in place,
Orange Pi wakes with a SATA grace,
I twitch my whiskers — build success, hooray!

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 3

✅ Passed checks (3 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately describes the main objective: enabling SATA boot by generating an alternate SPI U-Boot image for Orange Pi 3B.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

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✨ Finishing touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment

---

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

🧹 Recent nitpick comments

config/boards/orangepi3b.csc (1)

30-55: Hook implementation correctly matches orangepi5 pattern.

The three hooks implement the build flow correctly and follow the established pattern across similar boards (orangepi5, nanopi-m6): bare cp saves the config during post_config_uboot_target, then run_host_command_logged handles packaging operations. This pattern distinction is consistent throughout the codebase and does not require changes.

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[coderabbitai]

Actionable comments posted: 1

🤖 Fix all issues with AI agents

In `@config/boards/orangepi3b.csc`:
- Around line 30-40: In function
pre_config_uboot_target__orangepi3b_patch_uboot_bootconfig_hack_for_sata, fix
the whitespace on the BOOTCONFIG assignment line so it uses tabs only (matching
the rest of the function) instead of the current leading spaces+tab; ensure all
lines that set BOOTCONFIG and modify target_make use consistent tab indentation
to remove the minor whitespace inconsistency.

🧹 Nitpick comments (2)

config/boards/orangepi3b.csc (2)

42-48: Post-config hook saves SATA .config — consider quoting the path.

The cp .config ${uboottempdir}/.config.sata on Line 46 leaves ${uboottempdir} unquoted. If the path ever contains spaces, this would break. Minor defensive coding suggestion.

Suggested fix

-		cp .config ${uboottempdir}/.config.sata
+		cp .config "${uboottempdir}/.config.sata"

---

50-55: Packaging hook: same quoting concern for ${uboottempdir}.

Both cp and rm commands on Lines 51-53 leave ${uboottempdir} unquoted. For consistency and robustness:

Suggested fix

-	if [[ -f "${uboottempdir}/.config.sata" ]]; then
-		run_host_command_logged cp ${uboottempdir}/.config.sata "$uboottempdir/usr/lib/u-boot/orangepi-3b-sata-rk3566_defconfig"
-		run_host_command_logged rm ${uboottempdir}/.config.sata
+	if [[ -f "${uboottempdir}/.config.sata" ]]; then
+		run_host_command_logged cp "${uboottempdir}/.config.sata" "${uboottempdir}/usr/lib/u-boot/orangepi-3b-sata-rk3566_defconfig"
+		run_host_command_logged rm "${uboottempdir}/.config.sata"
 	fi