Cannot boot 25.12.2 on NanoPi R76S from eMMC

Installing and Using OpenWrt
1

I was able to get a boot from a microSD card, but when I dd the (gunzip) img openwrt-25.12.2-rockchip-armv8-friendlyarm_nanopi-r76s-squashfs-sysupgrade.img (or the ext4 version) to emmc, remove the microSD, and reboot the system never comes up.

I’ve also tried rkdevtool with MiniLoaderAll.bin and repeating but no luck.

I can boot fine with a microSD, but my eMMC booting just fails. Just a constant flashing SYS light and no LAN link

Odd is the snapshot version I used back in December did boot from eMMC.

hexdump -C /dev/mmcblk0 | head showed the same bytes as the microSD card.

Searched through these docs without luck:

2

If I use rkdevtool in rk3576-usb-friendlywrt-24.10-20260403.zip I can erase and reflash the OEM firmware and boot from eMMC.

3

Also tried booting FriendlyWRT from eMMC (success).

Using OEM web GUI with eMMC tools to flash openwrt-25.12.2-rockchip-armv8-friendlyarm_nanopi-r76s-squashfs-sysupgrade.img.gz

Rebooted

Just constant flashing SYS led, no complete boot from eMMC.

Pulled plug, plugged back in. Got a boot and LAN activity from eMMC.

4

If I do /sbin/reboot however the next reboot the SYS light flashes for a long time with no LAN activity.

I have tried multiple power adapters as well. Same result. Currently using a 65W one.

Multiple power pulls results in same. Eventually get a solid red SYS and no LAN/DHCP

5

Erased eMMC. Flashed MiniLoaderAll.bin to eMMC only

microSD with rk3576-sd-friendlywrt-24.10-20260403.img.gz

Boots from microSD with working LAN in about 30 seconds.

Multiple /sbin/reboot still works.

So rk3576-sd-friendlywrt-24.10-20260403.img.gz seems to work consistently, but 25.12 from eMMC or microSD does not.

6

So, you can boot the 24.10 snapshot from the eMMC.

How about you upgrade the system via owut to 25.12.2 (instead of flashing the new image) and then try to boot from the eMMC?
Will this work?