rpi5 does not reboot

[johnpgarry]

Describe the bug

I am using the rpi-6.18.y kernel (latest commit for me is 94bf012).

I find that if I hard power the board, then it will boot back into the distro shell (debian, I think).

However, "sudo reboot" does not boot back into the distro shell. I see the boot rom and raspberry pi splash screen, but then just get a blank screen. I cannot ssh in either in this case.

I do not have such issues with earlier kernel versions.

Steps to reproduce the behaviour

As described, just "sudo reboot".

Device (s)

Raspberry Pi 5

System

john@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /etc/rpi-issue
Raspberry Pi reference 2024-11-19
Generated using pi-gen, https://github.com/RPi-Distro/pi-gen, 891df1e21ed2b6099a2e6a13e26c91dea44b34d4, stage4
john@raspberrypi:~ $ vcgencmd version
2024/09/23 14:02:56
Copyright (c) 2012 Broadcom
version 26826259 (release) (embedded)
john@raspberrypi:~ $ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 6.18.0-rc3-v8-16k-gf92d079a95b4 #30 SMP PREEMPT Fri Oct 31 12:04:38 GMT 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux
john@raspberrypi:~ $

Logs

No response

Additional context

No response

[pelwell]

It's working for me on RPiOS, starting with the same commit:

pi@raspberrypi:~$ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 6.18.0-rc3-v8-16k+ #15 SMP PREEMPT Mon Nov  3 10:16:13 GMT 2025 aarch64 GNU/Linux

Note how I don't get the -gf92d079a95b4 in the version string - have you changed something?

1. Remove quiet and splash from cmdline.txt, to give you more of an idea of what is going on when it stalls. Ideally, use a DebugProbe to capture the kernel log.
2. Which OS Distribution are you running?
3. Starting from a working installation, try with auto_initramfs=0 (or any explicit initramfs= lines deleted or commented out) in config.txt. If that doesn't work then your OS is relying on modules in the initramfs, and you'll have to carefully update it yourself.

[6by9]

-gf92d079a95b4 would imply that CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO is set to y in the config, whilst it is set to n in all our defconfigs. So what else has changed in the config?

Doing that on my build tree gives me 6.12.56-v8-g52f1b561a0ee-dirty, with 52f1b561a0ee being the hash of my git tree.

That would imply your tree is at f92d079a95b4, which isn't apparently in our tree either.

[johnpgarry]

Os version is as follows:

john@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="12"
VERSION="12 (bookworm)"
VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

As for kernel commit id, I have a separate development patch on top. It should not affect boot. I can try to build without any additions (to baseline), but it will take some time (to build again).

Let me get back to you in a while with a response to the reset of the questions/comments.

[johnpgarry]

Actually I don't even have any dev patches:
f92d079a95b4 (HEAD -> rpi/rpi-6.18.y) CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO
94bf012 (rpi/rpi-6.18.y) misc: ws2812-pio-rp1: Add pass-through mode
2e346ec overlays: i2c-sensor: Add the ad799x ADC family
bae89f6 configs: Add the AD799X driver module
533071f defconfig: Remove hailo driver from defconfigs
5887d4b drivers: pcie: Hailo: Remove Hailo PCIe driver
0566f88 media: i2c: Modify the datatype of PDAF data in the arducam_64mp driver
248ad40 video: fbdev: simplefb: Add b8g8r8 and b5g6r5 formats
08999d6 fbcon: Add defensive coding to logo loader
7c31822 Add RTW89 USB modules to Pi defconfigs

commit f92d079a95b47e63726c8472c49c5c042f4ab64b (HEAD -> rpi/rpi-6.18.y)
Author: John Garry john.g.garry@oracle.com
Date: Thu Mar 6 15:01:22 2025 +0000

CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO

diff --git a/arch/arm64/configs/bcm2712_defconfig b/arch/arm64/configs/bcm2712_defconfig
index d0429cd77f26..971b6963774c 100644
--- a/arch/arm64/configs/bcm2712_defconfig
+++ b/arch/arm64/configs/bcm2712_defconfig
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
CONFIG_LOCALVERSION="-v8-16k"
-# CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO is not set
+CONFIG_LOCALVERSION_AUTO=y
CONFIG_SYSVIPC=y
CONFIG_POSIX_MQUEUE=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_IRQ_DEBUGFS=y
john@raspberrypi:~/mnt_linux/linux $

[pelwell]

I can try to build without any additions (to baseline), but it will take some time (to build again).

It sounds like that won't be necessary, if that's the only local patch.

[johnpgarry]

I removed the quiet and splash cmdline values, and now it reboots ok (via sudo reboot).

However, since then, booting has been unreliable. Let me keep an eye on this.

Please note that I am powering the board via an external power supply on the J8 header.

[pelwell]

There are many things that can cause rebooting to stall - I have seen successful reboots after a 10 minute wait. I don't consider this acceptable, but for diagnostic purposes it is worth leaving an apparent reboot failure for half an hour at least once to see if it recovers.

There is a long thread containing the details of my investigation into slow reboots, ending with my suggestions here: RPi-Distro/pi-gen#836 (comment)

[johnpgarry]

OK, I can wait longer and report back.

thanks!