Compute Module • CM4S bootup fails after bootloader update to v2025.02.11

Hi everyone,

I have a firmware image that I flash using RaspberryPi Imager onto my CM4S. The image uses GPT parititioning scheme. It was working fine as long I was using an old bootloader version pieeprom-2023-01-11.bin.

I had initially observed the issue when I updated the EEPROM bootloader to version pieeprom-2025-02-11.bin. The flashing process would complete successfully but the image failed to boot up - I would see a rainbow screen and 7 flashes on the board (which apparently indicates that the kernel file could not be found).

However, the bootup is successful if I flash the image, then convert it from GPT to MBR. I am quite skeptical to create a new image file that uses MBR as GPT is newer and is expected to be better.

I don't quite understand why the bootup fails when using the new bootloader and why it succeeds when the same image is converted from GPT to MBR.

Here is my current image partitions -

$ sudo fdisk -l /dev/sdb
The backup GPT table is not on the end of the device.
Disk /dev/sdb: 7.28 GiB, 7818182656 bytes, 15269888 sectors
Disk model: 0001
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: xxx

Device Start End Sectors Size Type
/dev/sdb1 8192 137215 129024 63M Microsoft basic data
/dev/sdb2 137216 3209215 3072000 1.5G Linux filesystem

section of the bootup logs -
MESS:00:00:04.741659:0: dtb_file 'bcm2711-rpi-cm4s.dtb'
MESS:00:00:04.746673:0: gpioman: gpioman_get_pin_num: pin SDCARD_CONTROL_POWER not defined
MESS:00:00:04.854610:0: gpioman: gpioman_get_pin_num: pin SDCARD_CONTROL_POWER not defined
MESS:00:00:04.941752:0: gpioman: gpioman_get_pin_num: pin SDCARD_CONTROL_POWER not defined
MESS:00:00:04.946962:0: dtb_file 'bcm2711-rpi-cm4.dtb'
MESS:00:00:04.951905:0: gpioman: gpioman_get_pin_num: pin SDCARD_CONTROL_POWER not defined
MESS:00:00:05.059812:0: gpioman: gpioman_get_pin_num: pin SDCARD_CONTROL_POWER not defined
MESS:00:00:05.146970:0: gpioman: gpioman_get_pin_num: pin SDCARD_CONTROL_POWER not defined
MESS:00:00:05.152173:0: Failed to load Device Tree file 'bcm2711-rpi-cm4.dtb'
MESS:00:00:05.159125:0: gpioman: gpioman_get_pin_num: pin SDCARD_CONTROL_POWER not defined
MESS:00:00:05.267027:0: gpioman: gpioman_get_pin_num: pin SDCARD_CONTROL_POWER not defined
MESS:00:00:05.354158:0: gpioman: gpioman_get_pin_num: pin SDCARD_CONTROL_POWER not defined
MESS:00:00:05.359348:0: Failed to open command line file 'cmdline.txt'

Has anybody encountered is issue before?
Any advice would be of great help. Thank you.

Statistics: Posted by Bhindhiya — Tue Jun 16, 2026 6:27 am

---