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diff --git a/content/post/u-boot-arch-rockpro64.en.blogc b/content/post/u-boot-arch-rockpro64.en.blogc new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a0d636 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/post/u-boot-arch-rockpro64.en.blogc @@ -0,0 +1,138 @@ +TITLE: RockPro64: booting OS from SATA, installing Arch ARM +DATE: 2021-11-17 +TAGS: rockpro64 sbc u-boot archlinuxarm aarch64 software +------------------------- +If U-boot problems with RockPro64 are fixed then most of this cumbersome setup +will become unnecessary and this article will get 5 times shorter. Right now it +might be easier to use [this](https://github.com/sigmaris/u-boot/) fork, author +claims SATA support (I didn't try it). I chose upstream U-boot to send bugs to +developers. + +Currently the `master` branch of U-boot has 2 problems with RockPro64 - SATA +doesn't start and the board is not booting since commit [3ae64582] +(https://source.denx.de/u-boot/u-boot/-/commit/3ae64582fb8ceead4fc464cd2055eb3eaef78ccc), +hangs after loading the kernel. [Wrote to developers] +(https://lists.denx.de/pipermail/u-boot/2021-November/466976.html) about the +second issue, there seems to be some interest. If it's fixed I'll report SATA +issue next. There is a +[patch with PCIe code from OpenBSD] +(https://github.com/sigmaris/u-boot/commit/c592735731642d299b25cef1329aad4d91d92e8c), +but the description is not encouraging. + +So right now booting upstream U-boot is rather tricky: + +* U-boot is on SD card +* There is a small flash drive in USB2 port with ext4 filesystem to store + `/extlinux/extlinux.conf`, kernel and initrd +* Other partitions (`/`, `swap`, `/home` etc) are on SATA devices + +Commands below are for Arch or Parabola on amd64. There are cross-compilation +packages in Arch repos - let's install them: + + # pacman -S arm-none-eabi-gcc aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc dtc + +Download latest ATF release (currently `arm_cca_v0.3`), remove binary files and +build: + + curl -O https://codeload.github.com/ARM-software/arm-trusted-firmware/tar.gz/refs/tags/arm_cca_v0.3 + tar -xzf arm_cca_v0.3 + cd arm-trusted-firmware-* + find . -name '*.bin' -exec rm -vf '{}' \; + make realclean + make CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- PLAT=rk3399 + cd .. + +Now we can build U-boot 2020.07, to boot from SD we need `u-boot-rockchip.bin`: + + curl -O https://ftp.denx.de/pub/u-boot/u-boot-2020.07.tar.bz2 + tar -xjf u-boot-2020.07.tar.bz2 + cd u-boot-2020.07/ + export BL31=../arm-trusted-firmware-*/build/rk3399/release/bl31/bl31.elf + export CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- CC=aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc + make mrproper + make rockpro64-rk3399_defconfig + make + +A convenient distro to get started is Armbian. Download Bullseye [from +here](https://www.armbian.com/rockpro64/), write it to SD card +(`/dev/sde` here, needs to be 4Gb or larger): + + unxz -dc Armbian_21.08.1_Rockpro64_bullseye_current_5.10.60.img.xz > /dev/sde + +Boot RockPro64 with it, download ArchLinux ARM "Generic" root tarball [from +here] (https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/generic). Create a 20Gb +partition on SATA device, mount it to `/mnt`, unpack Arch there: + + tar -xzf ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz -C /mnt + +I wrote the following steps from memory, please contact me if something doesn't +work, I'll try to fix it. Mount the filesystem on USB flash drive to `/mnt_usb`, +move boot files from SATA to USB so that U-boot can see them: + + mkdir /mnt_usb/boot_arch + cp -r /mnt/boot/* /mnt_usb/boot_arch/ + lsblk --fs -oMOUNTPOINTS,UUID|awk '/^\/mnt_usb\s/ {print $2}' # UUID_USB, see below + +Add entries to `/etc/fstab`: 1) to mount the filesystem on USB and 2) to bind +the `boot_arch` directory on USB filesystem to `/boot` so that `pacman` uses it +during kernel upgrades: + + UUID=<UUID_USB> /bootUSB ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1 + /bootUSB/boot_arch /boot none bind 0 0 + +Add Arch boot entry to `extlinux/extlinux.conf` on USB filesystem using PARTUUID +of SATA partition (get it with `lsblk -o+PARTUUID`): + + timeout 60 + menu title Muh boot options + default Arch_Linux_SSD + + label Arch_Linux_SSD + kernel /boot_arch/Image + append root=PARTUUID=111111-1111-111 nowatchdog console=ttyS0,115200n8 console=tty1 rootwait rw earlyprintk LANG=en_US.UTF-8 + fdtdir /boot_arch/dtbs + initrd /boot_arch/initramfs-linux.img + +Write U-boot to SD card, if you have a spare one (any size) - use it so you will +still have a working one with Armbian. In this example SD card is `/dev/sde`, +**check it on your PC** with `lsblk`: + + dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sde bs=4096 count=2600 + dd if=/path/u-boot-git/u-boot-rockchip.bin of=/dev/sde seek=64 + sync + +Insert it into RockPro64, power on - if all went well you'll see U-boot 2020.07 +and Arch will boot from SSD. Add `pacman` Arch ARM keys as described [here] +(https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/generic). + +Download `linux-libre-firmware` from [Parabola repo] +(https://www.parabola.nu/packages/libre/x86_64/linux-libre-firmware/), install +it instead of `linux-firmware`: + + RemoteFileSigLevel = Never # in /etc/pacman.conf + pacman -U https://www.parabola.nu/packages/libre/x86_64/parabola-keyring/download + RemoteFileSigLevel = Required DatabaseOptional # in /etc/pacman.conf + pacman -U linux-libre-firmware-1:1.4-1-any.pkg.tar.xz + +I added `-mtune=cortex-a72.cortex-a53` to `CFLAGS` in `/etc/makepkg.conf` so +GCC optimizes `makepkg`-built packages for this CPU architecture. + +What works: + +* Bluetooth (headphones) +* 1080p video playback +* WiFi 802.11n Access Point +* Sharing Internet connection via 1 Gbit/s cable (crossover) +* [Battle for Wesnoth](https://www.wesnoth.org/): it's a big project and it's + not in Arch ARM repos, so I decided to build it, see if it'll work on aarch64. + Works like a charm: `asp export wesnoth ; cd wesnoth ; sed -i + 's/^arch=.*/arch=(aarch64)/' PKGBUILD ; makepkg`, profit. Thanks to Wesnoth + developers for portable code. Made a thread about it on Arch ARM, if I have + time will make a github PR to add Wesnoth to *Community* repo, it looks simple + enough +* All the usual software I use on a home PC + +Next on the list - +[linux-libre](https://www.fsfla.org/ikiwiki/selibre/linux-libre/). I'll have to +either build it for Arch/aarch64 or switch to a distro where it's already +packaged. This will take some time. |