Unofficial Arch Linux ARM image for A20-OLinuXino-MICRO

[progmetalbg]

Important update:
*****
As of mid/late 2014 A20-OLinuXino-MICRO board is supported by Arch Linux ARM developers/community
Please follow the new guide how to generate bootable image https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=1856.msg15719#msg15719
*****


Hello,

I received my A20-OLinuXino-MICRO yesterday and I have to say I'm impressed!
However, I'm not into Debian, so I decided to try to build an ALARM image.
After spending several hours reading linux-sunxi site, downloading and compiling uboot, kernel, board fex file, modifying alarm rootfs, debugging uboot issues, etc... I finally managed to create a bootable Arch Linux ARM image 

Links for download:
Gzipped image (310 MB):
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwafTA6sZEvVWEFHQUd0cnlqRzA/edit?usp=sharing

md5sum of image (48 bytes):
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwafTA6sZEvVc3ZYd3Z2RUFRTEU/edit?usp=sharing

Instructions:
1. Download the 2 files.
2. Uncompress the alarm-a20.img.gz (gzip -d alarm-a20.img.gz).
3. Compare with the md5sum (md5sum -c alarm-a20.md5).
4. Write the image to an sd card (dd if=alarm-a20.img of='your_sd_card', where 'your_ssd_card' could be /dev/mmcblk0 or /dev/sdb). In Windows you can use Win32 disk imager.
5. Insert the SD card into the board, power it up and enjoy 

Update: initial root password is root

Image highlights:

• linux kernel 3.4.43+ (linux-sunxi)
• systemd 204
• fits even on 1 GB SD card
• CLI only but you can install packages from the official repositories
• tons of kernel modules, exotic hardware support (in theory)

Note that I built it about 1 hour ago, I didn't test HDMI, wireless, GPIO ...

I'm also preparing instructions for building the image from scratch. Stay tuned 

Update: Here is the promised guide:
http://alarma20.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/howto-build-arch-linux-arm-for-a20-olinuxino-micro/

[olimex]

Hi
this is great, we just complete our new image with Kernel 3.4 and it have all peripherials working fine
I will blog the build instructions so you can include all GPIO, WIFI etc support in your ALARM image too!

[progmetalbg]

Ooops, I forgot to write the root password for my ALARM image.
Initial root password is root.

[pinnchus]

Hi
this is great, we just complete our new image with Kernel 3.4 and it have all peripherials working fine
I will blog the build instructions so you can include all GPIO, WIFI etc support in your ALARM image too!

When will you release these version?

Regards,
Pinnchus,

[progmetalbg]

The promised guide for building your own ALARM image is here:

http://alarma20.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/howto-build-arch-linux-arm-for-a20-olinuxino-micro/

[Mouchon]

Hi thanks for your work and to share it with us ;-)

[progmetalbg]

New Arch Linux ARM image (revision 2) for A20-OLinuXino-MICRO available:
Gzipped img (310 MB): https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwafTA6sZEvVSVgyVU1ZMjZoclE/edit?usp=sharing
md5sum of img: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwafTA6sZEvVLTBmWlZ4NWdSSlE/edit?usp=sharing

Highlights:

• linux kernel 3.4.61
• systemd 207
• used latest ALARM rootfs for sun7i (2013-10 from 28-Sep-2013)

credentials: root/root

[JohnDoe]

Hi all,

I've just flashed the Arch image from this thread. Anyone who successfully got usb drives or higher display resolution (FullHD) to work ?

Arch as such is a blast, but without working usb/full hd, debian seems to be the more stable solution.

Cheers,
John

[tks]

Perhaps because i'm quite new to the scene:

But the above wordpress quide doesn't load any video output buffers standard in the kernel.
Also sound and midi USB is disabled by default (and allot of other USB stuff)

To enable change the .config / DEFCONFIG file and rebuild uIMage.

I recommend that if something doesn't work, you start looking at the .config first.

[Aaron]

Hello,

I installed on sd card the linux Kernel 3.4.3.43 on my A20

I got a problem with the net, it isn't possible to surf with browser (Iceweasel).
I also tryed to configure the ethernet card by typing on the terminal the following command:

ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.4 netmask 255.255.255.0 up

Unfortunatly doesn't work.

Could someone help me to make the ethernet port works so to surf with a browser?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[jpostma]

Hi,

I installed the image and it is running fine. I also bought the 7" LCD display but
no way that i can get it working.
Can somebody provide a working FEX? I tried the one from de debian image but that one is not working.

[disp_init]
disp_init_enable = 1
disp_mode = 0
screen0_output_type = 1
screen0_output_mode = 4
screen1_output_type = 1
screen1_output_mode = 4
fb0_framebuffer_num = 2
fb0_format = 10
fb0_pixel_sequence = 0
fb0_scaler_mode_enable = 0
fb1_framebuffer_num = 2
fb1_format = 10
fb1_pixel_sequence = 0
fb1_scaler_mode_enable = 0


Regards,
Johan

[Shakipu]

Hi everyone,

I managed to build my own ArchLinux image too. However, I have some problems. First, as stated by other users, the display is not working (is anybody get something working ?). My disp_init on the .fex file looks like this (it's from Olimex) :

Code Select Expand

[disp_init]
disp_init_enable = 1
disp_mode = 0
screen0_output_type = 3
screen0_output_mode = 4
screen1_output_type = 3
screen1_output_mode = 4
fb0_framebuffer_num = 2
fb0_format = 10
fb0_pixel_sequence = 0
fb0_scaler_mode_enable = 0
fb1_framebuffer_num = 2
fb1_format = 10
fb1_pixel_sequence = 0
fb1_scaler_mode_enable = 0
lcd0_backlight = 197
lcd1_backlight = 197
lcd0_bright = 50
lcd0_contrast = 50
lcd0_saturation = 57
lcd0_hue = 50
lcd1_bright = 50
lcd1_contrast = 50
lcd1_saturation = 57
lcd1_hue = 50

Second, I plugged a PL2303 serial to usb converter onto the UART so I could watch the boot process but I can't get any login screen. I can see that the boot process throw some errors about starting the ttyS0 service but there isn't any other informations. Here are the errors I got :

janv. 01 01:00:14 alarm systemd[1]: Starting OpenSSH Daemon...
janv. 01 01:00:14 alarm systemd[1]: sshd.service start request repeated too quickly, refusing to start.
janv. 01 01:00:14 alarm systemd[1]: Failed to start OpenSSH Daemon.
janv. 01 01:00:14 alarm systemd[1]: Unit sshd.service entered failed state.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Job sys-subsystem-net-devices-eth0.device/start timed out.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Timed out waiting for device sys-subsystem-net-devices-eth0.device.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Dependency failed for Automatic wired network connection using netctl profiles.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Job dev-ttyS0.device/start timed out.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Timed out waiting for device dev-ttyS0.device.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Dependency failed for Serial Getty on ttyS0.

The errors related to ssh are:

janv. 01 01:00:14 alarm sshd[111]: Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key
janv. 01 01:00:14 alarm sshd[111]: Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_dsa_key
janv. 01 01:00:14 alarm sshd[111]: Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ecdsa_key
janv. 01 01:00:14 alarm sshd[111]: Could not load host key: /etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key

The errors related to the network could be a bad configuration however I'm not using it for now so it's not important to me.

I should add that the boot process finish with these lines:

janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Starting Login Prompts.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Reached target Login Prompts.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Starting Multi-User System.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Reached target Multi-User System.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Starting Graphical Interface.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Reached target Graphical Interface.
janv. 01 01:01:33 alarm systemd[1]: Startup finished in 5.600s (kernel) + 1min 31.012s (userspace) = 1min 36.613s.
janv. 01 01:15:03 alarm systemd[1]: Starting Cleanup of Temporary Directories...
janv. 01 01:15:03 alarm systemd[1]: Started Cleanup of Temporary Directories.

Last post is from May, it seems that there isn't a lot of people trying to make ArchLinux works on A20. C'mon! ArchLinux is the best distribution ever. I think that we could get it working as good as the official debian image. Let's take the challenge

[Shakipu]

Today I used bin2fex to extract the fex file from the script.bin shared by Olimex on the article on how to build the Debian image. What I can tell it's that it is a little bit (and not only a little) different.

Here is the disp_init part for example:

Code Select Expand

[disp_init]
disp_init_enable = 1
disp_mode = 0
screen0_output_type = 3
screen0_output_mode = 5
screen1_output_type = 1
screen1_output_mode = 4
fb0_framebuffer_num = 2
fb0_format = 10
fb0_pixel_sequence = 0
fb0_scaler_mode_enable = 0
fb0_width = 0
fb0_height = 0
fb1_framebuffer_num = 2
fb1_format = 10
fb1_pixel_sequence = 0
fb1_scaler_mode_enable = 0
fb1_width = 0
fb1_height = 0
lcd0_backlight = 250
lcd1_backlight = 100
lcd0_bright = 50
lcd0_contrast = 50
lcd0_saturation = 57
lcd0_hue = 50
lcd1_bright = 50
lcd1_contrast = 50
lcd1_saturation = 57
lcd1_hue = 50

I'll try it later. I'll keep you in touch.

EDIT: I've just tried with the script.bin given by Olimex. I still get the exactly same issues. I'm stuck and can't access a login prompt. Too bad for me, I could try things if I could get this login prompt. Here is a pastebin of the boot process. This pastebin will expire in one month.

[jlucius]

Today I used bin2fex to extract the fex file from the script.bin shared by Olimex on the article on how to build the Debian image. What I can tell it's that it is a little bit (and not only a little) different.

To active the 7" Display you just have to exchange the following line in step 3:
(http://alarma20.wordpress.com/2013/09/13/howto-build-arch-linux-arm-for-a20-olinuxino-micro/)

wget https://github.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-boards/raw/master/sys_config/a20/a20-olinuxino_micro.fex

by

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/linux-sunxi/sunxi-boards/master/sys_config/a20/a20-olinuxino_micro-lcd7.fex

the rest should work out of the box. If it doesn´t then it is more like a kernel or X server issue.

I haven´t tried it myself, but maybe I have a little bit of time next week to give it a try.

[jb88]

Today I used bin2fex to extract the fex file from the script.bin shared by Olimex on the article on how to build the Debian image. What I can tell it's that it is a little bit (and not only a little) different.

I'll try it later. I'll keep you in touch.

Hey, I built the image today. I followed the instructions from the guide but I used the defconfig file from the original guide for Debian ("Building the Ultimate Debian..."). I made one modification and that was to enable FHANDLE,

Code Select Expand

CONFIG_FHANDLE=y, on line 58 under general setup. I found out earlier that newer systemd requires that, otherwise you will get stuck with those devices timing out and not be able to login via serial:

Code Select Expand


[ TIME ] Timed out waiting for device sys-subsystem-net-devices-eth0.device.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Automatic wired network connec...etctl profiles.
[ TIME ] Timed out waiting for device dev-ttyS0.device.
[DEPEND] Dependency failed for Serial Getty on ttyS0.

Currently serial and ethernet are all I have working (no video/hdmi) so I am working on getting the mali drivers from the AUR, xf86-video-sunxifb-git

I will keep posted my findings, goodluck.

Edit: fixed my video/hdmi issue; modules weren't correctly compiling.

Edit2: using the a20 lcd7 fex and following the guide here: https://www.olimex.com/forum/index.php?topic=1743.0
I managed to get touchscreen working. I used sun4i-ts as the module as sunxi-ts does not exist for me.