IMX233

Official Images from OLIMEX

Linux

For initial test with the default images follow the general algorithm:

1. Download the image

2. Extract it out of the archive

3. Write the image to a properly formatted microSD card

Step 3 under Linux looks usually like:

sudo dd if=LINUX_IMAGE_NAME.img of=/dev/mmcblk0

Newest official Arch Linux image (recommended):

Torrent of Arch Linux release 5 for all Olimex iMX233 boards: iMX233 Arch image with kernel 2.6.35 WIFI release 5

Build instructions for the ArchLinux images: GitHub instructions; the difference in the source code between the two official releases is in init-mx23.c related to the RAM initialization, refer to this forum post

Username - password: root - root

Newest official Debian release (no audio output nor video output support):

imx233 Debian 2GB SD-card image based on Kernel 3.11 (no audio no TV out support) release-1 with:

Linux Kernel 3.11.rc1
USB WIFI RTL8188CU
Ethernet AX88772B
Ethernet LAN9512
GPIO
I2C
SPI
busybox
gcc-4.6
git
i2c-tools
openssl
perl
python2.7
apache2
dpkg
git
i2c-tools
perl
Default Login: root/root

Older official Arch Linux images (not recommended, use only if you know what you are doing):

If you experience problems or instability with one of the images below please test with the other! Different iMX233 boards have different memories and this requires different images.

Torrent of Arch Linux release 4 for Olimex iMX233 boards with SAMSUNG RAM memories: iMX233 Arch image with kernel 2.6.35 WIFI release 4

Torrent of Arch Linux release 3 for Olimex iMX233 boards with industrial or non-SAMSUNG RAM memories: iMX233 Arch image with kernel 2.6.35 WIFI release 3

Un-official images from customers

Documents

Digikey eeWiki about imx233-OLinuXino http://www.eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/iMX233-OLinuXino

Fadil Berisha's blog http://g-lab.ca/home/

How To

Hardware

Attaching LCD to iMX233-OLinuXino-MAXI

Customer made cases and case-designs for 3D printers:

1. A reprap case design for iMX233-OLinuXino-MAXI

2. A .stl case design for iMX233-OLinuXino-MICRO

Software

Linux Commands

Linux-Commands Brief Linux Command reference

To run a Linux system on iMX233 boards, 3 key components are required:

boot code: either bootlets or a bootloader;
kernel;
root filesystem.

Kernels

There are two kernel flavours which work on all 3 iMX233 OLinuXino boards:

2.6 line. Support for all on-board hardware features, but lacks support for new kernel features and drivers. Build recipes: Yocto BSP, ArchlinuxARM package.
Mainline. A modern kernel but still a bit flaky. instructions, easy build helper with instructions, PKGBUILD for alarm.

Software Distributions

A list of linux distributions or build systems which can produce runnable images:

Debian. An excellent guide here, including instructions for bootloader, SD card partitioning, etc. There is another guide from Olimex.
ArchlinuxARM with packages for both 2.6 and 3.x kernels and rich package repositories. The prebuilt images use bootlets, but can be made to work with U-Boot.
Yocto BSP, where most of the work on the boards is done and integrated first. Not newb-friendly, but extremely powerful. Also a complete SDK with cross-toolchains, runtime libraries, etc.
minifs Compact Linux Distro Generator for iMX233 with mainline Kernel 3.x

Various Links

LINUX KERNEL 3.x work in progress by Fadil Berisha - https://github.com/koliqi/imx23-olinuxino

OpenWrt support for iMX233-OLinuXino - http://wiki.openwrt.org/toh/olimex/imx233-olinuxino

External wiki article with a lot of useful information for iMX233-OLinuXino - http://eewiki.net/display/linuxonarm/iMX233-OLinuXino

How to setup iMX233 RTL8188 WIFI - http://www.agilart.com/blog/the-olinuxino-micro-wifi-sd-cards-farbric

MINIFS - Compact Linux Distro Generator for iMX233 with mainline Kernel 3.x note this often is broken and not stabile https://github.com/buserror-uk/minifs

EASY KERNEL BUILD This just a simple set of scripts to rebuild a known working kernel for ARM devices.. https://github.com/RobertCNelson/armv5_devel

QEMU - Olinuxino board emulated with 3.x kernel, working SD, USB, UART, RTC, (soft) I2C and even Onewire. See README.md for building/running instructions http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41951227/README.md or https://github.com/buserror-uk/qemu-buserror