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Revision 2 as of 2014-06-02 19:48:33
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Revision 3 as of 2014-06-11 20:24:31
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Comment: Extend list of supported systems, link to info about installation reports.
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= Install Using Debian Installer = = Install Using Debian-Installer =
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The following should work out of the box: Debian-installer should work out of the box on all the following sunxi-based systems, but as the developers do not have access to all of them, the installer has only been tested on particular systems yet. If you have used the installer on one of the untested systems, please submit an installation-report to the Debian project (cf. the [[http://d-i.debian.org/manual/en.armhf/ch05s04.html#submit-bug|Submitting Installation Reports]] chapter in the Debian installation-guide).
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 * Cubietruck === Systems tested and confirmed working ===
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Other platforms are still usable but may require more manual intervention to install.  * Cubietech Cubietruck

=== Systems for which the installer has support code, but on which installation has not been tested yet ===

 * Cubietech Cubieboard
 * Cubietech Cubieboard2
 * INet-97F Rev 02
 * LinkSprite pcDuino
 * Mele A1000
 * Miniand Hackberry
 * Olimex A10-OLinuXino-LIME
 * Olimex A10s-Olinuxino Micro
 * Olimex A13-Olinuxino
 * Olimex A13-Olinuxino Micro
 * Olimex A20-Olinuxino Micro
 * PineRiver Mini X-Plus

The installer can also be used on other sunxi-based systems as long as device-tree support for them is available, but on those systems manual intervention during the installation is required (see below).

.

Introduction

Support for boards using the Allwinner "sunxi" (sun4i, sun5i, sun7i etc) family of processors, e.g. A10, A13, A20 etc.

Install Using Debian-Installer

Supported Platforms

Debian-installer should work out of the box on all the following sunxi-based systems, but as the developers do not have access to all of them, the installer has only been tested on particular systems yet. If you have used the installer on one of the untested systems, please submit an installation-report to the Debian project (cf. the Submitting Installation Reports chapter in the Debian installation-guide).

Systems tested and confirmed working

  • Cubietech Cubietruck

Systems for which the installer has support code, but on which installation has not been tested yet

  • Cubietech Cubieboard
  • Cubietech Cubieboard2
  • INet-97F Rev 02
  • ?LinkSprite pcDuino

  • Mele A1000
  • Miniand Hackberry
  • Olimex A10-OLinuXino-LIME
  • Olimex A10s-Olinuxino Micro
  • Olimex A13-Olinuxino
  • Olimex A13-Olinuxino Micro
  • Olimex A20-Olinuxino Micro
  • ?PineRiver Mini X-Plus

The installer can also be used on other sunxi-based systems as long as device-tree support for them is available, but on those systems manual intervention during the installation is required (see below).

Installing to SATA

Support for installing to a SATA devices from the network is currently available in the Debian Installer daily builds.

NOTE: These instructions assume the use of a TFTP server, which should already be installed. However the installer images can also be loaded via other means, e.g. from MMC.

U-boot Bootloader

TBD: This needs a u-boot with AHCI support (WIP, upstream).

Prepare the TFTP Server

Download the kernel vmlinuz, installer initrd.gz and the appropriate Flattended Device Tree (FDT) Blob (or DTB) for the board and copy them to a path on your TFTP server. e.g.

# mkdir -p /srv/tftp/didaily/armhf/daily/{netboot,device-tree}
# cd /srv/tftp/didaily/armhf/daily/
# wget -P netboot http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/netboot/vmlinuz http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/netboot/initrd.gz
# wget -P device-tree http://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/armhf/daily/device-tree/sun7i-a20-cubietruck.dtb 

Create a script to boot the installer. e.g. /srv/tftp/didaily/cubietruck:

#setenv diargs <EXTRA ARGUMENTS>

setenv fdt_addr       0x43000000
setenv ramdisk_addr_r 0x48000000
setenv kernel_addr_r  0x47000000

setenv dibase /didaily/armhf/daily

tftp ${kernel_addr_r} ${dibase}/netboot/vmlinuz
setenv bootargs "console=ttyS0,115200 -- ${diargs}"

tftp ${fdt_addr} ${dibase}/device-tree/sun7i-a20-cubietruck.dtb
fdt addr ${fdt_addr} 0x40000

tftp ${ramdisk_addr_r} ${dibase}/netboot/initrd.gz
bootz ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r}:${filesize} ${fdt_addr}

then to make a script which u-boot can run:

# mkimage -T script -A arm -d /srv/tftp/didaily/cubietruck /srv/tftp/didaily/cubietruck.scr

Running the Installer

At the u-boot prompt, boot the images which were just downloaded via the script:

uboot> setenv autoload no
uboot> dhcp
uboot> tftp ${scriptaddr} /didaily/cubietruck.scr
uboot> source ${scriptaddr}

Install in the usual way. Use setenv diargs foo=bar to pass arguments to the installer (e.g. for preseeding)

Booting the Installed System

At the u-boot prompt run the following:

uboot> scsi scan
uboot> setenv device scsi
uboot> setenv partition 0
uboot> load ${device} ${partition} ${scriptaddr} boot.scr
uboot> setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200n8 root=/dev/sda2 rootwait
uboot> source ${scriptaddr}

This can be made the default with:

uboot> setenv device scsi
uboot> setenv partition 0
uboot> setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200n8 root=/dev/sda2 rootwait
uboot> setenv boot_debian scsi scan\;load \${device} \${partition} \${scriptaddr} boot.scr\;source \${scriptaddr}
uboot> setenv bootcmd run boot_debian
uboot> saveenv
uboot> boot

Systems not supported Out-of-the-box

This is a bit more fiddly.

First find a suitable device tree blob (DTB) for your board. You might find one in the daily builds, or upstream. Otherwise you might need to write one yourself (or find someone who is willing to do it for you).

Once you have a suitable DTB you can populate the TFTP server with the vmlinuz, initrd.gz and the DTB and create a suitable installer boot script by modifying the one above.

Boot the installer and preceed as usual. Towards the end you will encounter:

   ┌─────────────────┤ [!] Continue without boot loader ├──────────────────┐
   │                                                                       │
   │                       No boot loader installed                        │
   │ No boot loader has been installed, either because you chose not to or │
   │ because your specific architecture doesn't support a boot loader yet. │
   │                                                                       │
   │ You will need to boot manually with the /vmlinuz kernel on partition  │
   │ /dev/sda1 and root=/dev/sda2 passed as a kernel argument.             │
   │                                                                       │
   │                              <Continue>                               │
   │                                                                       │
   └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

This is expected. Make a note of the partitions and continue. Once the installer has completed the you need to boot the resulting system but using the DTB from TFTP in order to fix things up:

uboot> setenv fdt_addr       0x43000000
uboot> setenv ramdisk_addr_r 0x48000000
uboot> setenv kernel_addr_r  0x47000000
uboot> setenv dibase /didaily/armhf/daily
uboot> setenv autoload no;dhcp
uboot> tftp ${fdt_addr} ${dibase}/device-tree/sun7i-a20-cubieboard2.dtb
uboot> fdt addr ${fdt_addr} 0x40000
uboot> scsi scan
uboot> load scsi 0 ${kernel_addr_r} /vmlinuz
uboot> load scsi 0 ${ramdisk_addr_r} /initrd.img
uboot> setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200n8 root=/dev/sda2 rootwait
uboot> bootz ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r}:${filesize} ${fdt_addr}

This should now boot you to a login prompt.

Login and install flash-kernel and the u-boot-tools:

# apt-get install flash-kernel u-boot-tools

Now you need to create a flash-kernel database entry. Start by copying the entries for Cubietech Cubietruck from /usr/share/flash-kernel/db/all.db to /etc/flash-kernel/db. Now you need to modify the Machine and DTB-Id fields.

For the Machine use the output of:

# cat /proc/device-tree/model ; echo

For DTB-Id if you used a DTB from the daily builds then use that name for DTB-Id. If you got the DTB from somewhere else then install it as /boot/dtb-$(uname -r) and omit the DTB-Id field. In this case you will need to take care around kernel upgrades.

Now run flash-kernel and reboot. At this point you should be able to boot using the process from Booting the Installed System above. If this fails the boot again using the manual method described above and try again e.g. fix your /etc/flash-kernel/db.

Once you have it working run reportbug flash-kernel and report a wishlist bug to support your platform. Be sure to include the contents of /etc/flash-kernel/db and say where the DTB came from.

Installing to MMC

Support for the sunxi MMC controller will be in upstream Linux v3.16, however it has been backported to the v3.15 Debian kernel. However at the time of writing Debian Installer is using v3.14 and hence cannot install to MMC on this platform.

TBD: Describe installation to MMC once D-I switches to v3.15.

Install Using SD Card Images

See Linux sunxi projects Bootable OS Images page.

NOTE: Obviously YMMV with these images.

Resources

http://linux-sunxi.org/