DebianOn is an effort to document how to install, configure and use Debian on some specific hardware. Therefore potential buyers would know if that hardware is supported and owners would know how get the best out of that hardware. The purpose is not to duplicate the Debian Official Documentation, but to document how to install Debian on some specific hardware. If you need help to get Debian running on your hardware, please have a look at our user support channels where you may find specific channels (mailing list, IRC channel) dedicated to certain types of hardware. |
Models covered
Freescale QuickStart
Overall Status
Freescale QuickStart board is a development board. It is ARM architecture. The SoC is Freescale i.MX53.
System as sold
It comes without any OS on it. On Freescale's website you can download the BSP which is based on Ubuntu.
Linaro support
By installing linaro-image-tools and running the linaro-fetch-image-ui we can easily create an Ubuntu image for this hardware. Thus if we want to install Debian, the easist way is to create a Debian binary rootfs with the a hwpack for Debian and then use linaro-media-create to create the final image for this hardware.
Installation steps (by `linaro-image-tools`)
Environment
Please use Debian Stable or Debian Jessie or later version because we need newer linaro-image-tools and live-build.
Prepare Debian binary rootfs
In this section we create a Debian Stable armhf rootfs.
We use live-build to create Debian binary rootfs. The first step is make an empty directory, for example, "/tmp/live_cd"
Enter the created directory by "cd /tmp/live_cd"
- Execute
lb config --apt-indices none --architectures armhf --binary-images tar --binary-filesystem ext3 --bootloader "" --cache false --chroot-filesystem none --debian-installer-gui false --distribution stable --parent-distribution stable --parent-debian-installer-distribution stable --gzip-options '--best --rsyncable' --initramfs none --linux-flavours none --linux-packages none --bootstrap-qemu-arch armhf --bootstrap-qemu-static /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static
Create ./config/hooks/0001_set_user_linaro.hook.chroot as an executable shell script:
#!/bin/sh echo "I: create linaro user" adduser --gecos linaro --disabled-login linaro echo "I: set linaro user password" echo "linaro:linaro" | chpasswd DEFGROUPS="sudo,adm,dialout,cdrom,audio,dip,video,plugdev,bluetooth" echo "I: add linaro to ($DEFGROUPS) groups" usermod -a -G ${DEFGROUPS} linaro
Create config/package-lists/default0.list.chroot
aptitude u-boot-tools initramfs-tools sudo bluez
Run "chmod a+rx ./config/hooks/*"
Re-run "lb config"
Run "sudo lb build"
And we should have a live-image-armhf.tar.tar generated now and must use xz to convert it to live-image-armhf.tar.tar.xz.
Run "xz -9e live-image-armhf.tar.tar"
Make a hwpack
In this section we create a hwpack that contains Debian mx5 kernel and mx53loco u-boot.
create a config file "/tmp/linaro-debian-mx5" as following:
[hwpack] format=2.0 name=linaro-debian-mx5 architectures=armhf origin=Linaro maintainer=Ying-Chun Liu (PaulLiu) <paul.liu@linaro.org> support=unsupported packages=linux-image-armmp u-boot-imx mmc_id=0:2 u_boot_package=u-boot-imx u_boot_file=usr/lib/u-boot/mx53loco/u-boot.imx u_boot_in_boot_part=Yes u_boot_dd=2 serial_tty=ttymxc0 kernel_addr=0x70000000 initrd_addr=0x72000000 load_addr=0x70008000 partition_layout=reserved_bootfs_rootfs kernel_file=boot/vmlinuz-*-armmp initrd_file=boot/initrd.img-*-armmp dtb_file=usr/lib/linux-image-*-armmp/imx53-qsb.dtb dtb_addr=0x74000000 boot_script=boot.scr extra_serial_options=console=tty0 console=ttymxc0,115200n8 loader_start=1 [debian] sources-entry=http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stable main
Run "linaro-hwpack-create /tmp/linaro-debian-mx5 1"
Note that there are 2 kinds of QuickStart. One is with Dialog's PMIC. Another is with Freescale's MC34708 (newer one). If you bought the new one, please change "dtb_file=usr/lib/linux-image-*-armmp/imx53-qsb.dtb" to "dtb_file=usr/lib/linux-image-*-armmp/imx53-qsrb.dtb"
Now we have a good hwpack for Debian image
"hwpack_linaro-debian-mx5_1_armhf_unsupported.tar.gz"
Build the image
We can use linaro-media-create to build the Debian image.
linaro-media-create --image-file /tmp/linaro-debian.img --dev mx53loco --hwpack /tmp/live_cd/hwpack_linaro-debian-mx5_1_armhf_unsupported.tar.gz --binary /tmp/live_cd/live-image-armhf.tar.tar.xz
And now we got an image file called linaro-debian.img. Just use dd to write it to a microSD card.
Boot
Just insert the microSD card into QuickStart board and boot.
In the first time, we need to press return key quickly to enter the u-boot shell to change an environment variable. The default mmcpart variable is set to 1. We have to change it to 2.
When you see "Hit any key to stop autoboot: 3..2..1..0", press enter quickly.
- execute "setenv mmcpart 2"
- execute "saveenv"
- execute "reset" to reboot.
After several seconds we'll get a login prompt from the serial console. And then we use root to login. The root password is "linaro".