Translation(s): none

Models covered
?SiFive ?HiFive Unmatched

• ?SiFive HiFive Unmatched, ?SiFive FU740-C000 (Quad-core 64-bit ?SiFive U74) + Embedded 64-bit ?SiFive S7 Core, 16 GB 64-bit DDR4, 1x PCI Express Gen3 x8 via PCI Express x16 Connector, Ethernet – 10/100/1000 Mbps, NVMe SSD M.2 , microSD Card.

Overall Status

Legend :
= OK ; Unsupported(No Driver) ; = Error (Couldn't get it working); [?] Unknown, Not Test ; [-] Not-applicable
= Configuration Required; = Only works with a non-free driver and or firmware

Important Note

Debian on the ?HiFive Unmatched is very new. There are no official images available yet.

* Option 1

You could find some experimental images in (signed with ?Deiv's key):

• https://people.debian.org/~deiv/riscv/debian-sid-risc-v-sifive-unmatched.tar.xz (490M)

  • https://people.debian.org/~deiv/riscv/debian-sid-risc-v-sifive-unmatched.tar.xz.asc

This images are built with the same instructions in the next section. You just need to decompress them and burn to sd-card.

* Option 2

Or you can download the prebuilt image which can be dd into nvme and/or sd card to boot Debian sid on Unmatched:

?Unmatched Debian prebuilt image built from multistrap, maintianed by vimer <tsu.yubo@gmail.com>

Installing Debian on HiFive

The easiest way at present to run Debian binaries on a ?HiFive is to generate an sdcard image with all the Debian stock parts.

To boot from the SD card, ensure the MSEL[3:0] DIP switches on the board are configured as 1011:

  +----------> CHIPIDSEL
  | +--------> MSEL3
  | | +------> MSEL2
  | | | +----> MSEL1
  | | | | +--> MSEL0
  | | | | |
 +-+-+-+-+-+
 | |X| |X|X| ON(1)
 | | | | | |
 |X| |X| | | OFF(0)
 +-+-+-+-+-+
BOOT MODE SEL

If you never touched these switches, this should be the default state.

Preparing disk image

# create image file
dd if=/dev/zero of=debian-sid-risc-v-sifive-unmatched.img bs=1M count=4096

# Partition image with correct disk IDs
sudo sgdisk -g --clear --set-alignment=1 \
       --new=1:34:+1M:    --change-name=1:'u-boot-spl'    --typecode=1:5b193300-fc78-40cd-8002-e86c45580b47 \
       --new=2:2082:+4M:  --change-name=2:'opensbi-uboot' --typecode=2:2e54b353-1271-4842-806f-e436d6af6985 \
       --new=3:16384:+400M:   --change-name=3:'boot'      --typecode=3:0x0700  --attributes=3:set:2  \
       --new=4:835584:-0   --change-name=4:'rootfs'       --typecode=4:0x8300 \
       debian-sid-risc-v-sifive-unmatched.img
       
# Mount image in loop device
sudo losetup --partscan --find --show debian-sid-risc-v-sifive-unmatched.img

# format partitions
sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/loop0p3
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/loop0p4
sudo e2label /dev/loop0p3 boot
sudo e2label /dev/loop0p4 rootfs

Installing debian sid+riscv-port on image

# mount root partition
sudo mount /dev/loop0p4 /mnt

# install base files
sudo apt-get install debootstrap qemu-user-static binfmt-support
sudo debootstrap --arch=riscv64 unstable /mnt http://deb.debian.org/debian

# mount boot partition
sudo mount /dev/loop0p3 /mnt/boot

# chroot into base filesystem and made basic configuration
sudo chroot /mnt

Inside created chroot:

# Update package information
apt-get update

# Set up basic networking
cat >>/etc/network/interfaces <<EOF
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto end0
iface end0 inet dhcp
EOF

# Set root password 'sifive'
passwd

# Change hostname
echo unmatched > /etc/hostname

# Set up fstab
cat > /etc/fstab <<EOF
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>

/dev/mmcblk0p4 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/mmcblk0p3 /boot           vfat    nodev,noexec,rw   0       2
EOF

# Install kernel and bootloader infrastructure
apt-get install linux-image-riscv64 u-boot-menu u-boot-sifive
apt-get clean

# add needed modules in initrd
echo mmc_spi >>/etc/initramfs-tools/modules 
#update-initramfs -u (TODO: add more space in boot)
rm /boot/initrd*
update-initramfs -c -k all

# Set up u-boot (TODO: better integration for kernel updates)
# Should cp your latest dtb file,e.g, cp /usr/lib/linux-image-xx-riscv64 
cp /usr/lib/linux-image-5.14.0-3-riscv64/sifive/hifive-unmatched-a00.dtb /boot/
echo U_BOOT_FDT=\"hifive-unmatched-a00.dtb\" >> /etc/default/u-boot
echo U_BOOT_PARAMETERS=\"rw rootwait console=ttySIF0,115200 earlycon\" >> /etc/default/u-boot
u-boot-update

# Install ssh server and ntp
apt-get install openssh-server openntpd ntpdate
apt-get clean

# set the time immediately at startup
sed -i 's/^DAEMON_OPTS="/DAEMON_OPTS="-s /' /etc/default/openntpd

# exit chroot
exit

Once out of chroot:

sudo rm /mnt/root/.bash_history

Setup bootloaders

sudo dd if=/mnt/usr/lib/u-boot/sifive_unmatched/u-boot-spl.bin of=/dev/loop0p1 bs=4k iflag=fullblock oflag=direct conv=fsync status=progress
sudo dd if=/mnt/usr/lib/u-boot/sifive_unmatched/u-boot.itb of=/dev/loop0p2 bs=4k iflag=fullblock oflag=direct conv=fsync status=progress

Finish and write image to sdcard

sudo umount /mnt/boot
sudo umount /mnt

sudo losetup -d /dev/loop0

# take care of writing to the correct sdcard-device
sudo dd if=debian-sid-risc-v-sifive-unmatched.img of=/dev/sdcard-device bs=64k iflag=fullblock oflag=direct conv=fsync status=progress

Boot from onboard SPI Flash + NVMe drive

Suppose you now have a working system that boots from the SD card and have installed the u-boot-sifive package:

Make SPI Flash visible

Load the MTD block driver:

sudo modprobe mtdblock

Partition onboard flash

Partition onboard flash (/dev/mtdblock0):

sudo sgdisk -g --clear -a 1 \
  --new=1:40:2087         --change-name=1:'u-boot-spl'     --typecode=1:5B193300-FC78-40CD-8002-E86C45580B47 \
  --new=2:2088:10279      --change-name=2:'opensbi-uboot'  --typecode=2:2E54B353-1271-4842-806F-E436D6AF6985 \
  --new=3:10280:10535     --change-name=3:'uboot-env'      --typecode=3:0FC63DAF-8483-4772-8E79-3D69D8477DE4 \
  /dev/mtdblock0

These partition offsets and types must be exact. Notice that they differ slightly from what is required for an SD card.

Setup bootloaders

sudo dd if=/usr/lib/u-boot/sifive_unmatched/u-boot-spl.bin of=/dev/mtdblock0 bs=4096 seek=5 conv=sync status=progress
sudo dd if=/usr/lib/u-boot/sifive_unmatched/u-boot.itb of=/dev/mtdblock0 bs=4096 seek=261 conv=sync status=progress

Installing debian sid+riscv-port on nvme drive

Similar to Installing debian sid+riscv-port on image, partitioning the nvme drive, install debian into it and install kernel & other packages using chroot. You may also dd your sd card to nvme drive.

Switch to boot from onboard SPI flash

To boot from the onboard SPI flash (QSPI0 in SiFive's documentation), set MSEL[3:0] to 0110:

  +----------> CHIPIDSEL
  | +--------> MSEL3
  | | +------> MSEL2
  | | | +----> MSEL1
  | | | | +--> MSEL0
  | | | | |
 +-+-+-+-+-+
 | | |X|X| | ON(1)
 | | | | | |
 |X|X| | |X| OFF(0)
 +-+-+-+-+-+
BOOT MODE SEL