§2023-10-15

• Orange Pi PC + Arch Linux ARM: installation guide

1. This guide is based on multiple guides as well as official instructions for the other boards found on the Internet:

   • https://github.com/RoEdAl/alarm-uboot-sunxi-armv7
   • https://uthings.uniud.it/building-mainline-u-boot-and-linux-kernel-for-orange-pi-boards
   • https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7/allwinner/pcduino3

2. SD card

Replace sdX with the device name for your SD card. Zero the beginning of the SD card:

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=8

At the fdisk prompt, delete old partitions and create a new one:

- `sudo fdisk /dev/sdx`
- Type o. This will clear out any partitions on the drive.
- Type p to list partitions. There should be no partitions left.
- Now type n, then p for primary, 1 for the first partition on the drive, 2048 for the first sector, and then press ENTER to accept the default last sector.
- Write the partition table and exit by typing w.

Create the ext4 filesystem:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX1

3. Mount the filesystem:

sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt

4. Root filesystem

Download and extract the root filesystem:

wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz
sudo bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz -C /mnt
sync

5. Boot script

Install uboot-tools. In ArchLinux:

sudo pacman -S uboot-tools

Create boot.txt file in /boot dir.

cd /mnt/boot
nano boot.txt AS 

Paste the following contents into it:

if test -n ${distro_bootpart}; then setenv bootpart ${distro_bootpart}; else setenv bootpart 1; fi part uuid ${devtype} ${devnum}:${bootpart} uuid setenv bootargs console=${console} root=PARTUUID=${uuid} rw rootwait

if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${bootpart} ${kernel_addr_r} /boot/zImage; then if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${bootpart} ${fdt_addr_r} /boot/dtbs/${fdtfile}; then if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${bootpart} ${ramdisk_addr_r} /boot/initramfs-linux.img; then bootz ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r}:${filesize} ${fdt_addr_r}; else bootz ${kernel_addr_r} - ${fdt_addr_r}; fi; fi; fi

Now create the boot script boot.scr:

` sudo mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -n "U-Boot boot script" -d boot.txt boot.scr  `

Unmount your SD card:

sudo umount /mnt cd /tmp

6) U-Boot

Clone U-Boot repo and checkout the latest tag (or the one you need):

git clone --depth 1 --branch v2023.04 https://github.com/u-boot/u-boot cd u-boot

Install the cross compiler for ARM EABI (in Arch Linux):

` sudo pacman -S arm-none-eabi-gcc `

Compile bootloader (you need to have setuptools Python package to be installed):

export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-eabi- export ARCH=arm make distclean make orangepi_pc_defconfig make

Flash it to the device:

` sudo dd if=u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/dev/sdX bs=1024 seek=8 `

7) Booting

Insert the micro SD card into Orange Pi PC, connect Ethernet, and apply 5V power. Use the serial console or SSH to the IP address given to the board by your router. Login as the default user alarm with the password alarm. The default root password is root. Initialize the pacman keyring and populate the Arch Linux ARM package signing keys:

```sh
su
# Type in the password: root (by default)
pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinuxarm

And so on and so forth:

pacman -S sudo
visudo