Hardkernel ODROID-N2
This article is incomplete an unfinished
Since 5.2.0-next-20190718 mainline is bootable.
This Page describes the necessary steps to take to install gentoo with a recent mainline kernel on an ODROID-N2 by Hardkernel Co., LTD.. It's a small ARM based single board computer with 6 cores and 2 or 4 GB of RAM. As it has a 64-bit CPU the experimental aarch64 gentoo is used.
Prerequisites
- Computer running linux (gentoo)
- Option to access the SD-Card from this computer
- Option use USB drive.
Micro SD-Card preparation Option 1
The boot process of the N2 is described in the ODROID-N2 wiki and requires a certain partition structure of the micro SD-Card. First the boot software loads U-Boot, which as to be a specific location, which then loads the actual kernel from the boot partition.
Partition Table
The desired partition tables looks like this:
| Area Name | Size | From (sector #) | To (sector #) | device |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bootloader1 / MBR | 512B | 0 | 0 | - |
| U-Boot | 959.5K | 1 | 1919 | /dev/block/bootloader |
| U-Boot Environment | 64KB | 1920 | 2047 | /dev/block/env |
| FAT32 for boot | 128MB | 2048 | 264191 | /dev/mmcblk0p1 |
| swap | 4GB | todo | todo | /dev/mmcblk0p2 |
| BTRFS root | - | todo | remaining blocks | /dev/mmcblk0p3 |
The swap partition is optional an depends on the use case.
Option 1 - Extract from Image
In this section, the desired partition table is acquired by using an available ubuntu boot image. This has the advantage of not needing to build U-Boot.
Download an ubuntu image to extract the bootloader from.
Extract the image.
user $xz -d ubuntu-18.04.2-4.9-minimal-odroid-n2-20190329.img.xzCopy the first MBs which contain the partition table and the bootloader to the sd-card.
user $dd if=ubuntu-18.04.2-4.9-minimal-odroid-n2-20190329.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M count=150 status=progress150+0 records in 150+0 records out 157286400 bytes (157 MB, 150 MiB) copied, 0,241063 s, 652 MB/s
Change the copied partition table as needed.
user $fdisk /dev/mmcblk0
Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.33).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 29,2 GiB, 31306285056 bytes, 61145088 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x03823826
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1 2048 264191 262144 128M c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 264192 7045119 6780928 3,2G 83 Linux
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1,2, default 2): 2
Partition 2 has been deleted.
Command (m for help): n
Partition type
p primary (1 primary, 0 extended, 3 free)
e extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (2-4, default 2): 2
First sector (264192-61145087, default 264192):
Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (264192-61145087, default 61145087): +4G
Created a new partition 2 of type 'Linux' and of size 4 GiB.
Partition #2 contains a ext4 signature.
Do you want to remove the signature? [Y]es/[N]o: y
The signature will be removed by a write command.
Command (m for help): n
Partition type
p primary (2 primary, 0 extended, 2 free)
e extended (container for logical partitions)
Select (default p): p
Partition number (3,4, default 3): 3
First sector (8652800-61145087, default 8652800):
Last sector, +/-sectors or +/-size{K,M,G,T,P} (8652800-61145087, default 61145087):
Created a new partition 3 of type 'Linux' and of size 25 GiB.
Command (m for help): t
Partition number (1-3, default 3): 2
Hex code (type L to list all codes): 82
Changed type of partition 'Linux' to 'Linux swap / Solaris'.
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 29,2 GiB, 31306285056 bytes, 61145088 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x03823826
Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1 2048 264191 262144 128M c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 264192 8652799 8388608 4G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/mmcblk0p3 8652800 61145087 52492288 25G 83 Linux
Filesystem/RAID signature on partition 2 will be wiped.
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Syncing disks.
Create swap partition.
user $mkswap /dev/mmcblk0p2mkswap: /dev/mmcblk0p2: warning: wiping old btrfs signature. Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 4 GiB (4294963200 bytes) no label, UUID=536be908-9479-42fc-a45f-bdc109a90984
Create btrfs partition.
user $mkfs.btrfs -L sd_pool /dev/mmcblk0p3btrfs-progs v4.19
See http://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org for more information.
Detected a SSD, turning off metadata duplication. Mkfs with -m dup if you want to force metadata duplication.
Label: sd_pool
UUID: ef4e6022-44bf-4581-a219-ca82beb198b9
Node size: 16384
Sector size: 4096
Filesystem size: 25.03GiB
Block group profiles:
Data: single 8.00MiB
Metadata: single 8.00MiB
System: single 4.00MiB
SSD detected: yes
Incompat features: extref, skinny-metadata
Number of devices: 1
Devices:
ID SIZE PATH
1 25.03GiB /dev/mmcblk0p3
Prepare directory structure for mounting the partitions.
user $mkdir -p /mnt/odroid/boot
user $mkdir /mnt/odroid/sd_pool
user $mkdir /mnt/odroid/rootMount the partitions.
user $mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/odroid/boot
user $mount /dev/mmcblk0p3 /mnt/odroid/sd_poolCreate a subvolume for the root filesystem.
user $btrfs subvolume create /mnt/odroid/sd_pool/rootCreate subvolume '/mnt/odroid/sd_pool/root'
Mount the root filesystem.
user $mount /dev/mmcblk0p3 -o subvol=/root /mnt/odroid/rootChange the default subvolume to be mounted if no subvolume is mentioned while mounting to root.
user $btrfs subvolume set-default /mnt/odroid/root/Option 2 - Building u-boot
todo
USB drive Option 2
If the systems petitboot(20191127) has a recent version on it you can boot to a USB drive. I am not sure about the type of drive but SSD and HDD style USB drives work. I had problem with a USB stick type drive. In this case you can use the Ubuntu or other imagine to boot the system. And install like explained below. But in this case you will not need to install the tool chain etc as you are already on an ARM system. But you will have to install some Packages to be able to build if it does not come with the right tools installed.
I also had problems with the 5.4 kernel and how it behaves differnetly than the 4.9 kernel. On boot it appears to power cycle the USB devices. The drive I had would go into an error state because of this. Switching to a different drive resolved the problem.
Building the Kernel
user $mkdir -p /mnt/odroid/root/usr/src
user $cd /mnt/odroid/root/usr/src
user $git clone --depth 1 --branch master https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/next/linux-next.git linuxuser $mkdir -p /tmp/toolchain
user $cd /tmp/toolchain
user $tar -xf gcc-linaro-6.3.1-2017.02-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu.tar.xz
user $export ARCH=arm64
user $export CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu-
user $export PATH=/tmp/toolchain/gcc-linaro-6.3.1-2017.02-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/:$PATH
user $aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc -v
Using built-in specs. COLLECT_GCC=aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc COLLECT_LTO_WRAPPER=/tmp/toolchain/gcc-linaro-6.3.1-2017.02-x86_64_aarch64-linux-gnu/bin/../libexec/gcc/aarch64-linux-gnu/6.3.1/lto-wrapper Target: aarch64-linux-gnu Configured with: /home/tcwg-buildslave/workspace/tcwg-make-release/label/docker-trusty-amd64-tcwg-build/target/aarch64-linux-gnu/snapshots/gcc-linaro-6.3-2017.02/configure SHELL=/bin/bash --with-mpc=/home/tcwg-buildslave/workspace/tcwg-make-release/label/docker-trusty-amd64-tcwg-build/target/aarch64-linux-gnu/_build/builds/destdir/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu --with-mpfr=/home/tcwg-buildslave/workspace/tcwg-make-release/label/docker-trusty-amd64-tcwg-build/target/aarch64-linux-gnu/_build/builds/destdir/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu --with-gmp=/home/tcwg-buildslave/workspace/tcwg-make-release/label/docker-trusty-amd64-tcwg-build/target/aarch64-linux-gnu/_build/builds/destdir/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu --with-gnu-as --with-gnu-ld --disable-libmudflap --enable-lto --enable-objc-gc --enable-shared --without-included-gettext --enable-nls --disable-sjlj-exceptions --enable-gnu-unique-object --enable-linker-build-id --disable-libstdcxx-pch --enable-c99 --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-long-long --with-cloog=no --with-ppl=no --with-isl=no --disable-multilib --enable-fix-cortex-a53-835769 --enable-fix-cortex-a53-843419 --with-arch=armv8-a --enable-threads=posix --enable-multiarch --enable-libstdcxx-time=yes --enable-gnu-indirect-function --with-build-sysroot=/home/tcwg-buildslave/workspace/tcwg-make-release/label/docker-trusty-amd64-tcwg-build/target/aarch64-linux-gnu/_build/sysroots/aarch64-linux-gnu --with-sysroot=/home/tcwg-buildslave/workspace/tcwg-make-release/label/docker-trusty-amd64-tcwg-build/target/aarch64-linux-gnu/_build/builds/destdir/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/aarch64-linux-gnu/libc --enable-checking=release --disable-bootstrap --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,lto --build=x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu --host=x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu --target=aarch64-linux-gnu --prefix=/home/tcwg-buildslave/workspace/tcwg-make-release/label/docker-trusty-amd64-tcwg-build/target/aarch64-linux-gnu/_build/builds/destdir/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu Thread model: posix gcc version 6.3.1 20170109 (Linaro GCC 6.3-2017.02)
user $cd /mnt/odroid/root/usr/src/linux/
user $make defconfig
# # configuration written to .config #
Disable all unneeded architectures and DEBUG/NOUVEAU drivers as they are not needed.
user $perl -pi -e 's/CONFIG_ARCH_[^_]*=y|.*(DEBUG|NOUVEAU).*//g' .config
user $make olddefconfigEnable Amlogic architecture and multiplexer. Mark btrfs to be compiled into the kernel as the root filesystem is btrfs.
user $make menuconfigPlatform selection --->
[*] Amlogic Platforms
File systems --->
<*> Btrfs filesystem support
Device Drivers --->
[*] Network device support --->
[*] Ethernet driver support --->
[*] STMicroelectronics devices
<*> STMicroelectronics Multi-Gigabit Ethernet driver
<*> STMMAC Platform bus support
<*> Amlogic Meson dwmac support
-*- MDIO bus device drivers --->
<*> Amlogic G12a based MDIO bus multiplexer
Character devices --->
Serial drivers --->
<*> Meson serial port support
[*] Support for console on meson
<*> MMC/SD/SDIO card support --->
<*> Amlogic S905/GX*/AXG SD/MMC Host Controller support
Compile the kernel.
user $make -j4Write a uboot readable uImage with the mkimage tool from dev-embedded/u-boot-tools.
user $ mkimage -A arm64 -O linux -T kernel -C none -a "0x1080000" -e "0x1080000" -n "$(make kernelrelease)" -d arch/arm64/boot/Image /mnt/odroid/boot/uImage
Image Name: 5.2.0-rc7-gdacac3759 Created: Sat Jul 13 22:37:43 2019 Image Type: AArch64 Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed) Data Size: 22278656 Bytes = 21756.50 KiB = 21.25 MiB Load Address: 01080000 Entry Point: 01080000
Copy the device tree blob to the boot partition.
user $cp arch/arm64/boot/dts/amlogic/meson-g12b-odroid-n2.dtb /mnt/odroid/boot/
Install the modules to the root partition
user $make modules_install ARCH=arm64 INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/mnt/odroid/root
Preparing the boot partition
user $lsblk -fNAME FSTYPE LABEL UUID FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT mmcblk0 ├─mmcblk0p1 vfat BOOT F702-39CB 110,4M 14% /mnt/odroid/boot ├─mmcblk0p2 swap 536be908-9479-42fc-a45f-bdc109a90984 └─mmcblk0p3 btrfs sd_pool ef4e6022-44bf-4581-a219-ca82beb198b9 24,8G 0% /mnt/odroid/sd_pool
/mnt/odroid/boot/boot.iniODROIDN2-UBOOT-CONFIG
setenv bootargs "root=/dev/mmcblk1p3 rootwait rw console=ttyAML0,115200 clk_ignore_unused"
setenv dtb_loadaddr "0x1000000"
fatload mmc ${devno}:1 ${dtb_loadaddr} meson-g12b-odroid-n2.dtb
fatload mmc ${devno}:1 0x01080000 uImage
bootm 0x1080000 - ${dtb_loadaddr}
clk_ignore_unused is required (right now) otherwise boot hangs
Some addtional break down of the above. The mkImage command is part of the u-boot-tools package in gentoo. My udnerstanding this just puts a wrapper around the kernel file. The 0x1080000 addresses is the entry point for the linux kernel. If you want to make an Initrd you can use genkernel once the system is online and then use mkImage to generate the wrapped file. Something like this:
user $ mkimage -A arm64 -O linux -T ramdisk -C lzma -a 0 -e 0 -n uinitrd -d initrd.img /boot/uInitrd-C = compression -a and -e are basicaly not used for initrd -n is a Name -d is the source file and the last part is the output.
The above file is the boot.ini for uboot. it appears that petitboot can read different filesystems for this information. While most things referencce using vfat, It does appear to work on ext4 even looking for the /boot dir if your root filesystem is the flat. I also noticed that petitboot, picked up my EFI bootable kernel directly so might be something that works as well.
The .ini file really is more of a shell script. setevn is setting variables. fatload reads something off of a device and puts it in memory where you tell it. and booti/bootm/bootz try to boot what was boot into memory. booti is for a kernel that was not wrapped with mkImage bootm is for one that is wrapped. and bootz allows you to use a compressed kernel image. Options are the .dtb file which I assume some Architecture information. second file is the initrd or - for none last is the kernel. And of course this is the memory location that you put them. the 1080000 should not be confused with the one that was put on the mkImage command. These are just locations. It would seem you just need to have an idea if there is enough space between the things you are copying to RAM. Disclaimer I don't fully understand it all and probably have mistakes.
/mnt/odroid/boot/boot.ini# Boot Args
setenv bootargs "root=/dev/mmcblk1p3 rootwait rw ${condev} ${amlogic} no_console_suspend fsck.repair=yes elevator=noop hdmimode=${hdmimode} cvbsmode=576cvbs max_freq_a53=${max_freq_a53} max_freq_a73=${max_freq_a73} maxcpus=${maxcpus} voutmode=${voutmode} ${cmode} disablehpd=${disablehpd} cvbscable=${cvbscable} overscan=${overscan}"
...
# Load kernel, dtb and initrd
fatload mmc ${devno}:1 ${loadaddr} Image
fatload mmc ${devno}:1 ${dtb_loadaddr} meson64_odroidn2.dtb
# fatload mmc ${devno}:1 ${initrd_loadaddr} uInitrd
fdt addr ${dtb_loadaddr}
# unzip the kernel
# unzip ${k_addr} ${loadaddr}
# boot
# booti ${loadaddr} ${initrd_loadaddr} ${dtb_loadaddr}
booti ${loadaddr} - ${dtb_loadaddr}
Stage 3 copy
user $cd /mnt/odroid/root
user $tar -xjf stage3-arm64-systemd-20190428.tar.bz2/mnt/odroid/root/etc/fstab...
/dev/mmcblk1p3 / btrfs defaults,auto,noatime,nodiratime 0 0
/dev/mmcblk1p1 /boot vfat noauto,noatime 1 2
/dev/mmcblk1p2 none swap sw 0 0
...
Remove * from root user to reset root password to empty.
First thing on first login should be to set a root password with passwd
/mnt/odroid/root/etc/shadowroot::17941:0:::::
...
Finish install
From here you should be able to finish the install of a systemd install. This is what the stage 3 is based on.
Make sure to setup your password sshd and systemd-networkd. In case the video does not come up on the console you should be able to access from the network