Hardkernel ODROID-XU4

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This article is a step by step guide on getting a fully functional Gentoo distribution of GNU/Linux on Odroid-XU4. It will begin with assuming the user has done nothing to the XU4 and assuming that the XU4 has internet access to it. The guide will walk through how to install Gentoo from another OS onto another partition, then configuring the bootloader (U-Boot) to boot off of that partition. This guide is based off of Installation alternatives article.

Hardware

Standard

Device	Make/model	Status	Vendor ID / Product ID	Kernel driver(s)	Kernel version	Notes
CPU	Samsung Exynos 5422	Works	N/A	N/A	5.4.211	Cortex-A15 2.0 GHz quad-core and Cortex-A7 1.5 Ghz quad-core
GPU	Mali-T628 MP6	Not tested	N/A	N/A	N/A	Needs external binary driver.

Installation

Cross-compiling from a Gentoo machine

In case a Gentoo host machine is available, it is recommended to cross-build the target Gentoo system from the host Gentoo machine.

Native tools like sys-devel/crossdev and sys-kernel/genkernel, along with the availability of upstream sources^[1] make cross-building straightforward.

ARM toolchain

Prior to any cross-build operation, an ARM toolchain is required. It can be built thanks to the sys-devel/crossdev tool.

If not already done, install it and configure its overlay.

Then crossdev can build the ARM toolchain:

root #crossdev -S -t armv7a-unknown-linux-gnueabihf

Bootloader installation

The bootloader needs to be installed at the beginning of a DOS-labeled disk.

The handbook explains how to create a new DOS partition table on the SD/eMMC card.

Once the DOS partition table is created, the bootloader sources are retrieved from the Hardkernel git repository:

user $git clone -b odroidxu4-v2017.05 --depth 1 https://github.com/hardkernel/u-boot.git

A prebuilt U-Boot image is available in the sd_fuse directory and should fit common needs.

U-Boot along with TrustZone areas can be installed at the beginning of the SD/eMMC card with the provided sd_fusing.sh tool (adjust the path to the SD/eMMC card):

user $cd u-boot/sd_fuse/

user $./sd_fusing.sh /dev/mmcblkY

Partitioning

The U-boot bootloader and TrustZone-related sections reside at the beginning of the disk until sector #2046^[2].

For future-proof reasons, it is safe and recommended from upstream to create user partitions from sector #3072.

If creating partitions are done with fdisk, take care of redefining the suggested start sector of each partition since fdisk thinks first sectors are free. Either set the start sector of the first partition to 3072 or after the last sector of the previously created partition.

Creating the partitions are then performed as described in the handbook.

As an exhaustive example, one could choose to create a swap partition, and for a server usage, a separate /var partition. The partitioning scheme would look like this:

Part number	Size	Filesystem	Name	Type
1	128M	ext2	boot	Linux (83)
2 (optional)	2G	N/A	swap	Linux swap (82)
3	8G+	ext4	rootfs	Linux (83)
4 (extended, optional)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
5	rest of the disk	ext4	var	Linux (83)

If either the swap or the /var partitions are not required, then the partition table can be made up of primary partitions only.

The partition sizes have to be adapted to the disk capacity.

Once the partitions are written to the disk, create filesystems (adjust partition numbers):

root #mkfs.ext2 -L boot /dev/mmcblkYp1

root #mkfs.ext4 -L rootfs /dev/mmcblkYp3

root #mkfs.ext4 -L var /dev/mmcblkYp5 # if applicable

If a swap partition is used, it has to be initialized:

root #mkswap /dev/mmcblkYp2

In the next chapters, the target Gentoo system will be installed in these partitions. Thus they have to be mounted in the host Gentoo filesystem. Throughout this article, the partitions will be mounted under the /mnt/odroid/ mountpoint.

root #mkdir /mnt/odroid

root #mount /dev/mmcblkYp3 /mnt/odroid

root #mkdir /mnt/odroid/boot

root #mount /dev/mmcblkYp1 /mnt/odroid/boot

root #mkdir /mnt/odroid/var # if applicable

root #mount /dev/mmcblkYp5 /mnt/odroid/var # if applicable

Kernel installation

Compared to the upstream kernel build guide^[3], sys-kernel/genkernel and dev-embedded/u-boot-tools allow for cross-building the kernel and initramfs.

First download the Odroid Linux kernel branch:

user $git clone -b odroid-5.4.y --depth 1 https://github.com/hardkernel/linux.git linux-5.4.y-odroid

Then cross-build the kernel and initramfs with the Odroid XU4-specific configuration (adjust -j<number of jobs>):

root #cd linux-5.4.y-odroid

root #

genkernel --kerneldir=. --kernel-config=arch/arm/configs/odroidxu4_defconfig --cross-compile=armv7a-unknown-linux-gnueabihf --makeopts=-j<number of jobs> --no-install all

The generated initramfs needs to be converted to a U-boot compatible image thanks to the u-boot-tools' mkimage utility.

root #emerge --ask dev-embedded/u-boot-tools

Generate the U-boot image:

user $

mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n uInitrd -d /var/tmp/genkernel/initramfs-arm-`make kernelrelease` uInitrd-`make kernelrelease`

Finally, the kernel and initramfs images, along with the device tree blob and overlays, are installed into the /boot partition of the SD/eMMC card:

root #mkdir /mnt/odroid/boot/overlays

root #INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/mnt/odroid/ make modules_install

root #cp -f /var/tmp/genkernel/kernel-arm-`make kernelrelease` /mnt/odroid/boot/zImage

root #cp -f uInitrd-`make kernelrelease` /mnt/odroid/boot/uInitrd

root #cp -f arch/arm/boot/dts/exynos5422-odroidxu4.dtb /mnt/odroid/boot/

root #cp -f arch/arm/boot/dts/overlays/*.dtbo /mnt/odroid/boot/overlays/

root #cp -f .config /mnt/odroid/boot/config-`make kernelrelease`

root #cd ..

Bootloader configuration

For U-boot to be able to boot the system, it will search for /boot/boot.ini.

Hardkernel provides various platform support files^[4], including a boot.ini example.

user $git clone -b 5.4 https://github.com/mdrjr/5422_bootini.git

In boot.ini, the root=UUID argument in the bootargs variable needs to be adjusted to the actual root filesystem UUID (rootfs in the partitioning scheme example).

The rootfs UUID can be obtained with lsblk --fs /dev/mmcblkYp1.

Replace <rootfs actual UUID> in boot.ini with the one given by lsblk. Also, if the boot (/dev/mmcblkYp1) partition has not been FAT-formatted as in the partitioning scheme above, replace every occurrence of the fatload command with the generic load one. It is safe anyway to use load whichever the filesystem in use.

FILE boot.iniboot.ini changed lines

setenv bootargs "console=tty1 console=ttySAC2,115200n8 root=UUID=<rootfs actual UUID> rootwait ro fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=0 ${videoconfig} ${hdmi_phy_control} ${hid_quirks} smsc95xx.macaddr=${macaddr} ${external_watchdog}"
[...]
load mmc [...]

Finally, copy the files to the boot partition:

root #cp -f 5422_bootini/boot.ini 5422_bootini/config.ini /mnt/odroid/boot/

Stage3 installation

At this stage, the CPU is able to execute the U-boot bootloader which is then able to boot the Linux kernel and initramfs. The initramfs is able to mount the root filesystem thanks to root=UUID= in /boot/boot.ini. But the root filesystem is still empty. That is where stage3 comes into play to populate it.

Download the preferred stage3 tarball from gentoo.org or any closer mirror. Choose between openrc and systemd. For instance, here is a systemd stage3 tarball download (replace DATE):

user $

wget -P stage3-armv7a_hardfp-systemd https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/arm/autobuilds/current-stage3-armv7a_hardfp-systemd/stage3-armv7a_hardfp-systemd-DATE.tar.xz https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/arm/autobuilds/current-stage3-armv7a_hardfp-systemd/stage3-armv7a_hardfp-systemd-DATE.tar.xz.DIGESTS https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/arm/autobuilds/current-stage3-armv7a_hardfp-systemd/stage3-armv7a_hardfp-systemd-DATE.tar.xz.sha256

Optionaly verify the tarball:

user $cd stage3-armv7a_hardfp-systemd

user $sha256sum -c stage3-armv7a_hardfp-systemd-DATE.tar.xz.sha256

Next, extract the tarball into the rootfs partition:

root #cd /mnt/odroid

root #tar xpvf <path/to/stage3-*.tar.xz> --xattrs-include='*.*' --numeric-owner

System cross-configuration

In order for the system to start properly, it is needed to perform some configurations, like /etc/fstab filesystem information, the Gentoo ebuild repository and the root default password.

The handbook can be followed to configure Gentoo mirrors with app-portage/mirrorselect and to configure the Gentoo ebuild repository. Take care of writing into the SD/eMMC's rootfs partition and not the host one:

root #mirrorselect -i -o >> /mnt/odroid/etc/portage/make.conf

Then, to be able to login as root, its password has to be initialized since the stage3's root password is undefined:

user $openssl passwd -6

Copy-paste the generated hash to /mnt/odroid/etc/shadow in the second column of the root row.

Optionaly, if a keyboard is connected to the Odroid board, it could be convenient to set the console keyboard layout:

root #echo "KEYMAP=<keyboard layout>" >> /mnt/odroid/etc/vconsole.conf

Lastly, populate the /mnt/odroid/etc/fstab filesystem information as described in the handbook for the partitions to be mounted on startup.

First boot

Insert the SD/eMMC card into the Odroid XU4 board, place the boot selection jumper accordingly and boot the board.

When asked to login, login as root with the previously defined password.

Onboard configuration

On the first boot, it is highly recommended to configure the init system (OpenRC or Systemd) in order to have networking functional as well as the hostname, timezone, time and locales configured.

The handbook is again the preferred reference for this configuration. The Systemd wiki article is also of great help if this init system is chosen.

For convenient further installations and configurations, one can choose to enable an SSH remote access from the local network. For doing so, a regular user is usually added to avoid SSH root access:

root #useradd -m -G users,wheel <login>

Next, the SSH service can be started.

For Systemd:

root #systemctl start sshd.service

For OpenRC:

root #rc-service sshd start

Once the network is accessible and the gentoo portage repository is initiated, the Portage configuration can be performed.

root #emerge-webrsync

root #emerge --sync

Then, very importantly, choose the right Portage profile with the eselect profile command set before any package is emerged.

Finally, for system consistency reason, it is recommended to update the system:

root #emerge --update --deep --newuse --with-bdeps=y --ask @world

Installation from an already bootable Linux distribution

Specific hardware needed: An SD card to USB adaptor.

Partitioning

Put the SD card into a SD card to USB adaptor and begin to partition it. If it is a fresh SD card from hardkernel then there should be plenty of room to split the first partition in 2(my card is 16gb).

A signed u-boot has to be used, creating a uboot, bootloader from source is possible but require a signed stage. Odroid has been signing these stages, check their support forum. More information from Odroid here

This method uses the already existing bootloader from the image used to bootstrap the system. It is recommended to do this before the partitioning in case the command overwrites the start of a partition.

Warning
This is a VERY dangerous command. If a mistake is made, permanent loss of data can occure.

CODE Device names

/dev/mmcblkX where the initial system is located
/dev/mmcblkY where the final gentoo system will be located

Boot loader installation:

root #

dd if=/dev/mmcblkX of=/dev/mmcblkY skip=1 seek=1 bs=512 count=2046

Partitions example:

root #fdisk -l /dev/mmcblk0

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 58.2 GiB, 62537072640 bytes, 122142720 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: 0x3cedfd53

Device         Boot  Start       End   Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1        2048    526335    524288  256M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2      526336 122142719 121616384   58G 83 Linux

Formatting the partitions

It is recommended to have the sys-fs/dosfstools and sys-fs/exfat-utils available on the host and final system.

root #

mkfs.vfat -F32 -n BOOT /dev/mmcblkYp1

root #

mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/mmcblkYp2

Boot the current distro

Boot into the system currently installed onto the XU4, Ubuntu/Debian/other it doesn’t really matter(Does it work?). On the current OS of the XU4, mount the empty partition to /mnt (mine is mmcblk0p2, yours is whatever partition you made)

root #

mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mnt

root #

cd /mnt

Get the appropriate stage3

Get the stage3 tarball from gentoo.org, you will need the ARMv7a|HardFP and change the xxxx to the proper date in the filename. To get the proper information on this page.

root #

wget https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/arm/autobuilds/current-stage3-armv7a_hardfp-openrc/stage3-armv7a_hardfp-openrc-xxxx.tar.xz

Extract stage3

Extract the tarball, we now have a root file system that we can start working with:

root #tar xpvf stage3-armv7a_hardfp-openrc*.tar.xz --xattrs-include='*.*' --numeric-owner

Copy X11 configuration files

Just in case...

root #cp -a /etc/X11 /mnt/etc/

chroot to the new environment

Once extracted, go to the / directory then chroot into the partition:

root #

cd /

root #

mount -t proc none /mnt/proc

root #

mount --rbind /sys /mnt/sys

root #

mount --rbind /dev /mnt/dev

root #

cp -L /etc/resolv.conf /mnt/etc

root #

chroot /mnt /bin/bash

root #

env-update (might fail without the portage snapshot)

root #

source /etc/profile

Get a Portage snapshot

We need to get the Portage snapshot, before we can do this we must set the date (emerge-webrsync didn’t work on my machine for some reason):

root #

date MMDDHHMMYYYY

root #

cd /usr

root #

wget http://gentoo.osuosl.org/snapshots/portage-latest.tar.bz2

root #

tar -xvjf portage-latest.tar.bz2

root #

emerge –sync

root #

rm portage-latest.tar.bz2

Set up make.conf

Before we do anything we must alter the make.config file, if we don’t compilations will take a long time on a single arm core. Be sure to add makeopts=”-j9”. Use flags are up to you, for the purpose of this guide I kept them as small as possible. Future experimentation would be switching -march=armv7-a to native, though that will cause problems for distcc, but that’s for another guide.

root #nano /etc/portage/make.conf

CODE make.config sample

# These settings were set by the catalyst build script that automatically
# built this stage.
# Please consult /usr/share/portage/config/make.conf.example for a more
# detailed example.
CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe -march=armv7-a -mfpu=vfpv3-d16 -mfloat-abi=hard"
# WARNING: Changing your CHOST is not something that should be done lightly.
# Please consult https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Changing_the_CHOST_variable before changing
CHOST="armv7a-unknown-linux-gnueabihf"
PORTDIR="/var/db/repos/gentoo"
DISTDIR="/var/cache/distfiles"
PKGDIR="/var/cache/binpkgs"
 
# This sets the language of build output to English.
# Please keep this setting intact when reporting bugs.
LC_MESSAGES=C
 
USE="-bindist"
MAKEOPTS="-j3"

Update the system

Before we compile a kernel we must update the system, note this will take a while(several hours, gcc takes about half of the time, be sure you have makeopts=”-j3”, as bigger values tend to saturate memory), be sure that the date was set correctly before running emerge:

root #

emerge --sync

root #

emerge --update --deep --newuse @world

root #

emerge --depclean

root #

emerge -a app-portage/gentoolkit (needed for revdep-rebuild)

root #

revdep-rebuild

Build the kernel

Time to compile the kernel, unfortunately the official gentoo sources do not work for the odroid-xu4 SoC. If one tries to compile with gentoo-sources and configure the XU4 to boot, it will fail. If one tries to boot the XU4 with a non-gentoo kernel/different config, the system will boot however there will be problems(network interfaces not being detected for example). What needs to happen is one must git clone hardkernel’s official kernel and then compile it with any features one might want. There are 2 ways to do this, manual and automatically with genkernel. Below is how to do it with genkernel.

Ensure that partitions are correctly mapped:

root #nano /etc/fstab

root #mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /boot

Verify dev-vcs/git and sys-devel/bc are installed so that the next steps can operated as expected. Emerge the packages if necessary.

For the 1st time:

root #

cd /usr/src

root #

git clone https://github.com/hardkernel/linux.git -b odroidxu4-4.14.y --depth 1 odroidxu4-4.14.y

root #

ln -s odroidxu4-4.14.y linux

Followed by from now and future updates from the git tree:

root #

mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot

root #

cd /usr/src/odroidxu4-4.14.y/

root #

git pull # simply put, it synchronizes the local with the remote repository;

root #

cd ..

root #

genkernel --kernel-config=/usr/src/linux/arch/arm/configs/odroidxu4_defconfig all

You will then need the dev-embedded/u-boot-tools to create a uInitrd from the current initramfs, once all the files are created, let's copy all of them to /boot

root #

cd /usr/src/odroidxu4-4.14.y/

root #

mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C none -a 0 -e 0 -d /boot/initramfs-genkernel-arm-`make kernelrelease` uInitrd-`make kernelrelease`

root #

cp arch/arm/boot/zImage /boot/zImage-`make kernelrelease`

root #

cp arch/arm/boot/dts/exynos5422-odroidxu4.dtb uInitrd-`make kernelrelease` /boot

Remember the value returned by make kernelrelease you will need to adjust the file names in the boot.ini

In case someone would like to use any of the menuconfig, for instance, or add / remove any driver or something else to / from the new kernel, I think it would be useful to copy the final /usr/src/linux/.config file back to /usr/src/linux/arch/arm/configs/odroidxu4_defconfig, or to copy the /usr/src/linux/.config to some safe place for further use.

Set up the boot loader

Modify boot loader to boot new kernel and filesystem:

root #cd /boot

root #nano boot.ini

Below is the original boot.ini from the latest Ubuntu image, adjust the line with:

CODE original

fatload mmc 0:1 0x40008000 zImage

to

CODE new

fatload mmc 0:1 0x40008000 kernel-genkernel-arm-4.9.34

CODE Complete boot.ini

ODROIDXU-UBOOT-CONFIG

# U-Boot Parameters
setenv initrd_high "0xffffffff"
setenv fdt_high "0xffffffff"

# Mac address configuration
setenv macaddr "00:1e:06:61:7a:39"

#------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Basic Ubuntu Setup. Don't touch unless you know what you are doing.
# --------------------------------
setenv bootrootfs "console=tty1 console=ttySAC2,115200n8 root=UUID=e139ce78-9841-40fe-8823-96a304a09859 rootwait ro fsck.repair=yes net.ifnames=1"

# --- Screen Configuration for HDMI --- #
# ---------------------------------------
# Uncomment only ONE line! Leave all commented for automatic selection.
# Uncomment only the setenv line!
# ---------------------------------------
# ODROID-VU forced resolution
# setenv videoconfig "video=HDMI-A-1:1280x800@60"
# -----------------------------------------------
# ODROID-VU forced EDID
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1280x800.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1920x1200 60hz without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1920x1200_60hz.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1920x1200 30hz without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1920x1200_30hz.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1920x1080 (1080P) with monitor provided EDID information. (1080p-edid)
# setenv videoconfig "video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080@60"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1920x1080 (1080P) without monitor data using generic information (1080p-noedid)
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1920x1080.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1920x1080 50hz (1080P) with monitor provided EDID information. (1080p 50hz-edid)
# setenv videoconfig "video=HDMI-A-1:1920x1080@50"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1920x1080 50hz (1080P) without monitor data using generic information (1080p 50hz-noedid)
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1920x1080_50hz.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1680x1050 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1680x1050.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1600x1200 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1600x1200.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1600x900 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1600x900.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1440x900 with monitor provided EDID information.
# setenv videoconfig "video=HDMI-A-1:1440x900@60"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1440x900 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1440x900.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1366x768 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1366x768.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1360x768 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1360x768.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1280x1024 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1280x1024.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1280x720 (720P) with monitor provided EDID information. (720p-edid)
# setenv videoconfig "video=HDMI-A-1:1280x720@60"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1280x720 (720P) without monitor data using generic information (720p-noedid)
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1280x720.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1024x768 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1024x768.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 1024x600 without monitor data using generic information (ODROID VU7+)
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/1024x600.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 800x600 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/800x600.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 800x480 without monitor data using generic information (ODROID 7")
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/800x480.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 720x576 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/720x576.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 720x480 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/720x480.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 640x480 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/640x480.bin"
# -----------------------------------------------
# 480x800 without monitor data using generic information
# setenv videoconfig "drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=edid/480x800.bin"

# --- HDMI / DVI Mode Selection ---
# ------------------------------------------
# - HDMI Mode
setenv vout "hdmi"
# - DVI Mode (disables sound over HDMI as per DVI compat)
# setenv vout "dvi"

# --- HDMI CEC Configuration ---
# ------------------------------------------
setenv cecenable "false" # false or true
# set to true to enable HDMI CEC

# Enable/Disable ODROID-VU7 Touchsreen
setenv disable_vu7 "true" # false

# CPU Governor Selection
# Available governos: conservative, userspace, powersave, ondemand, performance, schedutil
setenv governor "performance"

# External watchdog board enable
setenv external_watchdog "false"
# debounce time set to 3 ~ 10 sec, default 3 sec
setenv external_watchdog_debounce "3"


#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# HDMI Hot Plug detection
#
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#
# Forces the HDMI subsystem to ignore the check if the cable is connected or
# not.
# false : disable the detection and force it as connected.
# true : let cable, board and monitor decide the connection status.
#
# default: true
#
#------------------------------------------------------------------------------
setenv HPD "true"

setenv hdmi_phy_control "HPD=${HPD} vout=${vout}"

# Load kernel, initrd and dtb in that sequence
fatload mmc 0:1 0x40008000 kernel-genkernel-arm-4.9.34
fatload mmc 0:1 0x42000000 uInitrd
if test "${board_name}" = "xu4"; then fatload mmc 0:1 0x44000000 exynos5422-odroidxu4.dtb; setenv fdtloaded "true"; fi
if test "${board_name}" = "xu3"; then fatload mmc 0:1 0x44000000 exynos5422-odroidxu3.dtb; setenv fdtloaded "true"; fi
if test "${board_name}" = "xu3l"; then fatload mmc 0:1 0x44000000 exynos5422-odroidxu3-lite.dtb; setenv fdtloaded "true"; fi
#failsafe
if test "${fdtloaded}" != "true"; then fatload mmc 0:1 0x44000000 exynos5422-odroidxu4.dtb; fi

fdt addr 0x44000000

if test "${cecenable}" = "false"; then fdt rm /cec@101B0000; fi
if test "${disable_vu7}" = "false"; then setenv hid_quirks "usbhid.quirks=0x0eef:0x0005:0x0004"; fi
if test "${external_watchdog}" = "true"; then setenv external_watchdog "external_watchdog=${external_watchdog} external_watchdog_debounce=${external_watchdog_debounce}"; fi

# final boot args
setenv bootargs "${bootrootfs} ${videoconfig} ${hdmi_phy_control} ${hud_quirks} smsc95xx.macaddr=${macaddr} ${external_watchdog} governor=${governor}"

# Boot the board
bootz 0x40008000 0x42000000 0x44000000

Set a root password

root #passwd

Reboot

Boot the new kernel and into the new Gentoo environment and that’s it! You should be able to boot without problem! Welcome to Gentoo on the Odroid-XU4!

Extras

X11

Willing for a graphical environment, X11 is a classical - although there is a pretty interesting article in a recent Odroid Magazine about Wayland - so there is the need for the specific driver. Emerge eselect-repository and add the hossie overlay:

root #emerge -vD --quiet-build eselect-repository && emerge --sync && eselect repository enable hossie

Emerge the exynos armsoc X11 driver:

root #emerge -vuDN --quiet-build x11-drivers/xf86-video-armsoc

Emerge all xorg/X11 stuff according to the usual Gentoo_Handbook

The original Ubuntu image has a "xorg.conf" configuration file and "xorg.conf.d" directory for extra configurations in /etc/X11, that has already both been copied to Gentoo in an earlier step. Then, it should be possible to get a graphical desktop like fluxbox or WindowMaker, for instance.

EGL/GLES/OpenCL MALI drivers

Usually the latest working driver is located here: 5422_mali

Or from the odroid debian package: mali-fbdev

unmask the opencl use flag

Tentative to create an ebuild should be based on : New eselect-opengl design

Create a non-root user

Handbook:AMD64/Installation/Finalizing

Networking

Networking hasn’t been declared yet, please verify the interfaces have been detected before the below commands are executed

root #

cd /etc/init.d

root #

ln -s net.lo net.eth0

root #

rc-update add net.eth0 default

SSH for remote access

Adding SSHD as a default service

root #rc-update add sshd default

If on a switch it’s necessary to declare a static ip

root #

cd /etc/conf.d

root #

nano net

Name server

Since everything is being define manually, resolv.conf must have a nameserver in it:

root #

cd /etc

root #

nano resolv.conf

root #

nameserver 8.8.8.8

Start installing all necessary software that you need!

Fan/temperature control

Gentoo puts all of the temperature monitors in the /sys/devices/virtual/thermal/ directory. In order to change the fan settings you must modify the .dtb, these are located in /usr/src/linux/arch/arm/boot/dts.

One can modify the exynos5422-odroidxu4.dts easily, however notice that exynos5422-odroidxu3-common.dtsi is included, here is where one portion of the fan control:

CODE

fan0: pwm-fan {
    compatible = "pwm-fan";
    pwms = <&pwm 0 20972 0>;
    cooling-min-state = <0>;
    cooling-max-state = <3>;
    #cooling-cells = <2>;
    cooling-levels = <255 255 255 255>;
};

Where 255 = 100%

To change the CPU states modify the exynos5422-cpu-thermal.dtsi file

Note
It might be worth experimenting with march=native rather than pre-defined as it is currently, but if the use case for the xu4 is distcc this will cause problems.

The current guide uses the stock initrd, using genkernel to generate a new initrd has not been tested.

References

↑ Hardkernel Git repositories, GitHub. Retrieved on November 2nd, 2022
↑ Odroid XU4 partition table, Odroid wiki. Retrieved on November 3rd, 2022
↑ Linux kernel 5.4 build guide, Odroid wiki. Retrieved on November 4th, 2022
↑ Odroid XU4 platform files, Odroid wiki. Retrieved on November 4th, 2022

[1] Hardkernel Git repositories, GitHub. Retrieved on November 2nd, 2022

[2] Odroid XU4 partition table, Odroid wiki. Retrieved on November 3rd, 2022

[3] Linux kernel 5.4 build guide, Odroid wiki. Retrieved on November 4th, 2022

[4] Odroid XU4 platform files, Odroid wiki. Retrieved on November 4th, 2022

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Hardkernel ODROID-XU4

Contents

Hardware

Standard

Installation

Cross-compiling from a Gentoo machine

ARM toolchain

Bootloader installation

Partitioning

Kernel installation

Bootloader configuration

Stage3 installation

System cross-configuration

First boot

Onboard configuration

Installation from an already bootable Linux distribution

Partitioning

Formatting the partitions

Boot the current distro

Get the appropriate stage3

Extract stage3

Copy X11 configuration files

chroot to the new environment

Get a Portage snapshot

Set up make.conf

Update the system

Build the kernel

Set up the boot loader

Set a root password

Reboot

Extras

X11

EGL/GLES/OpenCL MALI drivers

Create a non-root user

Networking

SSH for remote access

Name server

Fan/temperature control

See also

References