dudewheresmycode/Debian-on-Beelink-U57.md

## Debian-on-Beelink-U57.md

      
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              Debian-on-Beelink-U57.md
            
          
    Some notes on getting Debian 10 (stable) installed and running on the Beelink U57 Mini PC with Intel Core i5-5257u Processor.
Install Debian
Create a bootable USB Flash drive of the Debian 10 netinst ISO using Etcher.

Download ISO from Debian: https://www.debian.org/distrib/netinst
Flash to SD Card using Balena Etcher https://www.balena.io/etcher/
Connect ethernet cable to Beelink


Note: The firmware needed to use the Beelink's onboard Intel Wifi is proprietary, and is not included with the default install of Debian. If you don't have the option of a wired LAN connection you can use an "unofficial" Debian CD image, that includes the proprietary (non-free) firmware. (https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/) See the below section on installing the firmware later on.


Immediately after startup press the Del key to enter the BIOS.
Select the flash drive as the boot disk.
Install Debian

MMC0 Error
After booting into the fresh install, I was getting errors output to screen relating to MMC/SDHC. This is due to an issue with the kernel drivers and the SD Card reader built into the Beelink.
[  196.315177] mmc0: Timeout waiting for hardware cmd interrupt.
[  196.319708] mmc0: sdhci: ============ SDHCI REGISTER DUMP ===========
[  196.324254] mmc0: sdhci: Sys addr:  0x00000000 | Version:  0x0000a402
[  196.328819] mmc0: sdhci: Blk size:  0x00000000 | Blk cnt:  0x00000000
[  196.333387] mmc0: sdhci: Argument:  0x00000000 | Trn mode: 0x00000000
[  196.337946] mmc0: sdhci: Present:   0x01ff0001 | Host ctl: 0x00000001
[  196.342488] mmc0: sdhci: Power:     0x0000000f | Blk gap:  0x00000000
[  196.347106] mmc0: sdhci: Wake-up:   0x00000000 | Clock:    0x0000a707
[  196.351659] mmc0: sdhci: Timeout:   0x00000000 | Int stat: 0x00018000
[  196.356198] mmc0: sdhci: Int enab:  0x00ff0003 | Sig enab: 0x00ff0003
[  196.360735] mmc0: sdhci: AC12 err:  0x00000000 | Slot int: 0x00000001
[  196.365272] mmc0: sdhci: Caps:      0x67ea64b2 | Caps_1:   0x00000000
[  196.369809] mmc0: sdhci: Cmd:       0x00000502 | Max curr: 0x00000001
[  196.374378] mmc0: sdhci: Resp[0]:   0x00000000 | Resp[1]:  0x00000000
[  196.378934] mmc0: sdhci: Resp[2]:   0x00000000 | Resp[3]:  0x00000000
[  196.383456] mmc0: sdhci: Host ctl2: 0x00000000
[  196.387955] mmc0: sdhci: ============================================


Source: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1151761/ubuntu-mmc0-timeout-waiting-for-hardware-cmd-interrupt-error-no-sd-card

I got around this by blacklisting the related kernel modules. Create the following files and add blacklist MODULE_NAME to each.
~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/mmc_core.conf
blacklist mmc_core

~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/rtsx_usb_sdmmc.conf
blacklist rtsx_usb_sdmmc

~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/sdhci_acpi.conf
blacklist sdhci_acpi

~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/sdhci.conf
blacklist sdhci

These files are stored in memory. So you have update the ramfs with the following:
sudo update-initramfs -u

Then reboot and the mmc0 error messages should subside.
Intel Wifi
The Beelink appears to have Intel based wireless chipset. The firmware for it is in the non-free apt repository. You can do this by adding contrib and non-free to the end of each line that ends in main in /etc/apt/sources.list.
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

...
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
...

Run an sudo apt update after saving your changes.
Then you can install the firmware:
sudo apt install firmware-iwlwifi