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
I have gone through all these steps recently and got a working board with my favorite Arch Linux ARM. I hope it will be helpful for someone else.
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=8Run fdisk to partition the SD card:
sudo fdisk /dev/sdXAt the fdisk prompt, delete old partitions and create a new one:
- Type
o. This will clear out any partitions on the drive. - Type
pto list partitions. There should be no partitions left. - Now type
n, thenpfor primary,1for the first partition on the drive,2048for 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/sdX1Mount the filesystem:
sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /mntDownload 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
syncInstall uboot-tools. In ArchLinux:
sudo pacman -S uboot-toolsCreate boot.txt file in /boot dir.
cd /mnt/boot
nano boot.txtPaste 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.scrUnmount your SD card:
sudo umount /mnt
cd /tmpClone 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-bootInstall the cross compiler for ARM EABI (in Arch Linux):
sudo pacman -S arm-none-eabi-gccCompile 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
makeFlash it to the device:
sudo dd if=u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/dev/sdX bs=1024 seek=8Insert 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:
su
# Type in the password: root (by default)
pacman-key --init
pacman-key --populate archlinuxarmAnd so on and so forth:
pacman -S sudo
visudo
This is awesome, thanks so much for this. Might want to grab the kernel headers for the orange pi (5) from aur as well.
With u-boot, you can clone just what you need using this:
git clone --depth 1 --branch v2023.04 https://github.com/u-boot/u-bootYou'll save ~200mb download.
When doing the u-boot step, I get this error though:
How do we go about adding these steps to the archlinuxarm.org website? The wiki page has similar steps for other boards such as the Raspberry Pi 4 (https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/broadcom/raspberry-pi-4).
I'll reach out on IRC to see if we can get a wiki page added.