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armbian_on_the_orange_pi

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Armbian on the Orange Pi

Armbian is a Debian based distribution for Arm based computers and runs with a sunxi kernel
Documentation. Quick start

Jammy is Ubuntu, Bullseye is Debian.
Minimal CLI images come without armbian-config, armbian-zsh, build-essentials, Python, DKMS, and more

Information:

cat /etc/os-release
cat /etc/armbian-release

Armbian Image

For version: Armbian_23.5.6_Orangepione_bookworm_current_6.1.39_minimal.img

First impression: Runs out of the box.

Version

Board: Orange Pi one v 1.1
Debian: Armbian_23.02.2_Orangepione_bullseye_current_5.15.93_minimal.img.xz
Download: https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-one md5sum: Not available
Board: Orange Pi PC v 1.3
Debian: Armbian_5.20_Orangepipc_Debian_jessie_3.4.112_desktop.img
Download: https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-pc md5sum: Not available

LED's

The green led is the ‘power on’ indicator. Blinking means ready to login or shutting down
The red led can be used for your own purpose

Preparations

  1. Open a terminal and become root
    1. Install F3 (Fraud checker)
      1. Download to /tmp and Make the executables
        1. cd /opt
        2. unzip f3-master.zip
        3. cd f3-master
        4. make
    2. Alternative start up a Windows computer.
      1. This can be a Window 7 or newer version of Windows.
      2. XP is not tested.
      3. Download Validrive. No install needed
  2. On the Linux computer
    1. Install Balena Etcher if you want a graphical user interface instead of dd on the command line
      1. On the Balena Etcher releases page scroll down till the “latest” release and download the .deb file (about 86MB!)
      2. Run, as root, dpkg -i balena-etcher_*..*_amd64.deb (Replace the “*”'s with the actual numbers)
      3. Make sure that /opt/balenaEtcher/chrome-sandbox is owned by root and has mode 4755
        1. As root do: chmod 4755 /opt/balenaEtcher/chrome-sandbox

Preparing and flashing the SD card

  1. Read How To
  2. Insert the SD card in a card reader and connect that to an USB port
  3. Check if the SD card is not a fraud, if it has the specified capacity, with
    1. Validrive on a Windows computer or
      1. Read the F3 - Fight Flash Fraud page
      2. Run as root: /opt/f3-master/f3write -p 1 /media/user/hash/
      3. Run as root: /opt/f3-master/f3read -p 1 /media/user/hash/
  4. On a Windows computer: Download and then reset the SD card back to ‘factory default’ performance with SD Memory Card Formatter for Windows / Mac before burning Armbian to it
  5. On the Linux computer install the image using dd
    1. dd method
    2. or the GUI based Balena Etcher
      1. Start Balena-etcher
        1. Flash the SD card

armbian-config

is a bash script. It takes up a lot of space after being ran and is not really needed. So, if you can do without do without it

Files are

  • /usr/sbin/armbian-*
  • /usr/lib/armbian-config/*

Booting up

  1. Insert the SD card in the Orange Pi
  2. Connect and power up the Orange Pi
  3. Set up root and a user, follow the instructions
  4. As root run
    1. apt-get update && apt-get install aptitude
    2. With aptitude install
      1. ssh
      2. nftables
      3. tmux
      4. vim
      5. If you need it: armbian-config. Read the following section first
    3. Run as root armbian-config
      1. System settings menu: Firmware: Update the firmware. This is not needed since, after checking in the armbian-config script is seems to be a regular apt-get update && apt-get upgrade or in aptitude a u U g g command sequence
      2. Network menu: IPV6: Turn IPv6 of if not needed
        1. This IPv6 toggle script may also be used in stead of installing armbian-config
        2. For the IPv6 toggle PATH might not be right. If so, run source /etc/profile
      3. Software menu: Firmware: If needed because you use wireless install full firmware package: armbian-firmware-full.
        1. Otherwise take no action and thereby leave armbian-firmware installed
          1. armbian-firmware (9,6 MB) and armbian-firmware-full (284 MB) can also be uninstalled and installed via aptitude
          2. When installed armbian-firmware-full and you want to go back to armbian-firmware there is a bug in armbian-config. Check in aptitude and /var/log/dpkg.log and /var/log/aptitude.log to determine what is installed. With aptitude uninstall armbian-firmware-full and install armbian-firmware. This frees up almost 1 GB of hard disk space. See observation

Observation

Before installation of armbian-firmware-full via armbian-config (Software menu)

System load:   2%           	Up time:       2 days 20:16	Local users:   6            	
Memory usage:  16% of 491M   	IP:	       192.168.0.4
CPU temp:      48°C          	Usage of /:    8% of 15G    	

After installation of armbian-firmware-full via armbian-config and subsequent removal and installation of Mini (armbian-firmware) via armbian-config (Software menu)

System load:   2%           	Up time:       20 min	
Memory usage:  13% of 491M   	IP:	       192.168.0.4
CPU temp:      48°C          	Usage of /:    10% of 15G

These should be the same. However, Local users: are missing and 10% in stead of 8% of hard disk space is used
Solution: Do: rm /var/cache/apt/archives/armbian-firmware-full_23.02.2_all.deb. After this command: Usage of /: 8% of 15G (back to 8%)

Additional actions

To make /etc/update-motd.d/30-armbian-sysinfo shown at every login put it in .bashrc

Upgrading

Upgrading to a newer release. Freeze the firmware packages (if not frozen already)

For safety it is a good idea to take an other SD card and install the new version on it. That way the new firmware can be tested without the risk of breaking the operational system

Assumed is the Stable branch is installed

  • Open a terminal
  • cd /tmp
  • apt-get download --download-only armbian-config
  • ar x armbian-config_23.11.1_all.deb (replace the version numbers with the actual ones)
  • tar xf control.tar.xz
  • tar xf data.tar.xz
  • grep usr/lib/armbian-config/PACKAGE_LIST+= jobs.sh | cut -d ' ' -f 2
  • lsb_release -sc && cat /etc/armbian-release Shows the DISTROID and other variables mentioned in the previous command. BUILD=stable. This is the same as IMAGE_TYPE
  • Login as root (in a new terminal)
  • aptitude
    • Put on hold the applicable found packages from the grep command with the = key
    • For example, BOARD=orangepione: armbian-bsp-cli-${BOARD} armbian-bsp-cli-${BOARD}-current armbian-firmware linux-dtb-current-sunxi linux-image-current-sunxi linux-u-boot-${BOARD}-current
  • Continue on the Debian upgrade page
  • When the firmware packages can be unhold? See below for a general idea. For the other part: work in progress
  • P.M. Check if any of the listed packages are installed and if so set them to the hold status with the : key

Firmware packages on hold

Freezing or putting on hold the firmware packages can be necessary to prevent them from being automatically updated. This is often done to maintain stability and compatibility with the specific hardware and software configuration. Firmware updates can sometimes introduce new bugs or compatibility issues, so by freezing the firmware packages, you can ensure that the system remains in a known, stable state. This is particularly important in embedded systems and devices where reliability is crucial.

When to unhold them?

The firmware packages can be unhold when you are ready to update them to newer versions. This could be when you have thoroughly tested the new firmware versions and ensured that they work well with your specific hardware and software setup. It's important to unhold them only when you are confident that the new firmware updates will not introduce any issues or instability to your system.

Some packages

PackageFunctionRemark
armbian-bsp-cli-orangepione
armbian-bsp-cli-orangepione-current
armbian-firmware
armbian-plymouth-theme
linux-dtb-current-sunxi
linux-image-current-sunxi
linux-u-boot-orangepione-current
Sunxi-tools

Packages to be removed

Packages which might not be needed and can be removed
Remove at your own risk

  • cracklib-runtime
  • libcrack2

Zram

Zram

Adding Zram

More info? Search for “zram “orange pi””

Issues on Jessie

No cursor on a HDMI monitor

For a possible solution see fbcon cursor on the Odroid forum. What to do:

infocmp >> terminfo.txt
sed -i.bak -e 's/?0c/?112c/g' -e 's/?8c/?48;0;64c/g' terminfo.txt
tic terminfo.txt
tput cnorm

Repeat tput cnorm every time after you have logged in

CPU temperature

The CPU can get hot
We saw a temperature of 44°C at an ambient temperature of 19°C which is normal. With higher ambient temperatures and or heavier load a higher temperature can be reached. Others saw 60°C
The temperature is measured. There are two sensors. To show the values do

cat /sys/devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone?/temp

or with one value output

cat /etc/armbianmonitor/datasources/soctemp

There is also a new tool coming: Testers wanted h3consumption to be included into future armbian releases

Ethernet interface debugging

Raw data

ifconig does only show the local, lo, interace. As root

kill networkmanagerPID
networkmanager
ifconfig eth0 up
ifconfig eth0

Now we get eth0 info with NO IP address assinged

less /etc/network/interfaces

redirects to the directory

/etc/network/interfaces.d

which is empty. Added

# The primary network interface
# ### allow-hotplug eth0
# NetworkManager
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

to

/etc/network/interfaces

No IP. Going for a fixed IP. Added to /etc/network/interfaces

# Manual
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.100
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

Reading Received Your Orange Pi One Board? You’ll Need to Tweak Your FEX File / script.bin which leads to [WiP / Orange Pi One] Support for the upcoming Orange Pi One?. There we need to

http://kaiser-edv.de/tmp/4U4tkD/kernel_5.02_h3_unified.tgz

but the website does not respond.

Other issues encounterd

  • On boot and later: [cpu_freq] ERR:set cpu frequency to 1200MHz failed!
  • souces.list does not seem to be up to date. Error finding the hosts
  • Does not run on a 1280*1024 monitor via a HDMI to DVI cable on which a Raspberry Pi runs fine after making changes to config.txt

Hardware Allwinner H3


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armbian_on_the_orange_pi.txt · Last modified: 14-02-2024 21:47 by wim