2013-11-15



Further work on the Cubietruck.

Three days ago, a new version of Cubian came out.  [0]  Now  that
the Cubietruck is available, versions that support it are soon to
expect.  The new version  is  said  to  run  on  the  Cubietruck,
although without ethernetworking. I'm not sure how this is an im-
provement to the situation already possible with the r3 version.

Not satisfied without networking, I've searched for more informa-
tion  on  how  to get it running. It must be possible because the
Lubuntu version supports it. (I prefer to wait or  do  it  myself
instead of simply installing an Ubuntu system. That's a fundamen-
tal decision.)

In the Cubieforums, I found this thread:  [1] It says, I'd need a
new  kernel. (Sadly, ikaruzz doesn't share his Kernel. He excuses
it with: ``There are other people in this forum, who  can  do  it
better.  I am not a developer!'' I'd rather use a bad kernel that
I have than a better kernel  that  I  don't  have  ...   I  am  a
developer  but  have  few  experiences in this field. Most of the
stuff is searching for information, good guessing and  trial  and
error.)

Actually, I'm not really sure anymore how I actually  managed  to
get it working.

First, I tried to crosscompile a kernel myself.  I  followed  [2]
with inspiration  from  [3]  and  [4]  and  with  the  background
knowledge of [5] about cross-compilation.  Transferring  the  new
kernel  was  of  now  help. It must have been the firmware or the
modules ...

I assumed and still assume that I don't need to care for  the  u-
boot bootloader. There is one installed. If I don't destroy it, I
probably can simply take it for granted.

My second try was inspired by the Lubuntu installation  tutorial.
[6] IIRC, I started with the Cubian A20r4  image.   Then  I  took
files in the Lubuntu bootfs to replace the ones of the image:

     cd /sd/boot
     cp ..../bootfs/* .
     bin2fex script.bin >script.fex
     vi script.fex  # set screen0_output_type to 4
     fex2bin script.fex >script.bin

Then, this time, I copied all modules and firmware:

     cd /sd
     cp -a ..../rootfs/linaro/lib/modules/3.4.61+/ lib/modules/
     cp -a ..../rootfs/linaro/lib/firmware/* lib/firmware/

This system booted without problems, IIRC.

The wifi interface started to work when  I  loaded  the  `bcmdhd'
module.  The  ethernet  interface  worked  with  the `sunxi_gmac'
modules. Now, I do have LAN and WLAN networking.  Yay!   To  load
the modules permanently, add them to /etc/modules.  [7]

The thing I'm still missing is access to the full 2G of RAM. Only
1G  is  recognized.  Don't  know what the problem is, but since I
currently use only 250M, I don't care too much now.

Now, the system is fully usable. Great!

I am very happy with the amount of documentation that  is  avail-
able for the Cubieboards.  [8] [9] [10]


I started to install the usual set of packages,  including  an  X
server  because I want to use the machine as an interactive desk-
top machine.


Because I always need to look it up again, here for  the  record.
To adjust the keyboard on Debian, edit /etc/default/keyboard:

     XKBMODEL="pc105"
     XKBLAYOUT="de"
     XKBVARIANT="nodeadkeys"
     XKBOPTIONS="caps:escape"
     BACKSPACE="guess"

To adjust the console font on Debian, edit  /etc/default/console-
setup:

     ACTIVE_CONSOLES="/dev/tty[1-6]"
     CHARMAP="UTF-8"
     CODESET="guess"
     FONTFACE="Terminus"
     # you need the package `kbd' for this font size
     FONTSIZE="12x24"
     VIDEOMODE=

Then run `/etc/init.d/console-setup restart'.

To set the timezone: `dpkg-reconfigure tzdata'.



Apt's default install-recommends considered harmful.  To  disable
this default behavior, add this to /etc/apt/apt.conf:

     APT::Install-Recommends "0";
     APT::Install-Suggests "0";

[0]  http://cubian.org/2013/11/12/cubian-r7-for-a10-and-r4-for-
a20-released/
[1]  http://www.cubieforums.com/index.php?topic=977.0
[2]  http://docs.cubieboard.org/tutorials/ct1/installation/cb3_lubuntu-
12.10-desktop_nand_installation_v1.00#changing_kernel
[3]  http://docs.cubieboard.org/tutorials/ct1/development/compiling_latest_kernel_for_cubietruck_cubieboard3
[4]  http://linux-sunxi.org/FirstSteps#Building_the_kernel
[5]  http://gsoc.sitedethib.com/posts/apt-get_install_gcc-4.7-
arm-linux-gnueabihf/
[6]  http://docs.cubieboard.org/tutorials/ct1/installation/install_lubuntu_desktop_server_to_sd_card
[7]  https://wiki.debian.org/Modules#Automatic_loading_of_modules
[8]  http://linux-sunxi.org
[9]  http://docs.cubieboard.org
[10] http://cubieforums.com


http://marmaro.de/lue/        markus schnalke <meillo@marmaro.de>