NixOS on ARM/PINE A64-LTS: Difference between revisions

Line 55:

* Using the upstream kernel at 4.15, neither ethernet seems to have troubles. The interface is detected but seems to not work right.

* HDMI support is untested.

== SPI NOR flash ==

The Pine A64-LTS is equipe with a 4MB SPI NOR flash chip. The CPU will read the bootloader from it, after trying the SD card and the eMMC.

Flashing u-boot to the SPI NOR flash will allow booting the <code>sd-image-aarch64.img</code> based images without further manipulating the image or the boot device (e.g. without embedding u-boot to the usb drive). It may also allow booting UEFI compliant AArch64 images, though this is unverified.

The author did not find ways to flash the NOR flash from a running Linux system using the mainline kernel.

=== Flashing from FEL ===

The easiest method to trigger [http://linux-sunxi.org/FEL FEL mode] is to not have previously flashed the SPI NOR flash with a valid bootloader, and to remove all storage devices used to boot. The Pine A64-LTS will fallback to FEL mode.

To connect the Pine A64-LTS to the computer in FEL mode, you will need a USB A-to-A (male to male) cable, and plug to the uppser USB receptacle<ref>http://linux-sunxi.org/Pine64#FEL_mode</ref>

Once started in FEL mode, the computer should see the following device.

<pre>

Bus ___ Device ___: ID 1f3a:efe8 Onda (unverified) V972 tablet in flashing mode

</pre>

It is, then, possible to use <code>sunxi-fel</code> from <code>sunxi-tools</code> to flash the a bootloader to the SPI NOR flash.

{{note|As of 2018-11-24, the <code>sunxi-tools</code> package is not up-to-date enough, and does not have the required <code>spiflash-write</code> sub-command.}}

<pre>

$ nix-shell -p sunxi-tools

[nix-shell:~]$ sudo sunxi-fel -l

USB device ___:___ Allwinner A64 ________:________:________:________

[nix-shell:~]$ sudo sunxi-fel -p spiflash-write 0 u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin

100% [================================================] 575 kB, 96.9 kB/s

</pre>

Once complete, unplug the power from the Pine A64-LTS, unplug the Pine A64-LTS from the host computer, and try booting without storage devices, but either serial or HDMI. When successful, u-boot will start, and eventually try to network boot.

{{note|Once a valid bootloader is on the SPI NOR flash, FEL mode will not be entered automatically. [http://linux-sunxi.org/FEL Follow instructions of the FEL page of the linux-sunxi wiki] for alternative ways to enter FEL mode.}}

== Flashing from u-boot ==

It is possible, through using a u-boot bootloader built from the u-boot-sunxi tree, to write to the SPI NOR flash. The [https://github.com/ayufan-pine64/bootloader-build ayufan-pine64/bootloader-build] has such a build. Using the released <code>.img</code> files, it is possible to write their custom build or erase their custom build. From their custom build, it is possible to write to the SPI NOR flash using the <code>sf</code> command<ref>https://github.com/ayufan-pine64/bootloader-build/blob/d7e891cbee8a559ea50cf25ee18aa9d7b4ea9d58/blobs/flash-spi.cmd#L11-L13</ref>.

<pre>

# Detect the SPI NOR flash

=> sf probe

SF: Detected w25q128bv with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 4 KiB, total 16 MiB

# Sanity checks

=> ls mmc 0:1

558296 u-boot.bin

1 file(s), 0 dir(s)

# Loading the bootloader from an SD card

=> load mmc 0:1 ${kernel_addr_r} /u-boot.bin

reading /u-boot.bin

558296 bytes read in 79 ms (6.7 MiB/s)

# Erasing the SPI NOR flash

=> sf erase 0 3e8000

SF: 4096000 bytes @ 0x0 Erased: OK

# Writing to the SPI NOR flash

=> sf write ${kernel_addr_r} 0 3e8000

device 0 offset 0x0, size 0x3e8000

SF: 4096000 bytes @ 0x0 Written: OK

</pre>

== Resources ==

@@ Line 55: / Line 55: @@
 * Using the upstream kernel at 4.15, neither ethernet seems to have troubles. The interface is detected but seems to not work right.
 * HDMI support is untested.
+== SPI NOR flash ==
+The Pine A64-LTS is equipe with a 4MB SPI NOR flash chip. The CPU will read the bootloader from it, after trying the SD card and the eMMC.
+Flashing u-boot to the SPI NOR flash will allow booting the <code>sd-image-aarch64.img</code> based images without further manipulating the image or the boot device (e.g. without embedding u-boot to the usb drive). It may also allow booting UEFI compliant AArch64 images, though this is unverified.
+The author did not find ways to flash the NOR flash from a running Linux system using the mainline kernel.
+=== Flashing from FEL ===
+The easiest method to trigger [http://linux-sunxi.org/FEL FEL mode] is to not have previously flashed the SPI NOR flash with a valid bootloader, and to remove all storage devices used to boot. The Pine A64-LTS will fallback to FEL mode.
+To connect the Pine A64-LTS to the computer in FEL mode, you will need a USB A-to-A (male to male) cable, and plug to the uppser USB receptacle<ref>http://linux-sunxi.org/Pine64#FEL_mode</ref>
+Once started in FEL mode, the computer should see the following device.
+<pre>
+Bus ___ Device ___: ID 1f3a:efe8 Onda (unverified) V972 tablet in flashing mode
+</pre>
+It is, then, possible to use <code>sunxi-fel</code> from <code>sunxi-tools</code> to flash the a bootloader to the SPI NOR flash.
+{{note|As of 2018-11-24, the <code>sunxi-tools</code> package is not up-to-date enough, and does not have the required <code>spiflash-write</code> sub-command.}}
+<pre>
+$ nix-shell -p sunxi-tools
+[nix-shell:~]$ sudo sunxi-fel -l
+USB device ___:___   Allwinner A64     ________:________:________:________
+[nix-shell:~]$ sudo sunxi-fel -p spiflash-write 0 u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin
+% [================================================]   575 kB,   96.9 kB/s
+</pre>
+Once complete, unplug the power from the Pine A64-LTS, unplug the Pine A64-LTS from the host computer, and try booting without storage devices, but either serial or HDMI. When successful, u-boot will start, and eventually try to network boot.
+{{note|Once a valid bootloader is on the SPI NOR flash, FEL mode will not be entered automatically. [http://linux-sunxi.org/FEL Follow instructions of the FEL page of the linux-sunxi wiki] for alternative ways to enter FEL mode.}}
+== Flashing from u-boot ==
+It is possible, through using a u-boot bootloader built from the u-boot-sunxi tree, to write to the SPI NOR flash. The [https://github.com/ayufan-pine64/bootloader-build ayufan-pine64/bootloader-build] has such a build. Using the released <code>.img</code> files, it is possible to write their custom build or erase their custom build. From their custom build, it is possible to write to the SPI NOR flash using the <code>sf</code> command<ref>https://github.com/ayufan-pine64/bootloader-build/blob/d7e891cbee8a559ea50cf25ee18aa9d7b4ea9d58/blobs/flash-spi.cmd#L11-L13</ref>.
+<pre>
+# Detect the SPI NOR flash
+=> sf probe
+SF: Detected w25q128bv with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 4 KiB, total 16 MiB
+# Sanity checks
+=> ls mmc 0:1
+   u-boot.bin
+file(s), 0 dir(s)
+# Loading the bootloader from an SD card
+=> load mmc 0:1 ${kernel_addr_r} /u-boot.bin
+reading /u-boot.bin
+bytes read in 79 ms (6.7 MiB/s)
+# Erasing the SPI NOR flash
+=> sf erase 0 3e8000
+SF: 4096000 bytes @ 0x0 Erased: OK
+# Writing to the SPI NOR flash
+=> sf write ${kernel_addr_r} 0 3e8000
+device 0 offset 0x0, size 0x3e8000
+SF: 4096000 bytes @ 0x0 Written: OK
+</pre>
 == Resources ==