[SOLVED] Banana Pi R1 Board - confused about SDcard bulding instructions

user9898 · 2021-07-14 08:06:23

Hello community,

I want to use Devuan on my Banana Pi1 R1 board and the instruction for the sdcard write process are confusing me a bit.

Here are my questions:
1. Which image do I need to use ?
Do I need to use the u-boot image ?

2. Once I extracted both files, in which order do I need to write both files to my sdcard ?

thx for all answers,

user9898

tuxd3v · 2021-07-16 00:49:00

user9898 wrote:

1. Which image do I need to use ?
Do I need to use the u-boot image ?
2. Once I extracted both files, in which order do I need to write both files to my sdcard ?

hello user9898,
Welcome to Devuan.

1) You need to get 2 files from http://deb.devuan.org/devuan/dists/beow … rd-images/ :
firmware.Lamobo_R1.img.gz
partition.img.gz

2) No, dont extract them separately just follow the section 'NETBOOT IMAGE CREATION' on http://arm-files.devuan.org/README.txt:
After you downloaded those files, you will create the final image following this command, in the order bellow:
zcat firmware.Lamobo_R1.img.gz partition.img.gz > Lamobo_R1.img

then, you have a final Image ready to be flashed to a sdcard( Lamobo_R1.img )

To flash this final image to sdcard, you just need todo:
Verify what disk is your sdcard carefully, and then,
sudo dd if=PATH_TO/Lamobo_R1.img of=/dev/sd_card conv=sync

And that's it, you have a sdcard image, it already has uboot and all the necessary stuff in it
just put it on your device, and power it up

ho, check the section 'NETBOOT INSTALLATION', on the README.txt..
The better way to install it, is doing it via a usb/serial daptor, using lets say picocom for the serial connection..
but you can also try to load attach a keyboard/mouse and connect hdmi to display..

try what is the best option for you..

Let us now how it went

user9898 · 2021-07-31 12:28:13

Hello and sorry for my late reply.

I had to ask for someone to tell what the 'zcat' tool was for.
From there one on it all went smooth.
Devuan is now running fine on my R1 Board.
Thx for the help.
user9898

chris2be8 · 2021-07-31 16:16:47

user9898 wrote:

I had to ask for someone to tell what the 'zcat' tool was for.

The best bit of advice for Linux users is to read the man page for any command you are not sure about. Just typing man zcat would tell you everything you are likely to need to know (although that man page also covers gzip and gunzip so is a bit wordy).

Just get into the habit of reading man pages and you will learn a lot.

Chris

yeti · 2021-08-01 15:53:57

user9898 wrote:

From there one on it all went smooth.

Keyboard and display worked as expected?
Or did you need to attach a LVTTL-USB-UART?

user9898 · 2021-08-04 08:11:30

I used a USB FTTDI interface and TeraTerm.
I also could have used Linux and Minicom, but the other was just simpler for me.

Maybe I should use this oppotunity to add another question below my previous post.

After I got the 'beowulf' working I discovered some information about the next release eg 'chimaera'
I than rewrote the source.list file by replacing every every line where it said 'beowolf' with 'chimaera'

and the upgrade went through, however with some minor error's
Last the kernel was upgraded to 5.10
and there where some error msg's about missing drivers.
right now I am stuck in a situation, where the interface eht0 receives a ip address and still can not 'talk' to the rest of the NW.

Right now i am going back and forward if I should rebuilt the SD card or continue to try to fix it.

Last edited by user9898 (2021-08-04 08:17:38)

tuxd3v · 2021-08-04 17:27:59

hello user9898,

You can go from 'beowulf' to 'chimaera' following the process you did..
But you shouldn't update the kernel, since you will lose almost everything..

There are some kernels available, but for them to work, they need to be board specific..

That is one of the motives why installing a kernel is done in manual mode..
So if you don't find a specific kernel for your board, don't update the kernel..

Upgrade just the userspace like you did from 'beowulf' to 'chimaera'..

yeti · 2021-08-04 17:32:03

No (easy) kernel updates?
No go!

user9898 · 2021-08-04 17:58:26

Thx for your answers guys.

If upgrading is too dangerous though, how about doing a clean install with chimaera from scratch ?
I already dug a bit through ftp server's directory's, however without any luck locating a installer for chimaera.

tuxd3v · 2021-08-05 13:48:00

user9898 wrote:

Thx for your answers guys.
If upgrading is too dangerous though, how about doing a clean install with chimaera from scratch ?
I already dug a bit through ftp server's directory's, however without any luck locating a installer for chimaera.

hello user9898,
You can upgrade to chimaera safely

Like you have done..
1) change in '/etc/apt/sources.list' 'beowulf' to 'chimaera'.
2)'apt-get update'
3) 'apt-get dist-upgrade'
afetr that, you are in Chimaera..

The only thing that is not good to update is the kernel,
Because each device is different, and it needed drivers are also different, with also different device trees..

afaik, Installers for Chimaera are not yet ready..
I believe they will appear when Chimaera will be released as stable..

But you can update the userspace without any problems, I also do that sometimes

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#1 2021-07-14 08:06:23

[SOLVED] Banana Pi R1 Board - confused about SDcard bulding instructions

#2 2021-07-16 00:49:00

Re: [SOLVED] Banana Pi R1 Board - confused about SDcard bulding instructions

#3 2021-07-31 12:28:13

Re: [SOLVED] Banana Pi R1 Board - confused about SDcard bulding instructions

#4 2021-07-31 16:16:47

Re: [SOLVED] Banana Pi R1 Board - confused about SDcard bulding instructions

#5 2021-08-01 15:53:57

Re: [SOLVED] Banana Pi R1 Board - confused about SDcard bulding instructions

#6 2021-08-04 08:11:30

Re: [SOLVED] Banana Pi R1 Board - confused about SDcard bulding instructions

#7 2021-08-04 17:27:59

Re: [SOLVED] Banana Pi R1 Board - confused about SDcard bulding instructions

#8 2021-08-04 17:32:03

Re: [SOLVED] Banana Pi R1 Board - confused about SDcard bulding instructions

#9 2021-08-04 17:58:26

Re: [SOLVED] Banana Pi R1 Board - confused about SDcard bulding instructions

#10 2021-08-05 13:48:00

Re: [SOLVED] Banana Pi R1 Board - confused about SDcard bulding instructions

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