NanoPi A64 Ubuntu Xenial Xerus 16.04 LXDE OS Image (firmware)

Update: Kernel version 3.10.105 with Blue Led (heartbeat)

Update 2: Camera with OV5640 activated and working

Update 3: HW decode instructions: https://github.com/avafinger/cedrusH264_vdpau_A64

Update 4: New Image with some fixes and goodies: see here

Update 5: fix for USB EHCI and OHCI plus Jack sound

Update 6: Firmware Image with support for PPP and GSM modems: here

Uodate 7: Kodi on NanoPi A64 (2019): https://github.com/avafinger/nanopi-a64-firmware#kodi-on-nanopi-a64

LXDE (Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment) is a desktop environment which is lightweight and fast and uses less RAM and less CPU while being a feature rich desktop environment.

If you want a richer desktop environment (but slower) you can install Ubuntu MATE on top of this Image and later de-install LXDE.

I use LXDE just because it is very fast, snappy and responsive! You can always improve, tweak and tune the way you want at any time. This is a very LEAN and MEAN OS image to play and learn how to extend it.

We will flash the OS image in a very unusual way and do it manually. Read instructions section on how to flash the image.

THIS IS a WiP

Disclaimer: Use at own risk

This is a LXDE OS image for the NanoPi A64

Install new Image with some fixes/improvement

Compiled with gcc 7.1
Blue Led is now fixed, is wired active low. added: led1_active_low = <0x1>;
No more FAT, we are now able to update/upgrade kernel with linux-image deb package
PPoE support enabled
Built in analog sound (Jack)
Faster boot time
ssh is installed (v2)
PPP and 3G/GSM modem support (Experimental)

Instructions for the new Image: here

Tested on NanoPi A64 board

Camera (OV5640) - status: working
Wifi (rtl8189es) - status: working
HDMI 720P - status: working (a64-2GB.dtb_720P)
HDMI 1080P - status: working (a64-2GB.dtb)
GbE (Gigabit Ethernet) - status: working
Kernel 3.10.104 - status: working
Kernel 3.10.105 - status: working
Leds (Blue) - status: working - "heartbeat"
Firefox 64bit - stable
HW decoding H264 (1080P) - https://github.com/avafinger/cedrusH264_vdpau_A64
USB highspeed and lowspeed - status: working

Currently not working

shutdown not always works, reboot most of the times

NanoPi A64 Booting linux

Camera (OV5640)

HW decoding (1920x1080 H264) with cedrus

Screenshots

1080P 1080p60

Wifi bluetooth

Firefox bluetooth

htop bluetooth

RTL8189ETV (8189es) bluetooth

Issues

Shutdown

If you shutdown (sudo shutdown -h or the Shutdown Button), most of the times (90%) the board will reboot, if you need to turn off the board click on Shutdown Button and wait for both leds turn off and then unplug the power cord, if you cut the power while the board is booting again you will corrupt the SD CARD!
Board does not boot (what to do?)

In rare occasions the board does not boot despite Blue Led is on heartbeating or it enters in a boot cycle (keep rebooting), it is usually safe to unplug the power cord but always check card integrity after that.

Try again to boot several times, sometimes it enters in the u-boot prompt.

HDMI 1080P and GbE draws a lot of power, check you PSU.

Board never boots (what to do?)

- Change SD CARD and repeat the process.

- Find another USB Reader and repeat all over again with this USB Reader

- The default setup is HDMI 1080P, try to switch to 720P,
  use: https://github.com/avafinger/nanopi-a64-firmware/blob/master/a64-2GB.dtb_720P

SPI

Spi needs some attention, still need to work out the DT for spi device.

BUG: soft lockup - CPU#0 stuck for 21s!

Latest kernel has this latent bug that can manifest or no in your board. This is related to a race condition and it predates Kernel 3.10.104 and afterwards so if you are afected by this bug try to unplug power cable, wait a few seconds and try again. I found this is probably due to the Wifi high load on trying to connect to the AP and can trigger the issue. Try to remove wpa_supplicant and wlan in /etc/network/interfaces if you can, maybe this can help

interesting reading can be found here and there:

https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=7017652

https://github.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image/issues/51

https://github.com/openhab/openhabian/issues/215

Credits

Thanks to Yuefei (FriendlyArm) for the board
FriendlyArm: http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=69&product_id=159
Longsleep's kernel: https://github.com/longsleep/linux-pine64
Armbian: https://www.armbian.com/
@lex

Instructions

Requirements:

- We need a linux box

- Install md5sum

- PSU with at least 2.5A

- Good SD CARD, 8GB minimum (find a good and trusted brand)

- Good USB card reader (make sure you have a trusted USB card reader)

Assuming we have an USB card reader and our device is /dev/sdX where X is a letter [b,c..] and in our example (change to your letter) my device is 'c', /dev/sdc.

Clone our nanopi-a64-firmware

git clone https://github.com/avafinger/nanopi-a64-firmware
cd nanopi-a64-firmware/

Rebuild our rootfs

cat rootfs_nanopia64_rc1.tar.gz.0* > rootfs_nanopia64_rc1.tar.gz

Check if we have it correctly

md5sum rootfs_nanopia64_rc1.tar.gz

060b4d6f41fed693d578ab1bf94cd818  rootfs_nanopia64_rc1.tar.gz

Format the SD CARD and Flash (Warning: run as sudo or root and make sure you get the correct DEVICE letter)

Find your SD CARD device after insert the SD CARD type:

    dmesg|tail

If you have a USB card reader the format would be some thing like this

    dmesg|tail
    [97286.659006] sdc: detected capacity change from 15523119104 to 0
    [99023.137526] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] 30318592 512-byte logical blocks: (15.5 GB/14.4 GiB)
    [99023.147516] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
    [99023.147521] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
    [99023.162514] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
    [99023.162518] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
    [99023.168535]  sdc: sdc1 sdc2

Type:

sudo chmod +x *.sh
sudo ./format_sd.sh /dev/sdc
sudo ./flash_sd.sh /dev/sdc

Now we have our SD CARD with the OS Image, boot with this card and Enjoy!

user: ubuntu

pasw: ubuntu

Camera (OV5640)

To work with CAM500B (ov5640) and guvcview override a64-2GB.dtb with a64-2GB.dtb_OV5640

mv /media/ubuntu/a64/a64-2GB.dtb /media/ubuntu/a64/a64-2GB.dtb_OK
cp -af a64-2GB.dtb_OV5640 /media/ubuntu/a64/a64-2GB.dtb

Add the camera modules to /etc/modules

dw9714_act
ov5640
vfe_v4l2

Instructions for new Image

Build v1 (works only the lower USB receptacule with high speed hub)

Rebuild our new kernel:

    cat rootfs_nanopia64_rc2.tar.gz.0* > rootfs_nanopia64_rc2.tar.gz

Check MD5 (must match with this):

    md5sum boot_nanopia64_rc2.tar.gz
    154350af7abdcf1062130c0b68bc1071  boot_nanopia64_rc2.tar.gz

and

    md5sum rootfs_nanopia64_rc2.tar.gz
    81be98d5f36ec6d42178028c0ab05fce  rootfs_nanopia64_rc2.tar.gz

Build v2 (works all USB receptacules)

Rebuild our new kernel:

    cat rootfs_nanopia64_rc3.tar.gz.0* > rootfs_nanopia64_rc3.tar.gz

Check MD5 (must match with this):

    md5sum boot_nanopia64_rc3.tar.gz
    e4d1ff4ba4740900ecaf65bd357b022b  boot_nanopia64_rc3.tar.gz

and

    md5sum rootfs_nanopia64_rc3.tar.gz
    ad78376f488e417e05e780007c2538e0  rootfs_nanopia64_rc3.tar.gz

Find your SD CARD device after insert the SD CARD type:

    dmesg|tail

If you have a USB card reader the format would be some thing like this

    dmesg|tail
    [97286.659006] sdc: detected capacity change from 15523119104 to 0
    [99023.137526] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] 30318592 512-byte logical blocks: (15.5 GB/14.4 GiB)
    [99023.147516] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
    [99023.147521] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
    [99023.162514] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] No Caching mode page found
    [99023.162518] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdc] Assuming drive cache: write through
    [99023.168535]  sdc: sdc1 sdc2

If you have a SD CARD reader embedded in your laptop, the format would be like this:

    dmesg|tail
    [63376.329036] mmc0: new SDHC card at address 1234
    [63376.368234] mmcblk0: mmc0:1234 SA04G 3.67 GiB 
    [63376.368372]  mmcblk0: p1 p2

Flash New Image to SD CARD, type in shell:

    sudo chmod +x *.sh

Build v1
```
sudo ./burn_sdcard.sh /dev/sdc
```

    sudo ./burn_sdcard.sh /dev/mmcblk0

Build v2
```
sudo ./burn_sdcard_v2.sh /dev/sdc
```

    sudo ./burn_sdcard_v2.sh /dev/mmcblk0

wait untill finish. Remove the SD CARD and boot you device with the SD CARD inserted and Enjoy!

Instructions for Firmware Image

There is an experimental Firmware Image to be flashed onto 8 GB sd card (or greater) using your preferred Disk Utility. It is highly recomended to use a good SD card and a good SDHC card Reader and Writer. Use a trusted brand.

Download from here

https://mega.nz/#F!9OxRnCya!6fsKg-X0tp76Pw89RdMspw

It has been Zipped to save space with 7zip, please unzip before burning. Use Win32DiskImager or a good disk imager.

Kodi on NanoPi A64

There is a pre-release image with mainline kernel 4.20.17 with Kodi 18.3 RC1. If you would to test and see if works for you. Go to: https://github.com/avafinger/nanopi-a64-kodi

History Log:

initial commit (readme file)
kernel 3.10.104 RC3 (tested and working)
screen images (WIP)
Initial instructions (WIP)
Camera (ov5640)
HW Decoding H264 (https://github.com/avafinger/cedrusH264_vdpau_A64)
New OS Image
USB fix (ECHI and OHCI works on all USB connectors)
PPP and 3G/GSM modem support
latent BUG: soft lockup - CPU#0 stuck for 21s!
Kodi on A64 (pre-release

avafinger / nanopi-a64-firmware

readme

NanoPi A64 Ubuntu Xenial Xerus 16.04 LXDE OS Image (firmware)

This is a LXDE OS image for the NanoPi A64

Install new Image with some fixes/improvement

Tested on NanoPi A64 board

Currently not working

NanoPi A64 Booting linux

Camera (OV5640)

HW decoding (1920x1080 H264) with cedrus

Screenshots

Issues

Credits

Instructions

Instructions for new Image

Instructions for Firmware Image

Kodi on NanoPi A64

History Log: