dCore Import Debian Packages to Mountable SCE extensions > Allwinner A10
Cubieboard Install
Peter Pudney:
UPDATE: I have now got TC5 to boot to the command prompt on a Cubieboard 2; see the updated instructions in Reply #19.
I am trying to install TC5 (http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/5.x/armv7/Allwinner-A10/) on a CubieBoard 2 (A20) SD card. The kernel is starting, but stalls after the message:
<6>Calibrating delay loop...
I am writing my SD card from a Mac. The steps were:
* Clean the SD card:
* unmount the volume using Disk Utility
* sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk1 bs=1m count=1
* Partition the SD card using Disk Utility: FAT, one partition.
* Using the files from cubieboard2-linux3.3_hwpack/bootloader (from http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/users/hramrach/cubieboard2-linux3.3_hwpack.tar.xz)
* unmount the volume
* sudo dd if=sunxi-spl.bin of=/dev/disk1 bs=1024 seek=8
* unmount the volume
* sudo dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/disk1 bs=1024 seek=32
* Copy `uImage` and `uCore` to the volume.
* Copy `boards/cubieboard_script.bin` to the volume as `script.bin`.
* Copy `uEnv.txt` and `boot.scr` to the volume.
I have attached a file of boot messages.
What should I try next?
beerstein:
Hi: I have cubietruck. Are you sure that the media needs to unmounted when you run the dd command?
Peter Pudney:
The SD card does have to be unmounted when you use the dd commands, otherwise you get (on a Mac):
dd: /dev/disk1: Resource busy
On a Mac, the SD card will automatically remount after each dd command, and so you have to unmount it before each dd command. You can do this from Disk Utility by control-clicking on the volume.
As far as I can tell, I have successfully written the SD card. My problem occurs while booting the Cubie2. I can see what is happening by connecting the Cubie2's USB/serial cable to the serial pins on the Cubie2 board and monitoring the serial port using CoolTerm on the Mac. The boot messages are attached to my previous message. It all seems to proceed as expected until "Calibrating delay loop...", then stalls.
beerstein:
Hi: You might be right. When I did the dd on Mint14 CLI the SD was mounted. After the image was written, the SD was unmounted. May be Linux unmount s it automatically. The dd error or success messages are not very helpful!
As far as I remember, when I tried to dd while the sd card was mounted, i got an error message such as "can not write to..." I will double check. Within the ARM world, the new sd card needs to be formatted as FAT! Not a ms fdisk FAT. It must be a Linux FAT. (gparted or cli or so) If you have MAC how did you do it?
The sd card needs a boot loader plus a boot partition holding the kernel and some other files. In addition to that you need a root partition for the rest of the operating system.
This is the case for all ARM boards with Allwinner SoC.!
Boot- and root partition need to be ext2 or ext3. So the best way to make a sd is to use a Linux distri.
You could doctor with a hex editor and look whether there is the initial "pre loader" on your sd card at sector 16.
The u-boot boot loader is about 512kB in size. Behind that you must have various configuration information up to sector 2048. The first partition on the sd card must be FAT or ext2 - nothing else - and must start at sector 2048. Otherwise you will have a conflict with the boot loader. Please let me know the results.
The boot process in ARM is more difficult than in the X86 world. But as allays, once we know it, it is easy. I am about to learn that stuff and have posted an idea for a cubieCore in my most recent post.
Please let me know what you think.
Peter Pudney:
I have successfully got TC5 to boot to the command prompt on a Cubieboard 2 (A20). Here are instructions for creating a bootable SD card using Mac OS X. The process using Linux should be similar; the key is to use the boot files and kernel (iImage) from the Cubieboard2 hardware pack.
In the instructions below, make sure that you change diskx to the disk number (disk1, disk2, ...) of your SD card. You can find the disk number of the SD card using the mount command from an OS X terminal.
* Download TC5 from http://distro.ibiblio.org/tinycorelinux/5.x/armv7/Allwinner-A10/. You need uCore, uEnv.txt and boot.scr.
* Download the Cubieboard hardware pack from http://dl.linux-sunxi.org/users/hramrach/cubieboard2-linux3.3_hwpack.tar.xz
* Clean the SD card:
* unmount the volume using Disk Utility (control-click on the volume, then select unmount)
* sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/diskx bs=1m count=1
* Partition the SD card using Disk Utility. Select Partition Layout: 1 Partition with Options: Master Boot Record. Format as MSDOS (FAT).
* Using the files from cubieboard2-linux3.3_hwpack/bootloader
* unmount the volume
* sudo dd if=sunxi-spl.bin of=/dev/diskx bs=1024 seek=8
* unmount the volume
* sudo dd if=u-boot.bin of=/dev/diskx bs=1024 seek=32
* Copy uImage and script.bin to the volume from cubieboard2-linux3.3_hwpack.
* Copy uCore, uEnv.txt and boot.scr to the volume from the TC5 distribution.
Insert the SD card into the Cubieboard 2 and apply power. Within 10 seconds the HDMI screen should show the TC5 prompt
tc@box:~$
My next task is to get the GUI working.
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