NanoPi M1 - ArchWiki

# NanoPi M1

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Reason: Graphics is still to be documented. (Discuss in Talk:NanoPi M1#)

The NanoPi M1 is a small, arm-based computer. It contains an Allwinner H3 processor and either 512 or 1024 MB of RAM. This article is strongly based on Orange Pi.

## Create the base system

This NanoPi M1 boots from a single ext4 partition, imaged with Das U-Boot. An ArchLinuxArm RootFS can then be downloaded to the card.

### Create development environment

Create a directory system to store the development files:

    $ mkdir -p nanopi_arch/mnt

### Partition, format and mount SD card

Use fdisk to partition the SD card, and use `mkfs.ext4 -O ^metadata_csum,^64bit /dev/sdX1` to format it. The mount the card with:

    # mount /dev/sdX1 mnt

### Install ArchLinuxArm RootFS

Download the RootFS from ArchLinuxArm's website:

    $ wget http://archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz

Extract the RootFS to the SD card:

    # bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz -C mnt/
    # sync

### Configure U-Boot

Create a file with the following boot script:

    boot.cmd

    part uuid ${devtype} ${devnum}:${bootpart} uuid
    setenv bootargs console=${console} root=PARTUUID=${uuid} rw rootwait

    if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${bootpart} ${kernel_addr_r} /boot/zImage; then
      if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${bootpart} ${fdt_addr_r} /boot/dtbs/${fdtfile}; then
        if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${bootpart} ${ramdisk_addr_r} /boot/initramfs-linux.img; then
          bootz ${kernel_addr_r} ${ramdisk_addr_r}:${filesize} ${fdt_addr_r};
        else
          bootz ${kernel_addr_r} - ${fdt_addr_r};
        fi;
      fi;
    fi

    if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${bootpart} 0x48000000 /boot/uImage; then
      if load ${devtype} ${devnum}:${bootpart} 0x43000000 /boot/script.bin; then
        setenv bootm_boot_mode sec;
        bootm 0x48000000;
      fi;
    fi

Compile it and write it to the SD-card using the package uboot-tools:

    # mkimage -A arm -O linux -T script -C none -a 0 -e 0 -n "NanoPi M1 Boot Script" -d boot.cmd mnt/boot/boot.scr

### Unmount the SD Card

    # umount mnt

### Install U-Boot

The upstream U-Boot repository has no graphics support as of May 2017. Clone U-Boot from the jernejsk git repository:

    $ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/jernejsk/u-boot.git

There is a bug in the U-Boot code for Arch. Correct this with:

    $ sed -i -e 's/\#\!\/usr\/bin\/env\ python/\#\!\/usr\/bin\/env\ python2/g' tools/binman/binman

The NanoPi shares many similarities with the OrangePi PC, so use this as the target until better support is available. Build U-Boot:

    $ cd u-boot
    $ make -j4 ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-eabi- orangepi_pc_defconfig
    $ make -j4 ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-eabi-

This process should have generated an image called `u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin`. Write this to your SD card:

    # dd if=u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/dev/sdX bs=1024 seek=8
    $ cd ..

## Configure the base system

### Boot the NanoPi

Apply 5V power to the NanoPi. It should boot successfully. If not, then attach the UART serial debugger as shown here and here.

Login over SSH with `alarm/alarm`.

Root password: `root`.

### Configure Linux

First, SSH into the machine and change the root password.

    # passwd

You must install the base-devel group as well as Git in order to continue. Do this and update the Linux system using:

    # pacman -Syu base-devel git

Now you should download and install the drivers for the Mali graphics card inside the SoC.

    # git clone https://github.com/mripard/sunxi-mali.git
    # cd sunxi-mali
    # export CROSS_COMPILE=$TOOLCHAIN_PREFIX
    # export KDIR=$KERNEL_BUILD_DIR
    # export INSTALL_MOD_PATH=$TARGET_DIR
    # ./build.sh -r r6p2 -b
    # ./build.sh -r r6p2 -i

Finally, install the UserSpace blobs from arm using these commands:

    # git clone https://github.com/free-electrons/mali-blobs.git
    # cd mali-blobs
    # cp -a r6p2/fbdev/lib/lib_fb_dev/lib* $TARGET_DIR/usr/lib

Category:

- ARM architecture

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