0jay

Hi all, I came upon a few threads in this forum while working on the bootloader for my ESPRESSObin Ultra. I noticed all of the warnings here about CPU frequency (https://www.armbian.com/espressobin/#), and I think this community might be interested in the work I'm doing.
 
I've have an ESPRESSObin Ultra which ships from Globalscale with old, buggy, and unmaintained firmware. I think the old firmware could explain a lot of the issues users have reported here with the V7. I forked the old factory firmware build script from Globalscale and moved it all to up-to-date, upstream projects: https://github.com/bschnei/ebu-bootloader

I believe with some small modifications, it is possible to also build an up-to-date bootloader for other Globalscale devices that also use the Armada 37XX SoC, for example the ESPRESSObin V7.
 
I currently use Arch Linux ARM on my device and have notified their community as well: https://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=16746

One of the issues I can confirm has been fixed is EFI booting from U-Boot. Fixing this means we can use U-Boot Standard Boot (bootflow scan) to load user-friendly EFI apps like systemd-boot, GRUB, etc. This significantly streamlines the boot process eliminating the need for u-boot to load separate kernel, initramfs, and device tree files. This also makes packaging it a lot easier too.
 
It also means your bootloader becomes configurable from the OS which is really nice because it means your distro of choice can configure the bootloader instead of requiring users to configure U-Boot manually. I'm not familiar with Armbian, but I think it ships with systemd-boot (?) which has an EFI application that gives you a user friendly way to control device booting. GRUB has a similar capability.
 
Please send me a note if you are interested in testing firmware for the ESPRESSObin V7 or Ultra.

Hi all. For a new video I've made a list with my most used/useful terminal commands.
Please let me know what I've missed, or which commands you use most.
 
Useful Linux commands for Ubuntu/Debian --------------------------------------- Update/Install -------------- sudo apt update Update repolists sudo apt upgrade Upgrade system/programs sudo apt autoremove Remove obsolete programs sudo apt install programName Install program sudo apt remove programName Remove program sudo aptitude install When having issue's with apt, aptitude can help to solve this sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade Update and upgrade together/You can run multiple commands with && sudo dpkg -i packageName.deb Install .deb file Root user --------- sudo passwd Change root password su Super User/Enter root user Debug/Monitor ------------- dmesg Shows debug messages uname -a Shows basic system information env Shows the environment information htop Hardware monitor Switch terminal --------------- ctrl + ALT + F4 (F1 - F6) Open new terminal 4 ctrl + ALT + F1 Go back to terminal 1 ctrl + ALT + F7 Go back to desktop Reboot/Shutdown --------------- sudo reboot Reboot sudo shutdown now Shutdown CPU Tools --------- cpufreq-set -g performance Set governor to performance cpufreq-set -u 2Ghz Set max frequency for all cores cpufreq-set -c 0-1 -u 1.8Ghz Set max frequency for specific cores lscpu | grep MHz Show cpu frequency taskset -c 3 programName Use a specific core for an application Files/Directories ----------------- nano /home/fileToRemove.txt Create a txt file with Nano. You could use any other texteditor. touch filename Create an empty file, no matter what kind cat /home/fileToRemove.txt Shows the content of a file cp /home/fileToRemove.txt /home/copy.txt Copy file find /home/ -iname "*.txt" Search files that end with .txt comm /home/fileToRemove.txt /home/copy.txt Compare files rm /home/fileToRemove.txt Remove file mv /home/copy.txt ~/Documents/ Move file mkdir /home/directoryToGoTo/ Create directory cd /home/directoryToGoTo/ Go to directory ls List directory ls -l Gives more information about every file/directory ls -l filename.txt Gives file information pwd Show current working directory cd .. Go to the above directory rmdir /home/directoryToGoTo/ Remove directory wget http://www.website.com/file.txt Download file Zip/Tar/GunZip -------------- zip myzip file1 file2 file3 Create zip file unzip myzip.zip Unzip file tar xvf filename.tar gunzip filename_tar.gz Mount drives/USB Devices ------------ lsusb List USB devices lsblb List attached drives mount /mount/mountedDisk /dev/sda2 Mount drive sudo chmod -R 777 /mount/mountedDisk Give user read/write permissions df -a List all filesystems Swap file/ZRam -------------- sudo apt install zram-config Install zram script sudo fallocate -l 8G /swapfile Allocate 8GB for swapfile sudo chmod 600 /swapfile Give the correct rights for the swapfile sudo mkswap /swapfile Make it a swapfile sudo swapon /swapfile Turn on the swapfile sudo nano /etc/fstab Open fstab and add the line ... |_ /swapfile swap swap defaults 0 0 Wifi ---- sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces and write: auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp wpa-ssid {ssid} wpa-psk {password} OR nmcli device wifi rescan Scan for available wifi networks nmcli device wifi list Show available wifi networks nmcli device wifi connect SSID-Name password wireless-password Connect wifi ip a Show ip ifconfig iwconfig Change Keyboard Layout ---------------------- sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration Set keyboard layout Add display resolution ---------------------- cvt 2560 1440 60 Select the display resolution you want # 2560x1440 59.96 Hz (CVT 3.69M9) hsync: 89.52 kHz; pclk: 312.25 MHz Modeline "2560x1440_60.00" 312.25 2560 2752 3024 3488 1440 1443 1448 1493 -hsync +vsync xrandr --newmode "2560x1440_60.00" 312.25 2560 2752 3024 3488 1440 1443 1448 1493 -hsync +vsync Add resolution, everything after Modeline from cvt is copied after newmode xrandr --addmode HDMI-1 2560x1440_60.00 Add the new resolution to your display xrandr --newmode "2560x1440_60.00" 312.25 2560 2752 3024 3488 1440 1443 1448 1493 -hsync +vsync && xrandr --addmode HDMI-1 2560x1440_60.00 Others ------ reset Clear terminal shift + page up Scroll up shift + page down Scroll down tab Autocomplete ctrl + c Quit for many programs date Show date/time cal Show calender Funny commands -------------- sl First need to install "sudo apt install sl", then try it out. It's great :) sl -alF cmatrix fortune/fortune-mod cowsay figlet toilet ponysay inxi cat /dev/urandom :(){ :|:& };: Endless loop (useful to test CPU maximized temperatures) Armbian ------- sudo armbianmonitor -m sudo armbian-config change cpu settings sudo nano /etc/default/cpufrequtils Made by NicoD  

Description
Print the CPU frequency correctly without privileges. Some CPU's have two clusters and at the same time are not representatives of the "Big.Little" architecture. It will be correct to print about the presence of adjustment of two clusters
How Has This Been Tested?
Before the changes:
leo@bananapim3:~$ armbianmonitor -m 1 Running unprivileged. CPU frequency will not be displayed. Stop monitoring using [ctrl]-[c] Warning: High update frequency (1 sec) might change system behaviour! Time big.LITTLE load %cpu %sys %usr %nice %io %irq CPU C.St. 10:46:45: --- 0.05 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 45,0 °C 0/5 10:46:46: --- 0.05 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 44,8 °C 0/5 10:46:47: --- 0.05 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 45,3 °C 0/5 10:46:48: --- 0.05 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 45,0 °C 0/5 10:46:49: --- 0.13 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 45,2 °C 0/5^C After:
leo@bananapim3:~$ armbianmonitor -m 1 Two CPU clusters are available for monitoring Stop monitoring using [ctrl]-[c] Warning: High update frequency (1 sec) might change system behaviour! Time CPU_cl0/CPU_cl1 load %cpu %sys %usr %nice %io %irq Tcpu C.St. 15:31:08 1152/1152 MHz 0.25 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 30,2 °C 0/5 15:31:09 1152/1152 MHz 0.25 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 30,4 °C 0/5 15:31:10 768/ 768 MHz 0.25 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 30,3 °C 0/5 15:31:11 768/1152 MHz 0.25 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 29,3 °C 0/5 15:31:12 1344/1152 MHz 0.23 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 29,5 °C 0/5 15:31:13 1344/1152 MHz 0.23 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 29,9 °C 0/5 15:31:15 768/1152 MHz 0.23 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 29,4 °C 0/5 15:31:16 1152/1152 MHz 0.23 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 29,9 °C 0/5 15:31:17 1344/1344 MHz 0.23 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 30,4 °C 0/5 15:31:18 1344/1152 MHz 0.21 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 30,2 °C 0/5 15:31:19 768/1152 MHz 0.21 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 30,0 °C 0/5 15:31:20 1344/1152 MHz 0.21 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 29,4 °C 0/5 15:31:21 1344/1152 MHz 0.21 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 29,6 °C 0/5 15:31:23 1152/1152 MHz 0.19 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 29,8 °C 0/5 Time CPU_cl0/CPU_cl1 load %cpu %sys %usr %nice %io %irq Tcpu C.St. 15:31:24 1344/1152 MHz 0.19 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 30,2 °C 0/5 15:31:25 768/1152 MHz 0.19 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 30,0 °C 0/5 15:31:26 1152/1152 MHz 0.19 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 30,1 °C 0/5 15:31:27 1344/1152 MHz 0.18 1% 1% 0% 0% 0% 0% 30,3 °C 0/5^C Checklist:
[x] Test works on board bananapim3. CPU control of the two clusters. View the full article

Thank you very much Ojay. By the way, are your kernel upgrades still frozen?
Haven't you updated any since you installed Wireguard?
 
 

Open PR similar to this one https://github.com/armbian/os/pull/254 it's faster. I can execute build, but can't test.

ah. good old omv annoyance. Known to mess up the system....

I think so, yes. As mentioned Armbian kernel comes with wireguard module pre-installed so nothing besides the userspace tools is required IIRC.

Ah yeah, now I know.
You are installing with recommends which might include wireguard and wireguard-dkms packages which have dependency on stock Debian/Ubuntu kernel which then will be installed and render your system unbootable.

Without proper logs this hard to track down. Try to grab some actual logs when you get a chance: https://debug.armbian.de
 
Wireguard is - kernel-wise at least - nowadays included in all Armbian images. However it might be necessary to install userspace tools separately (i.e. apt install --no-install-recommends wireguard-tools), especially on minimal images.

It should work - depends on the hardware - for the one we don't support, its unknown, for supported one we will try to fix in case of troubles. You can call
 
armbian-install
directly, so you don't install dependencies from armbian-config. There will soon be much lighter version of it, but current one is not very light.

Download Armbian with OpenMediaVault (OMV) 
Currently (for testing) only 4 targets were build: rock5-itx, odroid m1, odroid xu4 and x86. Once its confirmed that works well, other targets will be assembled. 

Then boot the image, wait few minutes and login via:

http://ip_address_of_armbian_running_ha
U: admin
P: openmediavault
 
Test setup on Odroid M1:
 
 
Tested on:
Odroid M1 Raspberry PI 4  
DIY

Key is not deprecated, method is. On Noble / Sid and future.
 
sudo wget https://apt.armbian.com/armbian.key -O key sudo gpg --dearmor < key | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/armbian.gpg > /dev/null sudo chmod go+r /usr/share/keyrings/armbian.gpg sudo echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/armbian.gpg] http://apt.armbian.com $(lsb_release -cs) main $(lsb_release -cs)-utils $(lsb_release -cs)-desktop" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/armbian.list apt update  

GPU drivers have nothing to do with Armbian. Armbian can only show how to use them. We are not driver developers.
It is expected that the blob Rockchip driver runs way better than the open-source panfrost/panfork drivers. Panfrost might improve in time. N2/N2+/VIM3 at first also performed worse than RK3399 but after time it now outperforms RK3399 by a lot.
Both drivers are very useful to me.
You can use the blob by running in x11 and run your program with "malirun programname"
Not everything will work, but for example PS2 emulation works perfect like that.

Video playback has nothing to do with GPU drivers but VPU drivers. For that there is the multimedia ppa from AmazingFate. 

@BasThere are user built images from @monkaBlyat for the Mekotronics boards.
It has wayland GPU blob + panfork GPU driver + VPU acceleration + box64/86 and wine preïnstalled.
All info and links in the description of this video.
 

If you didn't download image from www.debian.org or www.ubuntu.com, then there those OSes does not support this HW. RebornOS is a desktop tweaking on top of one of those "Debian" / "Ubuntu" stock images. Just to straighten things ... and yes, this is common, nothing extraordinary.
 

Armbian maintainers are already totally overloaded, your support is almost not existing, vendor does not support us ... there is little we can do. We don't have endless time or equipment to support random purchases people made. But as our build framework is well maintained, making an image is pretty straightforward. Anyone can do it https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Adding-Board-Family/ but maintaining and dealing with problems, that lies in this cheap products, is another story.

In case anyone has a similar problem, the plugin depends on the wireguard meta package and on a 6.x kernel and headers (at least the >5.5 kernels I tried were unstable except the 6.1.11).
 
So unfreeze in armbian-config and select the 6.1.11 kernel, apt install linux-headers-edge-rockchip64 to install the headers then manually install the wireguard meta package then OMV from there.
 
Thanks for your time Igor.

It would need a complete rework and recompile