Cubieboard2 and armbian 6.1.33..

[holm]

Hi all,

 

I'm new here and somewhat new to "modern Linux"..I'm more a BSD Guy...

I'm using, administering and programming on unices since approx 1992, using FreeBSD (mostly) at home,

my wife has a Laptop using Mint installed by me, but I haven't put much effort into my Linux experiences

since systemd came up...

 

Ok, approx 2 years before I've got a bunch of more or less unusual embedded HW..Beaglebone, Olinuxino

with an A10, some Intel based thingy and something from AnalogDevices if I remember correctly.

All of them are more or less old. Now I want to build a kind of a home automation appliance that is

reading out data from 2 solar Inverters over a serial line and should process them (MQTT, PostgreSQL etc).

I've decided to use an Cubiebord2 that was in the Bunch of Hardware I got, Pollin Elektronik here in Germany

sold an DVK521 Kit for that board lately for cheap, so I've bought 3 pcs, the kit contains a 7" LCD with  touch,

but I don't want to use that (at first).

 

My search for an more modern os brought 2 different possibilities to the daylight: 1. Using FreeBSD, 2nd Using

armbian. I've decided to use the later one since the gpio capabilities seems to be more adult at was FreeBSD has.

I've downloaded an Image with 6.1.30 kernel and startet experimenting.

In the meantime I've set up an Ubuntu 20.4 in a Virtualbox VM and the armbian build environment, I've successfully

created images that are booting and running more or less flawlessly.

 

Bot there are loose ends in Software and Documentation. Most websites are outdated. For example I'm currently

trying to bring up a 2nd serial interface (to connect the Inverters to). I kno that is should be an 2 stage process,

first defining the GPIO Ports and second enabling the uart in the kernel. so far so good.

Adding an overlays=uart1 to armbianEnv.txt is doing just nothing..because of the boot process on the cubieboard2.

In the NAND flash resides the original u-boot with an old android version (as far as I remember) and the sd-card contains

build image. The system boots, bot it seems not to read the environment from /boot at all. The armbianEnv.txt contains:

[code]

verbosity=1
bootlogo=false
console=both
disp_mode=1920x1080p60
overlay_prefix=sun7i-a20
overlays=uart1
rootdev=UUID=7d96085b-9f51-46ed-aee9-c5873b39d28c
rootfstype=ext4
usbstoragequirks=0x2537:0x1066:u,0x2537:0x1068:u

[/code]

..but while booting "Loading Environment from FAT, unable to use mmc 0:1" (from my memory, not from a log).

...there is no FAT. I think to remember that I saw a FAT partition on the SD Card with some other disk image..

but not here.. and the "official" Image with 6.1.30 kernel is also not containing a FAT partition.

 

What I'm doing wrong here?

 

I need to enable some drivers, want I2C, OneWire und an uart..

It shouldn't be necessary to use a FAT partition?

 

Regards,

Holm

 

 

[holm]

...so no one knows about properly enabling an additional uart in the A20 using armbian?

 

No hints, no opinion, no knowledge?

Maybe I should use FreeBSD?`

 

Regards,

Holm

[CryBaby]

The last time I tried using my Cubieboard 2 I wanted to use SPI and had some trouble. This was 2 or 3 years ago. The main reason I gave up though was the 2mm pin spacing. Maybe you found a suitable cable.

 

I would start by getting a current uboot on to it then watch it boot on the serial port. Inspect the default env, see what env file it is reading, check it is loading the overlays etc.

 

Edited June 21, 2023 by CryBaby
typo

[Igor]

On 6/19/2023 at 5:23 PM, holm said:

I've decided to use the later one since the gpio capabilities seems to be more adult

 

It seems kernel 6.1.y is broken in several places. Use more adult kernel 5.15.y (legacy). We are very close to this scene and are running into many many problems. Also I am desperately trying to improve and enlarge Allwinner section (with no budget and very little help from users side) to fight those already known problems. Elsewhere is just more dust, so I am not sure if you have much luxury of choosing different hardware interfaces.

 

On 6/19/2023 at 5:23 PM, holm said:

Most websites are outdated

Updating is expensive and hard to do for mainly amateur projects. We would need at least one full time person to keep our documentation on the level you would be satisfied. Depends where this documentation will end. If we limit only on our tools, then this we might be able to polish it on satisfactory level in about a year.

 

On 6/19/2023 at 5:23 PM, holm said:

I'm using, administering and programming on unices since approx 1992

 

Likewise. 🍻

 

Welcome to Armbian. Please keep in mind that most people that develop and maintain software for you with their private resources don't like to feel any pressure. Don't bump topics.

 

On 6/19/2023 at 5:23 PM, holm said:

I need to enable some drivers, want I2C, OneWire und an uart..

Leave manual configuration. Use armbian-config, system -> hardware ... It should work, but perhaps not with latest kernel / image.

[holm]

Zitat

The last time I tried using my Cubieboard 2 I wanted to use SPI and had some trouble. This was 2 or 3 years ago. The main reason I gave up though was the 2mm pin spacing. Maybe you found a suitable cable.

Yes.. but I could buy 3 pcs "DVK521" for cheap..this set contains a breakout board with 2,54mm headers, 1x PL2303, an socket for DS18B20, an beeper, and a header for an 7" touch Display that is also in the set. It came from the german surplus dealer Pollin, approx 20€ if I remember correctly.

Zitat

It seems kernel 6.1.y is broken in several places.

..ok.. but that wasn't to read somewhere,  I've searched for an build environment and that what I've first saw wast that, what I call the development version with 6.1.

I'm really read much documentation but all had loose ends..was outdated or somewhat incomplete. I could'nt find a starting point how to do it. My actual version ignored the envirnonment, all tries to load an overlay had failed.

The FreeBSD Version is using the u-boot logic from linux and this uses an seperate DOS partition with the dtb file in it (mounted as /boot/msdos/). Interestingly the same dtb file

exists in /boot/dtb in the ufs fs. Nevertheless I've managed to get the uart3 working with FreeBSD as /dev/ttyu1 yesterday late evening, this doesn't mean that I'll use that for my

application.. but in this OS the Software and the docu (which isn't much) had less "loose ends".

 

Zitat

Please keep in mind that most people that develop and maintain software for you with their private resources don't like to feel any pressure.

 

Oh? Is that so? 🙂

If you read and experiment approx a week w/o any results and then ask nicely where to start (..reading) you are getting pissed off if you don't get an

answer in 3 days.

My Post  above was a provocation, I know that.  I know that it isn't entirely a good idea to ask in a linux developer forum if you should better use FreeBSD.

I'm not that new in the unix scene..

But at least I've got some answers that are meaningful, nice.

 

Regards,

Holm

[Igor]

13 minutes ago, holm said:

but that wasn't to read somewhere

You mean Linux kernel related troubles? Documents about progress and problems is scattered around many forums and mailing lists. We are focusing to troubles related to hardware we cover, but there are also general problems we all face. If you have a lot of time, if you are dealing with this daily, you can get a better picture about, but it will be far from complete. I only told you how I see it.

 

21 minutes ago, holm said:

I'm really read much documentation but all had loose ends..was outdated or somewhat incomplete.

If you are talking about build framework documentation, than yes, its not in a good shape. We have reworked framework completely and made a switch several months ago. We had to, even documentation was not completed yet. Person who had to deal with this couldn't afford to continue working on that, while I can't hire a person as users want everything for free. Recently I have started to engage with another person, to put documentation together, but he needs weeks / months to get familiar ...

 

25 minutes ago, holm said:

The FreeBSD Version is using the u-boot logic from linux and this uses an seperate DOS partition with the dtb file in it

Build framework supports it, but we don't use DOS partition to store DTB files and yes, enabling UART is just editing it and enabling within. Or by make + loading overlays that contains that change. 

 

27 minutes ago, holm said:

you are getting pissed off if you don't get an answer in 3 days.

I understand users frustration.
 

This is not a professional support service and there are 1000 x more people that asks questions than those that can answer. This ratio hasn't been changed in past 10 years and it won't. Its a complex world, a lot of time has to be wasted to answer and users (including experts like you) don't care about perspective from the side you are addressing to. Reality looks this way: to answer you, I had to tell my wife and my kids to shut off as I have to focus to answer to someone that is stealing our family budget, to answer everyone that needs help, I can waste all my wake hours every day ... and you are pissed off?

 

Nobody here is responsible for troubles end users have - this is the base of our contract. If 3 days response for hardware that is specifically marked as "not supported" on the project that only provides best effort support via forums is too much, we provide commercial support -  which is just one way to respond on violence from people that think we are responsible for the misery and we have to solve their problems. No, we are not. We are in this sh* together. Just we spent 24/7 to work on problem, we pay for most of costs and for most of you this is a hobby.

 

28 minutes ago, holm said:

I'm not that new in the unix scene

Neither me and many people around here. Scene is also changing. Market is overloaded with cheap hardware that is becoming more and more complicated ... while back in 90" it was a huge privilege and thrill having a root access to some big bad-ass Unix machine. 

 

We don't have time for holy wars here, Debian vs Ubuntu vs Arch vs FreeBSD vs ... That part is so not important for the problems we deal with.

[holm]

Zitat

ou mean Linux kernel related troubles? Documents about progress and problems is scattered around many forums and mailing lists. We are focusing to troubles related to hardware we cover, but there are also general problems we all face. If you have a lot of time, if you are dealing with this daily, you can get a better picture about, but it will be far from complete. I only told you how I see it.

 

Get my right, I've used FreeBSD-current often to enable some features that I needed on a specific machine, and yes, it's not unlikely to get in trouble with that, at least at specific time points. I know that, but that isn't a complaint from me about that, it's just to explain why I not getting any results at all.

 

Zitat

...to answer everyone that needs help, I can waste all my wake hours every day ... and you are pissed off?

 

The same again..I've tried for a week to get it sorted out myself, After that time I've asked a question and the answer was just silence. Even an answer like "please use the 5.15 kernel, 6.1.33 has to many bugs currently" is helpful, even if you have almost no time. 2nd, I don't think that you are the only one that reads here Igor..

It's clear, you tried to answer in detail and I'm happy with that. You shouldn't do any work for me, I only expected a hint where to begin.

As an example I couldn't find any syntax definition for the overlays, I tried this..and found out that the environment wasn't loaded at all.

I still don't know where to put changes, but I'll look what I get when I changed the build environment to somewhat with a stable kernel release.

(armbian-config .. have tried..nothing happened, same problem with the boot environment mit the device tree)

 

That with the not supported hardware... 🙂 nice try. You know exactly as good as I do that this isn't related to any specific HW, this problem exists exactly in the same way on any armv7 device... 2nd thing is that Cubieboard2 has "community support" regarding the website..not "no support".

The wife and the kids..it seems that you are in a similar age as I'm, why do you think things may different here?

 

At the moment I have the FreeBSD SD card in the Cubieboard and will try to figure out how I get the HW flow control enabled on the 2nd uart. When this is cleared, I'm trying to get another Armbian build environment and will try again.

I'll report here, ok?

Zitat

We don't have time for holy wars here, Debian vs Ubuntu vs Arch vs FreeBSD vs ... That part is so not important for the problems we deal with.

 

..fully agree. I'm not happy every time with FreeBSD that I use since version 2.0, when  it was available and usable on peecees. Previous experience was

with BSD2.9 on a russian PDP11 (SM1420) and with BSD4.3 on a east german VAX11/780 (Robotron RVS K1840). I've used Linux before VERSION 1.0

 then SVR4.2 (got a License) later FreeBSD, but I'm suggesting Linux to less experienced ppl, the Laptop from my wife is running Mint. It isn't relevant to make war about that, it's relevant to get the job done. Since Linux is the more advanced OS on the Cubieboard (no wonder at all) I'm tried to use that, it's simple.

(still have an PDP11/83 running RT, RSX and 2.11BSD)

 

Regards and THX,

 

Holm

Edited June 22, 2023 by holm

[holm]

I've got the build Environment from here:

https://www.armbian.com/cubieboard-2/

 

That's the cause why I've used 6.1.

 

..is there an older CLI version using yammy (?) to find somewhere?

 

Regards,

 

Holm

Edited June 22, 2023 by holm

[Ryzer]

Hi there,

 

You can find older versions in the archives: https://armbian.hosthatch.com/archive/cubieboard2/archive/ 

 

There is no version 5.15 listed but 5.10 should be good enough to avoid newer problems

 

Alternatively if have capable hardware you can use the build framework with the legacy option which last time I checked builds with kernel version 5.15.93 Although you would first need check the cubieboard2's config file (located in 'config/boards') to make sure that there is a legacy option included if not then it should just be a case of adding it to file then it will build the legacy kernel.

 

Best of luck

 

Ryzer

[holm]

..Ok thanks, I'll try the 2nd Version. My Hardware should be ok to do that, I have an FreeBSD Host with a Ryzen 5, 3,6Ghz

and 32Gig RAM. Ubuntu is running in a VM on that.

 

The Cubieboard2 is only a step form me, I've got 2 commercial Computers using an A20 SOM Module from a german

company "In-circuit". The systems where used before in some kiosk application and where decommissioned.

 

https://shop.in-circuit.de/product_info.php?products_id=128

 

There is a display, ethernet, can, serial interfaces on the two boards, I hope to use some of them.

In-curcuit provided an diff to an cubieboard2 build tree to generating the os. (Thats the cause I'm owning a cubieboard2)

It's stone old..but I plan to include some of the diffs into more or less modern code. I have an SD Card with the original os

and app, I'll look there what I can find.

 

..so having the build tree locally is a good idea.

 

Regards,

Holm

 

Edited June 24, 2023 by holm

[holm]

Ok guys, it's almost a year after my last post and I'm finally back at the project 🙂

I've read some mail about upcoming new releases and I'm no here to ask what version I should try to use on an old (unsupported or "community supported") Cubieboard 2

with 1G of RAM, 100Mbits/s Ethernet and Allwinner A20. Is it possible to use the NAND flash in the meantime?

My Goal ist to build some appliance for  some smarthome things, including 3 pcs. PIP4048ms PV inverters (in 3 phase combination), accumulators (LiFePo with Daly BMS), MQTT, an SQL Database and so on.

I'm still don't know what to use at as user frontend, "solaranzeige.de", homeassistant or whatever.

I have 3 such cubieboard 2's and I have kits named DVK521 which contain an LCD with touchscreen, an breakout board and even an camera module, that's why I'm trying to use one of them,

nice that they have an SATA connector so I can use spinning rust. power should be enough for the project, 1GByte RAM  is ..so lala...

 

Last time I've tried an Armbian Version that don't even read the the config files.

 

So please, what version I should use actually? Which build environment?

 

Kind regards,

Holm

 

 

[CryBaby]

I don't believe mainline kernels support the NAND, and aren't likely to as it is flaky.

I would try whatever the current image is and see what you get.

[holm]

Linux cubieboard2 6.1.63-current-sunxi #1 SMP Mon Nov 20 11:52:19 CET 2023 armv7l armv7l armv7l GNU/Linux

 

is build and runs good so far (stable version, jammy).  ..at the moment I'm fighting with the keyboard mapping, got an german keyboard w/o the "<>|" key..

 

Tomorrow I'll look if I can enable the 2nd uart..

 

Regards,

Holm

[holm]

Zitat

Tomorrow I'll look if I can enable the 2nd uart..

 

Whow..worked "out of the Box" with Overlays. Good Job Guys!

 

Does anyone know if that Toch-LCD that is coming with that DVK521 Kit for the Cubieboards is working with armbian? I don't know anything about the hardware or even the original Software  that came with the Cubieboard2 .. and the examples. The 3 boards I have are all used and none was complete with the original software to try out something.

 

Regards,

Holm

Edited May 22 by holm