A guide for fully setting up the SolidRun LX2K with novice users in mind.
- Specifications
- Introduction
- Important Notes
- Prerequisites
- Console Connection
- Configuring LX2K
- Installing an Operating System
- Post-Install Recommendations
- BIOS Navigation
- Overclocking & Timings
- Credits
- Board form factor
- Mini-ITX
- CPU
- NXP Layerscape LX2160A 16-core ARM Cortex-A72; 2Ghz (stable overclock to 2.2Ghz all-core)
- RAM
- 2x DDR4 SODIMM slots @ up to 3200Mhz
- if you have one module then use top slot or use 202105 firmware (or newer)
- XMP profiles are supported
- ECC supported
- Up to 64GB
- Supports only 1.2v modules
- 2x DDR4 SODIMM slots @ up to 3200Mhz
- Storage
- m.2 slot for PCI Express Gen3 x4 NVME
- 4 Serial ATA III ports
- Onboard eMMC 64GB
- MicroSD Slot
- SPI Flash for firmware
- Network
- 1x Gigabit Ethernet with RJ-45 connector
- 4x 10GbE ports (40Gb support) with SFP+ connectors
- PCI Express
- x8 half-slot (open-ended, x16 card support), PCI Express Gen3
- USB
- 2 USB 3 ports
- 1 USB 3 header (2 ports)
- 1 USB 2 header (2 ports)
- Interface
- 1 micro USB port for serial console
- 1 micro USB port for management
- 1 JTAG header
The SolidRun HoneyComb LX2K (ClearFog) is a Mini-ITX form-factor ARM64 development board. Can be used for enterprise networking, security, automotive, server applications, and as a developer workstation. Over the last year there has been much development to bring a stable desktop experience with AMD GPU support and it has finally reached a point where it is now viable as an ARM64 Desktop. Over the last few months the bugs have settled down, so I decided to write up some guides on how to get this set up for various use cases.
Using a Radeon WX 4100, many applications such as Blender, RBDOOM-3, Portal 2 and console emulators run laps around the Raspberry Pi 4, RockPro64, and Odroid XU-4. Many games run at 3440x1440 @ 60fps as long as you aren't going ham on the render options, Minecraft running close to 60fps @ 12-16 chunks, and OpenMW running @ 60fps with everything turned to max. And with Box86, there are many native x86 applications that run smoothly.
The guide below is a WIP, and I greatly appreciate any comments regarding how I can improve this page, and will try to answer any questions thrown my way.
- Onboard Gigabit Ethernet may not work out-of-the-box, must apply kernel patches or use USB (or PCIe) Ethernet adaptor.
- Using Linux kernel 5.14 (or newer) all on-board ports work.
- You can build an older kernel with SolidRun patches from the SolidRun GitHub page.
- nVidia GPU's only support framebuffer at time of writing (no hardware acceleration)
- SolidRun firmware images can be downloaded as UEFI or U-Boot (like on Rasperry/Pi or other popular SBC).
- UEFI one is highly recommended
- The EDKII UEFI BIOS will sometimes hang at splash under certain reboot conditions.
- simply wait a few seconds and boot again
- If you experience frequent crashing, no wake from sleep, etc., make sure GRUB Linux Defaults are set as well as disabling sleep/hybernate services.
- At time of writing there appears to be minor window boarder and text artifacting on occasion; shouldn't affect overall experience.
- Booting with some keyboards (usually gaming ones) may not register during POST and will not respond to input. Once booted into Linux drivers will pick up any non-standard keyboards. I.e.: You may need a 2nd generic USB keyboard to highlight BIOS options.
- Use Wayland over X11 if at all possible, X has much more bugs with GPU acceleration and Wayland has the ability to launch X windows anyways.
You will need the following items:
- 512MB+ MicroSD card
- 2GB+ USB Thumb Drive
- USB Ethernet Adaptor (try sticking with generic, Realtek based chips if possible)
- Build computer/SBC with an SD slot or adaptor
- (recommended) Micro USB cable
- (recommended) Radeon GCN 5th Gen or lower
- (recommended) Standard USB Keyboard (i.e.: A cheap usb keyboard)
- Serial (COM#)
- Speed: 115200
- Data Bits: 8
- Stop Bits: 1
- Parity: NONE
- Flow Control: XON/XOFF
NOTE: Make sure to connect Micro USB cable to the Console port (the one closer to 1GbE connector).
-
Assuming your board has USB Ethernet adaptor, RAM, Storage, PSU and GPU (optional) installed, head here on your build computer [https://images.solid-run.com/LX2k] to download the Tianocore EDKII UEFI firmware.
-
On the images page, click the link "lx2160a_uefi" and select the appropriate image file.
NOTE (2a): There are three parts of the filename to focus on: "2000" = CPU Speed, "xx00" = RAM Speed, "sd/flexspi" = Target Install. All have the same CPU speed, so make sure you grab the file with correct RAM speed and "sd" for MicroSD card.
NOTE (2b): flexspi_nor can be used to install to internal SPI Flash. [Haven't tested]
NOTE (2c): This image can be built from scratch and is explained at the bottom of this guide.
-
Flash the img.xz file to your uSD card using dd or BalenaEtcher.
-
Insert the uSD into the back of the LX2K.
NOTE (4): At this point you may begin using the board, you may now also connect over console via Micro USB. Using the Micro USB cable is useful for controlling BIOS over serial, troubleshooting boot issues, and installing some OS' that only work in console mode.
If the system crashes constantly on sleep/suspend event, use this command to disable:
sudo systemctl mask sleep.target suspend.target hibernate.target hybrid-sleep.target
Over the course of this boards life its recieved various Mesa patches to help fix quirks related to GPU/PCIe issues. Ubuntu and most systems Mesa packages are a little out of date for stability reasons. I use Oibaf's repository which contains up to date aarch64 builds, and can be added by doing the following:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers && sudo apt update
Pi-Apps contains a few games such as full Minecraft Java, and some quality of life apps like Box86/64. I recommend this route to save time manually installing and figuring out the quirks. Pi-Apps can be installed from Github or by using:
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Botspot/pi-apps/master/install | bash
As mentioned above, Pi-Apps can automatically set up Box64 and Box86 (with auto armhf chroot). This means just enabling these will allow you to execute many x86 based linux programs, including Wine. A few things to note:
- Running Wine with Box86 should work for many passive apps such as Notepad++ or DosBox, but because it's translating AND emulating don't expect any miracles.
- I recommend installing just Box86, then installing Box64 if needed. I have run into issues where, for example, launching AssaultCube with Box64 installed hangs when trying to connect to GL. Uninstalling Box64 let AssaultCube load 32bit libraries under Box86, booting the game properly.
Setup Pi-Apps, Box86, and Steam
NOTE: Upon powering up, press ESC at the splash to enter the BIOS menu.
A. Select Language
1. Standard English
2. Standard French
3. English
4. French
B. Device Manager
1. Device List
a. Tls Auth Configuration
- Configures Client/Server TLS Certificates
b. RAM Disk Configuration
- Create a RAM storage device from system memory.
c. O/S Hardware Description Selection
- Select between ACPI mode or Device Tree (ACPI, better for UEFI; DT, better for U-Boot)
d. Console Preference Selection
- Boot the system in "Graphical" (video) or "Console" (serial) mode
e. iSCSI Configuration
- Configure iSCSI
f. Network Device List
- Select NIC and configure boot/protocol settings
C. Boot Manager
1. Boot Manager Menu
- Lists all bootable devices including custom entries
D. Boot Maintenance Manager
1. Boot Options
a. Add Boot Option
- Select a bootable EFI file from device list to add to boot list
b. Delete Boot Option
- Remove an entry from the boot list
c. Change Boot Order
- Use + and - to change an entry's load order in the boot list
2. Driver Options
- Add, Remove, and Delete custom EFI boot drivers including load order
3. Console Options
- Change Console input/output devices, number of lines (width/height), baud rate, etc.
4. Boot From File
a. Boot From File
- Select an EFI file from device list to immediatly boot from
5. Boot Next Value
- Select an entry from the boot list to load on next reboot
6. Auto Boot Time-out
- Enter a value for how long the Splash Screen is shown for (Default value is 10)
E. Continue
- Continue booting the system as normal
F. Reset
- Immediately reboot the system
Remember that playing with overclocking requires properly working cooling solution. LX2160A cpu used in HoneyComb will shutdown at around 95°C.
Contrary to x86-64 you do not get any options in firmware setup to do overclocking. Instead you have to build UEFI firmware with other clock values.
Clone git repository with firmware source:
git clone https://github.com/SolidRun/lx2160a_uefi.git
Enter the newly created "lx2160a_uefi" folder and run:
INITIALIZE=1 ./runme.sh
There are few parameters that can be used to control firmware build:
| parameter | default value | description |
|---|---|---|
| SOC_SPEED | 2000 | Sets the CPU Clock Speed (in MHz) |
| BUS_SPEED | 700 | Sets Bus frequency (in MHz) |
| DDR_SPEED | 2400 | Sets the DDR4 RAM timings (needs to be rounded to 100s) |
| XMP_PROFILE | 0 | Enables XMP Profile (ex. XMP_PROFILE=1 enables XMP, XMP_PROFILE=0 disables XMP) |
| X86EMU | 0 | Enables x86 emulator for Option ROMs (enable only if plan to use NVidia graphics) |
| AMDGOP | 1 | Add graphics driver for AMD Radeon cards |
| SERDES | 8_5_2 | SERDES configuration (do not touch if you do not know what it is) |
| BOOT_MODE | sd | are you building firmware for loading from MicroSD (sd) or for on-board SPI (flexspi_nor) |
| INITIALIZE | 1 | Used to check are dependencies installed |
Select from the parameters above and build your firmware image:
SOC_SPEED=2200 DDR_SPEED=3200 XMP_PROFILE=0 ./runme.sh
Will build an image with CPU speed of 2.2GHz, bus @ 700MHz, DDR4 memory speed @ 3.2GHz with XMP disabled.
Resulting file will be stored in "images/" directory and named "lx2160acex7_2200_700_3200_8_5_2_sd_xxxxxxx.img".
Write firmware image to MicroSD card (use dd or other similar tool). Insert into into LX2K and reboot.
Diving into the setup of this board was daunting given my previous experience, however this guide would not be possible without the assistance from the following:
@hrw - Helping with this guide and giving me tips along the way
@jnettlet - For being patient and helping me thoroughly understand the LX2K, all while providing major development for this board
rna (Armbian Forums) - For writing the ARM 32-bit chroot guide which became a template for part of this guide