A simple development environment for ARMv7 boards based on Allwinners A20/H2/H3/A83T/... processor. It provides basic component like compiler, env scripts (to set some environment variables like ${ARMHF_HOME}) and more. Additional you find all infos and binarys/tools to setup one of the supported devices (see below). To make life easier you can use the provided scripts to clone useful external repositories like u-boot or build a kernel for your device. To make a ready to use sd-card you can use a dialog based script which guide you through the process.
The basic user interface are make targets, which then start the corresponding scripts:
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| Nothing to build |
| |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
| Example: |
| make init_sdk -> init all needed part |
| make get_external_repos -> get git repos like u-boot |
| make get_toolchain -> install toolchain |
| make get_latest_kernel -> download latest kernel version |
| make get_image_tarballs -> download image tarballs |
| make get_binpkgs -> download latest binpgs |
| make get_all -> get all of the above |
| make clean -> clean all dir/subdirs |
| make distclean -> complete cleanup/delete |
| make mrproper -> do mrproper cleanup |
| make man -> show a20_sdk manpage |
| ... |
| make make_sdcard -> small tool to make a read to |
| use SD-Card |
| make install -> install some scripts to |
| $(HOME)/bin |
| make uninstall -> remove scripts from |
| $(HOME)/bin |
+-----------------------------------------------------------+
The sdk comes with documentation and some simple source code examples. You can find it in ${HOME}/src/a20_sdk/*.
WARNING: This is work in progress! So it's possible that something is not working as expected.
If you face a bug then pls use https://github.com/tjohann/a20_sdk/issues to create an issue.
The only yet know software requirements are git (to clone/update runtimedir), rsync (to sync content below workdir and srcdir) and dialog (if you want a tool to make your sd-card -> a20_sdk_make_sdcard.sh).
For the two types of provided images (glibc/full and musl/base) you need sd-cards with 10 or 6 gig of size. If you want to use a hdd it should be at least larger then 16 gig (i use 500 gig connected to my Cubietruck-Plus).
The a20_sdk use 3 different locations:
/var/lib/a20_sdk (this git repository)
/opt/a20_sdk
${HOME}/src/a20_sdk
The location below /var/lib/ is the "runtime" environment. There you find all base content like env file or scripts (see ./NEWS and ./UPGRADE_HINTS)
Below /opt/a20_sdk you find the downloaded content (from http://sourceforge.net/projects/a20devices/) like toolchain and device images. It also includes the standard location for cloned repositorys like u-boot or the kernel sources. Everthing could be done via a make target which then calls the coresponding script (see below for more info).
You can use this sdk in different ways, depending on your use case, but you need some basic parts.
Create the runtime locations:
sudo mkdir /var/lib/a20_sdk
Change group to users and chmod it to 775:
chown -R YOUR_USER_ACCOUNT:users /var/lib/a20_sdk
chmod 775 /var/lib/a20_sdk
Clone this repo to /var/lib/a20_sdk
git clone https://github.com/tjohann/a20_sdk.git /var/lib/a20_sdk
Source the environment file armhf_env
. ./armhf_env
or add it to your .bashrc
# setup the a20_sdk environment
if [ -f /var/lib/a20_sdk/armhf_env ]; then
. /var/lib/a20_sdk/armhf_env
fi
or copy armhf_env.sh to /etc/profile.d/ (the way I do it on the device images)
sudo cp armhf_env.sh /etc/profile.d/
Init the SDK:
cd /opt/a20_sdk (or /var/lib/a20_sdk)
make init_sdk
Via
make install
you install some script like make_sdcard.sh to ${HOME}/bin/a20_sdk_make_sdcard.sh
Note: to use all scripts, you have to add some mount points for your used device to your /etc/fstab and create the mount points below /mnt/ (see your prefered device below). It could also make sense to add your device to your /etc/hosts (see below for my example network configuration).
Download the compiler to /opt/a20_sdk/
make get_toolchain
Download ALL images to /opt/a20_sdk/images/ (Note: this will download ~4 GByte)
make get_image_tarballs
If you only need/want the cubietruck images, the you only need
cd /opt/a20_sdk/images
make get_cubietruck_image_tarballs
Note: do a
make
within /opt/a20_sdk/images to see what is additional supported.
Clone ALL external repos:
make get_external_repos
If you only need/want u-boot, then you only need
cd /opt/a20_sdk/external
make get_uboot
Note: do a
make
within /opt/a20_sdk/external to see what is additional supported.
Download latest supported kernel sources (for normal use and with RT_PREEMPT support):
make get_latest_kernel
if you only need/want the RT-PREEMPT parts, then you only need
make get_latest_rt_kernel
Note: do a
make
within /opt/a20_sdk/kernel to see what is additional supported.
Not all packages provided by the void-linux repo are available on armv7 architecture (emacs-gtk2 is an example). I provide some of them via binpkgs.tgz@sourceforge.
To download the latest binary packages type
make get_binpkgs
Note: do a
make
within /opt/a20_sdk/binpkgs to see what is additional supported.
Note: to install/query a packages (emacs-gtk2)
xbps-install --repository=/opt/a20_sdk/binpkgs emacs-gtk2
xbps-query --repository=/opt/a20_sdk/binpkgs emacs-gtk2
I regulary update the images, toolchain and more. To stay up to date you can simply do the following steps.
Pull the latest changes:
cd /var/lib/a20_sdk
git pull
Take a look at the ./NEWS file to see what i've changed. See also ./UPGRADE_HINTS.
If there're changes of the toolchain, then first distclean all:
make distclean
and then proceed with the normal setup process above.
In short:
make get_toolchain
make get_latest_kernel (if needed)
make get_image_tarballs (if needed)
Sometimes it is needed to init the the whole sdk again (see ./UPGRADE_HINTS). Then simply do a
make mrproper
make init_sdk
and then the rest (if needed)
make get_toolchain
make get_latest_kernel (if needed)
make get_image_tarballs (if needed)
To make a ready to use sd-card (see also "Images" below) you can use the small dialog based tool avaiblable via
make make_sdcard
or start
a20_sdk_make_sdcard.sh
This will guide you throught the process (Help of a20_sdk_make_sdcard.sh).
To do a hdd installation you have first to setup a sd-card with the option hdd-preparation (Help of a20_sdk_make_sdcard.sh). This will generate a sd-card with all needed tarballs on YOUR_FAVORITE_DEVICE_SDCARD_SHARED. The next step is to boot this sd-card and start another script wich will partition and install your connected hdd. If everthing went fine you now have a ready to use hdd but still missing a boot-only sd-card which you can setup (also) via (a20_sdk_)make_sdcard.sh.
See Help of hdd_installation.sh for more info.
Note: the size of the hdd-preparation sd-card should be at least 8 gig, the hdd-only sd-card could be small (it will carry only the boot partition and a small shared partition).
The cubietruck and the olimex have a flashchip soldered. There`re not supported out-of-the-box. For more informations about it take a look at https://linux-sunxi.org/Storage .
I use a standard version scheme via git tags based on 3 numbers:
A20_SDK_V2.9.5
The first number is the mayor number which reflect bigger changes. The second number (minor) will change because of
- new scripts
- kernel/updates of all devices (-> including new device images)
So a simple version update of the olimex kernel will not increase the minor number, instead it will increase the third number (age number):
- bugfixes
- update kernel versions only on one device (without new device images)
- updates of only one device images
- all smaller changes
You find storylines for some of my usescases/devices below ./DEVICE_NAME/Documentation/storyline.md. They should describe the setup of a device and my usecase of it. You can use them as something like guideline.
Note: Actually there not complete.
Within /var/lib/a20_sdk/ you find the 8 supported devices below the directories (see /var/lib/a20_sdk/pics for some pictures of them)
bananapi -> BananaPi-M1
bananapi-pro -> BananaPi-Pro (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
bananapi-m3 -> BananaPi-M3
cubietruck -> Cubietruck (Cubieboard 3)
cubietruck-plus -> Cubietruck-Plus (Cubieboard 5)
olimex -> Olimex A20-SOM/EVB (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
nanopi -> NanoPi Neo (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
orangepi-zero -> OrangePi Zero
Every device directory has the same sub-directories
Documentation -> info about the device, howtos for kernel, U-Boot and more
u-boot -> all U-Boot related content (*spl.bin, *.scr ...)
branding -> specific device branding like motd and dhcpd.conf
config -> kernel config for **PREEMPT** and/or **RT-PREEMPT**
You can find documenation on howto build a kernel or howto setup a device below Documenation. In general I will use mainline kernel and mainline U-Boot. Every device here has a "specific usecase". So therefore you find additional description about my usecase below.
In short:
bananapi -> baalue (my Bananapi Cluster with 8 Nodes) and embbedded plattform
bananapi-pro -> my internal void-linux server (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
bananapi-m3 -> another possible master node for baalue (used with FreeBSD)
cubietruck -> another possible baalue node node and test environment for jailhouse (https://github.com/siemens/jailhouse)
cubietruck-plus -> my master node for baalue
olimex -> my conectivity "monster" (nearly all A20 PINs are available!) and jailhouse playground (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
nanopi -> base board for my mobile robots (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
orangepi-zero -> jailhouse playground device
My BAnAnapi cLUEster (Baalue):
My embedded environment:
Two different version of the images are supported:
"normal" -> it's a large image with all important parts installed
"base/small" -> it's a image where only base components are installed
You can think of the base/small image as a starting point for your individual device config. The images size also reflects the partition size, so you need at least 6 or 10 gig sd-cards.
A sd-card (for sd-card installation) needs 3 different partitions which are reflected by the images tarballs itself:
1). kernel (fat32/32 meg) -> bananapi_(hdd_)kernel.tgz/cubietruck_(hdd_)kernel.tgz/...
2). rootfs (ext4/6 or 10 gig) -> a20_sdk_rootfs.tgz/a20_sdk_base_image.tgz
3). home (ext4/ the rest) -> a20_sdk_home.tgz
root (password: root)
baalue (password: baalue)
The user baalue is available on all images, you can use it to login via ssh and then use sudo or su -l for root tasks.
Due to the fact that the devices are used for different task I support a mainline kernel with PREEMPT (instead of server or desktop) and a RT-PREEMPT (https://rt.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page) patched kernel. In general all my kernel are huge ones with nearly everthing activated (which would make sense) and all important driver are build in the kernel (not as modul).
You find my configurations below the folder ${ARMHF_HOME}/YOUR_FAVORITE_DEVICE/configs. To build your own custom kernel you can use them as a base.
Olimex -> RT-PREEMPT (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
Bananapi -> PREEMPT
Baalue-Node -> PREEMPT
Bananapi-M3 -> PREEMPT
Bananapi-Pro -> PREEMPT (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
Cubietruck -> PREEMPT
Cubietruck-Plus -> PREEMPT
NanoPi -> PREEMPT (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
OrangePi-Zero -> PREEMPT (RT-PREEMPT starting with A20_SDK_V2.9.5)
Note: both kernel (RT-PREEMPT and PREEMPT) are supported on every device. If you want to use the other kernel, then copy rt or non-rt of ${YOUR_FAVORITE_DEVICE_SDCARD_KERNEL}/rt/* to ${YOUR_FAVORITE_DEVICE_SDCARD_KERNEL}. Pls note that you can run into trouble if the dtb are not the same, if so then also copy the needed dtb from the ${YOUR_FAVORITE_DEVICE_SDCARD_KERNEL}/rt/${YOUR_FAVORITE_DEVICE}.dtb to ${YOUR_FAVORITE_DEVICE_SDCARD_KERNEL}
Due to the fact that not every kernel version support the RT-PREEMPT patch, i will reduce the effort to support hart realtime kernel. For all the newer devices like bananapi-m3 and cubietruck-plus, i need the latest kernel. This lead to different kernel versions and therefore problems regarding devicetree. Netherless, i will support the latest RT-PREEMPT for Orange-Pi-Zero. This is my main embedded device, so it makes sense to have RT-PREEMPT added. But be aware that you have to build your own kernel or at least dtb (see ./orangepi-zero/Documentation/howto_kernel.txt).
For testing purpose i have a physical network where all devices are conneted to. The easiest way to use it is to add a usb-ethernet adapter to your main machine and add your target device to it, otherwise you have to change the configuration by hand.
Single devices:
192.168.178.101 cubietruck.my.domain cubietruck
192.168.178.112 cubietruck-plus.my.domain cubietruck-plus
192.168.178.102 olimex.my.domain olimex
192.168.178.103 bananapi.my.domain bananapi
192.168.178.109 bananapi-pro.my.domain bananapi-pro
192.168.178.110 bananapi-m3.my.domain bananapi-m3
192.168.178.111 nanopi.my.domain nanopi
192.168.178.113 orangepi-zero.my.domain orangepi-zero
My cluster:
192.168.178.80 baalue-80.my.domain baalue_master
192.168.178.81 baalue-81.my.domain baalue-01
192.168.178.82 baalue-82.my.domain baalue-02
192.168.178.83 baalue-83.my.domain baalue-03
192.168.178.84 baalue-84.my.domain baalue-04
192.168.178.85 baalue-85.my.domain baalue-05
192.168.178.86 baalue-86.my.domain baalue-06
192.168.178.87 baalue-87.my.domain baalue-07
192.168.178.88 baalue-88.my.domain baalue-08
192.168.178.89 baalue-89.my.domain baalue-09
192.168.178.90 baalue-90.my.domain baalue-10
192.168.178.91 baalue-91.my.domain baalue-11
192.168.178.92 baalue-92.my.domain baalue-12
192.168.178.93 baalue-93.my.domain baalue-13
192.168.178.94 baalue-94.my.domain baalue-14
192.168.178.95 baalue-95.my.domain baalue-15
192.168.178.96 baalue-96.my.domain baalue-16
My nfs share:
192.168.178.42 echnaton.my.domain echnaton
192.168.178.107 build-server.my.domain build-server
To setup a build cluster based on this sdk you can addtional check https://github.com/tjohann/baalue_distcc . Here you should find all informations needed. Every base configuration is already included in both images (musl/base and glibc/full).
All binary/big files (toolchain or images) reside on sourceforge (https://sourceforge.net/projects/a20devices/files/). The scripts to setup the environment using that location to download them.
In the root directory you find the toolchain tarballs and the checksum.sh256 from the git-repository. The devices are represented through the named directorys. Below them you find only the kernel images (for sdcard installation and hdd installation). Due to the unified image approach the rootfs and home are below the directory named common.
Naming convention:
toochain_x86_64.tgz/host_x86_64.tgz -> cross-toolchain for x86_64 hosts
common/a20_sdk_*.tgz -> rootfs and home for all devices which need to be branded during make_sdcard.sh
common/a20_sdk_base_rootfs.tgz -> the base/minimal rootfs
bananapi/bananapi_(hdd_)kernel.tgz
bananapi/bananapi-pro_(hdd_)kernel.tgz (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
bananapi/bananapi-m3_(hdd_)kernel.tgz
bananapi/baalue_(hdd_)kernel.tgz
cubietruck/cubietruck_(hdd_)kernel.tgz
cubietruck/cubietruck-plus_(hdd_)kernel.tgz
olimex/olimex_(hdd_)kernel.tgz (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
nanopi/nanopi_(hdd_)kernel.tgz (!!! DEPRECATED !!!)
orangepi/orangepi-zero_(hdd_)kernel.tgz
Due to the state of my devices, i have to deprecated some of them. The reason is simple -> defects. At the moment i will leave all device in, but could not test them. So it`s up to you to check if everthing works as expected.
Supported devices:
Bananapi
Bananapi-M3
Cubietruck/Cubietruck-Plus
Orange-Pi-Zero
One of my two cubietruck (the cubietruck-plus) is acting as master nodes for my Bananapi Cluster (baalue_master). The baalue_master has a hard-disk as boot device. I use it as a distcc server node and the 8 cluster nodes as distcc clients. It has a pcb with some additional hardware connected.
The cubietruck's are also my test environment for the jailhouse hypervisor.
Cubietruck 3 vs Cubietruck 5:
Additonal Hardware connected:
LCD1602 and PCF8574 via I2C
500 GByte Harddisk
Addtional mount points (host):
LABEL=KERNEL_CUBI /mnt/cubietruck/cubietruck_kernel auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=ROOTFS_CUBI /mnt/cubietruck/cubietruck_rootfs auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=HOME_CUBI /mnt/cubietruck/cubietruck_home auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=SHARED_CUBI /mnt/cubietruck/cubietruck_shared auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
The storyline for Cubietruck-Plus
Note: this device is deprecated, because my devices has a defekt
I use this device as my internal void-linux package server. It also acts a an intermediate git server for playground stuff.
Addtional Hardware connected:
500 GByte Harddisk for data storage
Additional mount points (host):
LABEL=KERNEL_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_kernel auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=ROOTFS_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_rootfs auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=HOME_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_home auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=SHARED_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_shared auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
The storyline for Bananapi-Pro
I use the bananapi in 2 different ways:
- as a embedded device with can, display and other goodies
- a baalue-node
The main difference between these 2 usecases is the kernel. For a baalue-node i use the a PREEMPT kernel and for the embedded device i also use a RT-PREEMPT kernel.
Additonal Hardware conneted (as classic embedded device):
MCP25xx for second CAN via SPI
LCD1602 via I2C
CAN-Tranceiver on A20-CAN
Addtional mount points (host):
LABEL=KERNEL_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_kernel auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=ROOTFS_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_rootfs auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=HOME_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_home auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=SHARED_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_shared auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
I use this device as an possible baalue-master node (in future also with FreeBSD).
Addtional Hardware connected:
500 GByte 3,5 HDD
Additional mount points (host):
LABEL=KERNEL_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_kernel auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=ROOTFS_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_rootfs auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=HOME_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_home auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=SHARED_BANA /mnt/bananapi/bananapi_shared auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
Baalue is my bananapi cluster where I want to learn more about distributed system and the coresponding development models. The actual configuration has 8 Bananapi-M1 nodes and on master node based on a Cubietruck-Plus (CB5) or Bananapi-M3.
The script (a20_sdk_)make_sdcard.sh can generate a baalue node base image which is a specialized bananapi images. If you want to build your own cluster this could be a good starting point. What you then have to change is only the ip and the hostname (see folder baalue/branding/etc_1/ as an example).
There'se also a script called brand_baalue_images.sh in ./scripts. This will brand your image based on my topologie (ip and so one). But this script wont care about my used device. So you can build a olimex based cluster with my topologie instead of bananapi. (Note: the script wont change the kernel, so if you use olimex you will have a RT-PREEMPT kernel).
+--------------------------------------------------------+
| Usage: brand_baalue_images.sh |
| [-b] -> bananapi/bananapi-pro/olimex/baalue/ |
| cubietruck/cubietruck-plus/nanopi/ |
| orangepi-zero |
| [-n] -> node (1...16, master) |
| [-s] -> prepare images for hdd installation |
| [-v] -> print version info |
| [-h] -> this help |
| |
+--------------------------------------------------------+
A possible project where I want to use the cluster and distributed calculation is with my robot-cluster env (see baalue/Documentation/robot_cluster_env.pdf for more info about it).
My BAnAnapi cLUEster (Baalue):
Note: this device is deprecated, because one of my devices has a defekt
I use this device to play and test low level hardware because nearly all PINs of the A20 are available. It is also the test environment for my research about linux and realtime in general (see also https://github.com/tjohann/time_triggert_env.git).
Additonal Hardware conneted:
CAN-Tranceiver on A20-CAN
LCD1602 via I2C
GPIO-I2C via PCF8574
Ultrasonic sensor
GPS via uart
... a lot more
Addtional mount points (host):
LABEL=KERNEL_OLI /mnt/olimex/olimex_kernel auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=ROOTFS_OLI /mnt/olimex/olimex_rootfs auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=HOME_OLI /mnt/olimex/olimex_home auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=SHARED_OLI /mnt/olimex/olimex_shared auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
Note: this device is deprecated, because both of my devices have a defekt
I use this device as my base board for mobile robotics because of the size and cpu power (4 core).
Addtional Hardware connected:
DC motor controller
Ultrasonic sensor
USB camera
LCD1602 via I2C
... (sensors/actors for robotic)
Additional mount points (host):
LABEL=KERNEL_NANO /mnt/nanopi/nanopi_kernel auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=ROOTFS_NANO /mnt/nanopi/nanopi_rootfs auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=HOME_NANO /mnt/nanopi/nanopi_home auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=SHARED_NANO /mnt/nanopi/nanopi_shared auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
I use this device as another jailhouse playground device.
Addtional Hardware connected:
t.b.d. (none at the moment)
Additional mount points (host):
LABEL=KERNEL_ORAN /mnt/orangepi/orangepi_kernel auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=ROOTFS_ORAN /mnt/orangepi/orangepi_rootfs auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=HOME_ORAN /mnt/orangepi/orangepi_home auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
LABEL=SHARED_ORAN /mnt/orangepi/orangepi_shared auto noauto,user,rw 0 0
The storyline for OrangePi Zero
This repository is something like a bracket over my differnet projects and so below ${ARMHF_BIN_HOME} is the place for them. Some parts (like libbaalue.git or baalued.git) are already installed on the images i provide.
If you're interested in realtime linux (for example) you should have then a good basement for your own development.
I support only one version described by a tag. The toolchain and images are for that version. Older tags wont be supported anymore.
For every delivery i have something like a integration/delivery checklist (Integration/Delivery checklist).
Note: This repository is something like a bracket over my differnet projects. So not every point below will end in changes within this repository.
(future steps)
- add Qemu as baalue_master replacement
- add support for musl libc
- add full support for namespaces/cgroups/seccomp
- add lxc with an baseapp as an example
- make all scripts "self hosting" so that all scripts would also run on the target device (like build_kernel.sh running on baalue_master)
- working jailhouse configuration for orangepi-zero
- simple example for using bare-metal cell within orangepi-zero