Armbian for Odroid C4/HC4 - Focal & Groovy 5.10.y

[igorpec]

What is Armbian?



Simple. Light. Optimized. Fast. Secure. Supported. Open.
Armbian is a base operating system platform for single board computers that other projects can trust to build upon.

- Lightweight Debian or Ubuntu based linux distribution specialized for ARM development boards,
- Each system is compiled, assembled and optimized by Armbian Build Tools,
- It has a vibrant support community.


Odroid C4


Odroid HC4
To be able to boot clean Armbian mainline based u-boot / kernel experiences, you need to remove incompatible Petitboot loader that is shipped with the board. From the Petitboot, go for “Exit to shell” and these commands to remove the Petitboot:

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# flash_eraseall /dev/mtd0
# flash_eraseall /dev/mtd1
# flash_eraseall /dev/mtd2
# flash_eraseall /dev/mtd3

This will make your SPI flash memory empty and would start from SD on next boot. In case you want to put Petitboot back to the board, user those instructions.

Armbian Linux uses mainline based boot loader and can come in any Ubuntu or Debian minimal, server or desktop variant.

( Getting started )

[igorpec]

- updated LTS images to 5.4.36
- updated nightly images to 5.6.8

Removed wrongly set max speed limit

[igorpec]

Received in the lab!

P1170729.JPG (292.28 KiB) Viewed 10089 times

c4-login.png (90.8 KiB) Viewed 10089 times

[igorpec]

How to build Ubuntu 20.04 for Odroid C4 from sources?

... or latest Debian if you prefer that.

You need x86 computer with:

Ubuntu Bionic / Focal based environment:

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git clone https://github.com/armbian/build
cd build
./compile.sh BOARD="odroidc4" EXPERT="yes"

or any x86 Linux to compile with help of Docker.

For Debian based distributions Docker is installed automatically, elsewhere (Fedora, Arch, ....) you need to install Docker first.

Code: Select all

git clone https://github.com/armbian/build
cd build
./compile.sh docker BOARD="odroidc4" EXPERT="yes"

Check @BadPritt video to see how simple this process is:



For more info about build options, check developers guide:
https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guid ... eparation/

[igorpec]

Fixed network troubles on both kernels & images has been updated.

[igorpec]

Fixed problem with update which lead to the broken system.

[igorpec]

c4-legacy.png (50.72 KiB) Viewed 9229 times

- added (improved) stock u-boot / kernel images in Ubuntu Focal 20.04 and Debian Buster variant (SERVER or DESKTOP)
- mainline kernel was moved to 5.6.y

https://www.armbian.com/odroid-c4/

[lda4526]

c4-legacy.png

- added (improved) stock u-boot / kernel images in Ubuntu Focal 20.04 and Debian Buster variant (SERVER or DESKTOP)
- mainline kernel was moved to 5.6.y

https://www.armbian.com/odroid-c4/

I appreciate all the work you do! Since HW acceleration is working in Wayland, is there any plan to release a Gnome/KDE desktop image?

It would be huge to have something like this in my opinion.

[igorpec]

c4-legacy.png

- added (improved) stock u-boot / kernel images in Ubuntu Focal 20.04 and Debian Buster variant (SERVER or DESKTOP)
- mainline kernel was moved to 5.6.y

https://www.armbian.com/odroid-c4/

I appreciate all the work you do! Since HW acceleration is working in Wayland, is there any plan to release a Gnome/KDE desktop image?

It would be huge to have something like this in my opinion.

Thank you!

Most of the Armbian staff works and live in a kernel space, then user space, CLI, server things and then we change DE, wallpapers and look ... Our primary concern is that stuff works as one would expect, second that it looks nice, thirds that there are more desktop options. Others usually have the opposite agenda

I was playing around with (stock) Gnome and it really works quite well, also on less powerful machines like Allwinner A64/H5. Currently, there is little to no development to provide another desktop beside XFCE, but there are is technical ground to start ... This is an ongoing idea to establish a team, responsible for desktop development. But nevertheless ... its possible to just reuse stock Gnome without any rework / rebranding. It works. If you are a fan of desktop tweaking and have time, you are more then welcome to help, to do something about.

[lda4526]

c4-legacy.png

- added (improved) stock u-boot / kernel images in Ubuntu Focal 20.04 and Debian Buster variant (SERVER or DESKTOP)
- mainline kernel was moved to 5.6.y

https://www.armbian.com/odroid-c4/

I appreciate all the work you do! Since HW acceleration is working in Wayland, is there any plan to release a Gnome/KDE desktop image?

It would be huge to have something like this in my opinion.

Thank you!

Most of the Armbian staff works and live in a kernel space, then user space, CLI, server things and then we change DE, wallpapers and look ... Our primary concern is that stuff works as one would expect, second that it looks nice, thirds that there are more desktop options. Others usually have the opposite agenda

I was playing around with (stock) Gnome and it really works quite well, also on less powerful machines like Allwinner A64/H5. Currently, there is little to no development to provide another desktop beside XFCE, but there are is technical ground to start ... This is an ongoing idea to establish a team, responsible for desktop development. But nevertheless ... its possible to just reuse stock Gnome without any rework / rebranding. It works. If you are a fan of desktop tweaking and have time, you are more then welcome to help, to do something about.

Thank you for the reply! When you say focusing on making stuff just works, are you optimistic that open source drivers will eventually allow for HW acceleration in X11 soon?

I really wish I could help but I am not really a dev unfortunately. I would definitely donate!

I have always been a mate/xfce guy myself but was tempted to go KDE/Gnome strictly because of HW acceleration.

[einstein]

I just install Armbian Focal Server (Kernel 5.6) on my new C4 on eMMC. The first boot worked fine and I was able to complete the setup procedure. Thereafter I did the standard
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo reboot

Unfortunately the reboot did not work. Red LED was on, blue LED stayed off.

I recognized during the update, that it actually downgraded the kernel from 5.6 to 5.4.

What did I do wrong?

Detlev

[igorpec]

What did I do wrong?

Forget to seek for that information at the place where you download this file. There is a text

Kernel 5.6.y + modern u-boot

apt update & apt upgrade might leads to the broken system.

on the download pages. Modern kernel and u-boot has this problem ... use stock 4.9.y kernel based images (1st choice) until this is not sorted out. Or best - help sorting out. Modern kernel is very fresh and its not yet on the production levels. New images and updates are coming out today / tomorrow ...

[igorpec]

I just install Armbian Focal Server (Kernel 5.6) on my new C4 on eMMC. The first boot worked fine and I was able to complete the setup procedure. Thereafter I did the standard
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo reboot

Unfortunately the reboot did not work. Red LED was on, blue LED stayed off.

I recognized during the update, that it actually downgraded the kernel from 5.6 to 5.4.

What did I do wrong?

This problems was fixed - it doesn't corrupt the boot image anymore, but one boot related problem remains - with modern kernel/u-boot reboot usually hangs and you need to power cycle.

[igorpec]

Armbian 20.05 Kagu

What's new:
https://www.armbian.com/newsflash/armbian-20-05-kagu/

Odroid C4 images
Focal / Buster / Bionic / Stretch

[lda4526]

Just out of curiosity are you no longer using 7z? I was a big fan of the fact that you always included a sig file in the 7z archive and that you actually signed the img file using gpg

[igorpec]

Just out of curiosity are you no longer using 7z? I was a big fan of the fact that you always included a sig file in the 7z archive and that you actually signed the img file using gpg

For official releases, no, but the build system supports this way of packing in case some 3rd party distro is using our build tool. We decided (sadly can't find URL to a discussion right now) to go away - main purpose is to simplify SD/eMMC card burn process. Sig and sha files are in a separate files and now the compressed image is signed. IMO its more standard way and nothing has been lost in term of security.

[lda4526]

I know you said that you will not be focusing on Gnome for now, but it looks like Alyssa has made some progress for the GPU https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog ... ics-blobs/

Do you include upstream Mesa by any chance if a user were to try and install Gnome from scratch?

[igorpec]

I know you said that you will not be focusing on Gnome for now, but it looks like Alyssa has made some progress for the GPU https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog ... ics-blobs/

Do you include upstream Mesa by any chance if a user were to try and install Gnome from scratch?

I did test install of Gnome3 with stock mesa lib but only on Utgard arch. Don't know if you need more recent one for bifrost - just try. We are low on desktop development so any help in this regard is welcome! Nothing much, perhaps just making and maintaining own clean snapstoreless Gnome3 DE, that we don't need to use stock bulky branded Ubuntu desktop.

[igorpec]

It seems we nailed down the remaining nasty bug "Reboot hangs on boot loader". In case someone still can reproduce it, please speak up here or here and describe your hw setup (especially we are interested in your eMMC/SD card type / brand)

[fvolk]

I flashed 1572864000 Armbian_20.05.2_Odroidc4_focal_current_5.6.15.img
Every one of my C4s boots with mac address 00:50:43:84:fb:2f instead of expected Odroid mac of 00:1e:06:xx:yy:zz
Bug?

[igorpec]

I flashed 1572864000 Armbian_20.05.2_Odroidc4_focal_current_5.6.15.img
Every one of my C4s boots with mac address 00:50:43:84:fb:2f instead of expected Odroid mac of 00:1e:06:xx:yy:zz
Bug?

Linux without bugs? Not possible I haven't notice this problem ... you are saying MAC is fixed, but not the same as on stock kernel? Or switching random?

[fvolk]

With stock Odroid 4.9 the eth0 mac is Odroid's usual 00:1e:06:xx:yy:zz format.
I flashed above's image of Armbian and booted the same microSD on different C4s one after another - and all got the same IP from DHCP - then I figured that's because they claim the same mac.... this does not look normal? :-)

[odroid]

I think Armbian OS images ignore the hardware( our pre-programmed NV memory) MAC address.

[joerg]

That‘s probably something, that need to be ported to mainline kernel.

[billylo]

I use the 4.9 legacy image with SD card. It seems that the kernel only supports cpu max up to 1800000.

[igorpec]

I use the 4.9 legacy image with SD card. It seems that the kernel only supports cpu max up to 1800000.

Aren't stock images also limited to 1.8?

[joerg]

Hello @igorpec, when I tried Armbian I2C with my C4 I saw that the I2C overlays are not correct, have address of C2:

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/ {
    compatible = "amlogic,meson-gxbb";
    fragment@0 {
        target-path = "/aliases";
        __overlay__ {
            i2cA = "/soc/bus@c1100000/i2c@8500";
        };
    };
    fragment@1 {
        target-path = "/soc/bus@c1100000/i2c@8500";
        __overlay__ {
            status = "okay";
        };
    };
};

Need to be like this:

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&i2c2 {
	status = "okay";

	/*
	 * 40 Pin Header : SDA(GPIOX.17->3 Pin)
	 *		   SCL(GPIOX.18->5 Pin)
	 */
	pinctrl-names = "default";
	pinctrl-0 = <&i2c2_master_pins1>;

	/* default 400k */
	clock-frequency = <400000>;
};

&i2c3 {
	/* default i2c clock-frequency is 100Khz */
	status = "okay";

	/*
	 * 40 Pin Header : SDA(GPIOA.14->27 Pin)
	 *		   SCL(GPIOA.15->28 Pin)
	 */
	pinctrl-names = "default";
	pinctrl-0 = <&i2c3_master_pins2>;

	/* default 100k */
	clock-frequency = <100000>;
};

&periphs_pinctrl {
	i2c2_master_pins1: i2c2-master-pins1 {
		mux {
			groups = "i2c2_sda_x",
				"i2c2_sck_x";
			function = "i2c2";
			bias-pull-up;
			drive-strength-microamp = <4000>;
		};
	};

	i2c3_master_pins2: i2c3-master-pins2 {
		mux {
			groups = "i2c3_sda_a",
				"i2c3_sck_a";
			function = "i2c3";
			bias-pull-up;
			drive-strength-microamp = <4000>;
		};
	};
};

Together with a patch from tony.hong for the pinctrl-meson:
viewtopic.php?f=202&t=39110#p295486

[fvolk]

on different C4s one after another - and all got the same IP from DHCP - then I figured that's because they claim the same mac....

I hard-wired a
setenv ethaddr "00:1e:06:xx:yy:zz"
into the boot script(s) as a temporary work-around,
with original mac address(es) obtained from Odroid's image,
so that the IP addresses received from DHCP are stable.

May I ask, is the Armbian Uboot binary available somewhere in a package, like Odroid's? (https://github.com/hardkernel/u-boot/tags)
That would accelerate setting up new card...

[tobetter]

on different C4s one after another - and all got the same IP from DHCP - then I figured that's because they claim the same mac....

I hard-wired a
setenv ethaddr "00:1e:06:xx:yy:zz"
into the boot script(s) as a temporary work-around,
with original mac address(es) obtained from Odroid's image,
so that the IP addresses received from DHCP are stable.

May I ask, is the Armbian Uboot binary available somewhere in a package, like Odroid's? (https://github.com/hardkernel/u-boot/tags)
That would accelerate setting up new card...

I had replied a couple of times that MAC address issue can be resolved by using HK stock U-boot, at the same time this will cause the boot failure with 5.x kernel as you exprienced. So, again, please share post your boot.ini you are using in your Armbian image.

[fvolk]

So, again, please share post your boot.ini you are using in your Armbian image.

I have already provided a link to my boot script two times in this forum. For your convenience, instead of solely the link (viewtopic.php?f=135&t=22717&start=1100#p292685) another full copy below that I now use with Armbian - note the only changed lines are the dtb and now also the mac address. (the parts with xx are redacted, of course)

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setenv kernel_addr 11000000
setenv fdt_addr 1000000
#setenv fdtfile c2/meson-gxbb-odroidc2.dtb
setenv fdtfile c2/meson-sm1-odroid-c4.dtb
setenv bootfile c2/Image
setenv autoload no
setenv ethaddr "00:1e:06:xx:xx:xx"
dhcp
setenv serverip 192.168.1.xx
tftp ${kernel_addr} ${bootfile}
tftp ${fdt_addr} ${fdtfile}
setenv bootargs init=/mydisklessinit ip=dhcp root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=192.168.1.xx:/c2,tcp,vers=4.1 no_console_suspend fsck.fix=yes
booti ${kernel_addr} - ${fdt_addr}
boot

[tobetter]

So, again, please share post your boot.ini you are using in your Armbian image.

I have already provided a link to my boot script two times in this forum. For your convenience, instead of solely the link (viewtopic.php?f=135&t=22717&start=1100#p292685) another full copy below that I now use with Armbian - note the only changed lines are the dtb and now also the mac address. (the parts with xx are redacted, of course)

Code: Select all

setenv kernel_addr 11000000
setenv fdt_addr 1000000
#setenv fdtfile c2/meson-gxbb-odroidc2.dtb
setenv fdtfile c2/meson-sm1-odroid-c4.dtb
setenv bootfile c2/Image
setenv autoload no
setenv ethaddr "00:1e:06:xx:xx:xx"
dhcp
setenv serverip 192.168.1.xx
tftp ${kernel_addr} ${bootfile}
tftp ${fdt_addr} ${fdtfile}
setenv bootargs init=/mydisklessinit ip=dhcp root=/dev/nfs nfsroot=192.168.1.xx:/c2,tcp,vers=4.1 no_console_suspend fsck.fix=yes
booti ${kernel_addr} - ${fdt_addr}
boot

I've seen the links but there were no boot.ini I can refer to correctly.
With the Hardkernel U-boot, try after changing the value fdt_addr from 1000000 to 0x20000000.

[fvolk]

With the Hardkernel U-boot, try after changing the value fdt_addr from 1000000 to 0x20000000.

changed to

Code: Select all

setenv kernel_addr 11000000
setenv fdt_addr  0x20000000

network boot works with Odroid U-Boot :-)
What are the optimal/correct values for this addr?

[tobetter]

With the Hardkernel U-boot, try after changing the value fdt_addr from 1000000 to 0x20000000.

changed to

Code: Select all

setenv kernel_addr 11000000
setenv fdt_addr  0x20000000

network boot works with Odroid U-Boot
What are the optimal/correct values for this addr?

For the U-boot from Hardkernel which version is old (v2015.01), as long as it's not lower than 0x01080000 (kernel execute address) and not overlapped with other booting images, it would be fine. My OS images also use the same address 0x20000000, you can try another address for sure. So...the problem is solved?

[fvolk]

So far it appears to work, yes, I can use my C4s now :-)
I don't know how this stuff works in detail, I use whatever address you tell me and I hope it doesn't waste any memory with one load address vs. another....

[jayjr1105]

How is this vs the stock Ubuntu Mate?

[igorpec]

How is this vs the stock Ubuntu Mate?

Stock Ubuntu Mate is unofficial Ubuntu with a hardware layer / kernel from Hardkernel, a kernel where this device (C4) was initially developed. Armbian provides that same identical kernel but also a modern kernel (5.6.y ATM + u-boot 2020.04) experience. You can switch kernels (test how far modern kernel development is) without reinstalling the image + general improvements: https://forum.armbian.com/topic/7787-wh ... ment-58689 and can easily be recreated from sources. "Ubuntu Mate" can't be easily recreated.

"Mate" is just a (lightweight) desktop environment of choice. Armbian default comes with XFCE. Both have pros and cons.

[campbell]

Worth noting this image results in around 600 mW lower power consumption when not using USB, compared to the Hardkernel Ubuntu image with 4.9 kernel. And unlike on the C2, USB remains hotpluggable under the mainline kernel. All good progress!

[campbell]

I don't suppose there's any procedure for rebuilding the kernel on the board, with just a couple config mods vs the one packaged in this image? All the Armbian docs say I need to do this on an x86_64 machine, which seems rather arbitrary and shortsighted.

[igorpec]

I don't suppose there's any procedure for rebuilding the kernel on the board, with just a couple config mods vs the one packaged in this image? All the Armbian docs say I need to do this on an x86_64 machine, which seems rather arbitrary and shortsighted.

It is possible to rebuild kernel on a device, but its on the level as on any other Linux. Manually. We are working on to make it easy, but we don't cover costs for making this and investion will never be returned so there is no need to rush anywhere. Sources can be downloaded via armbian-config ...

[campbell]

I don't suppose there's any procedure for rebuilding the kernel on the board, with just a couple config mods vs the one packaged in this image? All the Armbian docs say I need to do this on an x86_64 machine, which seems rather arbitrary and shortsighted.

It is possible to rebuild kernel on a device, but its on the level as on any other Linux. Manually. We are working on to make it easy, but we don't cover costs for making this and investion will never be returned so there is no need to rush anywhere. Sources can be downloaded via armbian-config ...

That's a shame. Recompiling either the Hardkernel kernel on the C4 or the Arch Linux kernel on the C2 is trivially easy, takes a while but is pretty hands-off.

[igorpec]

On Armbian you have to run "make" ... Just "make install" part is not done yet. You need to copy artefacts manually. For a developer this is trivial easy.

Poslano z mojega Mi 9T Pro z uporabo Tapatalk

[campbell]

For Debian based distributions Docker is installed automatically, elsewhere (Fedora, Arch, ....) you need to install Docker first.

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git clone https://github.com/armbian/build
cd build
./compile.sh docker BOARD="odroidc4" EXPERT="yes"

I tried this in a fresh Ubuntu 20.04 VM with 30 GB of disk space (Armbian docs say you need 25), and it ran out of disk space after installing at least fourteen versions of gcc. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. Can you give some more detailed instructions for reproducing this image?

[igorpec]

I tried this in a fresh Ubuntu 20.04 VM with 30 GB of disk space (Armbian docs say you need 25)

If you care that its corrected file problems you have with documentation here:
https://github.com/armbian/documentation/issues
... and wait for a volunteer to change that text.

Pull request is a desired way.

installing at least fourteen versions of gcc.

For compiling Odroid C4 at least 2, possible 3 are needed. This tool was not designed to cover only Odroid nor anyone personal needs. Yes, its possible to RFC this part, also to remove 1 or 2 that is already deprecated, but maintaining already costs around 3.000 EUR per day ... and more important issues are waiting. BTW, I know all supporters, some in person, that helps to lower this.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

If you ran out of space its obvious what to do ...

Can you give some more detailed instructions for reproducing this image?

I happily provide support for clients that covers my time. My inbox have a constant flow of people that wants "some help" ...
https://github.com/armbian/build#support

[joerg]

@campbell, as @odroid confirmed in this thread viewtopic.php?f=114&t=37887&hilit=eos#p282220, you don't need all the old toolchains, only the empty file .download-complete in folder build/cache/toolchains/... is necessary and build process won't download the toolchain if this file exists. So you can delete this old toolchains to free the memory. Just a workaround.

[Technicavolous]

I'm fairly new to the Armbian build system but I was able to set up a virtual machine with just three cores and 16gb ram and was able to have a working C4 image after a few hours without excluding any toolchains. In this day and age of terabyte drives I gave my virtual machine 100gb and never worried about running out of anything.

[campbell]

I'm fairly new to the Armbian build system but I was able to set up a virtual machine with just three cores and 16gb ram and was able to have a working C4 image after a few hours without excluding any toolchains. In this day and age of terabyte drives I gave my virtual machine 100gb and never worried about running out of anything.

Yes, I eventually figured out that a new Ubuntu 20.04 install, given 30 GB of space, by default only allocates a smaller portion of that for the root partition, well below the 25 GB of space the Armbian docs say to provide.

If you figure out what combination of arguments to pass to the Armbian compile script to reproduce igorpec's image, can you paste them here?

[cyl3x]

I have installed moonlight-embbed, but it says "no hardware decoder found". Is there anything i can do to avoid that?

[igorpec]

I have installed moonlight-embbed, but it says "no hardware decoder found". Is there anything i can do to avoid that?

I am sorry, but I never heard of this software and what it does. Does it work with official Hardkernel images?

[cyl3x]

moonlight embedded is an opensource streaming client that use nividia shield "techology" to stream your games. I dont know if it works with the official images, i didn't get it compiled. After a bit testing I think its a general problem with moonlight and libaries

[igorpec]

Release is coming. Need help on testings ...
https://twitter.com/armbian/status/1290674929562726401