Raspberry Pi Model 2

[Mikeclark]

Are there any plans to port ALArm onto the new, quad-core (Cortex -A7) Pi 2? If so, what is the likely release date?

[kmihelich]

When you see it on our site, it'll be supported.

[houdeani]

I'm also curious about this. I had hoped that the ODROID-C1 release would work on the Raspberry Pi 2 but I've not successfully booted yet - despite trying!

It would be useful to know if anyone's got something underway - some of use will have to decide either to wait for Arch ARM or adopt an alternative OS. If anyone's successfully booted the Pi 2 with Arch please share the steps you took!

[Tantalos]

I've got Arch sortof working on the Pi2 by combining the root system from the latest Raspberry Pi ARMv6 and populating /boot with the latest raspberry pi-2-b firmware from https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware, I used only those files necessary for the Pi2. On first try it complained that my root file system was Read-Only, turns out / had no entry in /etc/fstab, adding it manually solved it (same for /proc). This method isn't without errors or problems (it still uses the armv6 packages), but it runs and that was all I really wanted to accomplish. Use it at your own risk as a starting point or wait for the supported release.

-- Ruben

[thinkingeye]

So, I got I working, too. But with armv7 packages; so as I can see, without any errors.
Thanks to Tantalos who bolstered me with his post to try this.
Its a melting between the Gentoo raspberry pi installation instruction the arch linux arm installation instruction and the arch linux beginners guide and some modifications I received from other posts.

Here are my written down notices. I am German, so I tried to translate them to English.

What my signs mean:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
>: a not command instruction for you
#: a command instruction with root rights
$: a command instruction with user rights

# nano FILE
> Instruction what to do in this file
-<
THE CONTENT in this "brackets" says what you have to change, to add, to edit, ...etc, like it said in the instruction before
>-

')

Create the SD-Card
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
> Put SD-Card in the USB-SD-Card Reader
> umount probably automatic mounted partitions (e.g. with gparted)

$ sudo fdisk -l
-> I see SD-Card on /dev/sdb; so you have to change that for your device
> /dev/sdb umounten

$ sudo -i

# fdisk /dev/sdb
> o
> n, p, 1, {Enter}, +100M
> t, c
> n, p, 2, {Enter}, +150M
> t, 2, 82
> n, p, 3, {Enter}, {Enter}
> w

# mkfs.vfat -F 16 /dev/sdb1
# mkswap /dev/sdb2
# mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb3

$ cd ~/devices/raspberrypi-2/firmware/arch //<---- this is only a folder in which I am storing downloaded files and doing things; edit it like you want
# mkdir mnt
# mount /dev/sdb3 mnt
# mkdir mnt/boot
# mount /dev/sdb1 mnt/boot


$ wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz
$ sudo tar -xvzf ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz -C mnt
$ sync

# git clone --depth 1 git://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/
# rm -r mnt/boot/*
# cp -r firmware/boot/* mnt/boot/
# rm mnt/boot/kernel.img
# rm mnt/boot/bcm2708-*
# cp -r firmware/modules mnt/lib/
# sync

# nano mnt/etc/fstab
> add
-<
/dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot auto noauto,noatime 1 2
/dev/mmcblk0p3 / ext4 noatime 0 1
/dev/mmcblk0p2 none swap sw 0 0
>-

# nano mnt/boot/cmdline.txt
> add
-<
dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=ttyAMA0,115200 kgdboc=ttyAMA0,115200 console=tty1 root=/dev/mmcblk0p3 rootfstype=ext4 elevator=deadline rootwait
>-
# umount mnt/boot
# umount mnt
')

Very Optional: What I did after this ( Get Mate running and some language specific configurations for German, you can change it for you language of course)
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
Login: root / root

# loadkeys de-latin1
# passwd
> put your new root password
# ping google.de
# pacman -Syu

# echo alarmpi > /etc/hostname
# echo LANG=de_DE.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
# echo LC_COLLATE=C >> /etc/locale.conf
# echo KEYMAP=de-latin1 > /etc/vconsole.conf
# rm /etc/localtime
# ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin /etc/localtime
# nano /etc/locale.gen
> uncomment deutsche
# locale-gen

# pacman -S ntp dbus //<-- dbus not needed, its installed already, I saw
# systemctl start ntpd
# systemctl status ntpd
# systemctl enable ntpd
# date
> look if it is the correct date

# useradd -m -g users -s /bin/bash pi
# passwd pi
# pacman -S sudo
# nano /etc/sudoers
< uncomment
-<
# %wheel ALL=(ALL) ALL
>-
# gpasswd -a pi wheel
# gpasswd -a pi video
# gpasswd -a pi audio
# gpasswd -a pi power

# pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-utils xorg-server-utils
-> libgl? <- 1) mesa-libgl

# pacman -S xf86-video-fbdev

# pacman -S mate mate-extra
> All
> All

# pacman -S lightdm lightdm-gtk2-greeter
# systemctl start lightdm // the icons looking like errors, we are fixing it later

> Login via pi

$ sudo pacman -S mate-themes-extras

> go in the menu to System > Settings > Keyboard > Layout
> add
> Deutschland / Deutsch
> put the new language up
> close the window

> so we know, lightdm is working, we can enable it
$ sudo systemctl enable lightdm
$ sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf
> uncomment, change and/or add, so it looks like; of course you can change this like you want, look at the arch wiki
-<
[greeter]
theme-name=BlackMATE
icon-theme-name=mate
background=/usr/share/backgrounds/mate/nature/Aqua.jpg
>-

> Restart
')

PS: I am no programmer, so there are more efficient commands for sure. But it wokrs.

[Tantalos]

Yeah that works, just using the general ARMv7 tarball.
Only thing missing are some the Rpi2 specific userland libraries (for the VC IV for example), but those are easy to get.

[thinkingeye]

How do I get them? You mean $this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '# pacman -S raspberrypi-*') which is found in the repositories?
Or have I compile them myself?

[NeilMunday]

Thanks ThinkingEye! That worked a treat!

[Tantalos]

@thinkingeye, I meant the stuff in /opt/vc. But your method installs that as well. Sorry I missed it, my bad. Thanks again for the guide.

[WarheadsSE]

http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv7 ... berry-pi-2