ArchLinux ARM for CubieTruck : any ideas ?

[maggu2810]

Patched my kernel and got it working again

[Aitch]

Hi folks.

I've been following PLyttle's May-11 how-to for getting my CubieTruck to work with ArchLinux. Works great up to

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'pacman -S uboot-cubietruck')
This gives:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'e')rror: failed retrieving file 'uboot-cubietruck-2014.04-9-armv7h.pkg.tar.xz' from mirror.archlinuxarm.org : The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found

[krabat]

You may try to run 'pacman -Sy' before 'pacman -S foobar'.

[indianerjones]

Hi, I'm trying to run the mainline 3.17 kernel. I can get the initial Arch with kernel 3.4 up and running, no problems. But as soon as I try to boot my own compiled kernel, the rootFS is mounted read-only. It boots, just a few services that can't start. But the system is not usable that way.

The SD card is ext4 formatted. Do I need to check some parameters in my kernel config that might make the system read-only?
Is this a known problem? What can I do about it? Do you need any more information?

Edit: Just tried again enabling all ext filesystems, enabling all additional features. There is no real message, just the info:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
[ 1.616288] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p1): mounted filesystem without journal. Opts: (null)
[ 1.623854] VFS: Mounted root (ext4 filesystem) readonly on device 179:1.
')

Why does it mount without a journal? Why does happily mount it read-only, as if that was intended? I just wanna play drums.

[krabat]

To get started I wouldn't recommend to compile the Kernel yourself but use the one from package linux-armv7 instead. If you got 3.4 from linux-sunxi running installing the package shouldn't be a problem.

As for the other problems I guess they are due to an unsuitable U-Boot version. Mainline Kernels require recent U-Boot versions like the u-boot-sunxi "custodian".
Personally, I've always compiled it on my x86_64 desktop and don't know how exactly to do it on ARM (there seems to be the need for some "soft-float gcc libraries" even on hard-float platforms).
To install, you basically have to copy u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin as described on linux-sunxi.org and make sure the right parameters are set. I for one never use uEnv.txt but put everything I need into boot.scr. A suitable boot.cmd could looke like so
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
env set bootargs panic=10 console=ttyS0,115200 consoleblank=0 rootwait root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rw init=/usr/lib/systemd/systemd
env set fdt_high 0xffffffff
ext4load mmc 0 0x46000000 boot/zImage
ext4load mmc 0 0x49000000 boot/dtbs/sun7i-a20-cubietruck.dtb
bootz 0x46000000 - 0x49000000
')given you're putting everything on the SD card's first partition (beware line breaks in code snippet). ext4 is fine, btw.

[indianerjones]

Hi, thanks for answering so fast. I know how to compile the kernel, this isn't the first board I'm doing this with, only the most resistant Compiling this myself to make sure certain drivers are in there. Can I get an overview somewhere if the latest repo kernel supports HDMI and what drivers are compiled in?

I have the most recent u-boot, dd'ed the u-boot-image, generated the device tree, I did the whole spiel. Everything works fine but writing to the rootfs. A second partition on the SD card can be mounted at runtime with write support, just not the rootfs at boot. What am I missing here?

Edit: wow, what the hell?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'mount -orw,remount /dev/mmcblkp1')
enables write support. So I can even remount my rootfs and it is writable. Why does it not work during boot?

Edit edit: Again, what the ...?
Adding a simple "rw" to the kernel arguments in boot.cmd solved it. This is nowhere in the mainline kernel howto, so I assumed it wasn't necessary.

[WarheadsSE]

That's a matter of a userland impacted change. It is not a kernel requirement.