NanoPI2 support

[anatolik]

I have a NanoPi2 board http://nanopi.io/nanopi2.html It is a nice small 64-bit ARM board, comparable in features to RaspberryPi 3 with lower price. I want to make ArchARM running at this board. Vendor provides Debian image and I do not expect to many problems running other distros at this board. The board needs non-upstream kernel patches - vendor shared it at its github https://github.com/friendlyarm/linux-4.x.y

The goal is to add ArchARM support for NanoPI2 and add prebuild image to the website. What other steps are required for this? Is there any step-by-step new board bringup instructions for ArchARM?

[WarheadsSE]

That pages states that the NanoPi2 is a quad-core Cortex A9, which is ARMv7-a

[anatolik]

My bad, it is indeed 32-bit core.

Anyway the question remains. How to create an image for this board? I can create a kernel package. But it might require additional blobs though (e.g. broadcom wifi firmware).

[WarheadsSE]

We don't do images, just tarballs. So in this case, start with the base linux-armv7 tarball and kernel. Does this board have a separate kernel tree for some reason?

From there, get the kernel packaged via PKGBUILD, and work on getting whatever necessities there are for that board documented

• Does the boot disk need a bootloader
• Where does that bootloader come from
• What kernel to use, and where is the package
• What are the needs of the bootloader in terms of partitions
• What does the final disk layout need to look like

It's all just a matter of compilation of steps.

[anatolik]

I rebased their kernel to v4.5 https://github.com/anatol/linux/tree/nanopi2

There are few drivers added by the vendor and the most important is for Broadcom wifi & bluetooth AP6212 chip. They use non-upstream BCMDHD driver. And they also need firmware for the chip.

Where can I find a script for creating tarball for a board? I want to start with armv7 arch generic package set and add packages needed for NanoPI2. Is there a documentation that describes the process of a board tarball creation?

[anatolik]

The wireless module AP6212 combines broadcom's BCM43438 chip that is exactly the same as at Raspberry Pi 3. So we can use the same firmware package both for nanopi2 and rpi3.

[anatolik]

Could you please move this thread to ARMv7 subforum?