Brief overview on help to use uboot/usb serial and compile a kernel - Printable Version +- PINE64 (https://forum.pine64.org) +-- Forum: PinePhone (https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=120) +--- Forum: General Discussion on PinePhone (https://forum.pine64.org/forumdisplay.php?fid=127) +--- Thread: Brief overview on help to use uboot/usb serial and compile a kernel (/showthread.php?tid=10383)

Brief overview on help to use uboot/usb serial and compile a kernel - davegermiquet - 06-22-2020 My current experiences with Mobian, and compiling the kernel: Brief overview: - My main objective was to compile ZRAM module in to the kernel of Mobian. What ended up happening I learned the following: uBoot Kernel (Mobian had a small partition so I had to modify uBoot to put a new kernel and module system on there) Serial Modules, and converting my raspberry pi connector to a  headphone UART option by cutting both a headphone cable, and a raspberry pi uart cable, and tying the wires together. Possible cheap option (by uARt, chip on amazon and cut a headphones  that the speakers are broken to make your own. 12 bucks....max it looks like Canadian [*]How to cross compile on the kernel, and install it on the PinePhone [*]How to edit the initrd, add use existing image, to make my own custom image Example serial module: COVVY CP2102 Module USB to TTL 5PIN Serial Converter Adapter Module, UART STC Downloader for 3.3V and 5V with Jumper Wires (2pcs) by LYCHEE LIMITED Learn more: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B07VMKYZD6/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_GGp8EbG2TYKA3 Result: Telegram started working properly ZRAM sped things up Wifi stopped breaking! (Example above) Debugging  from uboot on OSX system: - Install Uart Drivers  - Plug in USB cable to Mac book You can access like the following: screen /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART 115200 (Above depends on module using) UBOOT INFORMATION: Once connected, when you boot up you get the following, hit ESC right away to get into options: Note: DO not use the initrd RAM  feature for uboot, you won’t get any booting going on Kernels that images are gzipped  I couldn’t get to work correctly, I had to unzip it to use it within uboot Example working solution using boot.text compile boot.scr [*](You can also use these as raw commands in uBoot to boot and test new kernels) ext4load mmc 1:2 0x40080000 /boot/Image ext4load mmc 1:2 0x4FA00000 /boot/dtb/sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.2.dtb Or  ext4load mmc 1:2 ${kernel_addr_r}  /boot/Image ext4load mmc 1:2 ${fdt_addr_r} /boot/dtb/sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.2.dtb setenv bootargs root=/dev/mmcblk2p2 rw console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty1 initrd=/boot/initrd.img booti 0x40080000 - 0x4FA00000 Common commands  in uboot settings: the bootargs environment ext4load for loading binary files into memory of uboot help help command  booti  bootm  boot [*] Example:     - help ext4load     - mmc list     - mmc info     - printenv Common environment helpful variables inside boot that I found: ${kernel_addr_r} (where I can load the image but I don’t think it matters where you put  (not sure) ${ftb_addr_r} where I put the pine phone DTB files. The following raw commands start up the kernel  Example boot up: of kernel Trying to boot from MMC2 NOTICE:  BL31: v2.3(): NOTICE:  BL31: Built : 17:34:37, Apr 26 2020 NOTICE:  BL31: Detected Allwinner A64/H64/R18 SoC (1689) NOTICE:  BL31: Found U-Boot DTB at 0x40635c0, model: Pine64 PinePhone (1.2) INFO:    ARM GICv2 driver initialized INFO:    Configuring SPC Controller INFO:    PMIC: Probing AXP803 on RSB INFO:    PMIC: dcdc1 voltage: 3.300V INFO:    PMIC: dcdc5 voltage: 1.200V INFO:    PMIC: dcdc6 voltage: 1.100V INFO:    PMIC: dldo1 voltage: 3.300V INFO:    BL31: Platform setup done INFO:    BL31: Initializing runtime services INFO:    BL31: cortex_a53: CPU workaround for 843419 was applied INFO:    BL31: cortex_a53: CPU workaround for 855873 was applied NOTICE:  PSCI: System suspend is available via SCPI INFO:    BL31: Preparing for EL3 exit to normal world INFO:    Entry point address = 0x4a000000 INFO:    SPSR = 0x3c9 U-Boot 2020.04+dfsg-2+pinephone4 (Jun 11 2020 - 07:21:23 +0000) DRAM:  2 GiB MMC:   mmc@1c0f000: 0, mmc@1c11000: 1 Loading Environment from FAT... Unable to use mmc 1:2... starting USB... No working controllers found Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0  =>  KERNEL I USED: origin https://gitlab.com/mobian1/devices/pinephone-linux.git (fetch) origin https://gitlab.com/mobian1/devices/pinephone-linux.git (push) How to compile kernel and setup uboot on mobian: Installed docker Download docker Debian image (latest version) using docker pull Install the build essentials for Debian Install the cross compilers needed Download the kernel using git [*] > docker run / or docker exec to get on docker instance Once all prerequisites installed: > git clone linuxkernel > Copy mobians /proc/config.gz for a starting point of previous config cd kernelfolder/ make ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- mrproper > cp config.gz .config make ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- oldconfig make ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- menuconfig (Add the features you want) make ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- Image modules dtbs Then make the modules into a separate folder, so you can copy the over, cp $LINUX/arch/arm64/boot/Image  /build make ARCH=arm64 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- modules_install  INSTALL_MOD_PATH=/build/lib cp./arch/<arch>/boot/dts/  Probably only need one but I copied all dtbs to /build folder sun50i-a64-pine64-lts.dtb     sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.2.dts sun50i-a64-pine64-lts.dts     sun50i-a64-pinephone.dtb sun50i-a64-pine64-plus.dtb    sun50i-a64-pinephone.dts sun50i-a64-pine64-plus.dts    sun50i-a64-pinephone.dtsi sun50i-a64-pine64.dtb       sun50i-a64-pinetab.dtb sun50i-a64-pine64.dts       sun50i-a64-pinetab.dts sun50i-a64-pinebook.dtb       sun50i-a64-sopine-baseboard.dtb sun50i-a64-pinebook.dts       sun50i-a64-sopine-baseboard.dts sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.0.dtb  sun50i-a64-sopine.dtsi sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.0.dts  sun50i-h6-pine-h64-model-b.dtb sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.1.dtb  sun50i-h6-pine-h64-model-b.dts sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.1.dts  sun50i-h6-pine-h64.dtb sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.2.dtb  sun50i-h6-pine-h64.dts How to make the initrd: cd /build/initrd zcat existingimg.img | cpio -idmv Usually all you need to do is copy over only the latest modules folder, or replace them Then zip it up find . | cpio -o -c | gzip -9 > /build/new.img Now you should probably have all the files: On mobian (Due to small boot folder do this) mkdir /realboot Copy dtbs folder to the /realboot folder Copy image to the /realboot folder Copy initrd to the /realboot folder Copy the new modules created to the proper folder on /lib/modules folder unmount /boot (the small folder) copy all these files on /boot (on mmcblk2p2) create the following text file: ext4load mmc 1:2 ${kernel_addr_r}  /boot/Image ext4load mmc 1:2 ${fdt_addr_r} /boot/dtb/sun50i-a64-pinephone-1.2.dtb setenv bootargs root=/dev/mmcblk2p2 rw console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty1 initrd=/boot/initrd.img booti 0x40080000 - 0x4FA00000 run mkimage: bash-3.2# mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d boot.text boot.scr then fdisk /dev/mmcblk2 and make the /dev/mmcblk2p2 the active partition reboot. RE: Brief overview on help to use uboot/kernel/serial - doniks - 06-22-2020 Pretty cool! Thanks for sharing!