install debian on pbp

[jsch]

Hello

I would like to create a how-to file. If there is a usb-ethernet adapter available, then the steps could look like this:

source files
bullseye

Code:

wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/firmware.pinebook-pro-rk3399.img.gz
wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/partition.img.gz

bookworm

Code:

wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bookworm/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/firmware.pinebook-pro-rk3399.img.gz
wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bookworm/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/partition.img.gz

create img file

Code:

zcat firmware.pinebook-pro-rk3399.img.gz partition.img.gz  > complete_pbp_image.img

write installer on micro-SD
identify device name of micro-SD

Code:

lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
...
sdd      8:48   1   7.4G  0 disk
└─sdd1   8:49   1 130.5M  0 part

write to micro-SD

Code:

sudo dd if=complete_pbp_image.img of=/dev/sdd bs=4k status=progress oflag=sync

boot pbp from micro-SD
boot and install on eMMC

firmware
add non-free

Code:

sudo sed --in-place -e 's/ main$/ main non-free/' /etc/apt/sources.list

install

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firmware-brcm80211 firmware-misc-nonfree raspi-firmware

• firmware-brcm80211 holds some wifi firmware -- is this required?
  
• raspi-firmware holds brcmfmac43456-sdio.bin
  
• firmware-misc-nonfree holds rockchip firmware
  

If no usb-ethernet adapter is available, what are the necessary steps?
Would it suffice to download them, copy them to an usb stick and mount the latter on pbp?

[steeb]

I've been just chroot-ing in and installing additional packages.

[steeb]

As an aside, the raspi-firmware package causes all sorts of errors in `apt` once it is installed - I've been skipping these firmware installs and simply copying firmware I found in a Kali Linux support thread to the correct location, which appears to get WiFi & bluetooth functioning perfect!

https://gitlab.com/kalilinux/build-scrip...1069959116

[Invictvs]

Hello

I would like to create a how-to file. If there is a usb-ethernet adapter available, then the steps could look like this:

source files
bullseye

Code:

wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/firmware.pinebook-pro-rk3399.img.gz
wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bullseye/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/partition.img.gz

bookworm

Code:

wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bookworm/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/firmware.pinebook-pro-rk3399.img.gz
wget http://http.us.debian.org/debian/dists/bookworm/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/partition.img.gz

create img file

Code:

zcat firmware.pinebook-pro-rk3399.img.gz partition.img.gz  > complete_pbp_image.img

write installer on micro-SD
identify device name of micro-SD

Code:

lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
...
sdd      8:48   1   7.4G  0 disk
└─sdd1   8:49   1 130.5M  0 part

write to micro-SD

Code:

sudo dd if=complete_pbp_image.img of=/dev/sdd bs=4k status=progress oflag=sync

boot pbp from micro-SD
boot and install on eMMC

firmware
add non-free

Code:

sudo sed --in-place -e 's/ main$/ main non-free/' /etc/apt/sources.list

install

Code:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install firmware-brcm80211 firmware-misc-nonfree raspi-firmware

• firmware-brcm80211 holds some wifi firmware -- is this required?
  
• raspi-firmware holds brcmfmac43456-sdio.bin
  
• firmware-misc-nonfree holds rockchip firmware
  

If no usb-ethernet adapter is available, what are the necessary steps?
Would it suffice to download them, copy them to an usb stick and mount the latter on pbp

Cool: I just ordered mine Pro, in the meanwhile I am playing with Manjaro xfce in my Linux Box: By the moment I prefer Debian. I will follow your post here to install Debian once my Pro will arrive.

[cz89]

Thank you so much for writing this. It really helped.

I have found, though, that installing 'firmware-misc-nonfree' breaks suspend on my Pinebook Pro. Have you noticed that? Suspend works fine without installing it and everything else seems to be working fine without it as well.

[cz89]

Thank you so much for writing this. It really helped with my installation.

I did find, however, that installing 'firmware-misc-nonfree' broke suspend on my Pinebook Pro. After installing the package, it seemed like the PBP could go to sleep but wouldn't wake up and I'd have to do a hard shutdown to recover. Have you noticed that?

Without installing the package, everything appears to work as expected including suspend/wake.

[dieselnutjob]

It says here https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Pinebook_Pr...ses#Debian
"Installer currently doesn't install a functional bootloader, leaving the installed system in an unbootable state until it's manually added"

is this still true?

[TRS-80]

Armbian is a lot easier, and takes care of a lot of kernel patching and other issues which are particular to specific hardware.  They are far ahead of upstream Debian, at least on SBCs, which is their raison d'être, after all