Minimal 64bit ARM RootFS for Debian and Ubuntu

[umiddelb]

I supposed I could have modified uboot's environment or script.bin to change the root= setting in the kernel's args, but that would have entailed mucking around with allwinner's uboot, and I'd prefer to spend my time elsewhere.

I'm using apritzel's image, he found a workaround for loading a custom environment into allwinners u-boot. The mainline kernel lacks of support for USB, WiFi and Ethernet at this time. I assume the android 3.10 kernel supports it, but without the kernel sources (the BSP sources seem to be broken), the 3.10 kernel binary is totally worthless.

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Are you using the latest aarch64 rootfs?  SysV init isn't supported out of the box in that -- systemd is the default init system.

I used the latest Archlinux aarch64 rootfs. The Arch people are smart enough to include a compatibility package for systemd.

 Also, ubuntu hasn't used /etc/inittab for quite a while.  i enabled getty on ttyS0 with this script in /etc/init/ttyS0.conf:

You're totally right, this refers to Debian. Ubuntu for aarch64 still has some issues, see here.

[drag00n]

Hi, im at the same point as patrick... I used a custom ramdisk, almost the same as his... I boot a debootstrapped debian jessie with no selinux (hexedited sdX5 as it is bootargs partition and i am using android sd partition layout...)
I'll try to make some time and copy android kernel modules, add the getty line (last night i was booting for the first time and got the systemd getty timeout), so i can have a test machine just in case we need to get some compiling done...

[longsleep]

You guys really should check out http://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=293 and build the stuff from source. It is pretty much useless to boot the blob android Kernel with Linux when you can compile it as you need it.

[drag00n]

About C2's umiddelb note about uboot countdown to 0 very fast, i had the same issue on pine so i had to edit the bootargs partition...
Strange enough, when edited to enforcing=0 the counter was again visible..
Weird...

[patrickhwood]

Ethernet (100Mb) and USB are working. Haven't tried wifi yet. HDMI isn't cooperating, even with the disp and hdmi modules loaded.

I've had no problems bringing up Trusty, but I started with an ARM64 rootfs umiddelb listed here: https://github.com/umiddelb/z2d/tree/master/pine64

[drag00n]

Strange... I tried to install selinux to avoid editing partitions and gives an error for unmet dependencies 😐
Hdmi module seems not to load also to me, ill try later when beasts go to bed [FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY]

[patrickhwood]

Strange... I tried to install selinux to avoid editing partitions and gives an error for unmet dependencies ?
Hdmi module seems not to load also to me, ill try later when beasts go to bed [FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY]

For ubuntu 14.04, I had to install selinux-utils, selinux-policy-dummy, and selinux-policy-default; then set up targeted policy 29; and eventually I just put "setenforce 0" in an init startup file (I put it in /etc/init/mountall.conf) to solve context issues with login.  Selinux is a royal pain....

[drag00n]

Thats the point...

Code:

root@topine:~# apt-get install selinux-policy-default
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package selinux-policy-default is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'selinux-policy-default' has no installation candidate

And taking a look, the offending package is:

Code:

root@topine:~# apt-get install policycoreutils
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 policycoreutils : Depends: libsemanage1 (>= 2.4) but 2.3-1+b2 is to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

Maybe I'll compile from source as longsleep says... perhaps it's easier and the fastest path given the fact that now I have a working linux aarch64 box.

I totally agree, SELinux is a PITA.

Regards, drag00n

[patrickhwood]

Do you need to do an apt-get update?

[drag00n]

Nope, that is right after an update