Armbian for StarFive V1 (build system Ubuntu\Debian)

Linux Distros
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16

Ver 20220722.
kernel 5.19-rc7 . New image IceWM.

1 Like
17

Ver 20220729. kernel 5.19-rc8

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18

Ver 20220819. kernel 5.19.0

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19

is there an extra trick to getting them to boot? I used etcher to write to SD, but none of them do anything…

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For proper startup, it is necessary to update the u-boot variables. See the link to the description and details in this message

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21

thank you. i had assumed that that was already part of the images.

22

This procedure needs to be performed only once, so the script is not included in the images.

23

Right, understood its a one-shot thing, just thought it might have been baked in just to avoid the extra step. But i updated and it worked great, booted Armbian just like its supposed to :slight_smile: Compiling netdata now.

Thanks again.

24

http://armbian.lane-fu.com/rneese/riscv/ is where all my images go for now untill we get a server goign

4 Likes
25

Ver 20221127 kernel 6.1.0-rc4

26

Hello. Do you can publish intruction how to build own kernel from source? I see some like it here GitHub - starfive-tech/linux , but what diffenece between it and ubuntu`s mainline. Or if i want to build fresh kernel like 6.2 what i should to do?

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In the first message of the topic there is a description of the steps on how to run the build. After launching, select the menu item “creating only the kernel and u-boot”. The system will automatically build a new kernel and create DEB packages for normal installation with dpkg\apt commands. If you want to change the kernel configuration, select the appropriate item when starting the build and get a menu for configuration settings on the screen (analogous to the make menuconfig command). If you need changes in the source code, either create the appropriate patches, or use the CREATE_PATCHES=yes option, details about it are described in the documentation for the Armbian build system.

https://docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Options/

Please note, you can use the Armbian build system on the device itself (StarFive) or on a PC, the system will do all the necessary steps for pre-configuration itself, you only need to tell it what you want to get at the output - the full image or just the kernel.

2 Likes
28

Does your VisionFive 2 image boot OOTB with the up-to-date official/default SPI U-Boot provided by StarFive? My impression was that it requires a dedicated FAT partition 2 to find uEnv.txt. I see you defined distro_bootpart=1 in it, so probably I failed to understand the exact order in which U-Boot (on SPI) runs the commands/variables defined in its environment, and it has a fallback to find and load uEnv.txt on a single ext4 partition as well.

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No, this version is only for StarFive-1

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30

This is for VisionFive 2, and it actually does boot with official SPI bootloader, which is quite surprising to me, as it uses a single ext4 partition only.

Another difference between its uEnv.txt and the one of StarFive’s images is that boot_targets=distro mmc1 dhcp instead of boot_targets=distro mmc0 dhcp (SD vs eMMC). But those two changes alone do not allow it to boot, when I try with own images. As far as I can see from Armbian sources and testing to erase the empty place at 1-3 MiB offset, there is no U-Boot on the image either, which could of course be easily configured to boot from that partition layout.

Tomorrow the team member with the board receives a UART adapter, which should reveal details.

31

See the tag at the top where it says “visionfive” and not “visionfive2”, I would suggest that you create a new thread about VisionFive 2 and armbian (or riscvbian, if that is what it will eventually be called) and not post in a thread about a different board with a different SoC (JH7100).

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32

Ah right, I just saw “StarFive” in the heading and the link to both VisionFive models’ images by rneese, both giving the impression it is about both models, or “Armbian for StarFive” SBCs in general.

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33

Do you have a link to the source code from which your version of the system is built?

34

rneese’s builds are done via official Armbian sources (at least as far as I could see according to their content):

I actually thought that your fork would have been merged with the large RISC-V related commit recently, but I see now that it diverges significantly. It probably makes sense to compare and merge good differences from your fork upstream, before it gets more difficult?

1 Like
35

Version 20230702-current with kernel 6.2 for StarFive 1 (jh7100).

When starting Debian with DE XFCE\IceWM, there is a bug, immediately at the first start the system switches to Lightdm, to start correctly, switch to the first console (Ctl+Alt+F1) and perform the initial configuration of the system, and reboot system.

With a number of limitations, you can even watch videos in windowed mode using the PAROLE player and a USB sound card.