[2024-feb-29] Sad news: Eric Layton aka Nocturnal Slacker aka vtel57 passed away on Feb 26th, shortly after hospitalization. He was one of our Wiki's most prominent admins. He will be missed.
Table of Contents
Nov 2021 - wip
Installing Slackware AArch64 on the RockPro64
| Target | |
|---|---|
| Platform | AArch64 |
| Slackware Distribution | Slackware AArch64 Current |
| Hardware Model | Rock Pro64 |
Video Tutorial
This tutorial is also available in video form.
Installation Lifecycle
The Installation consists of nine distinct stages:
- Acquiring all required hardware
- Setting up local environment to support the installation over the network
- Downloading the Slackware assets
- Writing the Initialisation Bootware to the Micro SD card
- Setup of the RockPro64 hardware
- Initialising the RockPro64 with the Bootware
- Writing the Slackware Installer to the Micro SD card
- Booting the Slackware Installer
- Installing Slackware
- Completing the installation
- Booting the Slackware OS
Requirements
Hardware
| Item | Specification | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| RockPro64 | 4GB version | The RockPro64 (2GB version may work but hasn't been tested) |
| RockPro64 Power Supply ('PSU') | Pine64's own | There is a cheaper alternative, but this version is recommended. Note that the link here is for the EU version - a US version is also available in the Pine64 store |
| Micro SD Card | 2GB minimum, fast speed, good quality make | Used as Slackware' /boot partition |
| USB Multi-Card Reader | Must accept Micro SD cards | Used to write the Bootware on your host Linux computer. This isn't required if your host computer has a Micro SD card reader. |
| USB to Serial adapter | PL2303 chip. Other models may work, but this one has been tested. If your model has the option to set voltages, ensure 3volts is set! | A USB to Serial adapter is recommended, but optional. |
| Jumper or Dupont cable | See images below | This is to bridge the pins required for initial firmware deployment and/or Hardware Model recovery |
| USB to SATA adapter | Many models will work, but this one has been tested. | For a simple installation you require either storage attached to a USB interface, or using the SATA PCI card (see below). |
| PCIe to Dual SATA-III Interface Card | PINE64's own | You can use this or the USB to SATA adapter (see row above) |
| SATA storage | Any SSD or spinning hard disk should work | Will contain the Operating System. You can install to other storage, but this documentation covers this particular configuration only. |
| Wifi and Bluetooth module | Pine64's own | Optional |
| Heat sink and CPU fan | Pine64's own | Either a heat sink or fan are required. Some of the cases have built-in heat sinks, so check the options |
| SATA power cable | Pine64's own | Optional - depends if you use the SATA PCI card and choose to power the drives from the board (see notes below around stability) |
USing os-initrd-mgr tool. chroot
Post installation tweaks
Booting
Without serial adaptor, you have no visibility until a certain point in the boot process. Installer ships with network support…. so you need to wait if there's no network.
screen -T screen-256color /dev/ttyUSB0 1500000,n
Other adapter configs:
screen -T screen-256color /dev/ttyUSB0 1500000,crtscts
Initial Setup
/boot - SD card. Resize later.
screen font? Rockpro?
HTTP Installation
Installation Finalisation
Installing the Boot Loader to onboard ('SPI') flash
Note: This currently takes approximately 30 minutes from the installer, but only four minutes from within the OS.
This needs some research.
Resize /boot
Fan control
# Max setting: root@bladswede:/tmp# echo 255 > /sys/devices/platform/pwm-fan/hwmon/hwmon3/pwm1 # Happy medium - I can't hear it: echo 100 > /sys/devices/platform/pwm-fan/hwmon/hwmon3/pwm1 # Lowest setting (lower figures cause the fan to stop spinning): echo 50 > /sys/devices/platform/pwm-fan/hwmon/hwmon3/pwm1 # If the fan is stopped, it can be restarted by sending '100' to that # interface.
