[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.

Welcome to the Slackware Documentation Project

This is an old revision of the document!


May 2021 - wip

Installing Slackware AArch64 on the RockPro64

Target
Platform AArch64
Slackware DistributionSlackware AArch64 Current
Hardware Model Rock Pro64

Hardware Model: RockPro64

Place holder.

Requirements

Needs organising

Hardware Model Item Specification Notes
Both Micro SD Card 1GB minimum, fast speed, good quality make Used as the OS' /boot partition
Both USB to Serial adapter USB to Serial Converter, USB to TTL Adapter for Development Projects - Featuring Genuine FTDI USB UART IC ‘FT232RL’ There are cheaper models available but they cause power problems on the RockPro64.
Pinebook Pro NVME Tested: Kingston A2000 SSD = 500GB Contains Operating System
Pinebook Pro NVME adapter cable
Pinebook Pro Serial console adapter Recommended but not required, although is useful to debug any issues during boot

Hardware Requirements

the most important thing is to install the nvme disk, enable the serial console (head phone jack), and

             install slackware to the new driver FIRST

after that you can wipe your internal eMMC

the default uboot is looking for Arm Trusted Firmware

*drive, not driver haha

* Disconnect any USB devices that aren't required for the OS installation

you just need the installer on an sd card and the nvme disk installed into the pinebook case it might be a good idea to disable the eMMC module while you have the case open if you plan to use the serial cable, you need to switch it on (same switch to reenable the head phone jack) https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebook_Pro#Internal_Layout #2 nvme connection #9 headphone / UART switch #24 switch for eMMC

USB to Serial Adapter

This is the output from the serial adapter listed in the Requirements section.

[  326.882289] usb 4-1: Product: FT232R USB UART
[  326.882294] usb 4-1: Manufacturer: FTDI
[  326.882298] usb 4-1: SerialNumber: AB0KSUZJ
[  327.011277] usbcore: registered new interface driver ftdi_sio
[  327.011319] usbserial: USB Serial support registered for FTDI USB Serial Device
[  327.011512] ftdi_sio 4-1:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[  327.011592] usb 4-1: Detected FT232RL
[  327.015653] usb 4-1: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Downloading

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.

you need to wait for the console to become active because

Why ship with network support? it'll ask you anyway if it's not setup…

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.

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.
 slackwarearm:inst_sa64_cur_rk3399_rockpro64 ()