Research booting NanoPi R6C #3
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I installed Ubuntu using |
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aWe can get more insight into the partitions on the eMMC by using https://wiki.friendlyelec.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_R6C#Install_to_target_board |
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Apparently the kernel needs to be written to the 5th partition based on instructions: And the Ubuntu image actually has no kernel or configuration in Which is different from how NanoPC-T4 works, since there you actually have an extlinux config file in |
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I put in it a Samsung PM981 512 GB M.2 2280 (MZVLB512HAJQ) NVMe and here's some very basic benchmarks: |
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Some potentially interesting resources:
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I have tried booting a generic SD card image of Nixos, since it works on NanoPC-T4, but it does not work: |
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I built the image: But it's not clear how I'm supposed to install it. But these instructions for ROCK 5B just use |
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I tried installing it in the U-Boot partition to see if I can maybe get the generic SD image to boot with it: But of course that did not work. And now nothing boots. That was pure wishful thinking. |
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Using As we can see it fails to boot: |
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There are instructions on how to build U-Boot from FriendlyELEC source: https://wiki.friendlyelec.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_R6C#Compile_the_uboot |
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The Ubuntu flash image boots without issues: |
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At least we can see the NVMe shows up properly at boot here, so maybe NixOS won't have same issue as on NanoPC-T4. |
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If we take a look at an SD card image for Ubuntu we can see the same layout as on the eMMC:
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Here are official RockChip docs about the boot process: https://opensource.rock-chips.com/wiki_Boot_option |
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The docs state that:
https://wiki.friendlyelec.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_R6C#The_Boot_order_between_eMMC_and_SD_card |
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There are instructions for building an U-Boot using FriendlyELEC scripts: https://wiki.friendlyelec.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_R6C#Build_u-boot_v2017.09 But I'm still don't know how that could be modified to boot NixOS. I might have to read up on U-Boot itself. |
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I found some interesting info in this issue. For example this comment describes how to load kernel from Ext4 partition: |
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And indeed, the NanoPi branch in |
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I notice that ext4 support is not enabled in the NanoPi 6 build config: |
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In theory this line suggests I could provide U-Boot with custom commands at startup via UART console: But the real question is how can I modify the config to read |
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And it doesn't seem like it supports FAT filesystem either: But there appears to be several FAT filestem flags: For example some usage can be seen in Not yet sure how the |
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According to the README: So it seems to me that just means you can enable FAT filesystem support with |
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So I think a pretty good assumption would be that current U-Boot can't load the config from generic NixOS sd card because it lacks |
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Building U-Boot from Rockchip was failing due to lack of cross platform GCC: > ./make.sh nanopi6
## make nanopi6_defconfig -j24
#
# configuration written to .config
#
which: no aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc in (/nix/store/fwc0m6fsccir8zznkl7m8iznv5wsjznw-bash-interactive-5.1-p16/bin:/nix/store/n845kl3915ri14zlkqq7wf3n3xabmgal-patchelf-0.14.5/bin:/nix/store/ykcrnkiicqg1pwls9kgnmf0hd9qjqp4x-gcc-wrapper-11.3.0/bin:/nix/store/65v2c245h5qa9mpc7dxhqkfjinl6phx0-gcc-11.3.0/bin:/nix/store/rvgp96bwfmgz4b163flszfaygmhx8wl4-glibc-2.34-210-bin/bin:/nix/store/qarssrazji0q9xp80xg8shsm2crckfr0-coreutils-9.0/bin:/nix/store/n5ypzvl7dijcg24isyngvw8fx0ri6hff-binutils-wrapper-2.38/bin:/nix/store/0q9hm42fapihzj1d64nxqmbml7fpb2d6-binutils-2.38/bin:/nix/store/9l2pdqd2cs9hqyk53w543lpnp0vqaysd-ncurses-6.3-p20220507-dev/bin:/nix/store/sb1wx6xz9yj05d13w5lpdljspllarbim-ncurses-6.3-p20220507/bin:/nix/store/qarssrazji0q9xp80xg8shsm2crckfr0-coreutils-9.0/bin:/nix/store/j25abvpcbappy74w23l8lfcz7gkrsjhy-findutils-4.9.0/bin:/nix/store/2kz1pihzg1jfif46mdm917xmj6r9xyz6-diffutils-3.8/bin:/nix/store/yyg26p5j2mrjwpkbk1djh4nxlsm2p4rw-gnused-4.8/bin:/nix/store/p7pqs5c4zfc4y977p626zch11msmmpj8-gnugrep-3.7/bin:/nix/store/pmh9q9k0g9s189v0iqrxpdp8j1g77gmd-gawk-5.1.1/bin:/nix/store/3fw5n1g3bb925hfll7fj7x94bd0q6k0r-gnutar-1.34/bin:/nix/store/nrvhb0yvawiqgrwbmbfmhjrmy934hhs5-gzip-1.12/bin:/nix/store/n7208v30hf3z4sz6127947vmzpfl46nb-bzip2-1.0.6.0.2-bin/bin:/nix/store/c5myz1zs9bsaq3y4s0rcxgkzb11irwra-gnumake-4.3/bin:/nix/store/9zm6br2ri10a0b71dll2wrim5bnhg6b6-bash-5.1-p16/bin:/nix/store/8636bkd1gg5s8675ipb9wf98wrc5mdpw-patch-2.7.6/bin:/nix/store/5ywhaxrasrp3pj72dnyy40mimx13fi0p-xz-5.2.5-bin/bin:/run/wrappers/bin:/home/jakubgs/.nix-profile/bin:/etc/profiles/per-user/jakubgs/bin:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin:/run/current-system/sw/bin:/home/jakubgs/go/bin:/home/jakubgs/bin:/home/jakubgs/go/bin:/home/jakubgs/bin:/home/jakubgs/go/bin:/home/jakubgs/bin)
ERROR: No find aarch64-linux-gnu-gccSo I will need to create Nix shell for this. |
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So I have created a Nix shell using this example: { pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {
crossSystem = { config = "aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu"; };
}
}:
pkgs.mkShell {
buildInputs = [ gcc ];
}https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Cross_Compiling#How_to_obtain_a_shell_with_a_cross_compiler But I'm getting some issues, for example: |
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This link shows build dependencies for U-Boot on Debian: |
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I tried building with a derivation: { pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> {
crossSystem = { config = "aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu"; };
}
}:
pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
name = "uboot-nanopi6";
version = "v2017.09";
src = pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
owner = "friendlyarm";
repo = "uboot-rockchip";
rev = "nanopi6-v2017.09";
sha256 = "sha256-8zg/7py9FXn+6GY+D5zSAoOk/3NgQj1FMLWBYzZJKZM=";
};
srcs = [
(pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
owner = "friendlyarm";
repo = "rkbin";
rev = "nanopi6";
sha256 = "sha256-XGnRUW5Foz0U1V08Kd6Cr/OkwY81xzCzS05irdawWjo=";
})
];
buildInputs = with pkgs; [ gcc linuxHeaders ];
nativeBuildInputs = with pkgs; [ which glibc autoPatchelfHook ];
unpackPhase = ''
cp -r $srcs rkbin
cp -r $src uboot-rockchip
find ./ -name 'built-in.o'
cd uboot-rockchip
'';
preBuild = ''
chmod -R +w ./ ../rkbin
autoPatchelf ./ ../rkbin
patchShebangs make.sh scripts arch
function makeWrapper() {
AR=$(which $1)
echo -e "#!$SHELL\nexec $CC \$@" > $TMP_BIN/$2
chmod +x $TMP_BIN/$2
}
TMP_BIN=$(mktemp -d)
export PATH="$TMP_BIN:$PATH"
makeWrapper aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc cc
makeWrapper aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-gcc aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc
makeWrapper aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-ld aarch64-linux-gnu-ld
makeWrapper aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu-ar aarch64-linux-gnu-ar
'';
buildPhase = ''
runHook preBuild
./make.sh nanopi6
runHook postBuild
'';
}But it just fails with the same errors: I have no idea what the |
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I thought that the |
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But the build instructions in the wiki do say we need the toolchain in the So maybe trying to build this with Nix is a bad idea, if the only easy way is using their toolchain. |
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Aaaaand it worked: Thank fuck. |
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This error can be fixed by removing |
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It does have trouble mounting the eMMC: But that's a minor issue that can probably be solved by moving the EFI partition to the NVMe. |
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It seems after booting it just doesn't see the eMMC: Unlike Armbian. Probably due to lack of DTS for Rock 5B: |
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And there we have it: Though it seems there's issues with the network interface: |
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Partitioning used: format() {
parted -s --align optimal "$1" -- mklabel gpt;
parted -s --align optimal "$1" -- mkpart 'EFI' 2MB 6GiB set 1 esp on;
parted -s --align optimal "$1" -- mkpart 'SWAP' 6GiB 16GiB;
parted -s --align optimal "$1" -- mkpart 'ROOT' 16GiB '100%';
parted -s --align optimal "$1" -- print;
mkswap /dev/nvme0n1p2;
mkfs.vfat /dev/nvme0n1p1;
mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme0n1p2;
} |
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Looks like the WAN interface isn't recognixed, the |
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This is a weird issue I have not seen before: You need to run |
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I though by using But unfortunately we can't. Might require the DST patches anyway. |
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Added docs and config:
Will migrate NVMe from |
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I have found a working slimmed down 6.6-rc6 kernel config:
But it doesn't seem like it actually adds anything, since both eMMC and the WAN interface still don't show up. |
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Some cleanup of no longer necessary files:
Can always be restored if necessary. |
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Fixed iptables failures in
Fixes errors like: |
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Thanks to a suggestion in this Discourse post I made: I decided to write a stock
And the NVMe is detected without issues: |
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Fuck, I can't use unstable NixOS and then switch to stable because mainline ZFS has extra features: So I have to use |
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But when i use |
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And there we have it. NanoPi R6C running NixOS 23.05 with Changes:
Might write up a wiki page for this device on the weekend: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_Wiki:Contributing |
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This is helpful, thank you. Did you get the WAN port working? |
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No, I'm running NixOS 23.11 with I don't need both ports so I have not looked into it. |
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I followed your instructions here, but I used a newer EFI: and a newer NixOS ISO: https://hydra.nixos.org/build/273422643/download/1/nixos-minimal-24.11pre684053 Everything seems the be working but reads (and I assume writes) to the NVMe are very slow: Any ideas for something I could have missed in configuration. Or should I reinstall with the older NixOS and/or EFI? |
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I'm still on And as far as I know I've installed Might be more of a firmware issue than software one. |
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Thanks for the response! It appears to be an OS/software issue. I booted (using the 0.11.2 EFI) from an SDCard with the vendor's Debian 12 image and installed and ran I guess I'll try it with |
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Update: I'm seeing the same issue when booting from |
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I actually lock kernel at nixos-config/hosts/arael/configuration.nix Lines 32 to 33 in 7e5e89c Maybe it's worth trying a downgrade of the kernel? Though an older edk2-rk3588 might also be worth checking.
You issues suggest to me that I might not want to try to upgrade my version of |
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I must confess that I am a NixOS beginner. I use NixPkgs on macOS and Linux, I've played with NixOS VMs, and I've booted a Raspberry Pi with a standard NixOS SDCard image, but this is my first time doing a NixOS install on "real" hardware. I technically had the system running, but every time a did a I have wiped the SSD and will start all over with 0.9.1 of Thanks, again for your help. |
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Yeah, since this is not a very powerful device building anything is going to take a while, especially if you have that terrible read performance from the NVMe, and Nix makes a LOT of small reads when re-evaluating configuration. If you have general NixOS questions you can just wite to me over email, it's in my GitHub profile. |
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I tried I order a new Samsung 1TB SSD yesterday (I couldn't find your exact model) and it arrived today. I installed it and everything is working great! Thanks for your help! Now it's time to tempt fate and try reinstalling but formatting with BTRFS this time... |
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Nice. So as I thought it was some kind of incompatibility between PCIe controller and the NVMe. Also, ZFS is better. |
Yes, thank you for suggesting that. Apparently you can never have too many (working) SSDs... I believe you that ZFS is better. But BTRFS seems to do everything I need for a SBC with a single NVMe SSD. I've also noticed that some builds of NixOS (latest kernels, I think) don't have ZFS. I will give a try eventually, though. I will send you an email. Thanks, again for your help! |
Research into running NixOS on a NanoPi R6C device.
Links:
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