Linux Distributions for Orange PI H3 boards

loboris

uImage upgraded:

• uImage upgraded, now it is possible to boot to USB drive partition
• to boot to USB partition, the file named cmdline.txt must exist on BOOT (fat) partition on sd card/emmc
• the content of that file must be: root=/dev/sdXn, where /dev/sdXn is the USB drive partition (as visible from OPI) to which to boot (for example root=/dev/sda1)
• the line which mounts / in /etc/fstab on USB partition must point to the right partition
• install_to_usb script automaticaly creates right cmdline.txt and fstab
• if cmdline.txt does not exist, or USB drive partition is not accesible (USB drive not attached), system boots to /dev/mmcblk0p1
• Bootable SD Card or EMMC must be accesible when booting to USB, but it is not necessary that the second partition contains valid Linux fs, sd card can have only the 1st (fat) partition
• You can have different Linux installations on different USB drive partitions, just edit the cmdline.txt to select to which to boot.
  
• Download script_kernel.tar.gz extract to BOOT (fat) partition and copy the right uImage_* to uImage
  
  

Install scripts updated:

• added script install_to_usb to install Linux to USB drive (partition). Can be used to backup your SDCard/EMMC installation.
• 1. sudo install_to_usb /dev/sdXn [btrfs]|[noformat]

  Copy code
  
  
• /dev/sdXn is the USB drive partition to which to install (for example /dev/sda1)
• if the second parameter is btrfs, USB partition will be formated as btrfs, otherwise as ext4
  
• if the second parameter is noformat, USB partition will not be formated, content of the partition will be updated (in case you have used install_to_usb to backup your sdcard/emmc before)
• be careful not to select the wrong USB partition, it will be erased/updated!
• Download desktop_scripts.tar.gz, unpack to /usr/local/bin.
• You must have the new uImage version, with boot to usb enabled.
  

ismu

loboris replied at 2015-9-3 02:24
uImage upgraded:

uImage upgraded, now it is possible to boot to USB drive partition

Thanks a lot for this update and yours hard work

blindpet

You are awesome. I fixed the Plex issue (it was a symlink that needed fixing and the repo is now fixed thanks to the maintainer) and I will release the Orange Pi Plus Media Server Installer image tomorrow. Is the default uImage the one working for the Orange Pi PC? I will prepare images for the other models since all I have to do is rename the uBoots uImage.

loboris

blindpet replied at 2015-9-2 20:23
You are awesome. I fixed the Plex issue (it was a symlink that needed fixing and the repo is now fix ...

Default uImage is for OPI-PC / OPI-2
You have to rename/copy uImage & script.bin, not uBoot (u-boot is writen ito the sectors on sdcard/emmc before the 1st partition start sector)
Why create multiple images, isn't it easy enough to rename two files ?

blindpet

loboris replied at 2015-9-3 04:00
Default uImage is for OPI-PC / OPI-2
You have to rename/copy uImage & script.bin, not uBoot (u-boo ...

I see your point, however, noobs want something they can just burn and use with minimal effort.

uImage and opi-pc script.bin can then be used for both Orange Pi PC and Opi-2 image so I only need to make one of those instead of two separate ones, right? The script.bin just needs to be there and be valid for the device, it only actually does something if you use a monitor with it?

Once your scripts are on github I will just make a howto to build your own image, it is not currently worth it because of manual updates from mega but once it is streamlined I will just make a noob-proof step-by-step to making their own image. Ideally the correct uimage and script.bin files will be part of the final image based on a variable in params.sh

Should be able to make another donation when you've moved over to github.

loboris

blindpet replied at 2015-9-2 21:17
I see your point, however, noobs want something they can just burn and use with minimal effort.

uI ...

The right script.bin must be pressent for each board (OPI-PC, OPI-2, OPI-PLUS), it defines the whole hardware, not only monitor resolution (ethernet,wifi, usb...).
So you must have at least 3 images, plus 2 script.bin version on each (for 1080 and 720 resolution)

blindpet

So for each image I need uImage and 2 script.bin files? I thought I only needed 1 and it had to be called script.bin, are you saying you can have 2 script bin files, one for 720 and one for 1080 and they can just keep their original file names?

loboris

blindpet replied at 2015-9-2 22:00
So for each image I need uImage and 2 script.bin files? I thought I only needed 1 and it had to be c ...

You need only 1 script.bin (u-boot reads the file named script.bin from mmcblk0p1 to configure the hardware).
You can put on the fat partition 2 script.bin.xxx files for two different resolutions. One of them has to be copied/renamed to script.bin before boot.

blindpet

loboris replied at 2015-9-3 05:22
You need only 1 script.bin (u-boot reads the file named script.bin from mmcblk0p1 to configure the  ...

That's what I thought, thank you for the clarification. Any idea when SATA drivers will be better, currently only getting 27 MB/s still even with the new kernel

loboris

blindpet replied at 2015-9-2 22:41
That's what I thought, thank you for the clarification. Any idea when SATA drivers will be better, ...

I've got maximum of 32 MB/sec with USB 3.0 drive (HD & Flash). I think it is good enough, you can't expect much better un USB 2.0
There is no SATA on H3 board, on OPI-PLUS(2) you have USB2SATA adapter integrated on board.