This is a text-only version of the following page on https://raymii.org: --- Title : Olimex OlinuXino a10 Lime uBoot, Kernel and root image guide Author : Remy van Elst Date : 20-12-2014 URL : https://raymii.org/s/articles/Olimex_OlinuXino_10_Lime_uBoot_Kernel.html Format : Markdown/HTML --- ![olimex][1] The Olimex OlinuXino A10 LIME is an amazing, powerfull and cheap open source ARM development board. It costs EUR 30, and has 160 GPIO. This guide is a cleaned up version of theirs with instructions to build your own kernel and u-boot image on Ubuntu 14.04 Buy the board here: and see my other tutorials and a small image here:

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The original guide can be found here: This guide has been adapted to work on Ubuntu 14.04, some package names, instructions and commands were incorrect. Also, all the files are not on Google drive anymore, but on my servers. The original bad english has been cleaned up to be less bad. The guide however is of less quality than you normally get from me. For Allwinner Kernel related questions please ask on Linux Sunxi Mailing List in Google Groups: For Uboot related questions please ask on Linux Sunxi Mailing List in Google Groups: * * * ### Contents * Building u-boot (boat loader) * Building the kernel * Partitioning the SD card * Placing the bootloader, kernel and kernel modules * Placing the root filesystem ### Install required packages Install the toolchain and other required development packages: apt-get update apt-get install gcc-4.7-arm-linux-gnueabihf ncurses-dev build-essential git u-boot-tools gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf If you want to cross compile on Debian instead of Ubuntu, you need the following set of packages: apt-get install binutils-arm-linux-gnueabihf ncurses-dev build-essential git u-boot-tools gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf Create a working directory and go in to it: mkdir A10_kernel_3.4/ cd A10_kernel_3.4/ ### Building Uboot u-boot is the bootloader, it is a GRUB alternative for small/embedded systems. Download u-boot sources: git clone -b sunxi https://github.com/linux-sunxi/u-boot-sunxi.git cd u-boot-sunxi/ Note that this guide was written with the revision below: git rev-parse --verify HEAD 44b53fd3928f15c34993ec8c6b8c2efcb79769ee Start the uboot build: make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- distclean make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- A10-OLinuXino-Lime_config make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- At the end of the process you should have at least the following files: # ls u-boot.bin u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin spl/sunxi-spl.bin spl/sunxi-spl.bin u-boot.bin u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin Go back into the working directory: cd .. ### Building the kernel Kernel sources for A10 are available on GitHub. Use git to download the kernel sources for the board: git clone https://github.com/linux-sunxi/linux-sunxi cd linux-sunxi/ Note that this guide was written with the revision below: git rev-parse --verify HEAD e37d760b363888f3a65cd6455c99a75cac70a7b8 The following file contains all the kernel config settings. If you've ever built your own kernel you can use `make menuconfig` etc to change the settings. For now, download it: wget https://raymii.org/s/inc/downloads/olinux/a10/a10lime_defconfig Their kernel contains weird choices, for example iptables is not available, but wireless drivers are. You can save space on the kernel by removing things like that. If you want to run it as a server, you need to compile most of the network settings back in. I use the following config, with network stuff included so that I can use `lxc` containers on the board (`veth`, `bridge` and `vlan` support etc.): wget https://raymii.org/s/inc/downloads/olinux/a10/kernel_config_raymii Copy a10lime_defconfig file to config directory: cp a10lime_defconfig linux-sunxi/arch/arm/configs/ # or my config: cp kernel_config_raymii linux-sunxi/arch/arm/configs/ Prepare the config file: make ARCH=arm a10lime_defconfig The result should be: configuration written to .config If you wish to make your changes in the kernel configuration do: make ARCH=arm menuconfig You can add or remove different modules for the different peripherials in the kernel with `menuconfig`. Be careful with this as it may cause the kernel to not work properly. Compile the kernel: make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- -j4 uImage The result after a while should be like this: Image Name: Linux-3.4.90+ Created: Fri Jun 13 16:28:39 2014 Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed) Data Size: 4447440 Bytes = 4343.20 kB = 4.24 MB Load Address: 40008000 Entry Point: 40008000 Image arch/arm/boot/uImage is ready Compile the kernel modules: make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- -j4 uImage make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- -j4 INSTALL_MOD_PATH=out modules make ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf- -j4 INSTALL_MOD_PATH=out modules_install After the compilations are finished the uImage file is located in: linux-sunxi/arch/arm/boot/ The kernel modules are located in: linux-sunxi/out/lib/modules/3.x.xx where 3.x.xx is kernel version in our case the directory with modules is: linux-sunxi/out/lib/modules/3.4.90+ ### Format and setup the SD-card First we have to partition the SD card with fdisk. Plug SD card into your SD card reader. Use a command like `dmesg` to get the correct device. If you select the wrong device you might overwrite your own hard drive, so make sure you have the correct one. Start fdisk on the correct device: fdisk /dev/sdX List the partitions: p If there are already partitions on the card you should delete them. This will erase the data on the SD card: d 1 If you have more than one partitition press d again and provide the number, like 2, 3 etc. Create the first partition, starting from 2048 n p 1 # enter twice +16M Create the second partition n p 2 # enter three times List the created partitions: p if you did everything correctly on 4GB card you should see something like: Disk /dev/sdX: 3980 MB, 3980394496 bytes 123 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1019 cylinders, total 7774208 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/sdX1 2048 34815 16384 83 Linux /dev/sdX2 34816 7774207 3869696 83 Linux Write it to the SD card: w Create the file system on the first partition. This should be vfat as this is filesystem which the Allwinner bootloader understands: mkfs.vfat /dev/sdX1 The second should be a Linux ext4 partition: mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX2 ### Writing the bootloader and related files You should be in the ~/A10 _kernel_ 3.4/ folder. The image `u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin` should be written to the device `/dev/sdX` (not a partition like `sdX1` or `sdX2`). Use `dd` to write the image we built earlier to the sd card: dd if=u-boot-sunxi/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/dev/sdX bs=1024 seek=8 Mount the first partition: # mkdir /mnt/sd mount /dev/sdX1 /mnt/sd Copy the kernel uImage to root directory of partition 1: cp linux-sunxi/arch/arm/boot/uImage /mnt/sd script.bin is a file with configuration parameters like port GPIO assignments, DDR memory parameters, video resolution etc, Download the file and place it on the SD card: wget -O /mnt/sd/script.bin https://raymii.org/s/inc/downloads/olinux/a10/script.bin boot.scr has the uboot commands to load script.bin, kernel, initrd, set kernel parameters and booting the device. If you want to change it you can read this guide: Download boot.scr and place it on the SD card: wget -O /mnt/sd/boot.scr https://raymii.org/s/inc/downloads/olinux/a10/boot.scr Unmount the partition: sync umount /dev/sdX1 ### Debian rootfs You can download my own image from here: [https://raymii.org/s/articles/Olimex _A10-OLinuXino-LIME_ minimal _debian_ 7_image.html][3]. It is smaller than the Olimex image, but has no GUI etc. The standard olimex Debian image is quite large and has weird software choices. The image provided by Olimex is mirrored here. Download it: wget https://2162bb74000a471eb2839a7f1648771a.objectstore.eu/olimex/a10_lime_debian_3_4_90_rel_3.tgz Mount the second partition on the SD card: mount /dev/sdX2 /mnt/sd Unpack the rootfs to the SD card: tar xzvf a10_lime_debian_3_4_90_rel_3.tgz -C /mnt/sd The unpacked filesystem looks like below: # ls /mnt/sd bin dev home lost+found mnt proc run selinux sys usr boot etc lib media opt root sbin srv tmp var You have to replace the new generated kernel modules from `~/A10_kernel_3.4 /linux-sunxi/out/lib/modules/` to the debian file system we've just unpacked: rm -rf /mnt/sd/lib/modules/* cp -rfv linux-sunxi/out/lib/modules/3.x.xx+/ /mnt/sd/lib/modules/ where x.xx is the kernel version, in our case: cp -rfv linux-sunxi/out/lib/modules/3.4.90+/ /mnt/sd/lib/modules/ Replace /lib/firmware folder with the generated /linux-sunxi/out/firmware rm -rf /mnt/sd/lib/firmware/ cp -rfv linux-sunxi/out/lib/firmware/ /mnt/sd/lib/ Unmount the SD card: sync umount /mnt/sdX2 Connect USB-SERIAL-CABLE-F to UEXT Tx.Rx and GND, or connect a HDMI screen. Put the SD-card in A10-OLinuXino-Lime and apply 5V power, you should see Uboot and then Kernel messages on the console. The default username/password is : root / olimex [1]: https://raymii.org/s/inc/img/A10-OLinuXino-LIME.jpeg [2]: https://www.digitalocean.com/?refcode=7435ae6b8212 [3]: https://raymii.org/s/articles/Olimex_A10-OLinuXino-LIME_minimal_debian_7_image.html --- License: All the text on this website is free as in freedom unless stated otherwise. This means you can use it in any way you want, you can copy it, change it the way you like and republish it, as long as you release the (modified) content under the same license to give others the same freedoms you've got and place my name and a link to this site with the article as source. This site uses Google Analytics for statistics and Google Adwords for advertisements. You are tracked and Google knows everything about you. Use an adblocker like ublock-origin if you don't want it. All the code on this website is licensed under the GNU GPL v3 license unless already licensed under a license which does not allows this form of licensing or if another license is stated on that page / in that software: This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see . Just to be clear, the information on this website is for meant for educational purposes and you use it at your own risk. I do not take responsibility if you screw something up. 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