Group: Hardware/FSDG distributions/Trisquel
Contents
Trisquel versions
| Version | Can be debootstrapped | Based on | Kernel version | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trisquel 11 (aramo) | Yes | Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) |
|
|
| Trisquel 10 (nabia) | Yes | Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) |
|
Installing
How to install Trisquel 10 (etiona) on 32bit ARM SBCs
This tutorial has been tested on Parabola x86_64, but it should work on Trisquel too as they both have similar qemu-user-static packages.
| Distribution | Package | Binary |
|---|---|---|
| Guix | qemu:static | /gnu/store/*-qemu-*-static/bin/qemu-arm |
| Parabola | qemu-user-static | /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static |
| Trisquel 11.0 (aramo) | qemu-user-static | /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static |
You can then start installing Trisquel on an ARM computer (from an x86 computer with Guix, Parabola or Trisquel) with the following commands:
# qemu-img create -f raw storage.img 2G # fdisk storage.img # create 1 partition # udisksctl loop-setup -f storage.img # mkdir rootfs # mkfs.ext4 -O ^metadata_csum -O ^64bit /dev/loop0p1 # mount /dev/loop0p1 rootfs # mkdir -p rootfs/usr/bin # debootstrap --foreign --arch armhf etiona rootfs
Then if you use Parabola or Trisquel, you need to run the following commands:
# cp /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static rootfs/usr/bin # LANG=C.UTF-8 chroot rootfs /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static /bin/bash # export TERM=xterm-color # export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin # /debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage
If you use Guix instead (either as system distribution or on top of another distribution) you can use the following commands instead:
$ guix package -i qemu:static
$ sudo cp $(guix package -I | awk '{if($1=="qemu" && $3=="static"){print $4}}')/bin/qemu-arm rootfs/usr/bin/qemu-arm-static
# LANG=C.UTF-8 chroot rootfs /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static /bin/bash
# export TERM=xterm-color
# export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
# sed 's#/gnu/store/.*/bin/sh#/bin/sh#g' -i /debootstrap/debootstrap
# sed 's#/gnu/store/.*/bin/dpkg#/usr/bin/dpkg#g' -i /debootstrap/debootstrap
# /debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage
You then need to create the extlinux.conf file in /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf with the following content:
menu title Welcome to U-Boot with Extlinux support!
timeout 10
label Trisquel GNU/Linux-libre, linux-libre kernel
kernel /boot/vmlinuz
append loglevel=8 root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rw
fdtdir /boot/dtb/
initrd /boot/initrd.img
Set the first partition to be bootable (needed to be able to boot):
# sfdisk /dev/loop0 -A 1
Then you need to install a kernel:
# for d in proc dev dev/pts sys ; do mount -o bind /$d rootfs/$d ; done # LANG=C.UTF-8 chroot rootfs /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static /bin/bash # source /etc/environment # apt remove flash-kernel # apt install linux-image-generic
You then need to write a script in /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-generate-dtb-link to generate a symlink from /lib/firmware/<<your-kernel-version>>/device-tree/ to /boot/dtb, so for instance from /lib/firmware/5.4.0-96-generic/device-tree/ to /boot/dtb. I've an incomplete script here:
#!/bin/sh
set -e
version="$1"
ln -sf /lib/firmware/${version}/device-tree/ /boot/dtb
The caveat of this script is that it has not been tested with multiple kernel versions installed, so during apt upgrade, it may or may not make the /boot/dtb link point to the wrong kernel. So that needs to be tested.
With only one kernel installed it should not be a problem.
In addition to that you will also need to make the symlink yourself the first time, before booting the image, like that:
# LANG=C.UTF-8 chroot rootfs /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static /bin/bash # source /etc/environment # ln -sf /lib/firmware/<your-kernel-version>/device-tree/ /boot/dtb
You will need to replace the <your-kenrel-version> with your kenrel version, for instance:
# LANG=C.UTF-8 chroot rootfs /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static /bin/bash # source /etc/environment # ln -sf /lib/firmware/5.4.0-96-generic/device-tree/ /boot/dtb
You will then need to install a bootloader, here's an example for the lime 1 A20:
# LANG=C.UTF-8 chroot rootfs /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static /bin/bash # source /etc/environment # apt update # apt install u-boot-sunxi # cat /usr/share/doc/u-boot-sunxi/README.Debian # dd conv=fsync,notrunc if=/usr/lib/u-boot/A20-OLinuXino-Lime/u of=/dev/loop0 bs=1024 seek=8
You can then unmount and copy to a microSD:
# umount rootfs/dev/pts rootfs/dev rootfs/proc rootfs/sys rootfs/ # ddrescue /dev/loop0 /dev/sdZ # copy to a microSD
Failed installation With Trisquel 10 (nabia)
- Devices with an Allwiner SOCs: missing devicetree.
- Devices with OMAP3 SOC: the package instructions / README use dd but u-boot.img is probably expected on a fat partition. And u-boot determine that due to some bug. See Parabola patches for more details. Tested with a beagleboard (probably one of the latest revisions) and MLO complained about not finding u-boot.img
- On a Pandaboard, it booted the kernel, dtb and initramfs fine, but then the kernel hangs (there are too much backtraces to see where the issue comes from).
- The TBS2910 is also supported by upstream u-boot but there I coudn't test since u-boot-img 2019.07+dfsg-1ubuntu6 doesn't have an image for it. Maybe support for DISTRO_BOOT was added upstream after that u-boot version.
