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This is a guide on how to install Debian on a Pine64 Rock64 Single Board Computer.

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Debian on Rock64

1.) Prepare the x86_64 Debian Host

mkdir /home/youruser/assets this will be the target for the final image

Install all required packages for QEMU

sudo apt install qemu-efi-aarch64 qemu-system-arm virt-manager

Download the arm64 mini.iso from Debian

https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/daily/netboot/

2.) Setup Virtual Machine in QEMU

open Virtual Machine Manager select “Local install media (ISO image or CDROM)” in “Architecture options” select Architecture: aarch64 and Machine Type: virt , next select the just downloaded mini.iso , next choose the operating system Debian 10 , next set Memory to 1024 and CPUs to 4 , next create a disk image and set size to 4 GiB , finally click “Finish” and click “Yes” to make Virtual Network active

3.) Install Debian for arm64 in your Virtual Machine

click into the black area of the VMs Window to capture Mouse and Keyboard , hit Enter to start text based Debian Installer , create root password and youruser with password as they will be on the final image , partition manually the disk image as follows

Partition 1: Size 100M, Name efi, Use as EFI System Partition, Bootable flag on 
Partition 2: Size 100M, Name boot, Use as Ext 2 file system, Mount point /boot   Bootable flag off
Partition 3: Size max, Use as Ext 4 journaling file system, Mount point /   Bootable flag off

confirm that you don’t want to create Swap Space by clicking <NO> ,in “Software selection” select only SSH server and standard system utilities and finish the installation, once finished reboot into the newly installed system

4.) DTB file handling

mkdir /boot/dtbs

nano /etc/kernel/postinst.d/copy-dtbs

#!/bin/sh

set -e
version=”$1”

echo Copying current dtb files to /boot/dtbs….
cp -a /usr/lib/linux-image-${version}/. /boot/dtbs/

chmod +x /etc/kernel/postinst.d/copy-dtbs

/etc/kernel/postinst.d/copy-dtbs `uname -r`

5.) Bootloader configuration

mkdir /boot/extlinux

nano /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf

TIMEOUT 2
DEFAULT debian

LABEL debian
MENU LABEL Debian
KERNEL /vmlinuz
INITRD /initrd.img
DEVICETREEDIR /dtbs
APPEND console=ttyS2,1500000 console=tty1 root=LABEL=root rw rootwait

apt purge grub-efi-arm64

apt autoremove

apt autoclean

shutdown -h now

6.) Creating tar archives of our VM

sudo modprobe nbd max_part=8

sudo qemu-nbd --connect=/dev/nbd0 /var/lib/libvirt/images/debian10-aarch64.qcow2

sudo mount /dev/nbd0p2 /mnt

cd /mnt

sudo tar cfvzp /home/youruser/assets/debian-aarch64-bootfs.tar.gz .

cd

sudo umount /mnt

sudo mount /dev/nbd0p3 /mnt

cd /mnt

sudo tar cfvzp /home/youruser/assets/debian-aarch64-rootfs.tar.gz .

cd

sudo umount /mnt

sudo qemu-nbd -d /dev/nbd0

7.) Install Cross Compiler for building U-Boot on our x86_64 Debian Host

sudo apt install gcc make bc git device-tree-compiler build-essential libssl-dev python3-dev bison flex libssl-dev swig gcc-aarch64-linux-gnu gcc-arm-none-eabi

8.) Build U-Boot on our x86_64 Debian Host

git clone https://github.com/ARM-software/arm-trusted-firmware
cd arm-trusted-firmware
git tag					remember last stable (v2.7)
git checkout v2.7
make CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- PLAT=rk3328 bl31
cd ..

git clone git://git.denx.de/u-boot.git
cd u-boot
git tag					remember last stable (v2022.04)
git checkout v2022.04
ln -s /home/youruser/assets/arm-trusted-firmware/build/rk3328/release/bl31/bl31.elf bl31.elf
make CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- BL31=bl31.elf rock64-rk3328_defconfig
make -j4 CROSS_COMPILE=aarch64-linux-gnu- BL31=bl31.elf all u-boot.itb

cp /home/youruser/u-boot/idbloader.img /home/youruser/assets/
cp /home/youruser/u-boot/u-boot.itb /home/youruser/assets/

9.) Flashing Debian to our Pine64 Rock64 SBC (16GB eMMC module with 30310400 sectors)

sudo fdisk /dev/sdX

type o this will clear out any partitions on the drive , type p to list partitions, there should be no partitions left , type n, then p for primary, 1 for the first partition on the drive , 32768 for the first sector, and 647168 for the last sector, then type a , then type n, then p for primary, 2 for the second partition on the drive , 647169 for the first sector,and 28213246 for the last sector, then type n , then p for primary, 3 for the third partition on the drive, 28213247 for the first sector , and 30310399 for the last sector, then type t and 3 for the third partition and 82 for the Hex Code , then write the partition table and exit by typing w

cd /home/youruser/assets

mkdir boot this is in your home directory ! → /home/youruser/assets/boot

mkdir root this is in your home directory ! → /home/youruser/assets/root

sudo mkfs.ext2 -m0 -L boot /dev/sdX1
sudo mount /dev/sdX1 /home/youruser/assets/boot
cd /home/youruser/assets/boot
sudo tar xzvpf /home/youruser/assets/debian-aarch64-bootfs.tar.gz .
sync
cd ..
sudo umount /home/youruser/assets/boot

sudo mkfs.ext4 -L root /dev/sdX2
sudo mount /dev/sdX2 /home/youruser/assets/root
cd /home/youruser/assets/root
sudo tar xzvpf /home/youruser/assets/debian-aarch64-rootfs.tar.gz .
sync
cd ..

sudo nano /home/youruser/assets/root/etc/fstab amend as below

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# Use 'blkid' to print the universally unique identifier for a
# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices
# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).
#
# systemd generates mount units based on this file, see systemd.mount(5).
# Please run 'systemctl daemon-reload' after making changes here.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/mmcblk1p1 /boot	ext2	defaults	0	2
/dev/mmcblk1p2 /	ext4	errors=remount-ro	0	1
/dev/mmcblk1p3 swap	swap	defaults	0	0
/dev/sr0/media/cdrom0	udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0	0

sudo nano /home/youruser/assets/root/etc/network/interfaces change interface to eth0

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto eth0
allow-hotplug eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

sudo umount /home/youruser/assets/root

sudo mkswap /dev/sdX3

cd home/youruser/assets/
dd if=idbloader.img of=/dev/sdX seek=64 conv=notrunc
dd if=u-boot.itb of=/dev/sdX seek=16384 conv=notrunc

10.) Install the eMMC-Module onto your Pine64 Rock64 SBC, connecting HDMI, Mouse and Keyboard and power it up.

ip a check that network is working

11.) Check the MAC address, may need spoofing if address is 06:ca:fa:7c:8c:f8 (1GB Board) or 3e:6a:eb:10:6a:9b (4GB Board)

ip link show eth0

If you MAC address is 06:ca:fa:7c:8c:f8 or 3e:6a:eb:10:6a:9b then do steps below, or the network will not work ! (if you have multiple Rock64 SBC on the same network)

ip link set dev eth0 down

ip link set dev eth0 address 06:ca:fa:XX:XX:XX

ip link set dev eth0 up

Change the last 3 bits of the linked MAC address to your liking,but DO NOT change the first 3 bits (reserved for Manufacturer).

sudo reboot once board is up, check with ip link show eth0 for success

perform system update

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt dist-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt autoclean

12.) Remove unnecessary packages, which are no longer required

sudo apt purge qemu-guest-agent
sudo rm /root/etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/serial-getty@ttyAMA0.service
sudo rm -rf /boot/grub
sudo rm -rf /boot/efi

13.) Add Firmware for Rockchip CDN DisplayPort Controller

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list amend as below to add contrib and non-free component

# deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye main contrib non-free

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ bullseye-security main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ bullseye-security main contrib non-free

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-updates main contrib non-free

sudo apt update perform system update

sudo apt install firmware-misc-nonfree contains –> rockchip/dptx.bin

14.) Hide kernel messages during boot

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf amend as below

# Uncomment the following to stop low-level messages on console
kernel.printk = 3 4 1 3

15.) Enable filesystem check at boot

sudo tune2fs -c 1 /dev/mmcblk1p1
sudo tune2fs -c 1 /dev/mmcblk1p2

sudo reboot

Done, enjoy your setup.

Credit to https://www.kulesz.me/post/140-debian-devuan-arm64-install/ for providing the initial guide and concept.

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This is a guide on how to install Debian on a Pine64 Rock64 Single Board Computer.

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