OrangePi PC Plus

The official Mender documentation explains how Mender works. This is simply a board-specific complement to the official documentation.

Board description

It’s an open-source single-board computer. It can run Android 4.2, Android4.4, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Raspbian, ArchLinux,openSUSE, OpenWrt, and other OS systems. It uses the AllWinner A20 SoC, and has 1GB DDR3 SDRAM, with Gigabit enthernet and Sata port.

URL: http://www.orangepi.org
Wiki: http://www.orangepi.org/Docs/mainpage.html

Test results

The Yocto Project releases in the table below have been tested by the Mender community. Please update it if you have tested this integration on other Yocto Project releases:

Yocto Project Build Runtime
zeus (3.0) :test_works: :test_works:
thud (2.6) :test_works: :test_works:2
sumo (2.5) :test_works: :test_works:
rocko (2.4) :test_works: :test_works:1

1. Built-in ethernet does not work and had to use a USB->Ethernet adapter
2. Disabled GRUB integration for ARM systems which is default in meta-mender/thud. U-boot is still primary integration method for this platform.

Build Means that the Yocto Project build using this Mender integration completes without errors and outputs images.
Runtime Means that Mender has been verified to work on the board. For U-Boot-based boards, the integration checklist has been verified.

Getting started

Prerequisites

  • A supported Linux distribution and dependencies installed on your workstation/laptop as described in the Yocto Mega Manual
    • NOTE. Instructions depend on which Yocto version you intend to use.
  • Google repo tool installed and in your PATH .

Configuring the build

Setup Yocto environment

Set the Yocto Project branch you are building for:

# set to your branch, make sure it is supported (see table above)
export BRANCH="thud" 

Create a directory for your mender-orangepi setup to live in and clone the
meta information.

mkdir mender-orangepi && cd mender-orangepi

Initialize repo manifest:

repo init -u https://github.com/mendersoftware/meta-mender-community \
           -m meta-mender-sunxi/scripts/manifest-sunxi.xml \
           -b ${BRANCH}

Fetch layers in manifest:

repo sync

Setup build environment

Initialize the build environment:

source setup-environment sunxi

Configure Mender server URL (optional)

This section is not required for a successful build but images that are generated by default are only suitable for usage with the Mender client in standalone mode, due to lack of server configuration.

You can edit the conf/local.conf file to provide your Mender server configuration, ensuring the generated images and Mender Artifacts are connecting to the Mender server that you are using. There should already be a commented section in the generated conf/local.conf file and you can simply uncomment the relevant configuration options and assign appropriate values to them.

Build for Hosted Mender:

# To get your tenant token:
#    - log in to https://hosted.mender.io
#    - click your email at the top right and then "My organization"
#    - press the "COPY TO CLIPBOARD"
#    - assign content of clipboard to MENDER_TENANT_TOKEN
#
MENDER_SERVER_URL = "https://hosted.mender.io"
MENDER_TENANT_TOKEN = "<copy token here>"

Building the image

You can now proceed with building an image:

MACHINE=orange-pi-pc-plus bitbake core-image-base

Replace core-image-base with your desired image target.

Using the build output

After a successful build, the images and build artifacts are:

  • tmp/deploy/images/orange-pi-pc-plus/core-image-base-orange-pi-pc-plus.sdimg
  • tmp/deploy/images/orange-pi-pc-plus/core-image-base-orange-pi-pc-plus.mender

The disk image (with .sdimg suffix) is used to provision the device storage for devices without Mender running already. Please proceed to the official documentation on provisioning a new device for steps to do this.

On the other hand, if you already have Mender running on your device and want to deploy a rootfs update using this build, you should use the Mender Artifact files, which have .mender suffix. You can either deploy this Artifact in managed mode with the Mender server (upload it under Releases in the server UI) or by using the Mender client standalone mode.

References

  • The Mender integration layer for OrangePi PC Plus and template files can be found in meta-mender-community.

Known issues

  • The default Linux kernel image format ( uImage ) set in meta-sunxi for OrangePi PC Plus does not boot, this might apply to other boards as well. Therefore there is an entry local.conf that changes the Linux kernel image format to zImage

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3 posts were split to a new topic: Screen goes blank on OrangePi PC Plus

Hi,

I built this image and it seems to boot. At early boot stage it says “failed to shut down host controller.” four times. But it continues with Loading device tree to 49ff8000, end 49fffd7a ... ok. And I think the next line says Loading kernel... but the HDMI output is cut on the left side. Then HDMI is switched off. After some I see a device “orange-pi-pc-plus” on the network. Thus, I assume it boots fine. When I try to ssh into the device using user root it fails with No route to host. I read that the mender demo comes with ssh server enabled. But also if I add IMAGE_FEATURES += "ssh-server-dropbear" or openssh I can’t login. Do you have a clue why? Second question: Is it possible and if yes, how can I get more boot logs printed to HDMI?

Best regards and thanks in advance!

I ave same experience and found out that hdmi support if not enabled in meta-sunxi kernel. I have somewhere patch (I have it for some old kernel) but look for : CONFIG_DRM_SUN8I_DW_HDMI=y and other dependencies to enable HDMI output.

Thanks for the hint! And what about ssh? Can you login?

Are you able to get a raw connection to port 22 and see the SSH banner? If so then you probably just need to set the login credentials. Or just add “debug-tweaks” to EXTRA_IMAGE_FEATURES for it to have user root with no password.

Turns out that my crappy router firmware does not show the current IP address correctly. Found that out when cross checking with nmap. ssh works.

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