i.MX6 Archlinux

Description

This page is aimed at guiding you through a quick and simple installation of ArchLinux on you HummingBoard/Cubox-i. The result is a minimal installation with a very fast boot time (about 12 seconds to desktop on the HummingBoard, single core). The preparation of the SD card requires an existing linux box. However, once the SD card is ready, your Cubox-i does not need to be connected to a mouse, monitor or keyboard to complete the installation.

Installation

Manual installation

This installation method produces a SD card with the official ArchLinuxARM installation. The only difference is the use of a script to prepare the SD card. It simply performs all the steps described on the ArchLinuxARM pages for you.

Download the official ArchLinux rootfs
Downloadthe installation script (a slightly modified GeexBox script) [2]
Insert your SD card in your linux box, check (using dmesg) the name of the device (something like /dev/sdX) and run the following as root

chmod +x make-sdcard
./make-sdcard /dev/sdX ArchLinuxARM-imx6-cubox-latest.tar.gz

Examples:

./make-sdcard /dev/mmcblk0 ArchLinuxARM-imx6-cubox-latest.tar.gz
./make-sdcard /dev/sdd ArchLinuxARM-imx6-cubox-latest.tar.gz

Post Installation

Now you should have a SD card with a (very) basic ArchLinux. Insert it into your Cubox-i (connected to wired ethernet) and boot into ArchLinux, then login as root (password root) and run this to update

pacman -Syu

This will synchronize the package databases, upgrade to most recent packages.

Installing Kodi/xbmc

To install Kodi/xbmc:

pacman -S xbmc-imx-git

To run

systemctl start xbmc

Do not run xbmc within X

Creating A Desktop Environment

To install an X environment (eg lxde)

pacman -S lxde xf86-video-fbdev xorg-xinit gpu-viv-bin-mx6q-fb

You will need a symlink

ln -sf /opt/fsl/lib/libGL.so /usr/lib/libGL.so.1

Add a user, running X is bad as root, this will create a user called alarm

groupadd alarm
useradd -m -d /home/alarm -g alarm alarm
usermod -a -G alarm,audio,video,power,network,optical,storage,disk alarm
passwd alarm
#you will be asked to choose a password

Add this to bottom of /home/alarm/.xinitrc

exec dbus-launch startlxde

You could now start lxde logged in as alarm by running

startx

Make logging in as user alarm launch lxde automatically

Add this to bottom of /home/alarm/.bash_profile

[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && exec startx

To automatically go straight into lxde, logged in as alarm, from boot

mkdir /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d

Now create this file

nano /etc/systemd/system/getty@tty1.service.d/autologin.conf

and paste these contents in

[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=-/usr/bin/agetty --autologin alarm --noclear %I 38400 Linux

Make hdmi default sound source for alsa

Paste this into either /etc/asound.conf (affects all users) or ~/.asoundrc of the user

pcm.!default {
  type plug
  slave {
    pcm "hw:1,0"
  }
}
ctl.!default {
  type hw
  card 1
}

Complete the setup of the system by following the Archlinux wiki pages. You can start here.

Installing WIFI drivers

In order to install binary firmware for wireless network cards with the Broadcom BCM4313, BCM43224 or BCM43225 chip on ArchLinux run the following as root

pacman -Sy firmware-brcm43xx wpa_actiond dialog

This will install bluetooth firmware and also 2 files, needed by wifi firmware

After installing the config files, you will need to reboot device or reload module and then you can configure wifi access with command

wifi-menu

To start on boot

systemctl enable netctl-auto@wlan0

Alternative Installation Methods

Other options to get ArchLinux installed on your SD card:

Official ArchLinux installation instructions

Developer Center