i.MX6 Archlinux

Owned by SolidRun
Dec 26, 2021
2 min read

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.

  1. Download the official ArchLinux rootfs

  2. Downloadthe installation script (a slightly modified GeexBox script) [2]

  3. 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:

To run

Do not run xbmc within X

Creating A Desktop Environment

To install an X environment (eg lxde)

You will need a symlink

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

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

You could now start lxde logged in as alarm by running

Make logging in as user alarm launch lxde automatically

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

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

Now create this file

and paste these contents in

Make hdmi default sound source for alsa

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

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

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

To start on boot

Alternative Installation Methods

Other options to get ArchLinux installed on your SD card:

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