NetBSD on the CubieBoard2
Frederic Cambus July 08, 2016 [NetBSD] [ARM]Here are some notes on installing and running NetBSD/evbarm on the AllWinner A20 powered CubieBoard2. I bought this board a few weeks ago for its SATA capabilities, despite the fact that there are now cheaper boards with more powerful CPUs.
Required steps for creating a bootable micro SD card are detailed on the NetBSD Wiki, and a NetBSD installation is required to run mkubootimage.
I used an USB to TTL serial cable to connect to the board and create user accounts. Do not be afraid of serial, as it has in fact only advantages: there is no need to connect an USB keyboard nor an HDMI display, and it also brings back nice memories.
Connecting using cu (from my OpenBSD machine):
cu -s 115200 -l /dev/cuaU0
Device name might be different when using cu on other operating systems.
Adding a regular user in the wheel group:
useradd -m -G wheel username
Adding a password to the newly created user and changing default shell to ksh:
passwd username
chpass -s /bin/ksh username
Installing and configuring pkgin:
export PKG_PATH=http://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/earmv7hf/7.0/All
pkg_add pkgin
echo $PKG_PATH > /usr/pkg/etc/pkgin/repositories.conf
pkgin update
Finally, here is a dmesg for reference purposes:
Copyright (c) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005,
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
The NetBSD Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 1982, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
NetBSD 7.0.1 (CUBIEBOARD.201605221355Z)
total memory = 1024 MB
avail memory = 1008 MB
sysctl_createv: sysctl_create(machine_arch) returned 17
kern.module.path=/stand/evbarm/7.0/modules
timecounter: Timecounters tick every 10.000 msec
mainbus0 (root)
cpu0 at mainbus0 core 0: 912 MHz Cortex-A7 r0p4 (Cortex V7A core)
cpu0: DC enabled IC enabled WB disabled EABT branch prediction enabled
cpu0: isar: [0]=0x2101110 [1]=0x13112111 [2]=0x21232041 [3]=0x11112131, [4]=0x10011142, [5]=0
cpu0: mmfr: [0]=0x10101105 [1]=0x40000000 [2]=0x1240000 [3]=0x2102211
cpu0: pfr: [0]=0x1131 [1]=0x11011
cpu0: 32KB/32B 2-way L1 VIPT Instruction cache
cpu0: 32KB/64B 4-way write-back-locking-C L1 PIPT Data cache
cpu0: 256KB/64B 8-way write-through L2 PIPT Unified cache
vfp0 at cpu0: NEON MPE (VFP 3.0+), rounding, NaN propagation, denormals
vfp0: mvfr: [0]=0x10110222 [1]=0x11111111
cpu1 at mainbus0 core 1
armperiph0 at mainbus0
armgic0 at armperiph0: Generic Interrupt Controller, 160 sources (151 valid)
armgic0: 32 Priorities, 128 SPIs, 7 PPIs, 16 SGIs
armgtmr0 at armperiph0: ARMv7 Generic 64-bit Timer (24000 kHz)
armgtmr0: interrupting on irq 27
timecounter: Timecounter "armgtmr0" frequency 24000000 Hz quality 500
awinio0 at mainbus0: A20 (0x1651)
awingpio0 at awinio0
awindma0 at awinio0: DMA
awindma0: interrupting on irq 59
awincnt0 at awinio0
timecounter: Timecounter "CNT64" frequency 24000000 Hz quality 900
com0 at awinio0 port 0: ns16550a, working fifo
com0: console
awindebe0 at awinio0 port 0: Display Engine Backend (BE0)
awintcon0 at awinio0 port 0: LCD/TV timing controller (TCON0)
awinhdmi0 at awinio0: HDMI 1.3
awinwdt0 at awinio0: default period is 10 seconds
awinrtc0 at awinio0: RTC
awinusb0 at awinio0 port 0
awinusb0: no restrict gpio found
ohci0 at awinusb0: OHCI USB controller
ohci0: OHCI version 1.0
usb0 at ohci0: USB revision 1.0
ohci0: interrupting on irq 96
ehci0 at awinusb0: EHCI USB controller
ehci0: EHCI version 1.0
ehci0: companion controller, 1 port each: ohci0
usb1 at ehci0: USB revision 2.0
ehci0: interrupting on irq 71
awinusb1 at awinio0 port 1
awinusb1: no restrict gpio found
ohci1 at awinusb1: OHCI USB controller
ohci1: OHCI version 1.0
usb2 at ohci1: USB revision 1.0
ohci1: interrupting on irq 97
ehci1 at awinusb1: EHCI USB controller
ehci1: EHCI version 1.0
ehci1: companion controller, 1 port each: ohci1
usb3 at ehci1: USB revision 2.0
ehci1: interrupting on irq 72
motg0 at awinio0: OTG
motg0: interrupting at irq 70
motg0: no restrict gpio found
motg0: Dynamic FIFO sizing detected, assuming 16Kbytes of FIFO RAM
usb4 at motg0: USB revision 2.0
awinmmc0 at awinio0 port 0: SD3.0 (DMA)
awinmmc0: interrupting at irq 64
ahcisata0 at awinio0: AHCI SATA controller
ahcisata0: interrupting on irq 88
ahcisata0: ignoring broken port multiplier support
ahcisata0: AHCI revision 1.10, 1 port, 32 slots, CAP 0x6f24ff80<CCCS,PSC,SSC,PMD,SAM,ISS=0x2=Gen2,SCLO,SAL,SALP,SSS,SSNTF,SNCQ>
atabus0 at ahcisata0 channel 0
awiniic0 at awinio0 port 0: Marvell TWSI controller
awiniic0: interrupting on irq 39
iic0 at awiniic0: I2C bus
awge0 at awinio0: Gigabit Ethernet Controller
awge0: interrupting on irq 117
awge0: Ethernet address: 02:0a:09:03:27:08
rlphy0 at awge0 phy 1: RTL8201L 10/100 media interface, rev. 1
rlphy0: 10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
awinac0 at awinio0: CODEC
audio0 at awinac0: full duplex, playback, capture, mmap, independent
awinhdmiaudio0 at awinio0: HDMI 1.3
audio1 at awinhdmiaudio0: half duplex, playback, mmap
awinnand0 at awinio0
awinir0 at awinio0 port 0: IR
awinir0: interrupting on irq 37
cir0 at awinir0
gpio0 at awingpio0: 18 pins
gpio1 at awingpio0: 25 pins
gpio2 at awingpio0: 28 pins
gpio3 at awingpio0: 12 pins
gpio4 at awingpio0: 12 pins
gpio5 at awingpio0: 28 pins
gpio6 at awingpio0: 22 pins
timecounter: Timecounter "clockinterrupt" frequency 100 Hz quality 0
cpu1: 912 MHz Cortex-A7 r0p4 (Cortex V7A core)
cpu1: DC enabled IC enabled WB disabled EABT branch prediction enabled
cpu1: isar: [0]=0x2101110 [1]=0x13112111 [2]=0x21232041 [3]=0x11112131, [4]=0x10011142, [5]=0
cpu1: mmfr: [0]=0x10101105 [1]=0x40000000 [2]=0x1240000 [3]=0x2102211
cpu1: pfr: [0]=0x1131 [1]=0x11011
cpu1: 32KB/32B 2-way L1 VIPT Instruction cache
cpu1: 32KB/64B 4-way write-back-locking-C L1 PIPT Data cache
cpu1: 256KB/64B 8-way write-through L2 PIPT Unified cache
vfp1 at cpu1: NEON MPE (VFP 3.0+), rounding, NaN propagation, denormals
vfp1: mvfr: [0]=0x10110222 [1]=0x11111111
sdmmc0 at awinmmc0
uhub0 at usb0: Allwinner OHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 1 port with 1 removable, self powered
uhub1 at usb1: Allwinner EHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub1: 1 port with 1 removable, self powered
uhub2 at usb2: Allwinner OHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub2: 1 port with 1 removable, self powered
uhub3 at usb3: Allwinner EHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 2.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub3: 1 port with 1 removable, self powered
uhub4 at usb4: Mentor Graphics MOTG root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub4: 1 port with 1 removable, self powered
ld0 at sdmmc0: <0x02:0x544d:SA08G:0x14:0x12436e27:0x0e6>
ld0: 7388 MB, 3752 cyl, 64 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 15130624 sectors
ld0: 4-bit width, bus clock 50.000 MHz
boot device: ld0
root on ld0a dumps on ld0b
root file system type: ffs