New mainline Linux images with Kernel 5.3.8 for A13-OLinuXino and A13-SOM are uploaded

A13-OLinuXino and A13-SOM got new mainline Linux images based on Kernel 5.3.8 on our ftp.

The two distributions we usually release are Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Bionic and Armbian/Debian buster next with build instructions and ready to burn to SD card images.

New Debian 10 Buster images released for A20 and A64 boards and SOMs

We have released Universal A20 and A64 images with Debian 10 Buster.

There are few known issues which we work on:

• Certain types of eMMC memories might start in HS-200 mode instead of SDHS mode. This causes eMMC installation and boot problems.
• HDMI always takes precendence over LCD. This is even if you have enabled a
  display manually (interrupted u-boot and executed “olinuxino monitor set XXX”).
• Boards with 5.x eMMC chips are unable to boot directly from eMMC;
  this is caused by poor eMMC 5.x support in eGON BROM;
  this issue is not related to the Linux image
• The board currently cannot store rootfs on usb driver. The init script
  starts before the usb subsystem initialization.
• If the board has eMMC and SPI, it’s not possible to boot from SPI and rootfs
  on SATA. This is due to the fact that u-boot searches first the eMMC storage
  for boot scripts.
• LCD-OLinuXino-15.6FHD is not fully supported.
• The GT2005 camera module in A20-SOM-EVB and A20-SOM204-EVB is not working.

New release is preparing and will be updated by the end of the month.

 

 

Lime2-SD add on board for second SD card on A20-OLinuXino-LIME2

Lime2-SD is small add on board which snaps on GPIO-1 connector and add second SD card to A20-OLinuxino-LIME2. It doesn’t interference with other parts on the board and do not increase the height.

Why we do this? Because this is an easy way to increase storage for Pioneer-FreedomBox-HSK . What we are preparing to offer soon is upgraded version of the Home Server Kit with 256GB storage made with 2 “disks” x 128GB micro SD cards. For these who already have Pioneer-FreedomBox-HSK they still can upgrade by ordering Lime2-SD .

Note that support in FreedomBox for Lime2-SD is not add, but you can try Lime2-SD with the current Armbian image for LIME2. To enable the Lime2-SD support you also have to add this dts overlay .

 

FreedomBox – your private Box of Freedom for Decentralizing the Internet and keeping your privacy away from the Big Brother

We are pleased to announce that Pioneer-FreedomBox Home Server Kit is now in stock.

You can read more about how FreedomBox free open source software project started in the FreedomBox Foundation press release.

FroodomBox software is developing 8 years and got lot of coverage in USA, India, Russia:

• SoftwareFreedom.org
• New York Times
• Wall Street Journal
• India Times
• Novaya Gazeta 2011
• Novaya Gazeta 2019

Olimex’s OLinuXino Open Source Hardware Linux Single Board Computers are natural match for FreedomBox Free Open Source Software.

We are very proud that we have been selected by FreedomBox Foundation for Hardware manufacturing partner of Pioneer-FreedomBox Home Server Kit.

What makes OLinuXino LIME2 good platform for Home Server Kit is:

• The Low Power ARM Dual core Cortex-A7 processor running blob free mainline Linux;
• Native SATA interface for connecting external SATA HDDs with power supply backup;
• LiPo battery UPS power backup supply with Power Management Unit and Stepp Up convertors which allow Pioneer-FreedomBox-HSK to run 4-5 hours on battery;
• Metal enclosure;
• power supply adapter with plug adapters for EU, US, UK power supply sockets;
• 32GB micro SD-card for file storage;

What do you get with FreedomBox is:

• Tor browser
• Private encrypted file sharing
• Private encrypted chat
• Peer to Peer file sharing
• Voice chat
• Web proxy
• Virtual Private Network
• IRC client
• Private Calendar and Address book
• File synchronization
• Distributed File Storage
• Your own hosted Wiki and Blog

All these features are made configurable with simple mouse click:

 

TERES-I Open Source Hardware Laptop has new experimental Armbian Mainline Linux image for download

We uploaded few days ago Armbian experimental mainline linux image for TERES-I on our ftp.

There are still few known issues which we work on, but we wanted to upload this experimental image so other people can start playing with.

What is new?

• eMMC now run x3 times faster which improves the overall user experience.
• OpenGL with LIMA

Known issues:

• Automatically turns on upon applying power via the PWR_JACK, we need time to patch mainline uboot
• No sleep or suspend, WIP.
• Bluetooth not working out-of-the-box – fixed in Olimex release if you install the package
  ftp://staging.olimex.com/Allwinner_Images/A64-Teres/linux/armbian_experimental/teres-bluetooth_0.2-1_arm64_armbian.deb
  with command:

  dpkg -i teres-bluetooth_0.2-1_arm64_armbian.deb

• Keyboard LEDs not working – fixed in Olimex release – install the package

  ftp://staging.olimex.com/Allwinner_Images/A64-Teres/linux/armbian_experimental/teres1-ledctrl_0.1-1_armbian_arm64.deb

  with command:

  dpkg -i teres1-ledctrl_0.1-1_armbian_arm64.deb

• The LCD brightness is low by default (20%) – fixed in Olimex release – to increase it type in the console

  echo 9 > /sys/class/backlight/backlight/brightness

• no video player acceleration, to be fixed in the next release planned for 22.02.2019

 

Working with A20 OLinuXino or SOM GPIOs when using new Armbian based A20 universal Linux image

A20 GPIO ports are 32 bit registers listed in alphabetical order PA, PB, PC, PD, PE, PF, PG, PH, PI.

In Armbian GPIO ports are numbered from 0 to 287 corresponding from PA0 to PI31.

The GPIO number is calculating using this formula:

gpioNumber = (Port Letter - 'A') * 32 + pinNumber

 

For instance GREEN STATUS LED on A20-OLinuXino-LIME2 is connected to port PH2. This will correspond to GPIO number:

('H'-'A' = 7) * 32 + 2 = 226

 

All GPIO operations in shell should be made as super user. First we have to register the gpio in the Linux Kernel with this command:

sudo echo 226 > /sys/class/gpio/export

 

to check if we did registered this gpio successfully we use ls command:

sudo ls /sys/class/gpio

 

If you did everything correctly you will see gpio226 listed.

Then you have to specify what will be this GPIO input or output. This is done with writing “in” or “out” in gpioxx direction directory. In this case we want to drive the STATUS LED so we have to make it output:

sudo echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio226/direction

 

Once we set the GPIO as output we can write 1 or 0 to it’s value and this will make GPIO port to supply 3.3V when 1 is written or 0V when 0 is written.

To switch the LED on we have to write 1:

sudo echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio226/value

 

Yay the green LED is now lighting. If we want to switch it off we have to write 0:

sudo echo 0 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio226/value

 

To read the GPIO state it has to be set as input first with the command:

sudo echo in > /sys/class/gpio/gpioXXX/direction

 

where XXX is GPIO port number calculated as described above. Then to read the GPIO state you use this command:

sudo cat /sys/class/gpio/gpioXXX/value

the result will be 0 if the GPIO voltage is between 0.0-1.0V and 1 if the voltage is between 2.3-3.3V. If the voltage on the GPIO is between 1.0 and 2.3V the attempt to read will return randomly value 0 or 1.

Be careful when playing with the GPIO ports, some of them are wired to important peripherials like LCD, Ethernet, USB, SATA etc and writing bad values may break the functionality or even damage the board. Test your knowledge on GPIOs which are not connected to anything is best approach.

We are prepare now new version of PyA20 Python module which will add access to GPIO, SPI, I2C, Serial resources of A20 directly from Python code to work with the new universal A20 Armbian Linux image.

EDIT 2019-01-25 14:24:

We got question how fast is the access to the GPIOs via shell. Sure it’s not fast and made just for slow processes like switching on and off relays, or polling status of buttons or sensors which do not change often their state. Running this code below:

nano toggle_led_lime2.sh

 

Enter inside the file this code:

#!/bin/bash
# the lime2 led is PH2 - 32*(8-1) + 2 = 226

echo 226 > /sys/class/gpio/export
echo out > /sys/class/gpio/gpio226/direction
while [ 1 -eq 1 ]
do
echo 1 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio226/value
echo 0 > /sys/class/gpio/gpio226/value
done

 

Save and exit, then make executable and run

chmod +x toggle_led_lime2.sh
./toggle_led_lime2.sh

 

We can see square wave with oscilloscope on PH2 with frequency between 3 and 4 kHz. i.e. pulses with high state 125-150uS and low state 125-150uS.

Shell is slow, if we write same code in C:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <unistd.h>

#define PH2        226    // (32 * 7) + 2
#define GPIO_PATH  "/sys/class/gpio/gpio226/value"

int main() {
    int ret;
    int fd;

    fd = open(GPIO_PATH, O_RDWR);
    if (fd < 0)
        return errno;

    while(1) {
        ret = write(fd, "1", 1);
        ret = write(fd, "0", 1);
    }

    return 0;
}

 

The new code produces square wave with 2.13 us high and low state i.e. approx 235 kHz or about 50 times faster than access via shell.

A20-OLinuXino universal image updated – now supporting our new boards with SPI+eMMC

We just uploaded new A20-OLinuXino universal image at our FTP.

With this image we add support for the new OLinuXino boards with eMMC+SPI.

Few things need some more attention and will be fixed in new image next week: boot from SPI with rootFS on HDD or USB Flash. The new LCD-15.6 eDP display also doesn’t like the new kernel and drivers, but will be fixed too. These are explained in the ISSUES.txt.

The new image also support our new 5″, 7″ and 10″ capacitive touch displays (not on our web for sale yet as still testing) automatically i.e. plug and play and no need to run display script, each time at boot it recognizes the connected display and configure the drivers.

All other peripherals and devices are tested to work with: A20-OLinuXino-LIME, A20-OLinuXino-LIME2, A20-OLinuXino-MICRO, A20-SOM and A20-SOM204.