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Building Voyage Linux image for PC Engines ALIX platforms

Intro

  • Example DIRECTORY_TO_CF_CARD_DEVICE used in following instructions: /dev/sdc
  • Voyage Linux image downloaded from http://pcengines.ch website has no flashrom and cbmem installed
  • Voyage Linux kernel of image downloaded from http://pcengines.ch website has CONFIG_CPU_FREQ option not set, which could be required for coreboot 4.7.x
  • Linux Voyage default login/password: root/voyage
  • Linux Voyage default serial console baudrate: 38400

Requirements

  • Compact Flash with a minimum of 1 GB of memory
  • Compact Flash card reader

Flashing CF card with Voyage Linux image from http://pcengines.ch

  1. Download Voyage Linux image for Alix platforms.

  2. Unmount all mounted in OS partitions of used CF card:

sudo umount <DIRECTORY_TO_CF_CARD_DEVICE>*
Eg.: 
sudo umount /dev/sdc*

  1. Unzip downloaded file and Flash your CF flash with unzipped image:
unzip -p voyage-0.9.2.img | pv | sudo dd of=<DIRECTORY_TO_CF_CARD_DEVICE> bs=16M

Eg.: 

unzip -p voyage-0.9.2.img | pv | sudo dd of=/dev/sdc bs=16M

After succesful CF card flashing information similar to shown below may appear: 

60+1 records in
60+1 records out
1014644736 bytes (1.0 GB, 968 MiB) copied, 32.4125 s, 31.3 MB/s

But you still may check that data copying process has been finished. To check that type in a new terminal or terminal tab:

watch grep -e Dirty: -e Writeback: /proc/meminfo

Then type in the first terminal command which cause cache dropping to device: 

sync
and wait until sync process end. After that Dirty and Writeback values should be near the 0 value. Now you can safety remove your CF card.

It's important to not interrupt the flashing process.

After successful performing steps shown above, Voyage Linux image may be installed on your CF card.

cbmem and flashrom installation

Boot to your OS and follow steps contained in the following instructions:

cbmem installation

flashrom installation

Changing serial console baudrate

To change serial console baudrate to custom value follow steps contained in this instruction.

Voyage Linux kernel modification

There is possibility to change kernel configuration without building new Voyage Linux image. To do that you can use debian packages.

  1. Check your kernel version on the target device after booting to OS:

uname -r
Example output 
3.14.12-voyage
That means that kernel version is 3.14.12.

  1. Find and download the same version of kernel from (https://www.kernel.org/). Eg. for 3.14.12 is could be 3.14.X version when X >= 12. Then extract the downloaded archive with kernel files.

  2. Transfer config file from target device /boot directory to your PC. It should be named similar to config-3.14.12-voyage.

  3. Rename config file to .config and place in the directory where extracted kernel files are placed.

  4. Run docker container:

docker run --rm -v ${PWD}:/workdir -t -i pc-engines/apu2 bash

If you don't have pc-engines/apu2 environment built follow this instruction.

  1. Read old config file:
make oldconfig

You can be asked there for some kernel setting. Set them as you need.

  1. Run configuration menu and enable desired kernel elements:
make menuconfig
  1. Build kernel:
make CPUS=$(nproc)
  1. Build debian packages:
make deb-pkg CPUS=$(nproc)

Created packages should be in the directory one level above.

  1. Find package with image in name (eg. linux-image-3.10.107_3.10.107-2_i386.deb) and send it to the target device.

  2. Install packages on the target device:

dpkg -i <name of image package>

Eg. 

dpkg -i linux-image-3.10.107_3.10.107-2_i386.deb

That process changes grub configuration. It adds new positions on grub menu list. Often serial console redirection is disabled. To change this follow this instruction.

  1. After reboot system with updated kernel will be on the Grub menu list. It will have kernel version contained within the name.