nanopi-r4s

debian arm64 linux for the nanopi r4s

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Notice: Unmaintained Repository

This repository is no longer being maintained. An attempt was made to update to debian 12 bookworm (see bookworm branch) but the pci lan nic is not loading in linux. This device was always unreliable on reboot and would often need to be power cycled to restart. I recommend looking at the nanopi r5c or r5s instead. The debian bullseye release here is a functioning load.

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debian bullseye setup

1. download image:

wget https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r4s/releases/download/v11.4/bullseye.img.xz

2. determine the location of the target micro sd card:

• before plugging-in device:

ls -l /dev/sd*
ls: cannot access '/dev/sd*': No such file or directory

• after plugging-in device:

ls -l /dev/sd*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 Jul  2 16:33 /dev/sda

• note: for mac, the device is /dev/rdiskX

3. in the case above, substitute 'a' for 'X' in the command below (for /dev/sda):

sudo sh -c 'xzcat bullseye.img.xz > /dev/sdX && sync'

when the micro sd has finished imaging, eject and use it to boot the nanopi r4s to finish setup

4. login:

user: debian@192.168.1.xxx
pass: debian

5. take updates:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

6. create account & login as new user:

sudo adduser youruserid
echo '<youruserid> ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL' | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/<youruserid>
sudo chmod 440 /etc/sudoers.d/<youruserid>

7. lockout and/or delete debian account:

sudo passwd -l debian
sudo chsh -s /usr/sbin/nologin debian

sudo deluser --remove-home debian
sudo rm /etc/sudoers.d/debian

8. change hostname (optional):

sudo nano /etc/hostname
sudo nano /etc/hosts

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booting directly to usb from micro sd bootstrap

The nanopi r4s board always needs to bootstrap from a micro sd card as it contains no embedded flash like a raspberry pi4. The minimum required binary for the micro sd is a special version of uboot which redirects the boot process to an attached usb emmc (nand flash) drive.

1. download images:

wget https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r4s/releases/download/v11.4/usb_rksd_loader.img
wget https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r4s/releases/download/v11.4/usb_u-boot.itb

2. determine the location of the target micro sd card:

• before plugging-in device:

ls -l /dev/sd*
ls: cannot access '/dev/sd*': No such file or directory

• after plugging-in device:

ls -l /dev/sd*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 Jul  2 16:33 /dev/sda

• note: for mac, the device is /dev/rdiskX

3. in the case above, substitute 'a' for 'X' in the command below (for /dev/sda):

cat /dev/zero | sudo tee /dev/sdX
sudo dd bs=4K seek=8 if=usb_rksd_loader.img of=/dev/sdX conv=notrunc
sudo dd bs=4K seek=2048 if=usb_u-boot.itb of=/dev/sdX conv=notrunc
sync

when the micro sd has finished imaging, eject and use it to boot the nanopi r4s to usb

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building debian bullseye arm64 for the nanopi r4s from scratch

The build script builds native arm64 binaries and thus needs to be run from an arm64 device such as a raspberry pi4 running a 64 bit arm linux. The initial build of this project used a debian arm64 raspberry pi4, but now uses a nanopi r4s running pure debian bullseye arm64.

1. clone the repo:

git clone https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r4s.git
cd nanopi-r4s

2. run the debian build script

cd debian
sudo sh make_debian_img.sh

• note: edit the build script to change various options: nano make_debian_img.sh

3. the output if the build completes successfully

mmc_2g.img.xz