Alpine on ARM

This material needs wiki syntax or style improvements ... Please feel free to help us clean it up.

This page is proposed for moving ... It should be renamed to ARM SOCs. (Discuss)

(Parts of this page are WIP, still incomplete and some might be incorrect.)

Supported SoCs

Currently Alpine supports armv6/armhf arch on the following SoCs

(This is taken from the DTBs which Alpine includes)

am335x-base0033	am335x-bone	am335x-boneblack	am335x-evm	am335x-evmsk	am335x-nano	am335x-pepper	am3517-craneboard	am3517-evm	am3517_mt_ventoux	am437x-gp-evm
am437x-sk-evm	am43x-epos-evm	exynos4210-origen	exynos4210-smdkv310	exynos4210-trats	exynos4210-universal_c210	exynos4412-odroidu3	exynos4412-odroidx	exynos4412-odroidx2	exynos4412-origen	exynos4412-smdk4412	exynos4412-tiny4412
exynos4412-trats2	exynos5250-arndale	exynos5250-smdk5250	exynos5250-snow	exynos5260-xyref5260	exynos5410-smdk5410	exynos5420-arndale-octa	exynos5420-peach-pit	exynos5420-smdk5420	exynos5440-sd5v1	exynos5440-ssdk5440	exynos5800-peach-pi
imx1-ads	imx1-apf9328	imx25-eukrea-mbimxsd25-baseboard-cmo-qvga	imx25-eukrea-mbimxsd25-baseboard-dvi-svga	imx25-eukrea-mbimxsd25-baseboard-dvi-vga	imx25-eukrea-mbimxsd25-baseboard	imx25-karo-tx25	imx25-pdk	imx27-apf27	imx27-apf27dev	imx27-eukrea-mbimxsd27-baseboard	imx27-pdk
imx27-phytec-phycard-s-rdk	imx27-phytec-phycore-rdk	imx31-bug	imx35-eukrea-mbimxsd35-baseboard	imx35-pdk	imx50-evk	imx51-apf51	imx51-apf51dev	imx51-babbage	imx51-digi-connectcore-jsk	imx51-eukrea-mbimxsd51-baseboard	imx53-ard
imx53-m53evk	imx53-mba53	imx53-qsb	imx53-qsrb	imx53-smd	imx53-tx53-x03x	imx53-tx53-x13x	imx53-voipac-bsb	imx6dl-aristainetos_4	imx6dl-aristainetos_7	imx6dl-cubox-i	imx6dl-dfi-fs700-m60
imx6dl-gw51xx	imx6dl-gw52xx	imx6dl-gw53xx	imx6dl-gw54xx	imx6dl-gw552x	imx6dl-hummingboard	imx6dl-nitrogen6x	imx6dl-phytec-pbab01	imx6dl-rex-basic	imx6dl-riotboard	imx6dl-sabreauto	imx6dl-sabrelite
imx6dl-sabresd	imx6dl-tx6dl-comtft	imx6dl-tx6u-801x	imx6dl-tx6u-811x	imx6dl-wandboard-revb1	imx6dl-wandboard	imx6q-arm2	imx6q-cm-fx6	imx6q-cubox-i	imx6q-dfi-fs700-m60	imx6q-dmo-edmqmx6	imx6q-gk802
imx6q-gw51xx	imx6q-gw52xx	imx6q-gw53xx	imx6q-gw5400-a	imx6q-gw54xx	imx6q-gw552x	imx6q-hummingboard	imx6q-nitrogen6x	imx6q-phytec-pbab01	imx6q-rex-pro	imx6q-sabreauto	imx6q-sabrelite
imx6q-sabresd	imx6q-sbc6x	imx6q-tx6q-1010-comtft	imx6q-tx6q-1010	imx6q-tx6q-1020-comtft	imx6q-tx6q-1020	imx6q-tx6q-1110	imx6q-udoo	imx6q-wandboard-revb1	imx6q-wandboard	imx6sl-evk	imx6sx-sdb
armada-3720-espressobin-v7-emmc
omap3-beagle-xm-ab	omap3-beagle-xm	omap3-beagle	omap3-cm-t3517	omap3-cm-t3530	omap3-cm-t3730	omap3-devkit8000	omap3-evm-37xx	omap3-evm	omap3-gta04a3	omap3-gta04a4	omap3-gta04a5
omap3-ha-lcd	omap3-ha	omap3-igep0020	omap3-igep0030	omap3-ldp	omap3-lilly-dbb056	omap3-n9	omap3-n900	omap3-n950	omap3-overo-alto35	omap3-overo-chestnut43	omap3-overo-gallop43
omap3-overo-palo43	omap3-overo-storm-alto35	omap3-overo-storm-chestnut43	omap3-overo-storm-gallop43	omap3-overo-storm-palo43	omap3-overo-storm-summit	omap3-overo-storm-tobi	omap3-overo-summit	omap3-overo-tobi	omap3-sbc-t3517	omap3-sbc-t3530	omap3-sbc-t3730
omap3-thunder	omap3-zoom3	omap3430-sdp	omap4-duovero-parlor	omap4-panda-a4	omap4-panda-es	omap4-panda	omap4-sdp-es23plus	omap4-sdp	omap4-var-dvk-om44	omap4-var-stk-om44	omap5-cm-t54
omap5-sbc-t54	omap5-uevm	qcom-apq8064-cm-qs600	qcom-apq8064-ifc6410	qcom-apq8074-dragonboard	qcom-apq8084-ifc6540	qcom-apq8084-mtp	qcom-ipq8064-ap148	qcom-msm8660-surf	qcom-msm8960-cdp	qcom-msm8974-sony-xperia-honami	sun4i-a10-a1000
sun4i-a10-ba10-tvbox	sun4i-a10-cubieboard	sun4i-a10-hackberry	sun4i-a10-inet97fv2	sun4i-a10-mini-xplus	sun4i-a10-olinuxino-lime	sun4i-a10-pcduino	sun5i-a10s-olinuxino-micro	sun5i-a10s-r7-tv-dongle	sun5i-a13-hsg-h702	sun5i-a13-olinuxino-micro	sun5i-a13-olinuxino
sun6i-a31-app4-evb1	sun6i-a31-colombus	sun6i-a31-hummingbird	sun6i-a31-m9	sun7i-a20-cubieboard2	sun7i-a20-cubietruck	sun7i-a20-hummingbird	sun7i-a20-i12-tvbox	sun7i-a20-olinuxino-lime	sun7i-a20-olinuxino-micro	sun7i-a20-pcduino3	sun8i-a23-ippo-q8h-v5
vexpress-v2p-ca15-tc1	vexpress-v2p-ca15_a7	vexpress-v2p-ca5s	vexpress-v2p-ca9	vf610-colibri-eval-v3	vf610-cosmic	vf610-twr

Install Alpine on supported SoCs

Generic information

(If anyone has one of the above devices and has successfully installed Alpine on it, please consider adding the missing info here.)

Example with Wandboard

Get latest Alpine image

Download the last Generic ARM image on https://alpinelinux.org/downloads/ Extract the archive somewhere.

Prepare SD Card

First install SPL and u-boot.img (this could change for other board): in root, write the SPL from Alpine extracted files :

dd if=u-boot/wandboard/SPL of=/dev/sdX seek=1 bs=1k

and the u-boot.img :

dd if=u-boot/wandboard/u-boot.img of=/dev/sdX seek=69 bs=1k

After create the partition on the sd-card with fdisk, then copy folders apks/ boot/ efi/ extlinux/ u-boot/ to the sd-card partition. (I'm not sure all folder as useful).

After you can put the sd-card in the Wandboard and boot it with serial console connected.
The board should boot on the sd-card. When the prompt ask a login, enter 'root'. Then launch 'setup-alpine' to configure the system.

Specific guides

• DIY Fully working Alpine Linux for Allwinner and Other ARM SOCs
• Raspberry_Pi
• Raspberry_Pi_4_-_Persistent_system_acting_as_a_NAS_and_Time_Machine
• Odroid-C2

Unupported SoCs

If you have an armv6/armv7 SoC which is not listed above but is supported by mainline uboot/kernel then it's still possible to install Alpine

Requirements

• Alpine's forked uboot to support tarballs (fabled?)
• serial console
• crosscompiler/toolchain if you can not compile natively

The embedded world

A lot of the SoCs have their own way of doing things, although they use uboot and Linux kernel but often they are heavily modified to suit easy flashing of "ROMs" or other unknown reasons, e.g. Rockchip's notion "partition" are neither DOS nor GPT partitions. We will discuss to install Alpine in a more standard way like x86 with either DOS or GPT partitions. You will most likely have to install/flash the mainline uboot, which can be non-destructive if you use external storage.

Storage

One can load uboot from the following block devices if it's supported.

• NAND
• eMMC
• SD card
• USB

Power on

Some SoCs need both SPL and uboot, you need to check uboot for your board. Most (if not all) boards boots from the internal storage first (either NAND or eMMC) you will have to check documentation of your board if you wish to boot the SPL/uboot from SD/USB.

One can view SPL+uboot as BIOS and boot-loader on PC. Think that you could put the BIOS on an external storage :D

Once you have loaded the "standard" uboot, things are more or less like on x86.

Partitioning

Either DOS or GPT patitions should work. Start of the first partition should be on block 2048 so there is space for SPL/uboot and marked bootable (with the MBR bootable flag, or GPT legacy_bios_bootable attribute).

• SPL starts at block 64 (please consult the docs for your board)
• uboot starts at block 256 (please consult the docs for your board)

Just dd SPL and boot with the correct offset to the media you wish to boot

Booting Linux kernel

• uboot uses extlinux.conf file to locate the kernel/initramfs/... just like syslinx, you need to put that file on the partitions which is marked bootable in the /boot directory
• there should be an extra line "FDTDIR" which points to the DTBs

e.g.

label Fedora (3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl) 22 (Rawhide)
	kernel /boot/vmlinuz-3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl
	append ro root=UUID=8eac677f-8ea8-4270-8479-d5ddbb797450 console=ttyS0,115200n8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8 drm.debug=0xf
	fdtdir /boot/dtb-3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl
	initrd /boot/initramfs-3.17.0-0.rc4.git2.1.fc22.armv7hl.img

Using QEMU

qemu-system-arm -M vexpress-a9 -kernel zImage -initrd initramfs-grsec -dtb vexpress-v2p-ca9.dtb -hda hda.img -serial stdio

References

• dtb (Device Tree Binary)
• Odroid-C2 2018 (ARMv8, AArch64; Alpine Linux custom build)
• CusDeb.com - bootstrap SD-card images for single-board computers online; (Pieman)
• Available SoCs