BananaPi-Archlinux

How to install Archlinux on BananaPi M1 with kernel 4.4.x and 4.5.x. Kernel 4.4.x directly works. The 4.5.x need to be patched before because a stmmac bug.

Works too on PCDuino3-Nano (A20), for kernel 4.5.2. DTB for this board is provided too.

Follow these steps :

1. Compile u-boot (http://linux-sunxi.org/Mainline_U-Boot#Compile_U-Boot) or get the compiled one here (u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin).

   • git clone git://git.denx.de/u-boot.git
   • make -j CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-eabi- Bananapi_defconfig
   • make -j CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-eabi-

2. Create the boot.scr file or get it here (boot.scr).

   • Get the boot.cmd file. Or directly the boot.scr and skip b- step.
   • Generate the boot.scr file: mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d boot.cmd boot.scr

3. Compile zImage and dtb file from Kernel or get the compiled ones here (in Validated_kernel folder).

   • git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git / or get the xz archive for chosen version here https://www.kernel.org/
   • For .tar.xz files, decompress it: tar xf kernelfile.tar.xz
   • If version is 4.5.x, download patch here: https://patchwork.ozlabs.org/patch/598331/. Then, patch it: patch -p1 < pathtopatchfile.patch
   • Get the file bananapi_defconfig and put it in kernel folder (arch/arm/configs/)
   • make -j ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-eabi- bananapi_defconfig
   • make -j ARCH=arm CROSS_COMPILE=arm-none-eabi- zImage dtbs
   • Get the zImage file from linux/arch/arm/boot/
   • Get the sun7i-a20-bananapi.dtb file from linux/arch/arm/boot/dtb/

4. Install Arch

   • Get a 4GB SDcard at least.
   • We will consider the SDCard is mmcblk0. Create two partitions with fdisk. 100M for the first, the rest of SD for the second. Add the bootable flag for the first partition.
   • mkfs.vfat /dev/mmcblk0p1
   • mkfs.ext4 /dev/mmcblk0p2
   • mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mnt
   • mkdir /mnt/boot
   • mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/boot
   • wget http://archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz
   • bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-armv7-latest.tar.gz -C /mnt && sync
   • dd dd if=u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1024 seek=8
   • cp boot.scr /mnt/boot
   • cp zImage /mnt/boot
   • cp sun7i-a20-bananapi.dtb /mnt/boot

5. Start the Bananapi. It should work :)

Root password is root. Alarm password is alarm (default from Arch ARM).

• Edited on May 04th 2016.

• Licenses:

  • Archlinux: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Licenses
  • Kernel: https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/COPYING
  • u-boot: http://www.denx.de/wiki/U-Boot/Licensing