Install ArchLinuxARM on Rock Pi 4 (not working)

install-archlinux-on-rock-pi-4.md

Installing Archlinux on Rock Pi 4

Does not work. This is just a documentation of my results, what I found out and what might be a good starting point for someone else, trying the same thing. Hope it helps.

https://www.armbian.com/rock-pi-4/

Useful links

Working images for Rock Pi 4 which might be useful templates: https://wiki.radxa.com/Rockpi4/install/microSD https://wiki.radxa.com/Rockpi4/downloads

Guide for Rock64: https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/rockchip/rock64

Rockchip wiki: http://opensource.rock-chips.com/wiki_Boot_option#Boot_from_SD.2FTF_Card

Someone else with similar problems: https://medium.com/@AmadorUAVs/rock-pi-4-how-to-set-up-a-board-with-barely-any-official-documentation-33b73311ac01

Step by step installation

Zero the beginning of the SD card:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M count=32

Start parted to partition the SD card:

parted /dev/sdX

At the parted prompt, create 5 new partitions:

• Type unit s to use sectors as unit.
• Type mklabel gpt to create the partition table.
• Type mkpart logical ext2 64 8063 to create the first partition. It will tell you that The resulting partition is not properly aligned for best performance.. Ignore this warning.
• Type mkpart logical ext2 16384 24575 to create the second partition.
• Type mkpart logical ext2 24576 32767 to create the third partition.
• Type mkpart logical fat32 32768 262143 to create the EFI boot partition.
• Type mkpart logical ext2 262144 100% to create the linux filesystem partition.
• Type set 4 boot on to set the filesystem type for partition 4 to EF00

As a result you should get the following partition table (this output is the partition table of the official Ubuntu server image for Rock Pi 4):

Disk /dev/sdh: 29.7 GiB, 31914983424 bytes, 62333952 sectors
Disk model: STORAGE DEVICE  
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 992DF2C2-0170-4F66-9492-FBF320673EEF

Device      Start      End  Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sdh1      64     8063     8000  3.9M Linux filesystem
/dev/sdh2   16384    24575     8192    4M Linux filesystem
/dev/sdh3   24576    32767     8192    4M Linux filesystem
/dev/sdh4   32768   262143   229376  112M EFI System
/dev/sdh5  262144 62333918 62071775 29.6G Linux filesystem

Create the filesystems for the EFI and the linux partition:

mkfs.fat -F32 /dev/sdX4
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdX5

Write the data for the three other partitions:

wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/rockchip/boot/rock64/idbloader.img
wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/rockchip/boot/rock64/uboot.img
wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/rockchip/boot/rock64/trust.img
dd if=idbloader.img of=/dev/sdX seek=64
dd if=uboot.img of=/dev/sdX seek=16384
dd if=trust.img of=/dev/sdX seek=24576

Mount the partitions:

mkdir root
mount /dev/sdX5 root
mkdir boot
mount /dev/sdX4 boot

Download and install the ArchLinuxARM base:

wget http://os.archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz
bsdtar -xpf ArchLinuxARM-aarch64-latest.tar.gz -C root

Move the boot data to the boot partition and register this new partition in the fstab:

mv root/boot/* boot/
echo "/dev/mmcblk0p4 /boot vfat defaults 0 1" >> root/etc/fstab

Ensure that everything is written to the SD card:

sync

This is how far I got. It does not boot. I guess, one issue is, that the boot partition does not really contain the EFI data. But I also guess, that there are more issues.

If you get further than me, update this guide and let me now!

Just go on the forum and find links to various desktops
https://forum.manjaro.org/t/manjaro-arm-20-06-released/112
https://osdn.net/projects/manjaro-arm/storage/rockpro64/kde-plasma/20.06/

Prob have to hunt around for a minimal image