A tutorial to upgrade NXT pocket C.H.I.P to Debian Buster

pocketchip_debian10.md

Pocket Chip Debian 10 Upgrade Guide

The purpose of this tutorial is to walk through the required steps to upgrade NXT chip (or pocketchip) from debian jessie to debian buster.

If you would like to start your Chip from scratch, follow the steps in the Preparation section.

Preparation (Optional)

A linux host machine, recommended Ubuntu 18.04. However I managed to do it with 20.10 with some tweak.

1. Remove the C.H.I.P from its case (in case you have a Pocket C.H.I.P).
2. Connect the FEL and a GROUND pin of the C.H.I.P (for example, with a paperclip).
3. Connect the C.H.I.P its micro USB port to a USB port of your Linux machine.
4. In the Linux machine:
   • run git clone https://github.com/thore-krug/Flash-CHIP.git to clone this repository.
   • cd into the location where you stored this repository.
   • run sudo chmod +x Flash.sh
   • run ./Flash.sh
   • Select the version you want to install.
   • Wait until the installation finishes.
   • Restart the Chip
5. Connect to your chip using USB network or ssh over wifi. For USB network, run screen /dev/ttyACM0 For Wifi ssh, run ssh chip@<ip_address_of_chip>
6. Your chip is running Debian Jessie now.
7. Update the apt source file. Replace all jessie with stretch in /etc/apt/source.list. Comment away or remove the following

# deb http://http.debian.net/debian jessie-backports main contrib non-free
# deb-src http://http.debian.net/debian jessie-backports main contrib non-free

# deb http://opensource.nextthing.co/chip/debian/repo jessie main

and add

deb http://chip.jfpossibilities.com/chip/debian/repo jessie main
deb http://chip.jfpossibilities.com/chip/debian/pocketchip jessie main

After the modification, your /etc/apt/source.list should look something like

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ jessie/updates main contrib non-free

deb http://chip.jfpossibilities.com/chip/debian/repo jessie main
deb http://chip.jfpossibilities.com/chip/debian/pocketchip jessie main

8. sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Note I started with the headless server version and manually install lightdm and i3wm after the upgrade. Your experience might defer if you use other images.

Trouble-shooting

1. If you are stuck at waiting for FEL..., try to run the script without plugin the chip to the USB port of the host machine. Instead, you start the script ./Flash.sh and proceed until you see the prompt waiting for FEL..., then plug in the chip.
2. If you are stuck at flash usb_bulk_send() ERROR -7: Operation timed out, your host machine is probably running a latest version of the sunix tool. Try to downgrade it by download the deb file from sunxi-tools_1.4.1-1_amd64.deb from https://ubuntu.pkgs.org/18.04/ubuntu-universe-amd64/sunxi-tools_1.4.1-1_amd64.deb.html. Then overwrite the existing installation with

$ sudo dpkg -i sunxi-tools_1.4.1-1_amd64.deb

And edit the Flash.sh file to comment away the following lines.

 # sunxi-tools \

Upgrade From Jessie to Stretch

1. Login to your chip.
2. Update the apt source file. Replace all jessie with stretch in /etc/apt/source.list. Comment away or remove to the two lines

# deb http://chip.jfpossibilities.com/chip/debian/repo jessie main
# deb http://chip.jfpossibilities.com/chip/debian/pocketchip jessie main

After the modification, /etc/apt/source.list file should be like the following

deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free

deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free

3. sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
4. Modify the file /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf to the following

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile

[connection]
wifi.mac-address-randomization=1

[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

[ifupdown]
managed=false

[keyfile]
unmanaged-devices=interface-name:wlan1

5. If you have X running, modify the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf to the following

Section "Files"
        ModulePath "/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/xorg/modules/"
        ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"VGA"
	Option		"PreferredMode"	"1024x768_60.00"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"HDMI"
	Option		"PreferredMode"	"1280x720_60.00"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Composite"
	Option		"PreferredMode"	"NTSC10"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Allwinner sun4i DRM"
	Driver		"armsoc"
	Option		"Monitor-Composite-0"	"Composite"
	Option		"Monitor-VGA-0"		"VGA"
	Option		"Monitor-HDMI-A-0"	"HDMI"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Screen0"
	Device		"Card0"
EndSection


Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Card0"
	Driver		"modesetting"
EndSection

5. Restart your chip and it should be in Stretch now.

Stretch to Buster

1. Login to your chip
2. Update /etc/apt/source.list to the following

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free
#deb http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://security.debian.org/ buster/updates main contrib non-free
#deb http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports main contrib non-free
#deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian buster-backports main contrib non-free

3. sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade
4. Update /etc/X11/xorg.conf to the following

Section "Files"
        ModulePath "/usr/lib/arm-linux-gnueabihf/xorg/modules/"
        ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules/"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"VGA"
	Option		"PreferredMode"	"1024x768_60.00"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"HDMI"
	Option		"PreferredMode"	"1280x720_60.00"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Composite"
	Option		"PreferredMode"	"NTSC10"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Screen0"
	Device		"Card0"
EndSection


Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Card0"
	Driver		"fbdev"
EndSection

5. (Optional) install lightdm and i3 by following this link https://www.reddit.com/r/ChipCommunity/comments/abndo9/an_updated_guide_for_installing_i3_window_manager/

6. Reboot. If your touch screen cursor movement is reversed, append the following to either /etc/X11/xorg.conf or /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-calibration.conf

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "calibration"
        MatchProduct "1c25000.rtp"
        Option "Calibration"  "3992 182 3694 276"
        Option "SwapAxes" "0"
	Option "TransformationMatrix" "-1 0 1 0 -1 1 0 0 1"
EndSection

Fixing the issue with pressing the home button causing chip to shutdown

Thanks to https://www.reddit.com/user/pernig_/ awesome finding

1. Edit this file /etc/systemd/logind.conf and change the following line

#HandlePowerKey=poweroff

to

HandlePowerKey=ignore

2. Save the file and run the following in the terminal as root

$ systemctl kill -s HUP systemd-logind

Reference

Most of the steps in this tutorial were inspired/modified from the following references.

1. https://github.com/Thore-Krug/Flash-CHIP
2. https://yoursunny.com/t/2019/bye-CHIP/
3. http://maba.dk/index.php/demo/pocketchip/
4. https://www.reddit.com/r/ChipCommunity/comments/l3xli8/upgraded_my_pocketchip_to_debian_10/

Since Jessie is now archived, the repository is not at archive.debian.org/debian (RE step 7). Also you may need to update the keyring using
apt install debian-keyring debian-archive-keyring You should alsoupdate the keyrings after changing the sources list to the next release before running apt update

Does this still leave in place and working the custom desktop that the Pocket CHIP devs created? I don't want a standard desktop, the one they created is extremely efficient in the use of ram and cpu.

Anyone know?

I’m going to say it might but if it doesn’t, you can use a light weight WDM like lxde or something. I use command line only to YMMV.

You were correct. Thanks for the heads up.

Same goes for Debian11?

Correct. Just keep changing the repo and dist-upgrade. I suspect you can go directly to debian 11, but, I prefer to go version by version because I've had problems with flashing and did not want to take a chance.

@aykaramba fiy: maybe i am just out of luck, but after having upgraded to Debian 11, I can't login to my machine anymore.
I'm now figuring out a way to flash Debian 7 and then upgrading to Debian 11...

Are you sure you are typing your password in correctly? Are you using PocketChip keyboard? If so, the keyboard is very sensitive and will overtype many letters multiple times. Do you have a Linux laptop? If so there is a way to connect to the chip it self by plugging its microusb into the laptops and connecting to it via screen. That will give you access to a keyboard that won't overtype too many characters. I think you can connect to it that way using other operating systems but I don't use them so I don't know. Anyway, if you are using pocketchip to input your credentials, let me know, and I will try to dig up info on how to ssh into your Chip over usb from a laptop/desktop.

@aykaramba I was using puTTY to access CHIP through serial connection. The keyboard I used was my "host" pc keyboard. It was working before updating, now it doesn't work anymore. Yes, I am sure I am typing user and password correctly (they are the default ones chip/chip root/chip).

I can't manage to make it work on Linux btw, neither ssh nor screen.

EDIT: just figured out more and more and more. I will update this comment soon with many other interesting information!

Aha, sounds good. The only other issue that I found was that I had to remove the chip from the PocketChip case to get it to fully power down. If I rebooted it, I would end up with no post and no image on the PocketChip. Okay good to see you can connect over tty/serial.

on ubuntu 21.10 (pop-os) I also had to remove the -i 0x1f3a and -u flags from the fastboot commands, as I found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChipCommunity/comments/cdrc5s/how_the_heck_do_you_flash_a_chip_nowdays/etw5jwf/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

from the help on ubuntu bionic, the flag help said:

  -u                                       Do not erase partition before
                                           formatting.
  -i <vendor id>                           Specify a custom USB vendor id.

@vigliag oh damn, thanks. Everytime I tried to use it I needed to downgrade fastboot and a big amount of packages.
Also, it is nice finding someone who still uses Chip in 2022!

I followed this instruction and upgraded by regular chip to stretch and the HDMI dip stopped working. Do you know what component is missing?

I noticed the ssh keys were re-generated at every boot, the culprit seems to be /etc/rc.local, which tries to run /usr/bin/ssh-keygen -t rsa1 -N '' -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key and then checks at the next boot if /etc/ssh/ssh_host_key exists. Since rsa1 is not supported anymore, and the output is not there, the script re-generates all the keys.

You can disable this behavior by restoring the original /etc/rc.local, via mv /etc/rc.local.orig /etc/rc.local

Additionally, you'll have a problem with network manager: if wifi goes down for any cause, chip won't reconnect to network.

You can avoid this by giving: nmcli c to figure out your connection, and then nmcli c m SSID autoconnect yes.

Now if wifi goes down, you're safe and sound.

Will this work if I can't login to my chip and it will not boot the home page either I just want a hard reset on the debian

on ubuntu 21.10 (pop-os) I also had to remove the -i 0x1f3a and -u flags from the fastboot commands, as I found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ChipCommunity/comments/cdrc5s/how_the_heck_do_you_flash_a_chip_nowdays/etw5jwf/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

from the help on ubuntu bionic, the flag help said:

  -u                                       Do not erase partition before
                                           formatting.
  -i <vendor id>                           Specify a custom USB vendor id.

I also had to do this, flashing from Debian 11.

I found I can build sunxi-tools from git without downgrading anything. It works 100%

Btw, if you guys find FN key misbehavior, try to use a modified xmodmap. Bind FN key (Code 108) to Mode_switch and modify other keymaps.

nmcli c m SSID autoconnect yes

thanks for the right direction! You do need to add '.connection' to the command before it works. Like so:
nmcli c m yourSSID connection.autoconnect yes

Btw, why dont you need the deb-src and security buster/updates anymore? Are they coming through the only active line below?
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ buster main contrib non-free