Debian without graphical desktop?

Banana pi BPI-W2
1

Hello, Could you suggest how to remove Mate desktop? Or, just switch to boot into CLI. I tried to delete desktop packages, but after that I could watch a black screen only.

2

why do you want to remove desktop? if you want to use text version like ubuntu server, you may could try “Ctrl + Alt + F2/3/4/5/6/…” to change. Or please wait for us to release a lite version.

3

I want to use the board remotely as a headless Debian server with HDD or SSD RAID storage. When is a lite version expected?

4

I have ubuntu server os now, would you like to have a try?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XlH_tVDRQhF3ORgCgSJYzPYI5yxed_N3/view?usp=sharing

5

Jackzeng, Does it work with two network interfaces (eth0 and eth1)? Do you have an image (as .iso file) on which both network interfaces work and could you please share?

6

Yes, I would. Thanks, Jack. The image works, but I have a few notes.

  1. eMMC. Unfortunately, it does not boot from emmc.
  2. RAID. I have re-compiled the kernel using git://github.com/BPI-SINOVOIP/BPI-W2-bsp. I selected all entries under “RAID support” except “Autodetect RAID arrays during kernel boot”. Because the raid auto detection does not work. On the other hand, this feature is considered as deprecated. It requires to create RAID with metadata v0.90. But the current version is 1.2. I can create RAID1, however the system does not assemble it after reboot. The command “update-initramfs -u” says “update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.14.72-sunxi64”. But “uname -r” shows “4.9.119-BPI-W2-Kernel”. I found in /lib/modules/ three folders: 4.14.72-sunxi64, 4.4.89-BPI-M64-Kernel and 4.9.119-BPI-W2-Kernel. Probably, the update-initramfs should generate /boot/initrd.img-4.9.119-BPI-W2-Kernel, which is supposed to allows assembling RAID by kernel. About kernel compilation. I think RAID support should be selected by default as long as BPI-W2 has two SATA interfaces. And NFS server support as well. Anyway, thank you for your response.
7

Hello，kernel 4.9 doesn’t support hwnat now, so the other network interface(lan) doesn’t work.

8

Hello, after you boot from sd, copy your image to U disk, then plug into W2, mount your U disk on W2 file system, you can use bpi-copy xxx.img to Emmc, please have a try.

9

Hello, I tried several times with different images. The result is unsuccessful:

    SW4 -> 0

    C1:80000000
    C2
    ?
    C3hswitch frequency to 0x00000046
    frequency divider is 0x00000080
    switch frequency to 0x00000046
    frequency divider is 0x00000004
    switch to SDR 8 bit
    switch bus width to 0x00000008 bits success
    0000001
    C1:80000000
    C2
    ?uu3-1

 
    SW4 -> 1

    C1:80000000
    C2
    ?
    C3h
    SD card is not detected !!
    switch frequency to 0x00000046
    frequency divider is 0x00000080
    switch frequency to 0x00000046
    frequency divider is 0x00000004
    switch to SDR 8 bit
    switch bus width to 0x00000008 bits success
    00000015
    C1:80000000
    C2
    ?uu3-1

My device is BPI-W2 V1.1

10

Sorry, did you have update the spi rom?

11

No, not yet. I don’t really understand the reason to update W2 SPI ROM. Does it help to boot from the eMMC storage?

12

I have updated the SPI ROM. Now Ubuntu server 16.04 boots from eMMC. But only if the SW4 switch is set to 1 and SD card is removed.