[BPI-R4] Imagebuilder R4 ArchlinuxArm

Banana Pi Router design BPI-R4/BPI-R4 Pro(MT7988)
25

Hey Daniel,

This sounds like a really great solution. Will this work with the official U-Boot or will it require a custom build that includes all those features you mentioned - pcie, nvme, usb, uefi?

I would imagine having this as the main bootloader on the NAND storage, which then automatically boots from available sources, first usb, if connected, then nvme, lastly failsafe from NAND itself. Thus not requiring an active serial console.

Of course the usage of nvme, usb, failsafe and order should be configurable.

And then the option for booting from SD or emmc still remains via the dip switches.

26

I guess, when done tinkering around, then better move to Emmc.

27

Fixed images, was missing CONFIG_PHY_MTK_XFI_TPHY=y

28

So now the BPI-R4 is fully part of script. A different linux is installed, based on dangowrt’s mt7988-for-next branch, so not rolling-stable yet. But the linux package now is up-gradable (when I build a newer version, or you build one yourself).

Only AccessPoint version until now.

29

ALERT!!!

Upgrading systemd will break router function (disable ipforward)

30

See this post, how to fix:

31

Added network config option ‘router without sfp’ to build.sh script. Prebuild image follows in the next hour.

It only sets up lan and wan ports in nat (masquerading) setup. lan0 is setup as the wan port.

Network config fix for newest systemd-networkd is included.

Updated kernel from latest dangowrt’s mt7988-for-next branch, v6.10-next.

32

Hello Eric

is it possible to advise on my case please?

Got one of the ready images also used your script to create a new sdcard both AP and router but I cant set the interfaces up due to memory and apparently something is wrong with the system not recognizing the memory correctly

[root@bpir4 ~]# free -hm
               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           231Mi       165Mi        14Mi       684Ki        66Mi        66Mi
Swap:             0B          0B          0B

Also during boot there are sine services failing.

[**FAILED**] Failed to start **Setup MAC addresses**.
See 'systemctl status setmac.service' for details.

[**FAILED**] Failed to start **Netfilter Tables**.
See 'systemctl status nftables.service' for details.

[root@bpir4 ~]# ip link set wan up
[  173.937409] ip: page allocation failure: order:10, mode:0x40dc0(GFP_KERNEL|__GFP_COMP|__GFP_ZERO), nodemask=(null),cpuset=/,mems_allowed=0
[  173.949931] CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 3169 Comm: ip Not tainted 6.10.0-next-20240724-bpi #3
[  173.957676] Hardware name: Banana Pi BPI-R4 (DT)
[  173.962283] Call trace:
[  173.964720]  dump_backtrace+0xd4/0x110
[  173.968468]  show_stack+0x18/0x24
[  173.971775]  dump_stack_lvl+0x5c/0x7c
[  173.975429]  dump_stack+0x18/0x24
[  173.978734]  warn_alloc+0xdc/0x17c
[  173.982129]  __alloc_pages_noprof+0x3e4/0x940
[  173.986477]  __alloc_pages_node_noprof+0x78/0xac
[  173.991084]  ___kmalloc_large_node+0x68/0xb8
[  173.995343]  __kmalloc_noprof+0x3c/0x1d0
[  173.999257]  kmalloc_array_noprof.constprop.0+0x24/0x38
[  174.004475]  mtk_open+0x314/0x8e8
[  174.007782]  __dev_open+0x168/0x1b8
[  174.011263]  dev_open+0x20/0x6c
[  174.014396]  dsa_user_open+0x2c/0x94
[  174.017962]  __dev_open+0x168/0x1b8
[  174.021442]  __dev_change_flags+0x180/0x1a8
[  174.025615]  dev_change_flags+0x24/0x6c
[  174.029442]  do_setlink+0x55c/0xbb8
[  174.032923]  __rtnl_newlink+0x338/0x68c
[  174.036748]  rtnl_newlink+0x50/0x7c
[  174.040225]  rtnetlink_rcv_msg+0x27c/0x2d0
[  174.044312]  netlink_rcv_skb+0xa4/0x118
[  174.048140]  rtnetlink_rcv+0x18/0x24
[  174.051707]  netlink_unicast+0x12c/0x1c4
[  174.055620]  netlink_sendmsg+0x288/0x2e0
[  174.059533]  sock_sendmsg_nosec+0x1c/0x34
[  174.063535]  ____sys_sendmsg+0x1a4/0x248
[  174.067449]  ___sys_sendmsg+0x80/0xdc
[  174.071099]  __sys_sendmsg+0x6c/0xbc
[  174.074664]  __arm64_sys_sendmsg+0x20/0x2c
[  174.078748]  invoke_syscall+0x64/0xec
[  174.082400]  el0_svc_common+0xbc/0xd8
[  174.086051]  do_el0_svc+0x20/0x2c
[  174.089355]  el0_svc+0x70/0xa0
[  174.092399]  el0t_64_sync_handler+0x84/0x12c
[  174.096659]  el0t_64_sync+0x194/0x198
[  174.100340] Mem-Info:
[  174.102614] active_anon:124 inactive_anon:6114 isolated_anon:0
[  174.102614]  active_file:6208 inactive_file:5471 isolated_file:0
[  174.102614]  unevictable:0 dirty:136 writeback:173
[  174.102614]  slab_reclaimable:2789 slab_unreclaimable:7857
[  174.102614]  mapped:7268 shmem:171 pagetables:309
[  174.102614]  sec_pagetables:0 bounce:0
[  174.102614]  kernel_misc_reclaimable:0
[  174.102614]  free:8575 free_pcp:16 free_cma:0
[  174.141179] Node 0 active_anon:500kB inactive_anon:24476kB active_file:24832kB inactive_file:21884kB unevictable:0kB isolated(anon):0kB isolated(file):0kB mapped:29120kB dirty:688kB writeback:692kB shmem:684kB writeback_tmp:0kB kernel_stack:1936kB pagetables:1236kB sec_pagetables:0kB all_unreclaimable? no
[  174.168187] DMA free:34300kB boost:0kB min:1888kB low:2360kB high:2832kB reserved_highatomic:0KB active_anon:500kB inactive_anon:24424kB active_file:24728kB inactive_file:21884kB unevictable:0kB writepending:1380kB present:262144kB managed:237356kB mlocked:0kB bounce:0kB free_pcp:64kB local_pcp:0kB free_cma:0kB
[  174.195829] lowmem_reserve[]: 0 0 0 0
[  174.199493] DMA: 1019*4kB (UME) 573*8kB (UME) 249*16kB (UME) 150*32kB (UME) 74*64kB (UME) 30*128kB (UME) 16*256kB (UME) 4*512kB (UM) 1*1024kB (M) 1*2048kB (E) 0*4096kB = 35236kB
[  174.215404] 11852 total pagecache pages
[  174.219231] 0 pages in swap cache
[  174.222534] Free swap  = 0kB
[  174.225413] Total swap = 0kB
[  174.228282] 65536 pages RAM
[  174.231064] 0 pages HighMem/MovableOnly
[  174.234893] 6197 pages reserved
[  174.238036] mt7530-mmio 15020000.switch wan: failed to open conduit eth0
RTNETLINK answers: Cannot allocate memory

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

33

The last time I updated the linux for the R4 is a long time ago. It was a fork of dangowrt’s linux. I’ve been quite busy with other bpi-board related improvements.

You can build a new package:


git clone --branch=linux-bpir-git https://github.com/ericwoud/archlinuxarm-repo.git testlinux
cd testlinux
nano PKGBUILD

Change:
_gitroot="https://github.com/ericwoud/linux.git"
To:
_gitroot="https://github.com/dangowrt/linux.git"

TARGET=bpir4 makepkg

You can do this on a BPI (aarch64) board running archlinux , but also on x86_64 archlinux. If you have no archlinux, you could run it in a chroot. I would use tokland/arch-bootstrap for that.

May have to add new CONFIG_XXX to defconfig, if there are new ones that apply to the R4.

Edit:

The prebuid package is being updated now. It is being build on the oracle aarch64 free-tier It should be enough to update the linux-bpir4-git package , available soon. Still not sure if there are new CONFIG_XXX

34

I type root, admin and it returns Access denied. I’m using bpir64-sdmmc-rt.img.gz. Do you know what I’m doing wrong? Thank you.

35

Hi,

This is the R4 version topic, but you mention R64 image. If about R64, please find the other topic.

Does it also happen with sd image?

I’ll see if I can build new images this weekend…

Or you can run sd image and use script on R64 to write to emmc a new version.

Edit:

Build process is running. Check the date of your image to see it is updated:

https://ftp.woudstra.mywire.org/images/

36

I tried the new img and I’m already logged in as root/admin. Very nice, thank you. Now I have a working R64 toy. And sorry for being in a different thread.

37

I have a new custom and simple initrd build script. It can replace mkinitcpio.

It creates a smaller imagefile and it does not use busybox, just uses the normal linux commands. Basic necessary commands for initrd are included.

It is the default for new installations. It uses the same configuration files as mkinitcpio (from the linux-bpir-git package).

To change to the new script:

pacman -Rdd mkinitcpio
pacman -Syu bpir-initrd
pacman -S linux-bpir-git

See for source of script:

https://github.com/ericwoud/archlinuxarm-repo/blob/bpir-initrd/bpir-initrd

Default config:

https://github.com/ericwoud/archlinuxarm-repo/blob/linux-bpir-git/mkinitcpio.conf

Default hook:

https://github.com/ericwoud/archlinuxarm-repo/blob/linux-bpir-git/mkinitcpio.hook

38

Rebased my atf patches to the latest atf.

For the 8 GB R4, it is now an option in the build script. I do not have one to test it.

The special 8gb version of the atf is selected. Also the memory node in the devicetree is adapted (for booting from atf directly to linux).

Will need all packages updated (including bpir-atf-git). Building new with the script all packages are the newest.

From old images:

su root
echo -n 8 > /boot/bootcfg/ddrsize
pacman -Syu bpir-atf-git
bpir-toolbox --atf
exit
39

Bootloaders are about to get way less annoying

40

Arm system ready still uses u-boot, so it is still bootrom-atf-uboot. That does not change.

Here it is simpler because uboot is left out of the bootchain. The initramdisk has a menu if you want one.

42

Why not dracut?

43

One is always free to implement a initrd of one’s choice.

I’ m working on a much more functional, more tailor suited, initrd, with many possibilities For now it is running on R3, but when all functional I will add R4.

Just a few things working on:

Uboot Distro-boot sd/emmc - nvme - nand. Scanning for extlinux.conf on the devices in that order. Where on nand there is also a resque initrd.

This initrd can make connection through dhcp-client. Run my installscript or debootstrap, to install any linux on the R3 directly from initrd.

Anyway, still in development, partly functional. Maybe in a month or so it is usable.

44

It is all tested and looks good, setting up a usefull NAND image, from where it is quite easy to install any linux distro on nvme (or emmc), or use some linux tools to fix the reason the board is not booting correctly.

In case the R3-Mini (or any other board) is bricked, this is how to get linux running and fix whatever is needed:

45

with your nand distro-boot + recovery i made a ubuntu image and installed it on emmc. No i am having troubles getting ipv6 working from the router itself. its no prob from the lan side but using wan times out. when checking if all modules have been loaded i noticed the absence of nf_conntrack_ipv6 module, so this seems kinda important ;). when building a new kernel did you somewhere outlined the procedure on how to get the new kernel and modules on the emmc afterwords? I would be greatful for some hints :). Also i would like to thank you for your great work. When im done i will post my config (systemd-networkd, nftables, suricata etc ) on this board in case anyone might wanna use it. i will include a setup script for the most important stuff.So far your builds are working fine ipv4 and ipv6 wise when not on the router itself. Thanks again for all the great work you and Frank W. are making. Appreciate it alot.