Armbian on Orange Pi 4

Armbian for Orange Pi 4.

(!) As of 2020-05-11 the images are not fully production ready:

• display supports at most resolution of 1920x1080
• higher power consumption compared to BSP Linux on Orange Pi 4

(tested with dev kernel 5.6.12, Ubuntu Focal 20.04 LTS)

Installation using a Prebuilt Image

Armbian provides several pre-built SD Card images ready to be flashed and used. See www.armbian.com/orange-pi-4

See Flashing Linux to SD Card on what to do with the downloaded *.img file.

Installation using a Custom Image

Requires a x86_64 machine with 2+ GB of RAM running Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver.

(!) You can't build the image on the target device itself since it has an ARM processor.

Source: docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/

1. Prepare build environment (see #Using Vagrant)
2. Configure and Build (see #Building an Image)
3. Flash the image to SD Card

Using Vagrant

Source: docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Using-Vagrant/

Prerequisites

1. Install git, vagrant, virtualbox
2. Install virtualbox plugins: vagrant plugin install vagrant-disksize
3. Clone the armbian build repository: git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/armbian/build
4. Fetch the guest VM image: vagrant box add ubuntu/bionic64

Building

1. Go to VM template directory: cd build/config/templates
2. Start the VM: vagrant up
3. Log into the VM: vagrant ssh
   1. cd armbian
   2. sudo ./compile.sh (see details below)
4. Locate the resulting image:
   • ls output/images/
5. Stop the VM at the end (or after every finished build): vagrant halt

Cleanup

1. To remove the VM after you are done: vagrant destroy

Building an Image

Source: docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/

Kernel + U-Boot Only

./compile.sh  BOARD=orangepi4 BRANCH=current KERNEL_ONLY=yes KERNEL_CONFIGURE=yes

Produces *.deb packages usable for kernel updates. Or for flashing to an SD Card if you unpack the deb archive (via ar x *.deb)

Minimal Debian Bullseye server

./compile.sh BOARD=orangepi4 BRANCH=current RELEASE=bullseye BUILD_MINIMAL=yes BUILD_DESKTOP=no KERNEL_ONLY=no KERNEL_CONFIGURE=yes

Produces a standalone *.img file (about 700 MB) for flashing to SD Card.

Ubuntu Desktop

./compile.sh BOARD=orangepi4 BRANCH=current RELEASE=bionic BUILD_MINIMAL=no BUILD_DESKTOP=yes KERNEL_ONLY=no KERNEL_CONFIGURE=yes

Using the System

Source: [1]

Boot

Insert the SD card into the slot, connect a cable to your network if possible or a display and power your board. (First) boot (with DHCP) takes up to 35 seconds with a class 10 SD Card.

Login

Log in as: root Password: 1234. Then you are prompted to change this password (US-Keyboard setting). When done, you are asked to create a normal user-account for your everyday tasks.

Troubleshooting

cannot initialize curses

When using e.g. Termite terminal emulator without terminfo installed on the guest VM, you get this error:

$ sudo ./compile.sh
...
cannot initialize curses
[ error ] ERROR in function source [ main.sh:141 ]
[ error ] No option selected 
[ o.k. ] Process terminated

One solution is to set a known working TERM:

$ TERM=xterm
$ sudo ./compile.sh

External Links

• Armbian Orange Pi 4 page: armbian.com/orange-pi-4
• Repository: [2]
• Custom image build guide: docs.armbian.com/Developer-Guide_Build-Preparation/