Difference between revisions of "Projects:Orange Pi 4 Workstation"

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{{Warning|1=The [[Orange Pi 4]] board is only usable with a '''strong and reliable power source'''!
 
{{Warning|1=The [[Orange Pi 4]] board is only usable with a '''strong and reliable power source'''!
  
Forget about using a phone charger. Save yourself the headache and trouble. Weak or unreliable power source will result in unreliable boots and random crashing of the board.
+
USB-C and the barrel DC connector behave differently. When powering the board through USB-C the system booted. Using the barrel connector did not boot the board.
 
 
Really. Expect that most of the available USB power sources are crappy and hardly of any long-term use.
 
 
}}
 
}}
  

Revision as of 21:39, 23 April 2020

Project: Workstation computer built using Orange Pi 4 running Linux fulfilling Goal:Technology.

Requirements

  • open source software
    • ability to build all of the components and utilities from source
  • standalone and independent
    • ability to build on the target hardware in order to be independent
  • up-to-date software
    • mainline kernel (with only a few necessary patches)
    • actively maintained distribution
  • NO binary blobs

Hardware

Details: Orange Pi 4 Hardware

  • multiple 64-bit ARM cores which provides enough horsepower for common tasks
  • 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM is sufficient for common tasks given it will run Linux
  • 1 Gbps Ethernet & WiFi & Bluetooth for solid connectivity
  • tiny form factor frees up lots of space (compared to a standard desktop tower PC)
  • low power consumption makes this cheap to run
  • low noise levels thanks to a single slow running fan

Software

Booting

(!) The Orange Pi 4 board is only usable with a strong and reliable power source!

USB-C and the barrel DC connector behave differently. When powering the board through USB-C the system booted. Using the barrel connector did not boot the board.

Experimental Stage

  1. Try pre-built images
  2. Try custom-built images
    • BSP Linux on Orange Pi 4: [+] collection of shell scripts useful for studying, [–] couldn't get it to boot, not very robust.
    • Armbian on Orange Pi 4: [+] generic build system, patch files applied to mainline repositories, [–] x86_64 Ubuntu build system not usable on the target device
      • Legacy kernel (4.4.213), Ubuntu Bionic, standard console image: OK
      • Current kernel (5.4.32), Ubuntu Bionic, minimal console image: OK
      • Current kernel (5.4.32), Ubuntu Bionic, standard console image: OK
      • Dev kernel (5.6.4), Ubuntu Bionic, minimal console image: OK
  3. Design a custom image-building process
  4. Build on the target device

Target Stage