Announce: Squeeze on Arch - developer version

**Triode** · 2014-05-28, 16:17

Supported Devices
==============
Install images are available for the following platforms:

Raspberry PI - model B and B+
Wandboard - duallite and quad
Cubox-i/Hummingboard
Cubietruck

Installation Instructions
==================

The simplest way to install SoA is to download one of the installer images, unzip it and flash the resulting 12M image file to a 4G or larger micro sdcard.

Code:

https://github.com/SqueezeOnArch/soa-installers/raw/master/soa-image-wand-dual.img.zip
https://github.com/SqueezeOnArch/soa-installers/raw/master/soa-image-wand-quad.img.zip
https://github.com/SqueezeOnArch/soa-installers/raw/master/soa-image-cubox-i.img.zip
https://github.com/SqueezeOnArch/soa-installers/raw/master/soa-image-cubietruck.img.zip
https://github.com/SqueezeOnArch/soa-installers/raw/master/soa-image-rpi.img.zip

Insert the sdcard in your device and boot the device with a wired Ethernet connection. It should obtain an IP address and display a web page if you connect to this IP address with your browser. The web page shows a disclaimer statement and allows you to initiate download of Arch Linux ARM and the SoA components.

Installation will take ~20-40 minutes depending on the device and your internet connection speed. During this time the device will reboot one or more times. If you do not see activity after this time, try manually rebooting the device.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Older instructions for previous install scripts:

(removed - this method has been depreciated)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You can also install more manually on top of an arch linux installation:

1) install arch linux on an sdcard for your device, for example for a wandboard:
http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/ar...cale/wandboard
(go to the install tab for instructions of how to download and flash an image)

At present you need an existing linux machine for this. However if you use a wandboard then you can use the second microsd slot as the target card and perform the above instructions while running another linux image on the main microsd slot. The second slot is /dev/mmcblk1 (use in place of /dev/sdX in the arch install instructions) If you have a fresh wandboard then you can load the standard ubuntu image to enable you to do this.

2) boot the device from the arch linux image and ssh to the device using the username root and password root

3) follow the instructions at https://github.com/SqueezeOnArch/soa-aur which explain how to build and install squeeze on arch applications. This requires several minutes, but should be self explanatory for people used to the command line.

4) reboot the device and attach to it using the web interface from a browser.

**Mark Miksis** · 2014-05-28, 17:39

Just curious - why Arch? Is there something that makes it preferable to other distros for this use case?

**Krisbee** · 2014-05-28, 23:51

Triode,

I'll give this a go in QEMU A.S.A.P as I don't have any ARM based devices. However, I'm not sure what the current Arch arm systemd version is, and the last time a tried to build an emulation using the ARCH rfs and load/update additional ARCH packages in dynamic QEMU it ground to a halt as a later version of systemd seemed to be a problem. Of course, this is not relevant to those with real hardware.

The question about ARCH Linux is relevant, as I guess some would have hoped that debian might have, or could have, been used as there are base images of one form or another known to work on the beaglebone black, Wandboard and Cubietruck.

Anyway, you work is much appreciated, and I do like the licence notice on the "Squeeze on Arch (SOA) Arch User Repository"

**Krisbee** · 2014-05-29, 02:25

Triode,

Up and running in dynamic QEMU now:

It's not real hardware, but allows basic testing.

Will attempt LMS install via static QEMU ASAP.

Brilliant work, as always.

Will need to check what if any ARCH ARM base images exist for Cubieboard. Will also test install in x86_64 in VirtualBox on ARCH base and Manjaro.

For ref:

Wandboard image built on Debain unstable for QEMU test as follows:

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=awcard.img bs=1M count=2000

as root:

Code:

modprobe loop max_part=63
losetup -f awcard.img

Prepare awcard.img by using loop dev it's attached to.

Code:

  fdisk /dev/loop0 (follow web page to create single parititon starting at 8192 ref given by triode above)
  fdisk -lu /dev/loop0
  mkfs.ext4 /dev/loop0p1
  mount /dev/loop0p1 /mnt/tmp
  tar -xf ArchLinuxARM-wand-latest.tar.gz -C /mnt/tmp
  sync
  umount /mnt/tmp
  dd if=u-boot-dual.imx of=/dev/loop0 bs=512 seek=2
  sync
  Check awcard.img is OK.

Run QMEU with ...

Code:

#! /bin/bash
############################################################################
#                 Boot Arch Wandbaord image QEMU Emulation
############################################################################
#  Note: All files in same directory and bridged tap0 already configured
#        for full network access. DHCP on host via router
#
#   Arch ARM for Wandboard image
#  Qemu kernel compiled from latest stable source: 3.13.6 at time of writing.
#
#############################################################################


qemu-system-arm -m 1024M \
-M vexpress-a9 \
-kernel zImage3.13AA \
-append "root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rw rootfstype=ext4 rootwait console=ttyAMA0,115200n console=ttyS0"  \
-drive if=sd,cache=writeback,file=awcard.img \
-serial stdio \
-net nic \
-net tap,ifname=tap0,script=no

**Pascal Hibon** · 2014-05-29, 04:23

Originally Posted by Triode

Over the last couple of days I've been working a port of squeezelite/jivelite and a web control application to install on arch linux. This is intended to allow relatively easy installation of the application software on top of a the arch linux distribution which is well supported across multiple devices - including the wandboard.

This is very much a developer version at present. If you don't know what ssh is and don't like the linux command line then it is not for you. However it should allow users with wandboards (and potentially other devices) to install the squeeze playback and control applications and use the device as a squeezebox replacement...

If you would like to try and have a wandboard please try the following:

1) install arch linux on an sdcard for your device, for example for a wandboard:
http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/ar...cale/wandboard
(go to the install tab for instructions of how to download and flash an image)

At present you need an existing linux machine for this. However if you use a wandboard then you can use the second microsd slot as the target card and perform the above instructions while running another linux image on the main microsd slot. The second slot is /dev/mmcblk1 (use in place of /dev/sdX in the arch install instructions) If you have a fresh wandboard then you can load the standard ubuntu image to enable you to do this.

2) boot the device from the arch linux image and ssh to the device using the username root and password root

3) follow the instructions at https://github.com/SqueezeOnArch/soa-aur which explain how to build and install squeeze on arch applications. This requires several minutes, but should be self explanatory for people used to the command line.

4) reboot the device and attach to it using the web interface from a browser.

5) if you are using a wandboard, to set up wifi networking at present you need to do this manually - see: http://blog.lemoneerlabs.com/post/wandboard-wifi

This is very much a development in progress - so please post here if you manage to try it out and have success or have any issues with it. The intention is that future versions improve the scripting of creating the initial image to simplify installation and also add web configuration of network interfaces etc.

I'm also interested of reports of this on other arm devices running arch linux. I've made the packages so they should build on armv6 as well as armv7 and intel so its is possible that it builds and runs on other devices...

Would it be possible to install LMS on this platform?

**kesey** · 2014-05-29, 05:00

Originally Posted by Pascal Hibon

Would it be possible to install LMS on this platform?

Apparently so: 3) follow the instructions at https://github.com/SqueezeOnArch/soa-aur which explain how to build and install squeeze on arch applications. This requires several minutes, but should be self explanatory for people used to the command line.

I've tried installing Archlinux twice on a micro SD Card. Everything seems to work out ok, but on trying to boot the system on the Wandboard I can't find an ip number with which I can SSH in.

**Pascal Hibon** · 2014-05-29, 06:39

Originally Posted by kesey

Apparently so: 3) follow the instructions at https://github.com/SqueezeOnArch/soa-aur which explain how to build and install squeeze on arch applications. This requires several minutes, but should be self explanatory for people used to the command line.

Ooh, right. Missed item 4 in that list...
Thanks for the heads up.

**slackhead** · 2014-05-29, 10:34

Originally Posted by kesey

... on the Wandboard I can't find an ip number with which I can SSH in.

This is where having a serial cable between WB and your PC comes in - you can open a serial terminal and setup the network configuration and root user/password and then use SSH. [Actually quite simple once you've got the right cable].

**Triode** · 2014-05-29, 12:39

Originally Posted by kesey

Apparently so: 3) follow the instructions at https://github.com/SqueezeOnArch/soa-aur which explain how to build and install squeeze on arch applications. This requires several minutes, but should be self explanatory for people used to the command line.

I've tried installing Archlinux twice on a micro SD Card. Everything seems to work out ok, but on trying to boot the system on the Wandboard I can't find an ip number with which I can SSH in.

Try the sdcard install again - for a fixed ethernet port it should come up straight away with dhcp.

**Triode** · 2014-05-29, 12:47

Originally Posted by Krisbee

Triode,

I'll give this a go in QEMU A.S.A.P as I don't have any ARM based devices. However, I'm not sure what the current Arch arm systemd version is, and the last time a tried to build an emulation using the ARCH rfs and load/update additional ARCH packages in dynamic QEMU it ground to a halt as a later version of systemd seemed to be a problem. Of course, this is not relevant to those with real hardware.

The question about ARCH Linux is relevant, as I guess some would have hoped that debian might have, or could have, been used as there are base images of one form or another known to work on the beaglebone black, Wandboard and Cubietruck.

Anyway, you work is much appreciated, and I do like the licence notice on the "Squeeze on Arch (SOA) Arch User Repository"

I went for arch mainly because of the ease of creating build scripts to download and install packages - which is what soa-aur is. Its also a small lean and mean base install with the ability to install more as you want (there's no users other than root in the base file system for instance) - this makes it good for using as a base os for this activity. It also support armv6 so may work on a Pi...

We can evolve to binary repos and more automated installation, but at present my target is to get back to most features of a CSOS without needing to host any binaries and hence not have any short term issues on the legal side...

Thread: Announce: Squeeze on Arch - developer version

Thread Tools

Search Thread

Display

Announce: Squeeze on Arch - developer version

Posting Permissions