Here I'm republishing an old blog post of mine originally from May 2019. The article has been slightly improved.

ARM'd and dangerous pt. 2: FreeBSD on the Pinebook (aarch64)

In February I wrote about real _aarch64 server hardware_. My interest in the ARM platform has not decreased - and this month I finally got my Pinebook shipped.

ARM'd and dangerous: FreeBSD on Cavium ThunderX (aarch64)

Aarch64

I've always been interested in alternatives to common solutions - not just with open source operating systems, but also with architectures. Sure, ARM is pretty much ubiquitous when it comes to mobile devices. But when it comes to servers or PCs, there's a total dominance of the amd64 ("x86_64") architecture. However in times of Meltdown, Spectre, Zombie Load and such it might well be worth to take a closer look at alternative platforms, even if it's not your primary interest.

_Arm Holdings_ is a UK-based company that designs processors and licenses them. There have been multiple revisions of the architecture, like ARMv6 and ARMv7. Both are 32-bit architectures used e.g. in the popular Raspberry Pi and Raspberry Pi 2. ARMv8 is the first 64-bit version and is available in form of the Raspberry Pi 3 among others. The incredible success of those small single-board computers lead to a whole lot of spin-offs.

Pine64

While a lot of the competitors specialize in extremely cheap Pi clones with a few improvements (and too often with their own problems), one of the better alternatives comes from Pine64. They don't just sell hardware that works with one custom-compiled Linux kernel which rarely (or never) gets any upgrades. On the contrary: They are trying to _build a community_ around the hardware dedicated to do cool things with it and eventually blaze a trail for high-quality ARM-based alternative hardware.

Pine64 community website

One really compelling offer is that of the *Pinebook*. While it's nothing special to use one of the little single-board computers for a media station or things like that, a real laptop is something way different. Especially as the company behind Pine64 decided to sell it at cost to people of the Linux and *BSD communities! It really is a $99 (plus shipping) 11.6" laptop. Definitely a nice idea to steer the community! Especially since they announced a _Pinebook Pro_, a _tablet_, a _phone_ and so on during this year's FOSDEM. I'm not sure when those will be available, though.

There's only one "problem" with the Pinebook: You cannot buy it regularly. If you are interested in purchasing one, you need to register on the site and when a new batch is to be made, you get a coupon code that can be used to actually place an order. Sometime last year I decided that this sounded pretty interesting and requested a coupon. I got notified in February or so and eventually the laptop was shipped in May.

Pinebook

Here's some info on the specs:

Allwinner A64 Quad Core SOC with Mali 400 MP2 GPU
2GB LPDDR3 RAM
16GB of eMMC (upgradable)
2x USB 2.0 Host
Lithium Polymer Battery (10000mAH)
Stereo Speakers
WiFi 802.11bgn + Bluetooth 4.0

Website with full specs

Also they offered a 1366×768 display. When my Pinebook arrived, I was in for a surprise, though: They had upgraded this model to use an 1920×1080 IPS which is really nice! The low resolution of the original model was one of the things that made me think twice before buying. Glad that I chose to go ahead.

A Pinebook 1080p (PNG)

The Pinebook comes with _KDE Neon_ preinstalled. It's apparently a Debian-based distro with the latest Plasma Workspaces desktop. I opened Firefox and was able to browse the net - but I didn't buy this laptop to use boring Linux. 😉 Let's try something more exciting where not all the devices work, yet!

Preparations

The Pinebook is new enough that it's not supported with any FreeBSD release at this time. So you have to use the development branch known as _-CURRENT_. Right now it's 13-CURRENT and it's the exciting branch where all the latest features, fixes and improvements go. The FreeBSD project provides snapshots for developers or people who are willing to test bleeding edge code. Needless to say that by doing this you install an OS that is not at all meant for daily usage. It should not hold important data or anything. This is tinkering with some cool stuff - no more no less.

You need a computer that can make use of micro SD cards (or SD cards by using an adapter that usually comes with micro SDs). A 4 GB card suffices but anything bigger is also fine.

Get a snapshot and the checksum file from here (e.g. CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-13.0-CURRENT-arm64-aarch64-PINEBOOK-20190531-r348447 and FreeBSD-13.0-CURRENT-arm64-aarch64-PINEBOOK-20190531-r348447.img.xz):

https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/snapshots/arm64/aarch64/ISO-IMAGES/13.0

Since there are differences with the various ARM-based platforms, make sure you get the right one for the Pinebook. Each file contains a date (2019-05-31 in this case) and a revision number (r348447) so you know when the snapshot was created and what version of the code in Subversion it was built from.

Once you downloaded both files, verify the checksum and decompress the archive:

% shasum -c CHECKSUM.SHA512-FreeBSD-13.0-CURRENT-arm64-aarch64-PINEBOOK-20190531-r348447

% xz -dvv FreeBSD-13.0-CURRENT-arm64-aarch64-PINEBOOK-20190531-r348447.img.xz

Now _dd_ the image onto a micro SD card. Be absolutely sure that you dd over the right device - if you don't, you can easily lose data that you wanted to keep! In my case the right device is _mmcsd0_, substitute it for yours. Get the image written with the following command (FreeBSD versions before 12.0 do not support the "progress" option - leave out the "status=progress" in this case):

# dd if=FreeBSD-13.0-CURRENT-arm64-aarch64-PINEBOOK-20190531-r348447.img of=/dev/mmcsd0 bs=1m status=progress

FreeBSD

Now insert the micro SD card into your Pinebook and turn it on. It should boot off of the card and right into FreeBSD. You might see some scary looking messages like _lock order reversals_ and things like that which you are probably not used too. Welcome to _-CURRENT_! Since you are testing a development snapshot, this version of FreeBSD has some diagnostic features enabled that are helpful in pinning down bugs (and eventually fixing them). If you're just an advanced user (like me) and not a developer, ignore them.

Log in as _root_ with the password _root_. Take a look around and if everything seems to work, power the device off again:

# shutdown -p now

On first boot, the partition holding the primary filesystem is grown to the maximum available space and the filesystem is, too. Let's put the card back into the other computer and have a look at the partitions:

# gpart show mmcsd0

=> 63 15493057 mmcsd0 MBR (7.4G)

63 2016 - free - (1.0M)

2079 110502 1 fat32lba [active] (54M)

112581 15378491 2 freebsd (7.3G)

15491072 2048 - free - (1.0M)

# gpart show mmcsd0s2

=> 0 15378491 mmcsd0s2 BSD (7.3G)

0 59 - free - (30K)

59 15378432 1 freebsd-ufs (7.3G)

As you can see, the FreeBSD slice is now > 7 GB in size, even though the original image was a lot smaller to fit onto a 4 GB card. Now that we have enough usable space, let's mount the filesystem (the only one on the second slice) and copy the image over:

# mount /dev/mmcsd0s2a /mnt

# cp FreeBSD-13.0-CURRENT-arm64-aarch64-PINEBOOK-20190531-r348447.img /mnt

# umount /mnt

Putting FreeBSD on the Pinebook

Put the micro SD card back into the Pinebook and boot off of it. Let's see how many storage devices there are:

# geom disk list

Geom name: mmcsd0

Providers:

1. Name: mmcsd0

Mediasize: 7932477440 (7.4G)

Sectorsize: 512

Stripesize: 4194304

Stripeoffset: 0

[...]

Geom name: mmcsd1

Providers:

1. Name: mmcsd1

Mediasize: 15518924800 (14G)

Sectorsize: 512

Stripesize: 512

Stripeoffset: 0

[...]

Alright, _mmcsd0_ is the SD card and _mmcsd1_ is the internal eMMC, which is a bit bigger. To "install" FreeBSD on the device (and erase Linux) just _dd_ the image onto the internal storage, shut down the system and eject the card:

# cd /

# dd if=FreeBSD-13.0-CURRENT-arm64-aarch64-PINEBOOK-20190531-r348447.img of=/dev/mmcsd1 status=progress

# shutdown -p now

Congrats, the _depenguinization_ of your device is complete! 😉 Power it on again and it'll boot FreeBSD off the eMMC.

If you get tired of this system, try another. Go to the pine64 website and browse through the "Partner Projects" tab. You'll certainly find other interesting operating systems or distributions to install.

Pine64 community website

Status of FreeBSD on the Pinebook

So what works on FreeBSD currently and what doesn't? I've read about screen flickering on the console and things like that. But from what I can say, those issues are gone. The console works well even on my 1080p model. X11 works as well and I've tested various desktop environments. Building packages from ports works, but of course this is not the kind of hardware that's best fit for that.

What did *NOT* work is e.g. Firefox - it crashes. Also sound is not working, yet.

I didn't test WLAN or Bluetooth since I'm using a USB to LAN adapter to access the net. For the _dmesg_ output see the end of this post.

What's next?

I'll stick to FreeBSD on the Pinebook and if that is your special interest, too, feel free to contact me. My current plan is to write about configuring a fresh systems, packages and a project that I started for the Pinebook (_lite packages_ and the corresponding "ports options light") [no longer available; there has been no interest in this].

dmesg.boot

------

KDB: debugger backends: ddb

KDB: current backend: ddb

Copyright (c) 1992-2019 The FreeBSD Project.

Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994

The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.

FreeBSD 13.0-CURRENT r348447 GENERIC arm64

FreeBSD clang version 8.0.0 (tags/RELEASE_800/final 356365) (based on LLVM 8.0.0)

WARNING: WITNESS option enabled, expect reduced performance.

VT(efifb): resolution 1920x1080

KLD file umodem.ko is missing dependencies

Starting CPU 1 (1)

Starting CPU 2 (2)

Starting CPU 3 (3)

FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 4 CPUs

arc4random: WARNING: initial seeding bypassed the cryptographic random device because it was not yet seeded and the knob 'bypass_before_seeding' was enabled.

random: entropy device external interface

MAP 47ef4000 mode 2 pages 24

MAP b8f2f000 mode 2 pages 1

MAP b8f31000 mode 2 pages 1

MAP bdf50000 mode 2 pages 16

kbd0 at kbdmux0

ofwbus0:

clk_fixed0: on ofwbus0

clk_fixed1: on ofwbus0

simplebus0: on ofwbus0

rtc0: mem 0x1f00000-0x1f003ff irq 52,53 on simplebus0

rtc0: registered as a time-of-day clock, resolution 1.000000s

regfix0: on ofwbus0

regfix1: on ofwbus0

ccu_a64ng0: mem 0x1c20000-0x1c203ff on simplebus0

ccu_sun8i_r0: mem 0x1f01400-0x1f014ff on simplebus0

psci0: on ofwbus0

aw_sid0: mem 0x1c14000-0x1c143ff on simplebus0

iichb0: mem 0x1f03400-0x1f037ff irq 57 on simplebus0

iicbus0: on iichb0

gic0: mem 0x1c81000-0x1c81fff,0x1c82000-0x1c83fff,0x1c84000-0x1c85fff,0x1c86000-0x1c87fff irq 49 on simplebus0

gic0: pn 0x2, arch 0x2, rev 0x1, implementer 0x43b irqs 224

gpio0: mem 0x1c20800-0x1c20bff irq 23,24,25 on simplebus0

gpiobus0: on gpio0

aw_nmi0: mem 0x1f00c00-0x1f00fff irq 54 on simplebus0

iichb1: mem 0x1f02400-0x1f027ff irq 55 on simplebus0

iicbus1: on iichb1

gpio1: mem 0x1f02c00-0x1f02fff irq 56 on simplebus0

gpiobus1: on gpio1

axp8xx_pmu0: at addr 0x746 irq 59 on iicbus0

gpiobus2: on axp8xx_pmu0

generic_timer0: irq 4,5,6,7 on ofwbus0

Timecounter "ARM MPCore Timecounter" frequency 24000000 Hz quality 1000

Event timer "ARM MPCore Eventtimer" frequency 24000000 Hz quality 1000

a10_timer0: mem 0x1c20c00-0x1c20c2b irq 8,9 on simplebus0

Timecounter "a10_timer timer0" frequency 24000000 Hz quality 2000

aw_syscon0: mem 0x1c00000-0x1c00fff on simplebus0

awusbphy0: mem 0x1c19400-0x1c19413,0x1c1a800-0x1c1a803,0x1c1b800-0x1c1b803 on simplebus0

cpulist0: on ofwbus0

cpu0: on cpulist0

cpufreq_dt0: on cpu0

cpu1: on cpulist0

cpu2: on cpulist0

cpu3: on cpulist0

aw_thermal0: mem 0x1c25000-0x1c250ff irq 10 on simplebus0

a31dmac0: mem 0x1c02000-0x1c02fff irq 11 on simplebus0

aw_mmc0: mem 0x1c0f000-0x1c0ffff irq 15 on simplebus0

mmc0: on aw_mmc0

aw_mmc1: mem 0x1c10000-0x1c10fff irq 16 on simplebus0

mmc1: on aw_mmc1

aw_mmc2: mem 0x1c11000-0x1c11fff irq 17 on simplebus0

mmc2: on aw_mmc2

ehci0: mem 0x1c1a000-0x1c1a0ff irq 19 on simplebus0

usbus0: EHCI version 1.0

usbus0 on ehci0

ohci0: mem 0x1c1a400-0x1c1a4ff irq 20 on simplebus0

usbus1 on ohci0

ehci1: mem 0x1c1b000-0x1c1b0ff irq 21 on simplebus0

usbus2: EHCI version 1.0

usbus2 on ehci1

ohci1: mem 0x1c1b400-0x1c1b4ff irq 22 on simplebus0

usbus3 on ohci1

gpioc0: on gpio0

uart0: mem 0x1c28000-0x1c283ff irq 31 on simplebus0

uart0: console (115384,n,8,1)

pwm0: mem 0x1c21400-0x1c217ff on simplebus0

pwmbus0: on pwm0

pwmc0: on pwm0

iic0: on iicbus1

gpioc1: on gpio1

gpioc2: on axp8xx_pmu0

iic1: on iicbus0

aw_wdog0: mem 0x1c20ca0-0x1c20cbf irq 58 on simplebus0

cryptosoft0:

Timecounters tick every 1.000 msec

usbus0: 480Mbps High Speed USB v2.0

usbus1: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0

ugen0.1: at usbus0

ugen1.1: at usbus1

uhub0: on usbus1

uhub1: on usbus0

usbus2: 480Mbps High Speed USB v2.0

usbus3: 12Mbps Full Speed USB v1.0

ugen2.1: at usbus2

uhub2: on usbus2

ugen3.1: at usbus3

uhub3: on usbus3

AW_MMC_INT_RESP_TIMEOUT

uhub0: 1 port with 1 removable, self powered

AW_MMC_INT_RESP_TIMEOUT

uhub3: 1 port with 1 removable, self powered

AW_MMC_INT_RESP_TIMEOUT

mmc0: No compatible cards found on bus

aw_mmc0: Spurious interrupt - no active request, rint: 0x00000004

aw_mmc1: Cannot set vqmmc to 33000003300000

uhub1: 1 port with 1 removable, self powered

AW_MMC_INT_RESP_TIMEOUT

uhub2: 1 port with 1 removable, self powered

AW_MMC_INT_RESP_TIMEOUT

mmc1: No compatible cards found on bus

aw_mmc1: Spurious interrupt - no active request, rint: 0x00000004

aw_mmc2: Cannot set vqmmc to 33000003300000

AW_MMC_INT_RESP_TIMEOUT

AW_MMC_INT_DATA_END_BIT_ERR

AW_MMC_INT_RESP_TIMEOUT

mmcsd0: 16GB at mmc2 52.0MHz/8bit/4096-block

mmcsd0boot0: 4MB partion 1 at mmcsd0

mmcsd0boot1: 4MB partion 2 at mmcsd0

mmcsd0rpmb: 4MB partion 3 at mmcsd0

Release APs...done

CPU 0: ARM Cortex-A53 r0p4 affinity: 0

Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ufs/rootfs [rw]...

Instruction Set Attributes 0 =

Instruction Set Attributes 1 =

Processor Features 0 =

Processor Features 1 =

Memory Model Features 0 =

Memory Model Features 1 =

Memory Model Features 2 =

Debug Features 0 =

Debug Features 1 =

Auxiliary Features 0 =

Auxiliary Features 1 =

CPU 1: ARM Cortex-A53 r0p4 affinity: 1

CPU 2: ARM Cortex-A53 r0p4 affinity: 2

CPU 3: ARM Cortex-A53 r0p4 affinity: 3

WARNING: WITNESS option enabled, expect reduced performance.

ugen2.2: at usbus2

uhub4: on usbus2

random: randomdev_wait_until_seeded unblock wait

uhub4: 4 ports with 1 removable, self powered

ugen2.3: at usbus2

ukbd0 on uhub4

ukbd0: on usbus2

kbd1 at ukbd0

hid_get_item: Number of items(1039) truncated to 1024

ums0 on uhub4

ums0: on usbus2

hid_get_item: Number of items(1039) truncated to 1024

ums0: 5 buttons and [XYZT] coordinates ID=1

hid_get_item: Number of items(1039) truncated to 1024

ugen2.4: at usbus2

random: randomdev_wait_until_seeded unblock wait

random: unblocking device.

GEOM_PART: mmcsd0s2 was automatically resized.

Use `gpart commit mmcsd0s2` to save changes or `gpart undo mmcsd0s2` to revert them.

lock order reversal:

1st 0xffff000040a26ff8 bufwait (bufwait) @ /usr/src/sys/kern/vfs_bio.c:3904

2nd 0xfffffd00011a1400 dirhash (dirhash) @ /usr/src/sys/ufs/ufs/ufs_dirhash.c:289

stack backtrace:

#0 0xffff0000004538a0 at witness_debugger+0x64

#1 0xffff0000003f7f9c at _sx_xlock+0x7c

#2 0xffff00000068879c at ufsdirhash_add+0x38

#3 0xffff00000068b0d8 at ufs_direnter+0x3c4

#4 0xffff000000691b14 at ufs_rename+0xb7c

#5 0xffff000000755b60 at VOP_RENAME_APV+0x90

#6 0xffff0000004c1678 at kern_renameat+0x304

#7 0xffff000000718448 at do_el0_sync+0x4fc

#8 0xffff0000006ff200 at handle_el0_sync+0x84

lo0: link state changed to UP

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