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diff --git a/content/post/nixos-on-nanopi-r5s.md b/content/post/nixos-on-nanopi-r5s.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..825d6b4 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/post/nixos-on-nanopi-r5s.md @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ ++++ +title = "Running NixOS on a NanoPi R5S" +date = 2023-07-30T08:51:46Z +[taxonomies] +tags = ["NixOS", "home-networking", "infrastructure"] ++++ + +I managed to get [NixOS](https://nixos.org) running on my [NanoPi R5S](https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=287) ([FriendlyElec Wiki](https://wiki.friendlyelec.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_R5S)). + +Firstly, I flashed a pre-built stock Debian image from [inindev](https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r5) to an SD card. This can be used as a rescue system later on. + +From that SD card, I then flashed the same system onto the internal <abbr title="embedded MultiMediaCard">eMMC</abbr> Storage. I only really needed to this to ensure UBoot was correctly installed; I think there will be an easier way to do it. + +I had nix already installed on the <abbr title="Non-Volatile Memory Express">NVMe</abbr> <abbr title="Solid-State Drive">SSD</abbr> along with a home directory. I bind-mounted `/nix` and `/home` following the fstab I had previously set up: + +```conf +UUID=replaceme /mnt ext4 relatime,lazytime 0 2 +/mnt/nix /nix none defaults,bind 0 0 +/mnt/srv /srv none defaults,bind 0 0 +/mnt/home /home none defaults,bind 0 0 +``` + +I then created a user for myself using that home directory, I had full access to nix in the new Debian environment. This meant I had access to `nixos-install`. + +I wanted to use the [extlinux support in UBoot](https://u-boot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/develop/distro.html#boot-configuration-files), so I made `/mnt/boot` point to `/boot` on the <abbr>eMMC</abbr>: + +```sh +mkdir /mnt/{emmc,boot} +mount LABEL=rootfs /mnt/emmc +mount --bind /mnt/emmc /mnt/boot +``` + +<aside> +One could <em>probably</em> delete everything else on the <abbr>eMMC</abbr> and move the contents of <code>/mnt/emmc/boot</code> to <code>/mnt/emmc</code>, thus obviating the need to bind-mount <code>/boot</code> +</aside> + +I ran `nixos-generate-config` as usual, which set up the mount points in `hardware-configuration.nix` correctly. `configuration.nix` needed a bit of tweaking. My first booting configuration was something like this, mostly borrowed from [Artem Boldariev's comment](https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r5/issues/11#issue-1789308883): + +```nix +{ config +, pkgs +, lib +, ... +}: +let + fsTypes = [ "f2fs" "ext" "exfat" "vfat" ]; +in +{ + imports = [ ./hardware-configuration.nix ]; + boot = { + kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxKernel.packages.linux_6_4; + + # partial Rockchip related changes from Debian 12 kernel version 6.1 + # Also, see here: + # https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-provide-missing-headers-to-a-kernel-build/11422/3 + kernelPatches = [ + { + name = "rockchip-config.patch"; + patch = null; + extraConfig = '' + PHY_ROCKCHIP_PCIE Y + PCIE_ROCKCHIP_EP y + PCIE_ROCKCHIP_DW_HOST y + ROCKCHIP_VOP2 y + ''; + } + { + name = "status-leds.patch"; + patch = null; + # old: + # LEDS_TRIGGER_NETDEV y + extraConfig = '' + LED_TRIGGER_PHY y + USB_LED_TRIG y + LEDS_BRIGHTNESS_HW_CHANGED y + LEDS_TRIGGER_MTD y + ''; + } + ]; + + supportedFilesystems = fsTypes; + initrd.supportedFilesystems = fsTypes; + + initrd.availableKernelModules = [ + ## Rockchip + ## Storage + "sdhci_of_dwcmshc" + "dw_mmc_rockchip" + + "analogix_dp" + "io-domain" + "rockchip_saradc" + "rockchip_thermal" + "rockchipdrm" + "rockchip-rga" + "pcie_rockchip_host" + "phy-rockchip-pcie" + "phy_rockchip_snps_pcie3" + "phy_rockchip_naneng_combphy" + "phy_rockchip_inno_usb2" + "dwmac_rk" + "dw_wdt" + "dw_hdmi" + "dw_hdmi_cec" + "dw_hdmi_i2s_audio" + "dw_mipi_dsi" + ]; + loader = { + timeout = 3; + grub.enable = false; + generic-extlinux-compatible = { + enable = true; + useGenerationDeviceTree = true; + }; + }; + }; + # this file is from debian and should be in /boot/ + hardware.deviceTree.name = "../../rk3568-nanopi-r5s.dtb"; + # Most Rockchip CPUs (especially with hybrid cores) work best with "schedutil" + powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "schedutil"; + + boot.kernelParams = [ + "console=tty1" + "console=ttyS2,1500000" + "earlycon=uart8250,mmio32,0xfe660000" + ]; + # Let's blacklist the Rockchips RTC module so that the + # battery-powered HYM8563 (rtc_hym8563 kernel module) will be used + # by default + boot.blacklistedKernelModules = [ "rtc_rk808" ]; + + # ... typical config omitted for brevity +} +``` + +Due to the custom kernel configuration, building takes a while. I set up a [distributed build](https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/advanced-topics/distributed-builds.html) to speed things up, using a [Hetzner Cloud](https://www.hetzner.com/cloud) CAX21 ARM64 instance (although I could have used an x86_64 system with one of the methods mentioned on the [NixOS on ARM NixOS wiki page](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_on_ARM#Build_your_own_image_natively)). This made for a very long `nixos-install` command line: + +```sh +sudo env PATH=$PATH =nixos-install --root /mnt --no-channel-copy --channel https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-23.05 --option builders'ssh://my-host aarch64-linux /root/.ssh/id_pappel_nixpkgs 4 2 big-parallel' --option builders-use-substitutes true --max-jobs 0 +``` + +I added `setenv bootmeths "extlinux"` to `/boot/boot.txt` and ran `/boot/mkscr.sh` as root to ensure that UBoot would search for the `extlinux.conf` file |