Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

[Mathieu Othacehe]

Hello,

The Guix website now offers Pinebook Pro Guix System images[1]. Those
images can be directly copied on a micro-SD card and booted from. More
details here[2].

Thanks,

Mathieu

[1]: https://guix.gnu.org/en/download/latest/
[2]: https://othacehe.org/distributing-guix-system-pinebook-pro-images.html.

Re: Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

[Maxim Cournoyer]

Hi Mathieu,

Mathieu Othacehe <othacehe@gnu.org> writes:

> Hello,
>
> The Guix website now offers Pinebook Pro Guix System images[1]. Those
> images can be directly copied on a micro-SD card and booted from. More
> details here[2].
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mathieu
>
> [1]: https://guix.gnu.org/en/download/latest/
> [2]: https://othacehe.org/distributing-guix-system-pinebook-pro-images.html.

Very neat!  Well done!

Maxim

Re: Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

[Vagrant Cascadian]

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On 2021-08-29, Mathieu Othacehe wrote:
> The Guix website now offers Pinebook Pro Guix System images[1]. Those
> images can be directly copied on a micro-SD card and booted from. More
> details here[2].

It seems like I need to write up a hybrid pinebook/pinebook-pro
bootloader definition, then that image could support *two* whole
platforms. :)

It also shouldn't be *too* hard to add support for UEFI too...


Started a discussion about this in June:

  https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2021-06/msg00036.html


And recently gave a talk describing this approach for Debian:

  https://salsa.debian.org/vagrant/two-pinebooks-walk-into-a-bar
  https://debconf21.debconf.org/talks/88-two-pinebooks-walk-into-a-bar/

Not sure how soon the video will be available, but the talk had
technical difficulties at the start, so I hope to get a chance to do it
all over again someday. :)


live well,
  vagrant

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Re: Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

[Vagrant Cascadian]

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On 2021-08-29, Vagrant Cascadian wrote:
> On 2021-08-29, Mathieu Othacehe wrote:
>> The Guix website now offers Pinebook Pro Guix System images[1]. Those
>> images can be directly copied on a micro-SD card and booted from. More
>> details here[2].
>
> It seems like I need to write up a hybrid pinebook/pinebook-pro
> bootloader definition, then that image could support *two* whole
> platforms. :)

Something like this, but that is valid guile and actually works :)

diff --git a/gnu/bootloader/u-boot.scm b/gnu/bootloader/u-boot.scm
index 6cad33b741..325618c5c5 100644
--- a/gnu/bootloader/u-boot.scm
+++ b/gnu/bootloader/u-boot.scm
@@ -127,6 +127,28 @@
 
 (define install-pinebook-pro-rk3399-u-boot install-rockpro64-rk3399-u-boot)
 
+(define install-pinebook-and-pinebook-pro-u-boot
+  ;; Install bootloaders for both pinebook pro and pinebook at compatible
+  ;; offsets.
+  ;;
+  ;; pinebook pro
+  #~(lambda (bootloader-pinebook-pro root-index image)
+      (let ((idb (string-append bootloader-pinebook-pro "/libexec/idbloader.img"))
+            (u-boot (string-append bootloader-pinebook-pro "/libexec/u-boot.itb")))
+        ;; Use alternate offset of 2112 to avoid conflicts with pinebook
+        (write-file-on-device idb (stat:size (stat idb))
+                              image (* 2112 512))
+        (write-file-on-device u-boot (stat:size (stat u-boot))
+                              image (* 16384 512))))
+  ;; pinebook
+  #~(lambda (bootloader-pinebook root-index image)
+      (let ((spl (string-append bootloader-pinebook "/libexec/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin"))
+            (u-boot (string-append bootloader-pinebook "/libexec/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.fit.itb")))
+        (write-file-on-device spl (stat:size (stat spl))
+                              image (* 8 1024))
+        (write-file-on-device u-boot (stat:size (stat u-boot))
+                              image (* 40 1024)))))
+
 \f
 
 ;;;
@@ -255,3 +277,9 @@
    (inherit u-boot-bootloader)
    (package u-boot-pinebook-pro-rk3399)
    (disk-image-installer install-pinebook-pro-rk3399-u-boot)))
+
+(define u-boot-pinebook-and-pinebook-pro-bootloader
+  (bootloader
+   (inherit u-boot-bootloader)
+   (packages '(u-boot-pinebook-pro-rk3399 u-boot-pinebook))
+   (disk-image-installer install-pinebook-and-pinebook-pro-uboot)))


live well,
  vagrant

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Re: Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

[Mathieu Othacehe]

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Hello,

I managed to build a Guix System image with the Sway WM for the Pinebook
Pro. The image is quite large (~6GiB) but it is bootable and works fine.

Here are the steps I followed:

* I built a cross-compiled barebones Pinebook Pro image as described in
  my previous email.

* I used that image to turn the Pinebook Pro into an offload machine.

* From my main x86_64 machine, I ran the following command:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
guix system image ~/tmp/pinebook.scm -s aarch64-linux
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

The pinebook.scm file is attached.

* I flashed the image and booted from it, exactly like for the
  cross-compiled image.

This is an interesting first step as generating desktop images for ARM
devices is really convenient.

Using the ARM machine as an offload machine to build a native ARM image
from an Intel machine is less convenient though. I would really like to
be able to build this same image using cross-compilation. The recent
series sent by Maxime are making this goal more realistic.

Thanks,

Mathieu


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;;; GNU Guix --- Functional package management for GNU
;;; Copyright © 2020 Mathieu Othacehe <m.othacehe@gmail.com>
;;;
;;; This file is part of GNU Guix.
;;;
;;; GNU Guix is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
;;; under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
;;; the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
;;; your option) any later version.
;;;
;;; GNU Guix is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
;;; WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
;;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
;;; GNU General Public License for more details.
;;;
;;; You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
;;; along with GNU Guix.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

(define-module (gnu system images pinebook-pro)
  #:use-module (gnu bootloader)
  #:use-module (gnu bootloader u-boot)
  #:use-module (gnu image)
  #:use-module (gnu packages certs)
  #:use-module (gnu packages freedesktop)
  #:use-module (gnu packages linux)
  #:use-module (gnu packages wm)
  #:use-module (gnu packages xorg)
  #:use-module (gnu services)
  #:use-module (gnu services avahi)
  #:use-module (gnu services base)
  #:use-module (gnu services desktop)
  #:use-module (gnu services networking)
  #:use-module (gnu services sddm)
  #:use-module (gnu services ssh)
  #:use-module (gnu services xorg)
  #:use-module (gnu system)
  #:use-module (gnu system file-systems)
  #:use-module (gnu system image)
  #:use-module (gnu system shadow)
  #:use-module (guix download)
  #:use-module (guix gexp)
  #:use-module (guix packages)
  #:use-module (guix utils)
  #:use-module (nongnu packages linux)
  #:use-module (srfi srfi-1)
  #:use-module (srfi srfi-26)
  #:export (pinebook-pro-desktop-os
            pinebook-pro-image-type
            pinebook-pro-desktop-raw-image))

(define pinebook-pro-desktop-os
  (operating-system
    (host-name "viso")
    (timezone "Europe/Paris")
    (locale "en_US.utf8")
    (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
                 (bootloader u-boot-pinebook-pro-rk3399-bootloader)
                 (target "/dev/vda")))
    (initrd-modules '())
    (kernel linux-libre-arm64-generic)
    (users (cons* (user-account
                   (name "mathieu")
                   (comment "Mathieu")
                   (group "users")
                   (home-directory "/home/mathieu")
                   (supplementary-groups
                    '("wheel" "netdev" "audio" "video")))
                  %base-user-accounts))
    (file-systems (cons (file-system
                          (device (file-system-label "my-root"))
                          (mount-point "/")
                          (type "ext4"))
                        %base-file-systems))
    (packages (cons* sway xterm nss-certs
                     %base-packages))
    (services (cons* (service agetty-service-type
                              (agetty-configuration
                               (extra-options '("-L")) ; no carrier detect
                               (baud-rate "1500000")
                               (term "vt100")
                               (tty "ttyS2")))
                     (service openssh-service-type
                              (openssh-configuration
                               (permit-root-login 'without-password)
                               (authorized-keys
                                `(("mathieu"
                                   ,(local-file
                                     "/home/mathieu/.ssh/id_rsa.pub"))))))
                     (service dhcp-client-service-type)
                     (sddm-service
                      (sddm-configuration
                       (display-server "wayland")))
                     (modify-services
                         (remove
                          (lambda (service)
                            (member (service-kind service)
                                    (list ntp-service-type
                                          avahi-service-type
                                          bluetooth-service
                                          network-manager-service-type
                                          gdm-service-type)))
                          %desktop-services)
                         (guix-service-type
                          config =>
                          (guix-configuration
                           (inherit config)
                           (authorized-keys
                            (append (list
                                     (local-file "/home/mathieu/.config/guix/keys/meije.scm"))
                                    %default-authorized-guix-keys)))) )))))

(define pinebook-pro-image-type
  (image-type
   (name 'pinebook-pro-raw)
   (constructor (cut image-with-os
                     (arm64-disk-image (* 9 (expt 2 20))) ;9MiB
                     <>))))

(define pinebook-pro-desktop-raw-image
  (image
   (inherit
    (os->image pinebook-pro-desktop-os #:type pinebook-pro-image-type))
   (name 'pinebook-pro-desktop-raw-image)
   (target #f)))

;; Return the default image.
pinebook-pro-desktop-raw-image

Re: Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

[Efraim Flashner]

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On Sun, Aug 29, 2021 at 01:15:40PM -0700, Vagrant Cascadian wrote:
> On 2021-08-29, Mathieu Othacehe wrote:
> > The Guix website now offers Pinebook Pro Guix System images[1]. Those
> > images can be directly copied on a micro-SD card and booted from. More
> > details here[2].
> 
> It seems like I need to write up a hybrid pinebook/pinebook-pro
> bootloader definition, then that image could support *two* whole
> platforms. :)
> 
> It also shouldn't be *too* hard to add support for UEFI too...
> 
> 
> Started a discussion about this in June:
> 
>   https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2021-06/msg00036.html
> 
> 
> And recently gave a talk describing this approach for Debian:
> 
>   https://salsa.debian.org/vagrant/two-pinebooks-walk-into-a-bar
>   https://debconf21.debconf.org/talks/88-two-pinebooks-walk-into-a-bar/
> 
> Not sure how soon the video will be available, but the talk had
> technical difficulties at the start, so I hope to get a chance to do it
> all over again someday. :)
> 

The videos are already up here
https://meetings-archive.debian.net/pub/debian-meetings/2021/DebConf21/


-- 
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Re: Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

[Efraim Flashner]

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On Sun, Aug 29, 2021 at 01:41:06PM -0700, Vagrant Cascadian wrote:
> On 2021-08-29, Vagrant Cascadian wrote:
> > On 2021-08-29, Mathieu Othacehe wrote:
> >> The Guix website now offers Pinebook Pro Guix System images[1]. Those
> >> images can be directly copied on a micro-SD card and booted from. More
> >> details here[2].
> >
> > It seems like I need to write up a hybrid pinebook/pinebook-pro
> > bootloader definition, then that image could support *two* whole
> > platforms. :)
> 
> Something like this, but that is valid guile and actually works :)

I've been looking at this a bit since I'm actually nearing the point of
having something to write for the HiFive Unmatched. write-file-on-device
can be called multiple times, we've only needed it twice for all the
other cases though.

> diff --git a/gnu/bootloader/u-boot.scm b/gnu/bootloader/u-boot.scm
> index 6cad33b741..325618c5c5 100644
> --- a/gnu/bootloader/u-boot.scm
> +++ b/gnu/bootloader/u-boot.scm
> @@ -127,6 +127,28 @@
>  
>  (define install-pinebook-pro-rk3399-u-boot install-rockpro64-rk3399-u-boot)
>  
> +(define install-pinebook-and-pinebook-pro-u-boot
> +  ;; Install bootloaders for both pinebook pro and pinebook at compatible
> +  ;; offsets.
> +  ;;
> +  ;; pinebook pro
> +  #~(lambda (bootloader-pinebook-pro root-index image)
> +      (let ((idb (string-append bootloader-pinebook-pro "/libexec/idbloader.img"))
> +            (u-boot (string-append bootloader-pinebook-pro "/libexec/u-boot.itb")))
> +        ;; Use alternate offset of 2112 to avoid conflicts with pinebook
> +        (write-file-on-device idb (stat:size (stat idb))
> +                              image (* 2112 512))
> +        (write-file-on-device u-boot (stat:size (stat u-boot))
> +                              image (* 16384 512))))
> +  ;; pinebook
> +  #~(lambda (bootloader-pinebook root-index image)
> +      (let ((spl (string-append bootloader-pinebook "/libexec/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin"))
> +            (u-boot (string-append bootloader-pinebook "/libexec/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.fit.itb")))
> +        (write-file-on-device spl (stat:size (stat spl))
> +                              image (* 8 1024))
> +        (write-file-on-device u-boot (stat:size (stat u-boot))
> +                              image (* 40 1024)))))

This could probably be (very untested)

(define install-pinebook-and-pinebook-pro-u-boot
  ;; Install bootloaders for both the pinebook and pinebook pro at compatible
  ;; offsets.
  #~(lambda (bootloader-pinebook-pro root-index image)
      (let ((spl (string-append bootloader-pinebook "/libexec/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin"))
            (u-boot (string-append bootloader-pinebook "/libexec/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.fit.itb"))
            (idb (string-append bootloader-pinebook-pro "/libexec/idbloader.img"))
            (u-boot-pro (string-append bootloader-pinebook-pro "/libexec/u-boot.itb")))
        (write-file-on-device spl (stat:size (stat spl))
                              image (* 8 1024))
        (write-file-on-device u-boot (stat:size (stat u-boot))
                              image (* 40 1024))
        ;; Use alternate offset of 2112 to avoid conflicts with pinebook
        (write-file-on-device idb (stat:size (stat idb))
                              image (* 2112 512))
        (write-file-on-device u-boot (stat:size (stat u-boot-pro))
                              image (* 16384 512)))))
> 
>  
>  ;;;
> @@ -255,3 +277,9 @@
>     (inherit u-boot-bootloader)
>     (package u-boot-pinebook-pro-rk3399)
>     (disk-image-installer install-pinebook-pro-rk3399-u-boot)))
> +
> +(define u-boot-pinebook-and-pinebook-pro-bootloader
> +  (bootloader
> +   (inherit u-boot-bootloader)
not sure what to do with this one though
> +   (packages '(u-boot-pinebook-pro-rk3399 u-boot-pinebook))
> +   (disk-image-installer install-pinebook-and-pinebook-pro-uboot)))
> 
> 
> live well,
>   vagrant



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Re: Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

[Vagrant Cascadian]

On 2021-08-30, Mathieu Othacehe wrote:
> I managed to build a Guix System image with the Sway WM for the Pinebook
> Pro. The image is quite large (~6GiB) but it is bootable and works fine.

I wonder how much diskspace savings you might get by leaving out the
display manager... I typically just login from the console and run "exec
sway". I *think* the last image I generated for that was more like 2GB,
though my memory is fallable, and maybe misses various other standard
desktop packages (e.g. web browser).


> The pinebook.scm file is attached.

    (initrd-modules '())
    (kernel linux-libre-arm64-generic)

I have since figured out how to use the regular "linux-libre" kernel and
which modules to add to the initrd... I'll try to dig those up.

> This is an interesting first step as generating desktop images for ARM
> devices is really convenient.

Indeed!


> Using the ARM machine as an offload machine to build a native ARM image
> from an Intel machine is less convenient though. I would really like to
> be able to build this same image using cross-compilation. The recent
> series sent by Maxime are making this goal more realistic.

Have fully native builds been fixed yet with "guix system image" ? That
has been a blocker forme from trying it out. I haven't been booting my
x86 guix installation lately, mostly just using the pinebook pro, so it
is ironic I haven't been able to make a pinebook pro image. :)


live well,
  vagrant

Re: Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

[Katherine Cox-Buday]

Mathieu Othacehe <othacehe@gnu.org> writes:

> The Guix website now offers Pinebook Pro Guix System images[1].

Awesome news! Thanks to all involved!

-- 
Katherine

Re: Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

[Mathieu Othacehe]

Hello Vagrant,

> I wonder how much diskspace savings you might get by leaving out the
> display manager... I typically just login from the console and run "exec
> sway". I *think* the last image I generated for that was more like 2GB,
> though my memory is fallable, and maybe misses various other standard
> desktop packages (e.g. web browser).

Yeah SDDM drags Xorg between other things, I could definitely get rid of
it.

> I have since figured out how to use the regular "linux-libre" kernel and
> which modules to add to the initrd... I'll try to dig those up.

That would be nice. I also came across to the issue you reported here:
https://issues.guix.gnu.org/48266. We definitely need to do something
about it. Building this initrd modules list is quite painful. I'll try
to think about it.

> Have fully native builds been fixed yet with "guix system image" ? That
> has been a blocker forme from trying it out. I haven't been booting my
> x86 guix installation lately, mostly just using the pinebook pro, so it
> is ironic I haven't been able to make a pinebook pro image. :)

Hehe, that's a shame indeed. I'm working on it as a follow-up of
https://issues.guix.gnu.org/45020. I'll propose a patch soon.

Thanks,

Mathieu

Re: Distributing Guix System Pinebook Pro images

[André A. Gomes]

Mathieu Othacehe <othacehe@gnu.org> writes:

> Yeah SDDM drags Xorg between other things, I could definitely get rid of
> it.

Theoretically, it would be possible to write a SDDM service supporting
wayland only AFAIK.  But if you'll only use sway, it makes little sense
to have a login manager indeed.


--
André A. Gomes
"Free Thought, Free World"