Debian

Debian and its derivatives are a large family of Linux operating systems. This includes Debian, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, and many specialised distributions. All distributions share the same package management structure. Packages available for one version are very likely to be compatible with other versions.

The Debian family of operating systems are very versatile. As a result there are many ways to install and set-up one of these systems.

Debian focuses on stability and security of its releases. As a result, new features are not added to existing installations, and new releases are not frequent. Software packages are updated for security releases only. There are also testing and unstable versions. These are development versions, which could become the next main version. Testing and unstable versions are updated frequently, but may be unstable.

Debian Wheezy/Jessie can be installed using the Ignition installer. Flash Ignition to an SD card, then use Ignition to download and install Debian Wheezy/Jessie automatically.

Default username: debian
Default password: debian

There is no root password! If you really need one, you can run sudo passwd root to create your own password.

The images are also available for manual installation here.

Connman is preinstalled to setup wifi on our images.

https://01.org/connman/documentation

Until recently the system would replace any custom DTB files in /boot on upgrade of the kernel package. Now there is a way to get rid of this behaviour:

The DTBs managed by the Distribution are now located under /boot/dtb-<VERSION>. Custom ones can be placed directly in /boot. That is now the place where u-boot looks first!

These images did not have U-Boot patched appropriately. To use anyway, a few dangerous steps need to be performed:

1. Install latest U-Boot package: apt-get update, apt-get upgrade

1. Copy U-Boot to the bootsector:

Follow the instructions available on U-Boot, section Writing U-Boot to the SD card Be sure to do this on the device itself, using cubox-i-spl and u-bootimg in /boot, to /dev/mmcblk0.

1. Wipe U-Boot Environment:

reboot, and press a key to activate u-boot console. Then run:

env default -a
saveenv
reset

- Finally delete the transitional package dtb-subfolder-compat.

write SPL and u-boot.img to the usual sectors on eMMC (as one would for removable microSD):

dd if=SPL of=/dev/mmcblk2 bs=1K seek=1
dd if=u-boot.img of=/dev/mmcblk2 bs=1K seek=69

create a partition table on eMMC, and set up desired partitions (might overwrite u-boot) place boot.scr on one of the primary partitions prepared image

download prepared image

dd to /dev/mmcblk2 

Final Step: Shutdown your system and setup bootjumpers to boot from emmc.

TODO: USB OTG