NixOS on the HoneyComb / ClearFog LX2k

This repo contains minimal viable Nix expressions for NixOS installer images and UEFI firmwares for the following machines:

• HoneyComb LX2K

Prerequisites

Before starting, you should ensure you have:

• Any additional required hardware is properly installed.
• A Linux machine with Nix installed. If not on an aarch64 machine, set this (or equivalent):

  # /etc/nixos/configuration.nix
  boot.binfmt.emulatedSystems = [ "aarch64-linux" ];

• FTDI drivers configured according to instructions. (NixOS default kernel users are already covered!)
• A microUSB to USB cable. (Ex)
• A microSD card. (Ex)
• A USB stick, 4+ GB prefered. (Ex)

Usage

These machines require both a UEFI image (typically loaded on the microSD card) as well as an installer image (typically loaded on a USB stick).

To get started, build the required images:

If you have a different RAM speed than 2400MHz, choose that speed instead. (Eg. nix-build -A lx2k-3200.uefi -o uefi.img)

nix-build -A lx2k.isoImage -o isoImage
nix-build -A lx2k.uefi -o uefi.img

Use lsblk to take a look at the block devices within /dev:

$ lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,MODEL,SERIAL,STATE
NAME          SIZE MODEL                     SERIAL             STATE
sda         465.8G Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_500GB S3Z1NB0K431062D    running
└─sda1      465.8G                                              
sdb           7.5G USB_Flash_Drive           AASB9S2CIA58DPXH   running # <-- USB Stick
sdc         238.9G UHSII_uSD_Reader          201912001648       running # <-- microSD card
nvme1n1     349.3G INTEL SSDPED1K375GA       PHKS750500HT375AGN live
├─nvme1n1p1   512M                                              
└─nvme1n1p2 348.8G                                                                                          

Then, copy the built images to those devices:

$ sudo cp -vi uefi.img /dev/sdc
cp: overwrite '/dev/sdc'? y
'uefi.img' -> '/dev/sdc'
$ sudo cp -vi isoImage/iso/*.iso /dev/sdb
cp: overwrite '/dev/sdb'? y
'isoImage/iso/nixos-21.03pre263901.68398d2dd50-aarch64-linux.iso' -> '/dev/sdb'

Booting

Plug the microUSB side of the microUSB cable into the port which registers dmesg as FTDI, not the STM32 (see step 2). Plug the other side into the host machine with FTDI drivers.

$ dmesg | grep FTDI
# ...
[...] usb 3-3: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0

Plug the microUSB side of the microUSB cable into the port labelled CONSOLE (not "MANAGEMENT") on the board. It should show in dmesg as FTDI, not STM32.

$ nix-shell -p picocom --run "sudo picocom /dev/ttyUSB0 -b 115200"
picocom v3.2a

port is        : /dev/ttyUSB0
flowcontrol    : none
baudrate is    : 115200
parity is      : none
databits are   : 8
stopbits are   : 1
escape is      : C-a
local echo is  : no
noinit is      : no
noreset is     : no
hangup is      : no
nolock is      : no
send_cmd is    : /nix/store/91ycwnp2a7qa37lzjfgvvwlzq161qprs-lrzsz-0.12.20/bin/sz -vv
receive_cmd is : rz -vv -E
imap is        : 
omap is        : 
emap is        : crcrlf,delbs,
logfile is     : none
initstring     : none
exit_after is  : not set
exit is        : no

Type [C-a] [C-h] to see available commands
Terminal ready

Next the fun part! Hit the power button 🚀!

With any luck, something similar to the following will show:

# ...
Terminal ready
NOTICE:  BL2: v1.5(release):
NOTICE:  BL2: Built : 00:00:00, Jan  1 1980
NOTICE:  UDIMM KHX3200C20S4/32GX 
NOTICE:  DDR4 UDIMM with 2-rank 64-bit bus (x8)

NOTICE:  64 GB DDR4, 64-bit, CL=20, ECC off, 256B, CS0+CS1
NOTICE:  BL2: Booting BL31
NOTICE:  BL31: v1.5(release):
NOTICE:  BL31: Built : 00:00:00, Jan  1 1980
NOTICE:  Welcome to LX2160 BL31 Phase

UEFI firmware built at 00:00:00 on Jan  1 1980. version:

SOC: LX2160ACE Rev2.0 (0x87360020)
UEFI firmware (version  built at 00:00:00 on Jan  1 1980)

After, a UEFI boot menu will be presented. From here, proceed like a normal NixOS install.

Notes

• make menuconfig

  Requires some dependencies:

  nix-shell -E 'with (import <nixpkgs> {}); stdenv.mkDerivation { name = "fake"; nativeBuildInputs = [ ncurses pkgconfig bison flex ]; }'
  
  export NIX_CFLAGS_LINK=$(pkg-config --libs ncurses)

Future work

• TODO: Improve self-hosting
  • Determine which of =boot.kernelParams= are important and move them to a module that can be included by installed systems.
• Why is 2gb of memory allocated to huge pages?
• Does the PCI-E slot work?
• Discuss installation steps onto eMCC
• Create joined sdcard/isoimage for flashing to sdcards.
  • Add entry in UEFI for recovery with this image.

LICENSE

This repo is a port of Solidrun/lx2160a_build, and has a copy of the patches from that repository, it is subject to the same conditions. Anything original to this repository is available under the same conditions as nixpkgs for ease of upstreaming.