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PineTainerFS

Buildroot scripts and configuration files used for compiling the Linux kernel and generating the root filesystem for PineTainer.

Quick start

After cloning this repository for the first time, you'll probably be interested in getting your own PineUp copy. PineUp is a tiny OS that can be copied to a SD card whose purpose is to allow installing a proper PineTainer image, and performing hardware and/or software tests.

To do that, you should run the following commands, in the order that they are shown. It is assumed that their working directory is the root of this repository. A basic literacy on how to use Buildroot is also assumed. A brief explanation of what they do follows.

$ scripts/update-and-patch-buildroot.sh -y
$ ./make.sh pineup_defconfig
$ ./make.sh nconfig (temporarily remove "-flto" from Toolchain -> Target Optimizations and save)
$ ./make.sh uboot
$ ./make.sh nconfig (readd "-flto" to Toolchain -> Target Optimizations and save)
$ scripts/fix-toolchain-lto.sh
$ cd scripts
$ sudo ./install-firmware-blobs.sh
$ sudo ./install-regulatory.sh
$ cd ..
$ ./make.sh

The first command (scripts/update-and-patch-buildroot.sh -yu) checks out the appropriate commit of the Buildroot upstream submodule and applies the patches in buildroot-patches to it. Next, the make.sh wrapper calls the Buildroot Makefile with the pineup_defconfig parameter, among others that set the execution environment so that the Buildroot artifacts are nicely contained in the build subdirectory.

The next three commands work around compile errors which occur when link time optimization (LTO) is used to compile U-Boot, by disabling LTO temporarily, compiling the U-Boot and its (mostly host-side) dependencies, and then reenabling LTO.

The following command replaces some executables in Buildroot's copy of the aarch64-pinechain-linux-musl_sdk-buildroot toolchain by wrappers that load the necessary linker plugins for LTO to work. The external toolchain should be placed in the root directory of the repository, and must be downloaded separatedly or generated with ./make.sh pinechain_defconfig && ./make.sh.

Once the toolchain is fixed, we install propietary Realtek 8723BS firmware blobs to the system, so they can be included in the resulting kernel image and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth can work. If you don't want closed source blobs in your kernel, skip this step and change the CONFIG_EXTRA_FIRMWARE Linux kernel configuration so that it doesn't try to include these in the image. You only need to install these blobs once, unless you remove them manually.

Then we install the regulatory database blob, which is needed for proper Wi-Fi operation. If you skipped the previous command, you may as well skip this one.

Finally, the rest of the root filesystem is built normally with ./make.sh. Go out there and have some fun while it does its thing.

PineTainer

To build PineTainer follow the same instructions as above. However, keep in mind that, to generate the EDK II UEFI firmware images used by QEMU in the root filesystem overlay, you need to execute scripts/build-edk2.sh. You will also need to provide your own version of some files that are explicitly excluded from version control (see .gitignore). Also, if you want to be able to login with the admin user via SSH, you have to manually set a password for it.

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Buildroot scripts and configuration files used for compiling the Linux kernel and generating the root filesystem for PineTainer.

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