ESP8266 Wifi Module

2016-09-26 admin

In this article we describe briefly the ESP8266 wifi chip from Espressif

This lower power SOC contains a 32 bit RISC MCU and a wifi module. At the Espressif web site we can find the detailed informations about the ESP8266

ESP8266 Resources

The device datasheet is available in the following pdf document

ESP8266 Datasheet

The ESP8266 modules are available individually or in a development platform; the last system simplifies its usage as the development kit contains all the hardware to use rapidly the soc device; we are already ready to load the firmware and use the device.

On internet various web sites describe home automation or iot projects using this soc.

A reference site for the ESP8266 is

ESP8266 Forum

In the forum we can find the various systems utilized to develop applications for the ESP8266. The most relevant tools are

Arduino Ide

Arduino IDE

ESP8266 Arduino github

Espressif SDK

SDK Forum

ESP8266 SDK

PlatformIO

PlatformIO

Nodemcu

Nodemcu at esp8266.com forum

Nodemcu

Nodemcu github

We can buy the ESP8266 module from various internet online websites, for example ebay, as a single module

ESP8266 on ebay

or as a development kit

ESP8266 Development Kit

Different ESP8266 AI-Thinker modules are available

AI-Thinker

We’ll use the Nodemcu development kit. This kit contains the AI-Thinker ESP-12/ESP-12E modules. In the ebay search we have as results ESP8266 ESP-01 modules too and development kits from other vendors.

On the Nodemcu github we can find the development kits we’ll use afterward. There are two versions

Nodemcu V1 (ESP-12E) development kit

Nodemcu devkit V1.0

Nodemcu V0.9 (ESP-12) development kit

Nodemcu devkit V0.9

At the following link we can find the description of the different AI-Thinker modules and as obtain informations about the flash inside the device

ESP8266 Modules

From the Nodemcu github

Nodemcu Devkit

the pins available in the devkit 1.0 are the following

In next articles we’ll describe how to obtain the Nodemcu firmware, how to load it on the device, how to compile it and we’ll show some example using the LUA scripting language utilized by the Nodemcu firmware

Lua

with the LUA software modules available for the ESP8266

Nodemcu documentation

In the next article we’ll describe the Nodemcu firmware

Nodemcu Firmware

Development, Software

Building openwrt package

2016-09-14 admin

In the previous article

Building OpenWrt firmware

we described how to build the OpenWrt for the TP-Link TL-MR3420 V1 router. Now we show how to build a package, vsftpd, and install it using the shell command window

As for the firmware building execute

make menuconfig

1	make menuconfig

and access the section for this package, i.e. Network->File Transfer, and enable it as moduleSave the settings in the .config file and execute

make defconfig
make package/vsftpd/compile V=s

1 2	make defconfig make package/vsftpd/compile V=s

At the end of the task the package is available in the packages folder under the router platformTransfer the file on the router as root using scp (WinScp on windows) into the folder /tmp. In this case don’t update the packages repository using the web interface (if done reboot the device); log on to the router using ssh as root and execute the command

root@OpenWrt:/tmp# opkg install vsftpd_3.0.2-4.1_ar71xx.ipk
Installing vsftpd (3.0.2-4.1) to root...
Configuring vsftpd.
root@OpenWrt:/tmp#

root@OpenWrt:/tmp# opkg install vsftpd_3.0.2-4.1_ar71xx.ipk

Installing vsftpd (3.0.2-4.1) to root...

Configuring vsftpd.

root@OpenWrt:/tmp#

OpenWrt offers many packages that allow you to greatly enhance the functionality of the device, but some packages require more resources, so you can install them on routers with more powerful hardware.

Development, Software

Building OpenWrt firmware

2016-09-14 admin

After the brief description of OpenWrt system in the previous article

OpenWrt

we describe now how to build the firmware for our router.

We use as tartget device the TP-Link TL-MR3420 router version 1.

This model is in the list of the supported OpenWrt devices; here is the specific documentation for this device

TP-Link TL-MR3420

From the documentation we know that the SOC is an Atheros AR7241. This information will be used in the configruation phase of the buildin envinronment. As a preliminary operation also download the original firmware of this router from the link

Original Firmware

In the page TP-Link TL-MR3420 we find the links to two differents versions of the OpenWrt firmware:

Firmware used to install OpenWrt: openwrt-15.05.1-ar71xx-generic-tl-mr3420-v1-squashfs-factory.bin.
Firmware used to update OpenWrt: openwrt-15.05.1-ar71xx-generic-tl-mr3420-v1-squashfs-sysupgrade.bin

If we have the original firmware in our device we must utilize the first one, while in the case of updates we use the second one..

We now execute the operation described in the link

OpenWrt Building

in the Debian envinronment installed in previous article

Debian Envinronment

In a shell command window we install the prerequisites as non root user (sviluppo in our case)

sudo apt-get install git-core 
sudo apt-get install build-essential 
sudo apt-get install libssl-dev 
sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev 
sudo apt-get install unzip 
sudo apt-get install gawk
sudo apt-get install subversion 
sudo apt-get install mercurial

sudo apt-get install git-core

sudo apt-get install build-essential

sudo apt-get install libssl-dev

sudo apt-get install libncurses5-dev

sudo apt-get install unzip

sudo apt-get install gawk

sudo apt-get install subversion

sudo apt-get install mercurial

We create a folder OpenWrt under the home user folder (sviluppo in our case) and clone the repository. In this build we choose the stable branch 15.05

mkdir OpenWrt
cd OpenWrt
git clone  https://git.openwrt.org/15.05/openwrt.git 15.05

mkdir OpenWrt

cd OpenWrt

git clone https://git.openwrt.org/15.05/openwrt.git 15.05

At the end of the git task, execute

cd 15.05
./scripts/feeds update -a
./scripts/feeds install -a

cd 15.05

./scripts/feeds update -a

./scripts/feeds install -a

We are now ready to build the firmware of the TP-Link TL-MR3420 V1.

Execute the command

make menuconfig

1	make menuconfig

and we choose as target Target System AR7xxx/AR9xxx as described in the following screenshotsWith the following choices we change the options

y: we buil it.
m: we build it as module.
n: we skip it.

At the following link

OpenWrt Building

we find all the documentation about the building.

In the Target System with enter we can choose our Target PlatformWe have to install the base packages to admin the system, so we access LuCI Optionthen Collectionsand at the end the luci package; with this option the system installs an http server tooWe choose as modules some cryptographics packages in the kernel modules sectionsthen Cryptographic Api modulesand at the end the following modules merged into the firmware fileYou should save the configuration in a file in order to use it again later. Finally save the configuration in the .config file.

We can now exit the menuconfig and execute the following command in the shell command window

make defconfig

1	make defconfig

This task checks for the prerequisites.

To build the firmware we execute

make V=s

make V=s

in verbose mode.

At the end of the task we can find the firmware in the atheros platform under the bin folder. In our case our images are highlighted in the following screenshotWe can now flash the firmware.

WARNING: Before installing the firmware verify the recovery process of your router in the event of a problem, i.e how to start in recovery mode, flash via tftp, use JTAG, etc. The image installation on the device is at your own risk. We accept no responsibility if the installation leads to malfunction or block of the device.

The OpenWrt web site describes all the vaious options to build the firmware and packages. In the next article

Building OpenWrt package

we’ll describe how to build and install from a shell window command the vsftpd package.

Software

OpenWrt firmware

2016-09-14 admin

In this article we describe briefly OpenWrt

OpenWrt

As stated in the above link OpenWrt is a linux distribution for wireless devices. It is available for different routers as listed in the following page

OpenWrt Supported Devices

The firmware is an open source one, it is modular with the possibility to use various packages.

At the following link we find the documentation about packages and the opkg command

Packages

After the OpenWrt firmware installation we can login using the ssh protocol in a unix shell command and check the installed packages, installable package and so on.

The command

opkg list

opkg list

shows the available packages for the device.

This command works if the list of the repositories is available in the opkg.conf file,

OpenWrt packages repositories

but the same operation is available trhrough the web interface

First we log on to the router with a browserWe access to the Software sectionWe press the Update lists buttonThe list is loadedNow we search for a package, for example vsftpdAfter the search we can proceed to the installationWe can find it among the installed packagesIn future articles we will describe how to build the image for your router along with an additional package

Building OpenWrt firmware

Development, Software

Building Armbian image for Orange PI PC

2016-09-02 admin

We treat now the bulding of the image Armbian for Orange PI PC. From the developer’s github

Armbian Github

we find the steps to do the task.

From the Armbian site

Building Armbian

the supported building envinronment is Ubuntu. In our test we use Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS x86-64

Ubuntu

and our Debian 8.5 envinroment used for the other tasks described on this site. With Ubuntu the compile.sh script installs all the required packages to build the image. On the Armbian web site we can find also various compilation options..

Using Debian 8.5 as host, we have to exectute some prerequisites tasks described below. In the case of issues execute the building on Ubuntu..

First we install the cross compilation envinronment in Debian

https://wiki.debian.org/CrossToolchains

We have to create the file crosstools.list in /etc/apt/sources.list.d

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list.d/crosstools.list

1	sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list.d/crosstools.list

Edit this file and add the line

deb http://emdebian.org/tools/debian/ jessie main

1	deb http://emdebian.org/tools/debian/ jessie main

Save the file and add the repository key using curl. We install the curl package

sudo apt-get install curl

1	sudo apt-get install curl

and add the key

curl http://emdebian.org/tools/debian/emdebian-toolchain-archive.key | sudo apt-key add -

1	curl http://emdebian.org/tools/debian/emdebian-toolchain-archive.key \| sudo apt-key add -

Now we are ready to install the packages and architecture as listed below

sudo dpkg --add-architecture armhf
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install autoconf
sudo apt-get install ccache
sudo apt-get install git
sudo apt-get install qemu
sudo apt-get install qemu-user-static
sudo apt-get install dchroot
sudo apt-get install debootstrap
sudo apt-get install apt-cacher-ng 
sudo apt-get install pigz
sudo apt-get install pv
sudo apt-get install mpv
sudo apt-get install  u-boot-tools
sudo apt-get install ntpdate
sudo apt-get install device-tree-compiler
sudo apt-get install pkg-config
sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev
sudo apt-get install libusb-dev
sudo apt-get install gcc-4.9-multilib
sudo apt-get install crossbuild-essential-armhf

sudo dpkg --add-architecture armhf

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install autoconf

sudo apt-get install ccache

sudo apt-get install git

sudo apt-get install qemu

sudo apt-get install qemu-user-static

sudo apt-get install dchroot

sudo apt-get install debootstrap

sudo apt-get install apt-cacher-ng

sudo apt-get install pigz

sudo apt-get install pv

sudo apt-get install mpv

sudo apt-get install u-boot-tools

sudo apt-get install ntpdate

sudo apt-get install device-tree-compiler

sudo apt-get install pkg-config

sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev

sudo apt-get install libusb-dev

sudo apt-get install gcc-4.9-multilib

sudo apt-get install crossbuild-essential-armhf

At this point the procedure is the same on Ubuntu or Debian. We create a folder called armbian under orangepi folder in the home folder of the linux system; in our case the user is sviluppo

sviluppo@debian8:~/orangepi$ ls
openelec  sunxi
sviluppo@debian8:~/orangepi$ mkdir armbian

sviluppo@debian8:~/orangepi$ ls

openelec sunxi

sviluppo@debian8:~/orangepi$ mkdir armbian

We clone the repository with the following command in a shell command window in the armbian folder

git clone https://github.com/igorpecovnik/lib --depth 1
cp lib/compile.sh .

1 2	git clone https://github.com/igorpecovnik/lib --depth 1 cp lib/compile.sh .

To build the image execute

./compile.sh

1	./compile.sh

When requested enter the root password and for our image select the options described below.

Full OS image

Orangepipc board

default kernel

Debian stable image

Image with desktop envinronment

We find the image under the folder output/images ready to be transferred on a micro sd card as described in previous article

Development, Software

Enigma2 package compilation

2016-08-28 admin

After the enigma2 compilation

Enigma 2 image compilation

we show how to create a package.

In the recipes-local folder

~/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/meta-local/recipes-local

1	~/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/meta-local/recipes-local

we create a folder for our package, for example testpackage, and a subfolder files

mkdir testpackage
cd testpackage
makdir files
cd files

mkdir testpackage

cd testpackage

makdir files

cd files

In the file testpackage.c, in the files folder, we insert the test code

#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char** argv){
printf("Test Package!\n\n");
return 0;
}

#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv){

printf("Test Package!\n\n");

return 0;

}

We have to create the Readme.txt in the files folder and the LICENSE file in the testpackage folder. The Readme.txt file contains informations about the application. For the LICENSE, without information at the moment, we have to generate the hash to insert into the bitbake file.

md5sum command creates the md5 file for the LICENSE

md5sum ~/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/meta-local/recipes-local/testpackage/LICENCE
d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e

1 2	md5sum ~/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/meta-local/recipes-local/testpackage/LICENCE d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e

Now we are ready to create the bitbake testpackage_0.1.bb file in the testpackage folder; here is the content of this file

DESCRIPTION = "testpackage application"
PR = "r0"
LICENSE = "TEST"
LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file:///home/sviluppo/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/meta-local/recipes-local/testpackage/LICENSE;md5=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e"

 

SRC_URI = "file://testpackage.c \
file://README.txt"
do_compile() {
${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${LDFLAGS} ${WORKDIR}/testpackage.c -o testpackage
}
do_install() {
install -m 0755 -d ${D}${bindir} ${D}${docdir}/testpackage
install -m 0755 ${S}/testpackage ${D}${bindir}
install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/README.txt ${D}${docdir}/testpackage
}

DESCRIPTION = "testpackage application"

PR = "r0"

LICENSE = "TEST"

LIC_FILES_CHKSUM = "file:///home/sviluppo/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/meta-local/recipes-local/testpackage/LICENSE;md5=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e"

SRC_URI = "file://testpackage.c \

file://README.txt"

do_compile() {

${CC} ${CFLAGS} ${LDFLAGS} ${WORKDIR}/testpackage.c -o testpackage

}

do_install() {

install -m 0755 -d ${D}${bindir} ${D}${docdir}/testpackage

install -m 0755 ${S}/testpackage ${D}${bindir}

install -m 0644 ${WORKDIR}/README.txt ${D}${docdir}/testpackage

}

We are now ready to compile the testpackage. We use the Zgemma envinronment to compile the files, as described below

cd /home/sviluppo/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/builds/openatv/release/h3/
source env.source
bitbake testpackage

cd /home/sviluppo/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/builds/openatv/release/h3/

source env.source

bitbake testpackage

The package is available in the folder shown below

sviluppo@debian8:~/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/builds/openatv/release/h3/tmp/deploy/ipk/mips32el$ ls testpackage*
testpackage_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk      testpackage-dev_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk
testpackage-dbg_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk  testpackage-doc_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk
sviluppo@debian8:~/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/builds/openatv/release/h3/tmp/deploy/ipk/mips32el$

sviluppo@debian8:~/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/builds/openatv/release/h3/tmp/deploy/ipk/mips32el$ ls testpackage*

testpackage_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk testpackage-dev_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk

testpackage-dbg_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk testpackage-doc_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk

sviluppo@debian8:~/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/builds/openatv/release/h3/tmp/deploy/ipk/mips32el$

To install the package on the Zgemma H2H we have to trasfer the testpackage_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk file on ZGemma H3 in the /tmp folder and execute in a shell, accessible using the telnet application, the following command

opkg install testpackage_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk

1	opkg install testpackage_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk

To force the installation use

opkg --nodeps install testpackage_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk

1	opkg --nodeps install testpackage_0.1-r0_mips32el.ipk

The executable is available in the /usr/bin folder; the execution gives us the expected output

root@zgemmah2h:/tmp# testpackage
Test Package!

1 2	root@zgemmah2h:/tmp# testpackage Test Package!

Development, Software

OpenATV Enigma2 image compilation

2016-08-17 admin

In this article we describe how to generate an OpenATV image, based on the Enigma 2 framework

Openatv

Atfer the compilation envinronment installation, described in this previous article

Debian envinroment setup

we can proceed as described below.

Execute the logon into Debian envinronment with the development user (sviluppo in our example). In the home directory create the enigma2 folder

mkdir enigma2
cd enigma2

1 2	mkdir enigma2 cd enigma2

Install the following packages

sudo apt-get install autoconf
sudo apt-get install automake
sudo apt-get install bison
sudo apt-get install bzip2
sudo apt-get install cvs
sudo apt-get install diffstat
sudo apt-get install flex
sudo apt-get install g++
sudo apt-get install gawk
sudo apt-get install gcc
sudo apt-get install gettext
sudo apt-get install git-core
sudo apt-get install gzip
sudo apt-get install help2man
sudo apt-get install ncurses-bin
sudo apt-get install ncurses-dev
sudo apt-get install libc6-dev
sudo apt-get install libtool
sudo apt-get install make
sudo apt-get install texinfo
sudo apt-get install patch
sudo apt-get install perl
sudo apt-get install pkg-config
sudo apt-get install subversion
sudo apt-get install tar
sudo apt-get install texi2html
sudo apt-get install wget
sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev
sudo apt-get install chrpath
sudo apt-get install libxml2-utils
sudo apt-get install xsltproc
sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-dev
sudo apt-get install python-setuptools
sudo apt-get install libc6-i386
sudo apt-get install genromfs
sudo apt-get install guile-1.8-libs
sudo apt-get install gparted
sudo apt-get install quilt
sudo apt-get install git
sudo apt-get install  libproc-processtable-perl

sudo apt-get install autoconf

sudo apt-get install automake

sudo apt-get install bison

sudo apt-get install bzip2

sudo apt-get install cvs

sudo apt-get install diffstat

sudo apt-get install flex

sudo apt-get install g++

sudo apt-get install gawk

sudo apt-get install gcc

sudo apt-get install gettext

sudo apt-get install git-core

sudo apt-get install gzip

sudo apt-get install help2man

sudo apt-get install ncurses-bin

sudo apt-get install ncurses-dev

sudo apt-get install libc6-dev

sudo apt-get install libtool

sudo apt-get install make

sudo apt-get install texinfo

sudo apt-get install patch

sudo apt-get install perl

sudo apt-get install pkg-config

sudo apt-get install subversion

sudo apt-get install tar

sudo apt-get install texi2html

sudo apt-get install wget

sudo apt-get install zlib1g-dev

sudo apt-get install chrpath

sudo apt-get install libxml2-utils

sudo apt-get install xsltproc

sudo apt-get install libglib2.0-dev

sudo apt-get install python-setuptools

sudo apt-get install libc6-i386

sudo apt-get install genromfs

sudo apt-get install guile-1.8-libs

sudo apt-get install gparted

sudo apt-get install quilt

sudo apt-get install git

sudo apt-get install libproc-processtable-perl

Modify the shell as bash executing

sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash

1	sudo dpkg-reconfigure dash

and choosing the NO option.

Create under openatv an enigma2 folder

mkdir openatv
cd openatv

1 2	mkdir openatv cd openatv

At this step let’s create a folder sources; this folder will contain all the sources for the various set-top boxes we would like to compile

mkdir sources

1	mkdir sources

Using the git command we clone locally the oe-alliance repository

git clone https://github.com/oe-alliance/build-enviroment.git

1	git clone https://github.com/oe-alliance/build-enviroment.git

After this task enter into build-envinronment folder and execute

cd build-enviroment
make

1 2	cd build-enviroment make

Now we modifiy the source dowload folder editing the site.conf file and changing the parameter as described below from

DL_DIR = "/home/sviluppo/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/sources"

1	DL_DIR = "/home/sviluppo/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/sources"

DL_DIR = "/home/sviluppo/enigma2/openatv/sources"

1	DL_DIR = "/home/sviluppo/enigma2/openatv/sources"

We are ready now to proceed to the image compilation.

From the build-envinronment to generate, for example, the image for Airdigital Zgemma H2H set-top box execute

MACHINE=zgemmah2h DISTRO=openatv  make image

1	MACHINE=zgemmah2h DISTRO=openatv make image

For the Xtrend ET10000 set-top box

MACHINE=et10000 DISTRO=openatv  make image

1	MACHINE=et10000 DISTRO=openatv make image

At the end of the process we’ll find the image ready to be uploaded on the set-top box in the deploy folder for each machine type; in the case of the Zgemma H2H the folder is

/home/sviluppo/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/builds/openatv/release/h3/tmp/deploy/images/h3/

1	/home/sviluppo/enigma2/openatv/build-enviroment/builds/openatv/release/h3/tmp/deploy/images/h3/

The zip file contains for the Zgemma H2H the file to be unzipped on the usb pen and uploaded on the device.

WARNING: The image installation on the device is at your own risk. We accept no responsibility if the installation leads to malfunction or block of the device.

Hardware

Beaglebone development board

2016-08-11 admin

In this article we describe briefly the Beaglebone Black development board. What said is applicable also to its derivatives (Green, Enhanced) for most of the information

Beaglebone Black Board

From the above link there is a comparison chart between the various models.

The card is the result of an Open Source project with all its elements distributed on site

Beaglebone Black Design Files

Below are the main features of the BeagleBone Black Rev. C (other versions differ with respect to Black).

CPU	Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358BZCZ100, 1GHz, 2000 MIPS
Graphics Engine	SGX530 3D, 20M Polygons/s
Memory	512 MB DDR3L 800Mhz
On Board Flash	4Gb, 8bit Embedded MMC
Analog Pins	7
Digital Pins	65 (3.3V)
PMIC (Power management integrated circuits)	TPS65217C PMIC and one additional LDO (Low Dropout Regulator)
Debug	20 pin JTAG CT Iopional, Serial Header
Power	Mini USB,DC Jack, 5V DC via Expansion Header
Indicators	1 Power, 2 Ethernet, 4 Led User controllable
USB client Port	Access to USB0, client mode via mini USB
USB Host Port	Access to USB1, socket type A, 500 mA LS/FS/HS
Serial Port	Access UART0 via Header 6 pin 3.3 V TTL
Ethernet	10/100 RJ45
SD/MMC Connector	microSD 3.3 V
User Input	Reset Button, Boot Button, Power Button
Video Output	16b HDMI, 1280x1024 (MAX)
Audio	Via HDMI, Stereo
Supported Interfaces	4x UART, 8x PWM, LCD, GPMC, MMC1, 2x SPI, 2x I2C, A/D Converter, 2xCAN Bus, 4 Timers,2 PRUs
Weight	39.68 grams

From the link

Beaglebone Black Wiki

there is a complete description of all the features and sofware compatibility. The System Reference Document, available as a link in the site mentioned above, can be downloaded from the link

System Reference Beablebone Black

The card being Opensource and with many outputs and built-in controls lends itself very well to prototyping of IOT systems, Automation, Home Automation. The hardware functionality expansion can be executed by the usage of expansion cards called Capes

Beaglebone capes

The main linux distribution for the BeagleBone Black card is Debian. On the Debian distribution for BeagleBone it is also available Cloud9

Cloud 9 Interface

that allows you to interact easily with the hardware on the BeagleBone Black. In subsequent articles we describe the installation, creation of the image and various uses of the card.

Here is the link to the software and hardware features of the card; in particular the page shows the input/outpuy pin of the BeagleBone Black

Beaglebone Black software and hardware

The card can be purchased by following the links listed on the website

Beaglebone Black Purchase

from online retailers or electronics stores.

Configuration, Software

Remote desktop setup for Armbian on Orange PI PC

2016-08-11 admin

To enable the remote desktop for Armbian on Orange PI PC execute the logon to the system, for example using an ssh client

Delete, if installed, the packages

sudo apt-get purge vnc4server
sudo apt-get purge  tightvnc
sudo apt-get purge xrdp

sudo apt-get purge vnc4server

sudo apt-get purge tightvnc

sudo apt-get purge xrdp

Install the following packages

sudo apt-get install tightvncserver
sudo apt-get install xrdp

1 2	sudo apt-get install tightvncserver sudo apt-get install xrdp

Now we are able to login on Armbian using the remote desktop. Start the remote desktop client entering the Orange PI PC IP address

Execute the login with the user created at the first boot of Armbian, for example user1

We now have the access to the XFCE desktop remotely

Configuration, Software

Armbian Boot on Orange PI PC

2016-08-11 admin

After the creation of the micro sd card with the Armbian image for Orange PI PC

Armbian image on micro sd

we can boot the Orange PI PC with the card inserted in the card slot. At the boot the first operation is the partition increase on the card, then the system requires the root password change from the default, 1234, to a new password. The next operation is the creation of a normal Debian user, for example user1; we provide the main required informations like username, password and letting the default for the other fields. After these steps the system opens the XFCE graphical interface with the default resolution. To change the resolution execute the following command

sudo dh3disp

1	sudo dh3disp

It shows a list with all the available options; to enable a 1080p60 resolution execute

sudo h3disp -m 10

1	sudo h3disp -m 10

To change the locales configuration execute the following command choosing the language to use

sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

1	sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

while to modify the keyboard layout use the following command

sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

1	sudo dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

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