Linux Configuration

The Raspberry Pi inside the cube runs Linux. There are a few necessary steps to configure it. This file is a checklist of things to set up.

Make Image.

Get a Raspbian-Lite image from raspberrypi.org. Burn it to a Micro SD card.

Set up soft power.

Before putting the card into the Raspberry Pi, append this to /boot/config.txt.

# BEGIN kbob 2019-03-25 configure soft power GPIO
dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown,gpio_pin=17,active_low=1,gpio_pull=up
dtoverlay=gpio-poweroff,gpiopin=4,active_low=1,export=1
# END kbob 2019-03-25

Configure Wi-Fi

Before putting the card into the Raspberry Pi, create the file /boot/wpa_supplicant.conf.

country=us
update_config=1
ctrl_interface=/run/wpa_supplicant

network={
  scan_ssid=1
  ssid="(your network SSID)"
  psk="(your network password)"
}

Duplicate the network={...} stanza if you have several Wi-Fi networks.

Enable ssh.

Before putting the card into the Raspberry Pi, create an empty file /boot/ssh.

Boot Raspberry Pi.

The Pi should boot and bring up Wi-Fi. Use a network scanner to find it and log in.

Change the password.

Immediately run sudo raspi-config and change the default user's login password.

Run raspi-config

Use sudo raspi-config to change the hostname, locale and timezone and enable I²C. Also select the "legacy" GL driver.

GL driver is under Advanced Options.

Expand swap space

Building the FPGA tools requires 4 GB of swap. Edit /etc/dphys-swapfile and set these.

CONF_SWAPSIZE=4096
CONF_MAXSWAP=4096

N.B., this is not a sane swap configuration. But building the FPGA toolchain on a Raspberry Pi is not a sane thing to do.

Reboot to enable the new swap space.

Enable Bonjour ssh service.

Create /etc/avahi/services/ssh.service.

$ sudo cp /usr/share/doc/avahi-daemon/ssh.service /etc/avahi/services/

Update and install packages

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

These packages are needed for the FPGA tools.

$ sudo apt-get install git mercurial build-essential bison clang cmake \
                       flex gawk graphviz xdot libboost-all-dev \
                       libeigen3-dev libffi-dev libftdi-dev libgmp3-dev \
                       libmpfr-dev libncurses5-dev libmpc-dev \
                       libreadline-dev zlib1g-dev pkg-config python \
                       python3 python3-dev tcl-dev autoconf gperf

Summon the FPGA tools.

$ git clone https://github.com/esden/summon-fpga-tools.git
$ cd summon-fpga-tools
$ ./summon-fpga-tools.sh CPUS=1 NEXTPNR_BUILD_GUI=off

This will run for several hours. Good time to take a break.

Apt History

Here is the raw history. Some of these are probably not needed.

history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install raspi-config
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get dist-upgrade
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install git
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install build-essential clang bison flex libreadline-dev gawk tcl-dev libffi-dev git mercurial graphviz xdot pkg-config python python3 libftdi-dev python3-dev libboost-all-dev cmake libeigen3-dev
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install autoconf
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install gperf
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install python3-pip
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install python3-ftdi1
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install emacs-nox
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install swig
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install python-virtualenv
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install mesa-utils
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install python-imaging
history.log:Commandline: apt-get purge mesa-utils
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install golang
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install libgl1-mesa-dev
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install libegl1-mesa-dev
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install ffmpeg
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install libgbm-dev
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install ltrace
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install stress
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install i2c-tools
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install libgles2-mesa-dev
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install python3-pygments
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install python-pygments
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install tig
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get dist-upgrade
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install apt-rdepends
history.log.1:Commandline: apt autoremove
history.log.1:Commandline: apt-get install git libeigen3-dev cmake wiringpi libboost-all-dev libasound2-dev libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install mesa-utils-extra
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install avahi-utils
history.log:Commandline: apt install vim
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install libegl1-mesa-drivers
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install netpbm
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install libnetpbm10-dev
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install valgrind
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install python3-pil
history.log:Commandline: apt-get install python3-numpy

(more to come...)