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Debian 12 Installation Guide for iMX8MM, iMX8MP, iMX8MN and iMX93

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Debian 12 Installation Guide for iMX8MM, iMX8MP, iMX8MN and iMX93

Debian 12 Installation Guide for iMX8MM, iMX8MP, iMX8MN and iMX93

Debian is a free to use and redistribute Linux distribution that is widely used by the community for industrial and desktop applications. 

This distribution started in 1993 as Debian Project with Ian Murdock inviting developers to contribute in one of the first Linux distributions. 

Debian takes an important role in Linux world with a clear idea about be a full featured and free distribution with over than 59,000 packages provided as a free to use and distribute that supports a wide range of functionalities. 

Currently, Debian 12 supports 9 architectures which makes it in a universal operating system that can be implemented in embedded systems, desktops or servers. 

Finally, Debian has been an inspiration for well-known Linux distributions such as Kali and Ubuntu. 

In this guide we will check the installation process of Debian 12 for NXP microprocessors i.MX family, specifically for i.MX8M Mini, i.MX8M Nano, i.MX8M Plus and i.MX93. 

For this purpose, we divided the document in the following topics:

  • Hardware Requirements
  • Software Requirements
  • Host Preparation
  • SD Card Preparation
  • Copying Bootloader 
  • Copying Kernel and DTB files
  • Debian Installation
  • Configure Base System
  • Boot your target
  • References

 

Hardware Requirements

  • Linux Host computer (Ubuntu 20.04 or later)
  • USB Card reader or Micro SD to SD adapter
  • SD Card
  • Evaluation Kit Board for the i.MX8M Nano, i.MX8M Mini, i.MX8M Plus or i.MX93

 

Software Requirements

 

Host Preparation

For Debian installation we will require some specific packages for host. 

You can download the packages using the following command:

$ sudo apt install debian-archive-keyring debootstrap qemu-user-static

We must validate the key to verify the archive using the command:

$ sudo apt-key add /usr/share/keyrings/debian-archive-keyring.gpg

If running an older release you need to get the unstable keyring package (because the version in your release is probably too old to have the current key)

$ wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/d/debian-archive-keyring/debian-archive-keyring_2023.4_all.deb

$ sudo dpkg -i debian-archive-keyring_2023.4_all.deb

 

SD Card Preparation

The Linux kernel running on the Linux host assigns a device node to the SD/MMC card reader. The kernel might decide the device node name or udev rules might be used. In the following instructions, it is assumed that udev is not used.

To identify the device node assigned to the SD/MMC card, carry out the following command:

$ cat /proc/partitions

 

Partitioning the SD card

On most Linux host operating systems, the SD card is mounted automatically upon insertion. Therefore, before running fdisk, make sure that the SD card is unmounted if it was previously mounted (through sudo umount /dev/sdx).

Start by running fdisk with root permissions. Use the instructions above to determine the card ID. We are using sdx as an example.

$ sudo fdisk /dev/sdx

 Type the following parameters (each followed by <ENTER>):

$fdisk: p  # lists the current partitions

$fdisk: d  # to delete existing partitions. Repeat this until no unnecessary

partitions

$fdisk: n # create a new partition

$fdisk: p # create a primary partition - use for both partitions

$fdisk: 1 # the first partition

$fdisk: 20480 # starting at offset sector

$fdisk: 1024000 # ending position of the first partition to be used for the boot

Images

$fdisk: p  # to check the partitions

$fdisk: n # create a new partition

$fdisk: p # create a primary partition

$fdisk: 2 # the second partition

$fdisk: 1228800 # starting at offset sector, which leaves enough space for the kernel, the bootloader and its configuration data

$fdisk: <enter> # using the default value will create a partition that extends to

the last sector of the media

$fdisk: p # to check the partitions

$fdisk: w # this writes the partition table to the media and fdisk exits

 

Copying Bootloader and Kernel

In this section we will copy the bootloader and kernel image to SD card. 

First, we can create a new directory to unzip the BSP downloaded from the NXP site. 

$ mkdir debian-imx

$ cd debian-imx

$ unzip ~/Downloads/LF_v6.1.55-2.2.0_images_<board>.zip

Where board is:

IMX8MPEVK

IMX8MNEVK

IMX8MMEVK

IMX93EVK

Then, copy the U-Boot image.

$ sudo dd if=<U-Boot_image> of=/dev/sdx bs=1k seek=<offset> conv=fsync

Where offset is:

  • 33 - for i.MX 8M Mini
  • 32 - for i.MX 8M Nano, i.MX 8M Plus, and i.MX 9

The sectors of SD/eMMC before the “offset” KB are reserved. It may include the partition table.

 

Copying Kernel image and DTB files

This section describes how to load the kernel image and DTB. The pre-built SD card image uses the VFAT partition for storing kernel image and DTB, which requires a VFAT partition that is mounted as a Linux drive, and the files are copied into it. This is the preferred method.

Default: VFAT partition

  1. Format partition 1 on the card as VFAT with this command:
$ sudo mkfs.vfat /dev/sdx1
  1. Mount the formatted partition with this command:
$ mkdir mountpoint

$ sudo mount /dev/sdx1 mountpoint
  1. Copy the zImage and *.dtb files to the mountpoint by using cp. The device tree names should match
$ sudo cp *.dtb mountpoint/

$sudo cp Image-<board_name>.bin mountpoint/Image

Where board_name is:

imx8mpevk

imx8mnevk

imx8mmevk

imx93evk

the one used by the variable specified by U-Boot. Unmount the partition with this command:

$ sudo umount mountpoint

 

Debian Installation

For Debian installation we will use the official tool debootstrap. This tool allows us to install Debian without a disk and run the system using qemu in a different architecture. 

Before using debootstrap tool we need to format and mount the second partition of the SD card with the commands below:

$ sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdx2

$ sudo mount /dev/sdx2 mountpoint/

debootstrap can download the needed files directly from the archive when you run it. You can substitute any Debian archive mirror for http.us.debian.org/debian in the command below, preferably a mirror close to you network-wise. Mirrors are listed at http://www.debian.org/mirror/list

$ sudo debootstrap --arch arm64 --foreign bookworm mountpoint/ http://ftp.debian.org/debian

This step takes a while and depends on the resources of your host machine.

 

Configure Base System

Now you’ve got a real Debian system, though rather lean, on disk. chroot into it:

$ sudo cp /usr/bin/qemu-aarch64-static mountpoint/usr/bin

$ sudo LANG=C.UTF-8 chroot mountpoint/ qemu-aarch64-static /bin/bash

After chrooting you may need to set the terminal definition to be compatible with the Debian base system, for example:

$ export TERM=xterm-color

we need to finish the multi-stage boot strap

$ /debootstrap/debootstrap --second-stage

At this point /dev/ only contains very basic device files. For the next steps of the installation, additional device files may be needed. There are different ways to go about this and which method you should use depends on the host system you are using for the installation, whether you intend to use a modular kernel or not, and whether you want to use dynamic (e.g. using udev) or static device files for the new system.

A few of the available options are:

  • install the makedev package, and create a default set of static device files using (after chrooting)
$ apt install makedev

$ mount none /proc -t proc

$ cd /dev

$ MAKEDEV generic

With these next steps we will be setting up the Debian system:

 

Setting fstab

FSTAB is a configuration table designed to ease the burden of mounting and unmounting file systems to a machine.

$ nano /etc/fstab
# stock fstab - you probably want to override this with a machine specific one
 
/dev/root            /                    auto       defaults              1  1
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0  0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,ptmxmode=0666,gid=5      0  0
tmpfs                /run                 tmpfs      mode=0755,nodev,nosuid,strictatime 0  0
tmpfs                /var/volatile        tmpfs      defaults              0  0
 
# uncomment this if your device has a SD/MMC/Transflash slot
#/dev/mmcblk0p1       /media/card          auto       defaults,sync,noauto  0  0

 

Setting Timezone

The following command allows you to choose your timezone.

$ dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

 

Configure apt

Debootstrap will have created a very basic /etc/apt/sources.list that will allow installing additional packages. However, you may want to add some additional sources, for example for source packages and security updates:

$ nano /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main non-free-firmware

deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main non-free-firmware


deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main non-free-firmware

deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ bookworm-security main non-free-firmware


deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main non-free-firmware

deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main non-free-firmware

Make sure to run the apt update after you have made changes to the sources list

 

Configure locales and keyboard

To configure your locale settings to use a language other than English, install the locales support package and

configure it. Currently, the use of UTF-8 locales is recommended.

$ apt install locales

$ dpkg-reconfigure locales

To configure your keyboard (if needed):

$ apt install console-setup

$ dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

Note that the keyboard cannot be set while in the chroot, but will be configured for the next reboot

 

Adding Users

$ apt install sudo

$ adduser imx

$ usermod -aG sudo imx

$ nano /etc/sudoers  
imx ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

 

Tasksel Installation

As mentioned earlier, the installed system will be very basic. If you would like to make the system a bit more mature, there is an easy method to install all packages with “standard” priority:

$ tasksel install standard

$ apt clean

$ exit

$ sudo umount mountpoint/

$sync

 

Boot your target

Now, you can boot your target from your SD Card. (Review your specific target documentation)

 

Configure Networking (after booting target)

Based on Debian official documentation for new systems the common names for network interfaces such as eth0 or wlan0 are not used. Therefore, we will need to list the interfaces using:

$ ls /sys/class/net

To have ethernet connection we will need to create a file in the path etc/network/.

$ sudo nano etc/network/interfaces

Type the following commands on the file:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback
auto end0
iface end0 inet dhcp

 

Install Neofetch (Optional)

$ apt install neofetch

 

Outputs 

  • Debian 12 running on i.MX8MP
Chavira_0-1716918686370.png
  • Debian 12 running on i.MX93
Chavira_1-1716918697721.png

 

References

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Version history
Last update:
‎05-30-2024 06:49 PM
Updated by:
NXP TechSupport