T95mini - quadra - modified armbian supporting CAN bus

There are some Klipper users wanted to use the inexpensive T95mini TV box as a raspberry pi replacement. Mostly it works with availible firmware, but we were stopped with CAN bus support which is not enabled in the default armbian kernel.

TLDR:

So here we go, on a linux machine or VM, easy with debian minimal.

sudo apt-get -y install git
mkdir quadra
cd quadra
git clone https://github.com/armbian/build
cd build

Next, get the Quadra board patches by typing:

wget https://www.inovato.net/build/quadra-patches.zip
unzip quadra-patches

Confirm overwrites. Then start the build with:

sudo ./compile.sh

This will first prompt you that it can't update due to some of our patches:

Press enter to continue. Then go through the various screens as follows:

Select what to build: Generally, you will want "Full OS Image for flashing". Kernel Configuration: "Show a kernel configuration menu before compilation" Select the target board: You need to get to the "CSC" board list. Press the right arrow and hit enter. Then press the left arrow and hit enter again. Scroll down and select "aw-h6-tv". Select the target kernel branch: Hit enter to select the "current" branch. Select the target OS release package base: bullseye Select the target image type: "image with console interface", "Standard image with console interface" It will take some time to download and prepare needed packages, then some kernel questions may follow, choose the default option if unsure (enter). In the Kernel Configuration screen go to Networking support, CAN bus subsystem support and set ALL options to "M", also go throu all submenu. I think the "Geschwister Schneider UG interfaces" is the important one for Klipper with CAN boards. Save to .config. Just in case I attached the .config file and the patches if they are gone.

can-options

When you click "OK" your build will start. It will generally take 1-2 hours the first time depending on the speed of your computer. When it is done, you see:

quadra-build

At this point, your image is in output/images. You can flash this to a micro SD card with your favorite flash tool, such as HDDrawCopy. Then you insert this SD card into the Quadra (it is a small, almost invisible slot in front of the USB 3.0 connector on the side), and plug it in. After a minute or so, it will prompt you for the root password, ask you which shell you'd like to use, prompt for a username and password, and go through some steps to set the current locale. These steps are done just once.

IMPORTANT: Since Armbian doesn't known about the Quadra device, you must disable Armbian firmware updates. This will prevent it from getting new Linux kernels that don't support this hardware when you do "sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade". If you don't do this, your Ethernet and Wifi (at least) will stop functioning until you re-install.

To do this, type:

sudo armbian-config

Then select "System" (the first option), then "Freeze" (the second option), then select "Freeze". This will turn the background red to indicate you have disabled updates from the Armbian site (all other updates will continue).

Note: Because we disabled some default patches that break our builds, Armbian won't update as noted above. If you want to rebuild later, the easiest way is simply to create a new folder and start over. This will make sure you are using the latest build scripts.

For installation on the eMMC use as root:

armbian-install

After setting up the can0 interface and connecting USB can board (octopus in this case) we see sucess: can-up

‍For more informations visit inovato.

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