IOT-GATE-iMX8 and SBC-IOT-iMX8: Debian Linux: Installation

Introduction

This article provides instructions needed to install the Debian Linux live image on the IOT-GATE-iMX8 / SBC-IOT-iMX8 device, using a Linux Host workstation and a USB flash drive. The image includes Linux kernel, device driver modules, and Debian root filesystem.

This installation process requires U-Boot version 3.2 or above. Before proceeding check the U-Boot version on your device and update as needed.

Preparation steps

• Obtain a Linux PC workstation.
• Obtain a USB flash drive. Any commercially available USB flash drive of 1GB (or larger) may be used for the installation.
• Download the IOT-GATE-iMX8 and SBC-IOT-iMX8 Debian Linux package from CompuLab website.
• Unzip the package to a directory on the host workstation.
• The Debian Linux live image file, mentioned below, can be found in the images subdirectory.
• Plug the USB flash drive into the host PC. From now we assume the device name of the flash drive on your Linux PC is /dev/sdX.

Installation

• Flash the image file to the USB flash drive:

xzcat ~/path/to/iot-gate-imx8-debian-linux/images/debian.iot-gate-imx8.live-img.xz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdX bs=1M

Run Debian Linux image

• Insert the USB flash drive into one of the USB ports.
• Connect a standard USB cable (included in the kit) between your host PC and the IOT-GATE-iMX8/SBC-IOT-iMX8 Debug console connector. (see drawing)

Use a terminal emulator as described here

• Power-on the system.
• The system will automatically boot the live disk image from the USB flash drive.

Installing Debian images onto the internal storage

Please use the `CompuLab Deployment Tool` to install the IOT-GATE-iMX8 / SBC-IOT-iMX8 Debian Linux onto on-board eMMC storage.
The `CompuLab Deployment Tool` is a shell script that allows to deploy a working OS image from USB flash drive to the IOT-GATE-iMX8 / SBC-IOT-iMX8 on-board storage (eMMC).

Follow the step-by-step procedure for a selected image:

• In the terminal window issue, root privilege is needed (sudu):

root@iot-gate-imx8:~# cl-deploy

• Follow the steps below:

Action	Screenshot
Use the space bar key to select the installation target storage /dev/mmcblk2	Select a destination device ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Available Devices: │ │ ┌────────────────────────────────────┐ │ │ │ ( ) /dev/mmcblk1 │ │ │ │ (*) /dev/mmcblk2 │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ └────────────────────────────────────┘ │ ├────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ < OK > <Cancel> │ └────────────────────────────────────────┘
Be aware of the fact that all the data on the target storage will be erased	Start Deployment ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌─────────────── WARNING ───────────────┐ │ Src: /dev/sda -> Dst: /dev/mmcblk2 │ │ │ │ All data on /dev/mmcblk2 will be │ │ destroyed │ │ │ │ │ │ │ ├────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ < Yes > < No > │ └────────────────────────────────────────┘
While installation process is running the output screen shows the log and progress	Allocating group tables: done Writing inode tables: done Creating journal (4096 blocks): done Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done [ 1074.510952] EXT4-fs (mmcblk2p1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) [ 1074.617588] EXT4-fs (sda1): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null) [ /dev/sda1 => /dev/mmcblk2p1 ]: 17.9MiB 0:00:01 [17.8MiB/s] [         <=>         ]
When installation is complete, the following message will show up	Finished with success ──────────────────────────────────────────────────── ┌────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Boot media has been deployed on │ │ /dev/mmcblk2 │ │ │ │ Would you like to reboot the device │ │ now? │ │ │ │ │ ├────────────────────────────────────────┤ │ < Yes > < No > │ └────────────────────────────────────────┘

Post installation

• Power-off the system.
• Remove the USB flash drive from the unit.
• Power-on the system.