How to customize keyboard, time zone?¶

Attention:¶

The preferred method to change most of this stuff is by using the interactive armbian-config tool which is shipped with all Armbian images.

Keyboard:¶

dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

System language:¶

# Debian --> https://wiki.debian.org/ChangeLanguage
dpkg-reconfigure locales
# Ubuntu --> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Locale
update-locale LANG=[options] && dpkg-reconfigure locales

Console font, codepage:¶

dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

Time zone:¶

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Screen resolution on other boards:¶

nano /boot/boot.cmd

# example:
# change example from 
# disp.screen0_output_mode=1920x1080p60 
# to 
# disp.screen0_output_mode=1280x720p60

mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr

Screen resolution within Xorg _{Thx @maxlinux2000}¶

Find matching HDMI output:
    xrandr --listmonitors 
Calculate VESA CVT mode lines (example for 1440x900)
    cvt 1440 900
Sample output: 
    1440x900 59.89 Hz (CVT 1.30MA) hsync: 55.93 kHz; pclk: 106.50 MHz
    Modeline "1440x900_60.00"  106.50  1440 1528 1672 1904  900 903 909 934 -hsync +vsync ) 
Create new mode (example):
    xrandr --newmode "1440x900_60.00" 106.50 1440 1528 1672 1904 900 903 909 934 -hsync +vsync 
Add resolution (example):
    xrandr --addmode HDMI-1 1440x900_60.00 
Set current resolution (example):
    xrandr --output HDMI-1 --mode 1440x900_60.00

If it works as expected add it to Xorg by editing
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/40-monitor.conf
add (example)
    Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "HDMI-1"
    Modeline "1440x900_60.00" 106.50 1440 1528 1672 1904 900 903 909 934 -hsync +vsync
    Option "PreferredMode" "1440x900"
    EndSection

Restart Xorg or reboot

How to alter CPU frequency?¶

Some boards allow to adjust CPU speed

nano /etc/default/cpufrequtils

Alter min_speed or max_speed variable.

service cpufrequtils restart

How to downgrade a package via apt?¶

This is useful when you need to fall back to previous kernel version.

apt install linux-image-sun8i=5.13

This example is for H3 legacy kernel. Check this page for others.

How to toggle boot output?¶

Edit and change boot parameters in /boot/boot.cmd (not recommended) or variables in /boot/armbianEnv.txt:

- console=both
+ console=serial

Recompile boot.cmd to boot.scr if it was changed:

mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr

Reboot.

Serial console on imx6 boards are ttymxc0 (Hummingboard, Cubox-i) or ttymxc1 (Udoo).

How to toggle verbose boot?¶

Using Armbian 5.05 to 5.20 you would need to touch/rm /boot/.force-verbose to increase boot verbosity. With more recent Armbian builds you would have to alter the verbosity= line in /boot/armbianEnv.txt (defaults to 1 which means less verbose, maximum value is 7).

How to provide boot logs for inspection?¶

When your SBC behaves strange first step is to check power supply and integrity of boot media (armbianmonitor -c "$HOME"). Then look into your kernel logs. We made a tool that grabs info and pastes it to an online pasteboard service. Please increase boot verbosity as shown above (verbosity=7), reboot and then run

sudo armbianmonitor -u

Copy and past URL of your log to the forum, mail, …

How to change network configuration?¶

To get Wi-Fi working simply use nmtui, a simple console based UI for network-manager (an example how to set up an AP with network-manager can be found here). To deal with different Ethernet/Wi-Fi combinations there are six predefined configurations available, you can find them in those files:

/etc/network/interfaces.bonding
/etc/network/interfaces.default
/etc/network/interfaces.hostapd
/etc/network/interfaces.network-manager
/etc/network/interfaces.r1
/etc/network/interfaces.r1switch

By default /etc/network/interfaces is a copy of /etc/network/interfaces.default

BONDING: your network adapters are bonded in fail safe / “notebook” way.
DEFAULT: your network adapters are connected classical way.
HOSTAPD: your network adapters are bridged together and bridge is connected to the network. This allows you to have your AP connected directly to your router.
All interfaces are handled by network-manager (nmtui/nmcli or using the GUI)
Router configuration for Lamobo R1 / Banana R1.
Switch configuration for Lamobo R1 / Banana R1.

You can switch configuration with copying.

cd /etc/network
cp interfaces.x interfaces

(x = default,hostapd,bonding,r1)

Then check / alter your interfaces:

nano /etc/network/interfaces