Odroid C4

[jomoengineer]

Yeah, looking at the Odoid forums, it looks like the Ubuntu 20.04 image is not ready for prime time on the C4:
https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?p=290824

"Known issues:
1. You can not install and run on Ubuntu 20.04 from Micro SD yet since the mainline kernel for ODROID-C4 does not support it.
2. Another couple of commands are required to finish the installation when Ubuntu 20.04 Gnome Desktop is installed. This will enable Wayland ARM Mali driver and audio output to HDMI. "

Looks like I'll have to bone up for a emmc card as well on this one.

Oh, note, with the SD card boot, running 'sudo apt-get upgrade' renders the image non bootable and has to be reflashed.

[Brian Beuken]

Yeah, looking at the Odoid forums, it looks like the Ubuntu 20.04 image is not ready for prime time on the C4:
https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?p=290824

"Known issues:
1. You can not install and run on Ubuntu 20.04 from Micro SD yet since the mainline kernel for ODROID-C4 does not support it.
2. Another couple of commands are required to finish the installation when Ubuntu 20.04 Gnome Desktop is installed. This will enable Wayland ARM Mali driver and audio output to HDMI. "

Looks like I'll have to bone up for a emmc card as well on this one.

Oh, note, with the SD card boot, running 'sudo apt-get upgrade' renders the image non bootable and has to be reflashed.

yeah I found that happened with Armbian

[Brian Beuken]

ok, got my eMMC with unbuntu 20.04 on board, and case, and its all working just fine, no GPU drivers though, and it seems this version of the OS does not have the reps to install the wayland based drivers... it reported no found when I tried to apt install. So I've decided to leave it for now, I don't really want to destroy the maker supplied version to install the user version with drivers. (though if its not done in a month or so I might)

But despite the lack of drivers its working perfectly, quite fast, gets rather hot though, might need to think about a fan in the case.. I will update it every week or so and see if drivers come along, I suspect they will since they are out there in the wild and just need a bit of translating.

Fast little machine though, even without drivers it managed a fair attempt at GLmark2, but I won't post the numbers yet as they are still far below what they will be.

[jomoengineer]

If you follow the video I provided the link for, they show how to get Ubuntu minimal on the board and install the Wayland drivers. This did not work with the uSD card so I still need to get a emmc card.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MfHMKcH...=emb_title

This is what I grabbed from the video:

Get a minimal image
ppa.linuxfactory.or.kr/images/raw/arm64/focal
Get: ubuntu-20.04-minimal-odroidc4-20200421.img.xz

Burn to emmc via Etcher:

Install Ubuntu Desktop
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop

Wayland GPU driver
$ sudo apt-get
$ sudo apt install mali-bifrost-wayland-driver

Install GLmark2 Es2 for Wayland
$ sudo apt install glmark2-es2-wayland
$ glmark2-es2-wayland

[Brian Beuken]

yeah I don't want to burn over the supplied OS from Hardkernal just yet, i'll give it a month or 2, to see if HK themselves bring the drivers online and see what it can do.

[jomoengineer]

I finally got a 32Gb eMMC card for the C4 ( found they do not support boot from sd card on this board) and after messing up the loaded Mate OS, I installed the Ubuntu 20.04 5.7.0 Kernel image from the YouTube video. The image is quite minimal so I had to mess with it a bit to get what I needed install.
http://ppa.linuxfactory.or.kr/images/raw/arm64/focal/

I just used the one list in the video notes which is frm May 2020: ubuntu-20.04-server-odroidc4-20200501.img.xz.

One thing to note, the images from Hardkernel are running with 4.9 kernels so I had to get the one from linuxfactory site as the link shows to get a 5.x kernel when is required to load the Wayland driver. It will not load on the 4.9 kernel images.

I was able to install the mali-bifrost-wayland-driver and use the Wayland login for the Desktop to run a proper glmark2 test.  It ran fine for a bit with some numbers in the 700++ FPS, but then crashed at the end with an overall glmark2 score of 400.  I'm not sure what the issue is, but will send a note to the folks who manage the image.

Hopefully I can put this to good use now.

[Brian Beuken]

good to know, but I am at a loss why the makers of the mighty XU4 have not recognised the importance of putting a fully matured OS with correct graphic drivers in place on their next generation system. TheXU4 is still far ahead of their current systems becuase of the bad drivers...

Oh well, we keep checking and hoping

[jomoengineer]

Yeah. I guess I spoke too soon. The image that is used in the Wayland example is not an official Hardkernel image who only have 4.9 images listed on their site. The image I got from the Video ended up being a 5.7 kernel but was unstable and not only was the glmark2 script crashing, so was the Ubuntu Desktop that was installed in the process. I tried a full-upgrade which put it at a 5.10 kernel, the latest from the folks that created the image, but this required having to remove and reinstall the wayland driver. After this, the glmark2 numbers were half of what they were with the 5.7 kernel. Plus it just kept creating crashes under /var/crash, so I reimaged the eMMC with a current Ubuntu Mate image from Hardkernel and it appears to be working better now. However, since the Hardkernel images are 4.9, I can not run the Wayland driver which requires a 5.x kernel.

A bit frustrating and just a waste a time that could have been used on something more productive.

I'll have to consider a XU4 at some point.