Quest for up-to-date Debian
Aug 14, 2020 12:40:18 GMT
Post by evfool on Aug 14, 2020 12:40:18 GMT
Unfortunately support for this device seems to have died a long time ago, but I have one I decided to use as a Media Center, as it should work for that, but I need recent Kodi and Hyperion, which is a challenge.
First I tried to use the DualOS Lubuntu 14.04+MarshMallow, and upgrade the Lubuntu, which works up to 16.04, but 18.04 breaks the Linux, and it doesn't start anymore, couldn't figure out why. So I gave up the DualOS, and went for a Debian (bullseye) testing as a target, here I'm describing the steps to get an up-to-date OS. As a prerequisite, I am on Linux, and I currently have the DualOS ROM on the geekbox, so the steps go from there, maybe someone else wants to have this lil'box updated too
Basic setup
- Flash the Debian Jessie XFCE image (from onedrive.live.com/?authkey=!AFr5FjilNqmzqsk&id=5842EE9E65C3FAF6!117&cid=5842EE9E65C3FAF6) using upgrade_tool from the github.com/geekboxzone/utils repository
- geekbox will restart, and boot into a usable XFCE desktop
- connect to a network, wired or wireless
Upgrade to Stretch
- start Terminal
- type `su` (password is geekbox)
- `apt update` won't work due to Debian arm64 repository changes and expired certificates, so need to fix that first:
- `mv /etc/apt/sources.list sources.list.bkp` to backup the current sourcelist
- `echo "deb [trusted=yes] archive.debian.org/debian jessie main contrib non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list` to create a new, working one
- `apt update` to get the package list (you will have a warning about expired keys, but it will work)
- `apt full-upgrade` to get the updates and install them
- `reboot` to see the system working, fully up-to-date
- start Terminal again
- type `su`
- `sed 's/jessie/stretch/g' sources.list.bkp > /etc/apt/sources.list` to have a correct source list for stretch
- `apt-get upgrade` (conflict to handle: lightdm.conf -> Y)
- `apt-get dist-upgrade` (conflict to handle sshd_config -> install the package maintainer version)
- `apt-get autoremove` to clean up obsolete packages
- `reboot` to start up the up-to-date stretch
Upgrade to Buster
- start Terminal
- `sed 's/stretch/buster/g' /etc/apt/sources.list` to change the sourcelist to buster
- `apt-get update` to refresh the packagelist
- `apt-get upgrade` to upgrade the packages
- `apt-get dist-upgrade` to upgrade the distribution (conflict to handle bash.bashrc -> Y)
- `reboot` to restart the device in the up-to-date buster debian desktop
Upgrade to Debian Testing
If you are adventurous enough, and you want to continue to the current testing release of debian, named BullsEye, one more update to go, otherwise skip to installing Kodi
- start Terminal
- `sed 's/buster/testing/g' /etc/apt/sources.list` to change the sourcelist to testing
- edit /etc/apt/sources.list to change the last two lines in /etc/apt/sources.list to match the following:
deb http://security.debian.org testing-security main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org testing-security main contrib non-free - `apt-get update` to update the packages
- `apt-get dist-upgrade` to update the distribution
Installing Kodi
- edit /etc/apt/sources.list to add `deb www.deb-multimedia.org testing main non-free line (or use buster instead of testing if you decided to remain with the stable buster version instead of the testing version)
- `apt-get update -oAcquire::AllowInsecureRepositories=true` to get the package lists
- `apt-get install deb-multimedia-keyring` to install the keys for the deb multimedia repository
- `apt-get install kodi kodi-x11` to install kodi
Unfortunately Kodi after a couple of minutes causes a system reboot, probably due to overheating, and has the same decoloration issue, as GDM and gnome shell had, probably due to some settings (I remember seeing somewhere an EGL_PLATFORM and some framebuffer settings, I need to investigate, and get back).
In the current state, it can be used as a small server, maybe automation, as GPIOs from landingship are accessible, spdif seems to be available, so also ok for a music server. I will in any case try to make an image with the current state so I don't have to redo this.
Some more notes:
gnome-shell 3.36 seemed to overheat the geekbox, so try that on your own risk (of course after installing gnome-core, and setting default to gdm3, then starting gdm - and gnome seems to be strangely coloured, blue is replaced with orange, and looks funky). installing sddm results in the boot breaking so I suggest that you don't do that either.
Conclusion
It is possible to update geekbox to a recent OS after some headache and a couple of hours, but it is only usable as a small server, probably due to GPU support, or too old GPU, etc.