Getting Started with BPI-M4 Berry

Banana Pi BPI-M4 Berry H618 design

Banana Pi BPI-M2 Berry A40i-H design

Banana Pi BPI-M2 Pro S905x3 design

Banana Pi BPI-M2S Amlogic A311D/S922 chip

Banana Pi BPI-M5 with S905x3 design

development

Linux

Prepare

1. Linux image support SDcard or EMMC bootup, but you should read the [Boot_Sequence boot sequence] at first.

2. It’s recommended to use A1 rated cards, 8GB at least.

3. Make sure bootable EMMC is formatted if you want bootup from SDcard.

4. Make sure SDcard is formatted without Linux image flashed if you want bootup from EMMC and use Sdcard as storage.

5. Download latest [Linux Linux Image], and confirm that the md5 checksum is correct.

6. Default login: pi/bananapi or root/bananapi

7. The wiki guide is only for [bananapi 4.9 bsp ubuntu/debian images].

Install Image to SDcard

1. Install Image with Balena Etcher on Windows, Linux and MacOS.

Balena Etcher is an opensource GUI flash tool by Balena, Flash OS images to SDcard or USB drive.

2. Install Image with Balena Cli on Windows, Linux and MacOS.

Balena CLI is a Command Line Interface for balenaCloud or openBalena. It can be used to flash linux image. Download the installer or standalone package from balena-io and install it correctly to your PC, then you can use the "local flash" command option of balena to flash a linux image to sdcard or usb drive.

 $ sudo balena local flash path/to/xxx-bpi-m4-berry-xxx.img.zip
 $ sudo balena local flash path/to/xxx-bpi-m4-berry-xxx.img.zip --drive /dev/disk2
 $ sudo balena local flash path/to/xxx-bpi-m4-berry-xxx.img.zip --drive /dev/disk2 --yes

3. Install Image with dd command on Linux, umount SDcard device /dev/sdX partition if mounted automatically. Actually bpi-copy is the same as this dd command.

 $ sudo apt-get install pv unzip
 $ sudo unzip -p xxx-bpi-m4-berry-xxx.img.zip | pv | dd of=/dev/sdX bs=10M status=noxfer

4. Install image with bpi-tools on Linux, plug SDcard to Linux PC and run

 $ sudo apt-get install pv unzip
 $ sudo bpi-copy xxx-bpi-m4-berry-xxx.img.zip /dev/sdX

DTB overlay

1. DTB overlay is used for 40pin gpios multi-function configuration and install in vfat boot partition, you can check the mount point with mount command.

 root@bananapi:~# ls /boot/overlays/
 custom_ir.dtbo      pwm_b-backlight.dtbo  spi0.dtbo
 ds3231.dtbo         pwm_c-beeper.dtbo     uart1_cts_rts.dtbo
 hifi_pcm5102a.dtbo  pwm_cd-c.dtbo         uart1.dtbo
 hifi_pcm5122.dtbo   pwm_cd.dtbo           uart2.dtbo
 i2c0.dtbo           pwm_ef.dtbo           waveshare_tft24_lcd.dtbo
 i2c1.dtbo           pwm_ef-f.dtbo         waveshare_tft35c_lcd.dtbo
 pwm_ab.dtbo         sdio.dtbo             waveshare_tft35c_rtp.dtbo

2. Update the overlays env in vfat /boot/boot.ini to enable what you want. Default i2c0, spi0 and uart1 enabled.

 # Overlays to load
 # Example combinations:
 #   spi0 i2c0 i2c1 uart0
 #   hktft32
 #   hktft35
 setenv overlays "i2c0 spi0 uart1"

3. Must be restart the board for overlay dtb loaded.

WiringPi

Note: This WiringPi only support set 40pin gpio to output, input or software pwm, for io functions as i2c, spi, pwm..., you must enable dtb overlay in boot.ini

1. Build and install wiringPi, for debian, you must install sudo before build

 $ sudo apt-get update
 $ sudo apt-get install build-essential git
 $ git clone https://github.com/BPI-SINOVOIP/amlogic-wiringPi
 $ cd amlogic-wiringPi
 $ chmod a+x build
 $ sudo ./build

2. Run gpio readall to show all 40pins status.

3. BPI GPIO Extend board and examples in amlogic-wiringPi/examples

blinkall, blink all pin header gpios, no extend board.

lcd-bpi, BPI LCD 1602 display module example.

52pi-bpi, BPI OLED Display Module example.

matrixled-bpi, BPI RGB LED Matrix Expansion Module example.

berryclip-bpi, BPI BerryClip Module

RPi.GPIO

Build and install, for debian, you must install sudo before build

 $ sudo apt-get update
 $ sudo apt-get install build-essential python3 python3-pip python3-dev python3-setuptools git
 $ git clone https://github.com/Dangku/RPi.GPIO-Amlogic.git
 $ cd RPi.GPIO-Amlogic
 $ sudo python3 setup.py clean --all
 $ sudo python3 setup.py install

Create and install wheel package

 $ sudo python3 setup.py bdist_wheel
 $ sudo pip3 install dist/RPi.GPIO-XXX.whl

Install from git source directly without development

 $ sudo pip3 install git+https://github.com/Dangku/RPi.GPIO-Amlogic.git

If the package is already installed, it should be uninstalled before installing the new one, or installing the new one with --force-reinstall option.

WiringPi2-Python

Build and install, for debian, you must install sudo before build

 $ sudo apt-get update
 $ sudo apt-get install build-essential python3 python3-dev python3-setuptools swig git
 $ git clone --recursive  https://github.com/Dangku/WiringPi2-Python-Amlogic.git
 $ cd WiringPi2-Python-Amlogic
 $ sudo python3 setup.py install

Luma.Examples

luma.examples use GPIO.BCM gpio mode default, so you should map 40pin header pins to bcm gpio number and connect the hardware correctly.

1. build and install RPi.GPIO

 $ sudo apt-get update
 $ sudo apt-get install build-essential python3 python3-dev python3-setuptools git
 $ git clone https://github.com/Dangku/RPi.GPIO-Amlogic.git
 $ cd RPi.GPIO-Amlogic
 $ sudo python3 setup.py clean --all
 $ sudo python3 setup.py install

you can change the bcmledpin variable in test/led.py to your hardware backlight gpio and run it to check RPi.GPIO works well.

 $ sudo python3 test/led.py

hardware backlight will repeat on and off

2. luma.examples libs install

 $ sudo usermod -a -G i2c,spi,gpio pi

if group does not exist, the following command will create it:

 $ sudo groupadd --system xxx

 $ sudo apt-get install python3-dev python3-pip libfreetype6-dev libjpeg-dev build-essential
 $ sudo apt-get install libsdl-dev libportmidi-dev libsdl-ttf2.0-dev libsdl-mixer1.2-dev libsdl-image1.2-dev
 $ git clone https://github.com/rm-hull/luma.examples.git
 $ cd luma.examples

install luma.core, luma.emulator, luma.lcd, luma.le-matrix, luma.oled pip libs, make sure this step without error or downloading interrupted, try again if get errors

 $ sudo -H pip install -e .

or

 $ sudo -H pip3 install -e .

for debian buster(python 3.7) which does not include /usr/bin/pip in package python3-pip, and will get the following errors when install luma packages with pip3

 ...
 WARNING, No "Setup" File Exists, Running "buildconfig/config.py"
 Using UNIX configuration...
 
 /bin/sh: 1: sdl2-config: not found
 /bin/sh: 1: sdl2-config: not found
 /bin/sh: 1: sdl2-config: not found
 ...

install sdl2 related packages to fix this issue, then install luma libs again with pip3

 $ sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev libsdl2-ttf-dev libsdl2-mixer-dev libsdl2-image-dev
 $ sudo -H pip3 install -e .

check installed luma pip libs

 $ pip3 list | grep luma
   
   luma.core          2.4.0
   luma.emulator      1.4.0
   luma.lcd           2.10.0
   luma.led-matrix    1.7.0
   luma.oled          3.11.0

3. examples test

Enable i2c or spi overlays before running test examples

 $ cd examples
 $ sudo python3 bounce.py --config ../conf/ili9341.conf

Other Development

Enable sudo for Debian

The release Debian image do not install sudo default, with "su -" command, user can change to root. If you like sudo, you can install it.

 $ su root
 Password:(enter bananapi)
 
 # apt-get update
 # apt-get install sudo
 # adduser pi sudo

Then please do logout and login again