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<p>So I've decided to write this little guide because of how much I've suffered
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to get this to work, and how absolutely broken the MACCHIATObin documentation
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is. Actually, just their website in general is broken. Marvell, please get your
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act together with your website. It's not as if you're modifying it all that
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often, so stop breaking things.</p>
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<p>With that out of the way, let's get to business.</p>
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<h3>Requirements</h3>
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<p>Aside from the MACCHIATObin itself (which I believe should be fairly
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obvious), you're also going to want the following:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>SD card (maybe a few)</li>
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<li>USB storage device</li>
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<li>USB to micro-USB cable</li>
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<li>12V power supply</li>
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<li>ATX power supply</li>
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<li>Graphics card (I'm using the NVidia GT 710)</li>
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<li>Hard drive</li>
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<li>SATA cable</li>
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<li>Monitor</li>
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<li>USB keyboard</li>
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</ul>
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<h3>Prepare ArchLinuxARM U-Boot SD Card</h3>
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<p>It's very possible you'll run into issues later when installing UEFI onto the
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SPI, so it's good to have an SD card that you can boot from, so as to have
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access to a prompt. For this, I suggest going through the entire U-Boot install
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instructions provided by ArchLinuxARM.<sup><a href="#r1" >[1]</a></sup> I also
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suggest paying attention to the DIP switch or jumper settings, and pay attention
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to which are for SD card and SPI boot. This should appear on the board, and in
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the ArchLinuxARM documentation it shows the settings for SD card boot, but I'll
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repeat both here:</p>
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<table>
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<thead>
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<tr>
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<th></th>
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<th colspan="6">Switches/Jumpers</th>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<th>Boot Type</th>
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<th>1</th>
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<th>2</th>
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<th>3</th>
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<th>4</th>
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<th>5</th>
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<th>6</th>
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</tr>
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</thead>
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<tbody>
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<tr>
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<td>SD Card</td>
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<td>OFF</td>
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<td>ON</td>
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<td>ON</td>
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<td>ON</td>
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<td>OFF</td>
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<td>ON</td>
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</tr>
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<tr>
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<td>SPI</td>
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<td>OFF</td>
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<td>OFF</td>
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<td>OFF</td>
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<td>ON</td>
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<td>ON</td>
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<td>OFF</td>
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</tr>
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</tbody>
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</table>
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<p>Use this as a guide for whenever I refer to booting from SD card or from the
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SPI.</p>
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<h3>Install UEFI on SPI</h3>
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<p>The documentation for this can properly be found on the Solid Run Developer
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Center<sup><a href="#r2" >[2]</a></sup>, but I'll be repeating here, mostly
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because I've had issues with a few of the options.</p>
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<p>Firstly, regarding the different options for obtaining a flash image, I'll
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just say that I've tried the docker image, and I've tried compiling natively on
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the MACCHIATObin, but both of these ran into issues. The docker image ran into a
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syntax error<sup><a href="#r3" >[3]</a></sup> and the native build had some
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issues when running Python tests, namely with
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<code>codec.lookup('ucs-2')</code>, saying it couldn't find the codec.
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Ultimately both errors are Python problems. Coincidence? I think not! But I'll
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forget about my disliking of Python for now and get on with this guide.</p>
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<p>So really, the best option is to use the pre-built binary, which is SPI
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specific.<sup><a href="#r4" >[4]</a></sup> Once you have this, you're gonna want
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to save it to the USB storage device using a FAT32 formatted partition. If
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you're reading this sort of guide you should already know how to format a USB
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storage device, but I'll remind you that you don't only have to format the
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partition with <code>mkfs.vfat -F 32 <partition></code>, but you actually
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also have to set the partition type to FAT32 when creating the partition with
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<code>fdisk</code> (or similar tools). I say this because I forgot to do this,
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and wasted some time here.</p>
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<p>Once you have this done, copy the image binary onto the newly formatted
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storage device. You can either keep the name of <code>uefi-mcbin-spi.bin</code>
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or you can change it to <code>flash-image.bin</code>, which is the filename used
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in the Solid Run documentation for flashing to SPI from U-Boot. Your choice,
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just make sure to take it into consideration. I'll use
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<code>uefi-mcbin-spi.bin</code> since that's what I used anyways.</p>
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<p>Now that this is done, it's time to flash the image to the SPI. To do this,
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insert the USB storage device into the USB 3.0 slot on the MACCHIATObin, and
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insert the SD card with ArchLinuxARM (and U-Boot) into the SD card slot. Set the
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jumpers to boot from the SD card. Connect to the MACCHIATObin via serial USB.
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Finally, boot the machine and make sure to interrupt the boot process (when
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prompted) to enter the U-Boot console. From here, we'll be running the
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instructions for installing an image to the SPI Flash via U-Boot found in the
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documentation,<sup><a href="#r5" >[5]</a></sup> modifying, of course, for the
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filename:</p>
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2021-11-16 16:48:14 +00:00
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<code><pre>
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usb start
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load usb 0:1 $kernel_addr_r uefi-mcbin-spi.bin
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sf probe
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sf write $kernel_addr_r 0 0x$filesize
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</pre></code>
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<p>To test to see if this has worked, turn off the MACCHIATObin, switch the
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jumpers to boot from SPI, and check to see if you get a UEFI prompt. This should
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appear not only if you start up in a serial console, but also on a screen if you
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have everything hooked up with the graphics card. If you do see a prompt, then
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all has worked as expected. If you don't, try doing this process a few more
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times. It gave me some weird errors the first few times I tried, and then
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magically it started working after what must've been the third time.</p>
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<h3>Installing ArchLinuxARM</h3>
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<p>I wanted to note that I have uploaded a video to Odysee demonstrating how to
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do this step.<sup><a href="#r10" >[10]</a></sup></p>
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<h4>Preparing the Installation Media</h4>
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<p>Since we're going for a desktop setup, the ideal is to install the entire OS
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onto a hard drive connected via one of the SATA ports. The issue here isn't so
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much the installation itself, but the live OS used to install it. The reason is
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that ArchLinuxARM does not currently provide images, much less images configured
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for UEFI boot. If the SD card we've used earlier provides access to an internet
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connection as well as to the hard drive you wish to install on, then use that.
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If not, you'll have to get a live image of some other distribution to boot from
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that supports UEFI and can access the hard drive. In my case, I used the Debian
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ARM64 image (<em>not netinst!</em>).<sup><a href="#r6" >[6]</a></sup> Since it
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is an installation media, I had to install it from a USB stick onto a SD card
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to finally work from the SD card to install ArchLinuxARM to the hard drive.</p>
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<p>Regardless of the image you choose to use, make sure you can install the Arch
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Install Scripts (usually <code>arch-install-scripts</code>), as it's going to
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make your life easier to use <code>genfstab</code> and
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<code>arch-chroot</code>.</p>
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<h4>Installation & Configuration</h4>
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<p>If you're familiar with the installation process of normal ArchLinux (amd64)
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or some other more manual installation process, such as Gentoo, then from this
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point on everything should be quite familiar. First, partition the hard drive
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with the partitions you want and format them; then mount the partitions in the
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structure you want (e.g. home partition mounted as <code>/mnt/home</code>);
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finally we populate the filesystem with the files we want. Whereas the ArchLinux
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Installation Guide tells us to use <code>pacstrap</code>, it doesn't make much
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sense for us to use this. So instead, we'll be using the tarball provided by
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ArchLinuxARM for aarch64 platforms.<sup><a href="#r7" >[7]</a></sup> Simply
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extract the tarball over the mounted root directory to populate everything. This
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step replaces <code>pacstrap</code>. After this you can basically follow the
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ArchLinux Installation Guide<sup><a href="#r8" >[8]</a></sup> The only step that
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will be different is when we install our boot loader.</p>
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<h4>Installing the Boot Loader (GRUB)</h4>
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<p>This step has a small trick to it. The process is for the most part exactly
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the same as what is described in the instructions found on the
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ArchWiki,<sup><a href="#r9" >[9]</a></sup> with an extra step right before
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running the <code>grub-mkconfig</code> command.</p>
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<p>If you try running <code>grub-mkconfig</code>, you'll notice that it doesn't
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create any entries for the OS we've just installed. This is because the kernel
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in ArchLinuxARM uses the filename <code>Image</code>, which the image finder of
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<code>grub-mkconfig</code> doesn't recognize. As you can imagine, this can be
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solved by just making a simple symbolic link to the kernel file with a filename
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that is recognized. In my case, I simply created a link named
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<code>vmlinuz-linux</code> as appears on my x86_64 machine:</p>
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2021-11-16 16:48:14 +00:00
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<code><pre>
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cd /boot
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ln -s Image vmlinuz-linux
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</pre></code>
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<h3>Reboot</h3>
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<p>At this point, the OS should be properly installed, and you should be able to
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reboot the machine into ArchLinuxARM from UEFI on your MACCHIATObin. Do make
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sure to remove whatever live media you were using for the installation.</p>
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<p>Happy hacking!</p>
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<h3>References</h3>
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<ol class="refs" >
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<li id="r1" >
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<a href="https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/marvell/macchiatobin"
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target="_blank" >
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MACCHIATObin - Arch Linux ARM
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</a>
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</li>
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<li id="r2" >
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<a href="https://developer.solid-run.com/knowledge-base/armada-8040-uefi/"
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target="_blank" >
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Armada 8040 UEFI - Solid Run
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</a>
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</li>
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<li id="r3" >
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<a href="https://github.com/Josua-SR/boot-builder/issues/1"
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target="_blank" >
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Syntax Error when Fetching Sources for UEFI Build - Issue #1 -
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Josua-SR/boot-builder - GitHub
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</a>
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</li>
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<li id="r4" >
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<a href="https://images.solid-run.com/8040/UEFI"
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target="_blank" >
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SolidRun Images: 8040/UEFI
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</a>
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</li>
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<li id="r5" >
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<a href="https://developer.solid-run.com/knowledge-base/armada-8040-machiatobin-u-boot-and-atf/#to-spi-flash"
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target="_blank" >
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Armada 8040 U-Boot and ATF: to SPI Flash - Solid Run
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</a>
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</li>
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<li id="r6" >
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<a href="https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/arm64/iso-dvd/"
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target="_blank" >
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Index of /debian-cd/current/arm64/iso-dvd
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</a>
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</li>
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<li id="r7" >
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<a href="https://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv8/generic"
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target="_blank" >
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Generic AArch64 Installation
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</a>
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</li>
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<li id="r8" >
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<a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/installation_guide"
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target="_blank" >
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Installation guide - ArchWiki
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</a>
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</li>
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<li id="r9" >
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<a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB#UEFI_systems"
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target="_blank" >
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GRUB: UEFI systems - ArchWiki
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</a>
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</li>
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2021-09-06 13:13:07 +00:00
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<li id="r10" >
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<a href="https://odysee.com/@nortega:7/creating-an-archlinuxarm-uefi-bootable-device:c?r=9yQ7qWBPvX2ofwhQe1dHpXXZuevgFeSp"
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target="_blank" >
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"Creating an ArchLinuxARM UEFI Bootable Device" on Odysee
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</a>
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</li>
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</ol>
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