SEEED reTerminal

Flash Image

Get rpiboot

Before you can mount (and flash) the reTerminal from your desktop, you need to obtain and compile a helper called rpiboot. Here’s how-to do that:

cd ~/
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/raspberrypi/usbboot
cd usbboot
sudo apt install libusb-1.0-0-dev
make

You should now have the executable rpiboot at ~/usbboot/rpiboot.

Download OS Image

Download and extract the OS image:

cd ~/
wget https://temp.pantherx.org/1pyaw9ds5hh4ajzg9wi46d0vxxk58bzq-reterminal-core-image.xz
xz --decompress 1pyaw9ds5hh4ajzg9wi46d0vxxk58bzq-reterminal-core-image.xz

Switch reTerminal to boot mode

Open the back of reTerminal, remove heat sink and toggle the boot switch beside the CM4 board.

Plugin & mount

Plugin the USB-C cable and mount the reTerminal internal eMMC on your desktop using the following command (run in ~/usbboot folder):

# usbboot folder on PC updating reTerminal
$ sudo ./rpiboot
RPIBOOT: build-date Feb 24 2022 version 20220208~181027
Waiting for BCM2835/6/7/2711...
Loading embedded: bootcode4.bin
Sending bootcode.bin
Successful read 4 bytes
Waiting for BCM2835/6/7/2711...
Loading embedded: bootcode4.bin
Second stage boot server
Loading embedded: start4.elf
File read: start4.elf
Second stage boot server done

Double-check that the reTerminal eMMC is mounted using lsblk. It should look something like this (29.1G):

$ lsblk
NAME          MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINTS
sda             8:16   1  29.1G  0 disk           <-------- This is what we're looking for "sda" or "sdb" or ...
├─sda1          8:17   1   256M  0 part  /media/someuser/boot
└─sda2          8:18   1   3.6G  0 part  /media/someuser/rootfs
nvme0n1       259:0    0 953.9G  0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1   259:1    0   549M  0 part  /boot/efi
└─nvme0n1p2   259:2    0 953.3G  0 part
  └─cryptroot 253:0    0 953.3G  0 crypt /var/lib/docker
                                         /gnu/store
                                         /

The reTerminal eMMC should now be mounted on the desktop.

Before flashing, unmount these drives:

# Note: If your OS does not automatically mount USB drives, this might not be necessary
umount /media/someuser/boot
umount /media/someuser/rootfs

# FOR EXAMPLE
umount /media/max/boot
umount /media/max/rootfs

Flash image

Proceed to flash the new OS to the eMMC with:

cd ~/
# Note /dev/sda; the "sda" comes from the previous step
sudo dd if=1pyaw9ds5hh4ajzg9wi46d0vxxk58bzq-reterminal-core-image of=/dev/sda status=progress
sudo sync

After completion, make sure none of the partitions are mounted and remove the USB-C cable.

You can confirm the drive is unmounted:

NAME          MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINTS
sda             8:0    1     0B  0 disk        <-------- note: no more sda1, sda2 (or sdb, sdc, ..)
nvme0n1       259:0    0 953.9G  0 disk
├─nvme0n1p1   259:1    0   549M  0 part  /boot/efi
└─nvme0n1p2   259:2    0 953.3G  0 part
...

Switch boot mode

Toggle the firmware switch on the CM4 board in the other direction.

First boot

On initial boot, the OS will automatically:

Expand the disk partition to fill all available space
Create a SWAP file

This might take 2-3 minutes, so wait a moment before you start using the device.

Credentials:

Username: panther
Password: pantherx

Configuration example

To reconfigure your image, use the following configuration examples as reference.

Create / update the configuration at /etc/system.scm
Run px reconfigure as root

Server Configuration

Replace ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1...............ydPg panther with your SSH key

(use-modules (gnu)
             (gnu bootloader)
             (px bootloader u-boot)
             (px packages linux)
             (px services desktop)
             (px system config)
             (px system raspberry)
             (px hardware raspberrypi))

(px-server-os
 (operating-system
  (host-name "test-core")
  (timezone "Europe/Berlin")
  (locale "en_US.utf8")

  (bootloader (bootloader-configuration
               (bootloader u-boot-rpi-arm64-bootloader)
               (targets '("/dev/vda"))
               (device-tree-support? #f)))

  (kernel linux-raspberry-5.15)
  (kernel-arguments (cons "cgroup_enable=memory"
                          %default-kernel-arguments))
  (kernel-loadable-modules %reterminal-kernel-modules)
  (initrd-modules '())

  (file-systems (cons* (file-system
                        (device (file-system-label "BOOT"))
                        (mount-point "/boot/firmware")
                        (type "vfat"))
                       (file-system
                        (device (file-system-label "RASPIROOT"))
                        (mount-point "/")
                        (type "ext4"))
                       %base-file-systems))

  (users (cons (user-account
                (name "panther")
                (group "users") 
                (password (crypt "pantherx" "$6$abc"))
                (supplementary-groups '("wheel" "audio" "video"))
                (home-directory "/home/panther"))
               %base-user-accounts))

  (services (cons* (service disk-init-service-type
                            (disk-init-configuration
                             (device "/dev/mmcblk0")
                             (index "2")
                             (target "/dev/mmcblk0p2")
                             (swap-size "4G")))
                   %px-server-services)))

 #:kernel 'custom
 #:open-ports '(("tcp" "22"))
 #:authorized-keys `(("root" ,(plain-file "test.pub"
                                                         "ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1...............ydPg panther")))
 #:templates (list %raspberry-pi-4-template
                   %seeed-reterminal-template))

Usage

Before you can update and reconfigure the system, create a system configuration at /etc/system.scm.

To update the image, login as root, and run:

px update apply

The image is still a work in progress and pre-built packages are not always available; Your initial update might easily take an hour or longer.

To update your system configuration after changing /etc/system.scm run:

px reconfigure