Arch Linux support for MNT Pocket Reform

MNT Pocket Reform
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Super excited for the release of the MNT Pocket Reform!

As a long time Arch Linux user, would love to see support for running Arch on the Pocket. Are the any plans to make that happen? Any place that package development is taking place?

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Other Linux distributions than Debian? Ubuntu?
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I have no idea about Arch but I’m maintaining the integration of the current patch set on top of the Debian linux kernel as well as the reform-system-image script and the reform-tools package. So I can tell you what is necessary to run Debian on the Reform which might help you to get Arch running on the reform.

@vimja got Gentoo running on the Reform and their experience might also be helpful: I packaged the kernel for Gentoo

@lord seems to be working on Arch support: Install Arch Linux ARM on MNT?

Essentially, to make a new distro boot on the reform you need to:

  1. build a kernel with at least these config options enabled: linux/config · main · Reform / reform-debian-packages · GitLab
  2. have these patches applied: linux/patches · main · Reform / reform-debian-packages · GitLab
  3. use this device tree: linux/imx8mq-mnt-reform2.dts · main · Reform / reform-debian-packages · GitLab
  4. boot with these kernel arguments: no_console_suspend cma=512M pci=nomsi console=ttymxc0,115200 console=ttymxc0,115200 console=tty1
  5. load these modules in your initramfs: pwm_imx27, nwl-dsi, ti-sn65dsi86, imx-dcss, panel-edp, mux-mmio, mxsfb, usbhid, imx8mq-interconnect
  6. put the imx8m-ddrc and raid456 modules on a blocklist to prevent them from getting loaded
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Awesome overview, thanks @josch!

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I’ve started preparing Arch Linux ARM support for the Pocket in this repo - GitHub - yuvadm/mnt-pocket-reform-arch: Arch Linux packages for the MNT Pocket Reform

Still WIP and will probably remain in that status for a while, until I get a device to actually test on.

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Has anybody managed to run Arch on a (Pocket) Reform?

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There’s an ongoing community effort to bootstrap a proper aarch64 port of Arch Linux ( Aarch64 | Arch Linux Ports ).

However, it currently targets only ARM v8.2+ and does not support baseline ARM v8, so the current Pocket Reform based on i.MX8M cannot support it. I will probably order the RK3588 upgrade soon so I can work on supporting the new hardware.

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@yuvadm I’ve been running Arch for the past 4 months or so. I tested the i.MX8M Plus and the A311D. I’ve got a Reform Next coming whenever those starting shipping, so while rk3588 support theoretically works, I can’t test it yet.

I’ve created a kernel build along with PKGBUILDs and a script to generate SD card images. See the releases for those images.

Currently the majority of work I’m focusing on is porting the reform-tools and a few kernel tweeks for the panel / charger. Let me know if you have questions.

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@stephano looks great and happy it works for you, just note it’s based off of the quasi-maintained ALARM project

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Correct, and good to point out. I’ve kept the kernel build very distro-agnostic, so once there is a proper aarch64 Arch filesystem that is supported upstream by Arch, it should be a drop-in replacement.