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?
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:
- build a kernel with at least these config options enabled: linux/config · main · Reform / reform-debian-packages · GitLab
- have these patches applied: linux/patches · main · Reform / reform-debian-packages · GitLab
- use this device tree: linux/imx8mq-mnt-reform2.dts · main · Reform / reform-debian-packages · GitLab
- boot with these kernel arguments:
no_console_suspend cma=512M pci=nomsi console=ttymxc0,115200 console=ttymxc0,115200 console=tty1 - load these modules in your initramfs:
pwm_imx27,nwl-dsi,ti-sn65dsi86,imx-dcss,panel-edp,mux-mmio,mxsfb,usbhid,imx8mq-interconnect - put the
imx8m-ddrcandraid456modules on a blocklist to prevent them from getting loaded
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Awesome overview, thanks @josch!
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?