Install Ubuntu on the Allwinner Nezha D1

The Nezha D1 is a RISC-V based SBC.

Using the pre-installed server image

  1. Download one of the supported images:

  2. Flash the pre-installed server image to an SD card (see Flash images to a microSD card)

  3. Insert the SD card into the board

  4. Optionally connect a USB UART adapter to the UART on the GPIO header (see UART Console and Connect to a UART console)

  5. Power on the board

  6. Be patient for HDMI output; early boot is only available on the UART console and the board’s performance means that HDMI output may not appear for a few minutes

  7. Wait for an output line confirming that cloud-init has finished running; this service is responsible for generating SSH keys, and creating the default user:

    [  291.932176] cloud-init[1282]: Cloud-init v. 22.3.4-0ubuntu1 finished at Thu, 20 Oct 2022 08:25:11 +0000. Datasource DataSourceNoCloud [seed=/var/lib/cloud/seed/nocloud-net][dsmode=net].  Up 291.79 seconds

  8. Login with the user ubuntu and the default password ubuntu; you will be asked to choose a new password

Cloud-init seed

Sample files for a cloud-init seed are present on the FAT partition labeled “CIDATA”. See Configure your board for headless use for more information.

UART Console

The UART is located on its own three-pin header labeled “DEBUG”, adjacent to the main GPIO header. The GND, RX, and TX pins are all separately labeled, and are from the point of view of the board. Assuming the typical coloring of USB to TTL serial adapters the following connections have to be made:

Board

Adapter

GND

GND, black

RX

TX, green

TX

RX, white

Do not connect the red 3.3 V wire.

Connect with the following settings (see Connect to a UART console):

  • 115200 baud

  • 8 data bits

  • no parity

  • 1 stop bit

  • no flow control

Limitations

  • Wifi/Bluetooth is not working: the wifi driver only available in the vendor kernel.

  • The Ethernet MAC address changes on every boot; this “feature” is described here along with the solutions to fix this in the section “Setting the MAC address”.

  • Shutdown fails.

  • The following kernel modules are used for reading from the SD card:

    • mmc-block

    • sunxi-mmc

    They must either be built into the kernel or must be included in the initial RAM disk via /etc/initramfs-tools/modules or via a file in /usr/share/initramfs-tools/modules.d/.