Power consumption of Cubietruck out of the box measured at 2 W, or 0.03 A @ 121.6 V AC. Probably only accurate +/-1 W, or maybe more.
Load bootloaders and filesystem image onto microSD card, based on http://docs.cubieboard.org/zh/tutorials/ct1/installation/install_lubuntu_desktop_server_to_sd_card
card=/dev/sde
➜ ~ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=${card} bs=1024 seek=544 count=128
128+0 records in
128+0 records out
131072 bytes (131 kB) copied, 0.023906 s, 5.5 MB/s
➜ ~ sudo dd if=u-boot-sunxi-with-spl-ct-20131102.bin of=$card bs=1024 seek=8
254+1 records in
254+1 records out
260260 bytes (260 kB) copied, 0.0230326 s, 11.3 MB/s
➜ ~ sudo fdisk /dev/sde
In fdisk, delete existing partition, then add two new partitions.
Command (m for help): d
Selected partition 1
Command (m for help): n
Partition type:
p primary (0 primary, 0 extended, 4 free)
e extended
Select (default p): p
Partition number (1-4, default 1): 1
First sector (2048-7626751, default 2048): 2048
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (2048-7626751, default 7626751): 133119
Command (m for help): n
Partition type:
p primary (1 primary, 0 extended, 3 free)
e extended
Select (default p):
Using default response p
Partition number (1-4, default 2): 2
First sector (133120-7626751, default 133120): 133120
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (133120-7626751, default 7626751):
Using default value 7626751
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/sde: 3904 MB, 3904897024 bytes
100 heads, 35 sectors/track, 2179 cylinders, total 7626752 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 2048 133119 65536 83 Linux
/dev/sde2 133120 7626751 3746816 83 Linux
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
WARNING: Re-reading the partition table failed with error 16: Device or resource busy.
The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at
the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8)
Syncing disks.
Strangely, despite the warning message, the fdisk stuff above seems to have worked.
After more fiddling (new microSD card, following the rest of the tutorial), it boots.
Connected to serial console with USB FTDI adapter to UART0 with three wires.
screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200
Some info for reference.
root@cubietruck:~# ps auxc
USER PID %CPU %MEM VSZ RSS TTY STAT START TIME COMMAND
root 1 0.1 0.0 2624 1584 ? Ss 20:53 0:05 init
root 2 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 kthreadd
root 3 0.1 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:05 ksoftirqd/0
root 5 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 kworker/u:0
root 6 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 migration/0
root 7 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 migration/1
root 8 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 kworker/1:0
root 9 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:01 ksoftirqd/1
root 10 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 cpuset
root 11 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 khelper
root 12 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 kdevtmpfs
root 13 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 netns
root 14 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 sync_supers
root 15 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 bdi-default
root 16 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 kintegrityd
root 17 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 kblockd
root 18 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 khubd
root 19 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 cpufreq_uevent
root 21 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 cfg80211
root 22 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? D 20:53 0:00 usb-hardware-sc
root 23 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 kfantasy
root 24 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 rpciod
root 25 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 kswapd0
root 26 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? SN 20:53 0:00 ksmd
root 27 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 fsnotify_mark
root 28 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 nfsiod
root 29 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 cifsiod
root 30 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 crypto
root 44 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 kworker/1:1
root 45 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 nandd
root 46 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 nfmtd
root 47 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 scsi_eh_0
root 49 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 kworker/u:2
root 56 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 kmpathd
root 57 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 kmpath_handlerd
root 58 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 cfinteractive
root 59 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 binder
root 60 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 codec_resume
root 61 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:01 hdmi proc
root 62 0.1 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:07 mmcqd/0
root 63 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 deferwq
root 64 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 20:53 0:00 jbd2/mmcblk0p2-
root 65 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 ext4-dio-unwrit
root 149 0.0 0.0 2068 716 ? S 20:53 0:00 upstart-udev-br
root 162 0.0 0.0 2264 1080 ? Ss 20:53 0:00 udevd
102 168 0.0 0.0 2524 1000 ? Ss 20:53 0:00 dbus-daemon
syslog 180 0.0 0.0 30284 1420 ? Sl 20:53 0:00 rsyslogd
root 246 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S< 20:53 0:00 mali-pmm-wq
root 315 0.0 0.0 1904 448 ? S 20:53 0:00 upstart-socket-
root 362 0.0 0.1 4092 2040 ? Ss 20:53 0:00 dhclient
root 403 0.0 0.2 20136 5320 ? Ssl 20:53 0:00 NetworkManager
root 409 0.0 0.1 24216 2976 ? Sl 20:53 0:00 polkitd
root 1636 0.0 0.1 5004 2008 ? Ss 20:57 0:00 sshd
root 1856 0.0 0.0 1792 696 tty4 Ss+ 20:58 0:00 getty
root 1858 0.0 0.0 1792 696 tty5 Ss+ 20:58 0:00 getty
root 1861 0.0 0.0 3280 1484 ttyS0 Ss 20:58 0:00 login
root 1870 0.0 0.0 1792 696 tty2 Ss+ 20:58 0:00 getty
root 1871 0.0 0.0 1792 696 tty3 Ss+ 20:58 0:00 getty
root 1874 0.0 0.0 1792 696 tty6 Ss+ 20:58 0:00 getty
root 1879 0.0 0.0 1844 760 ? Ss 20:58 0:00 cron
root 1917 0.0 0.0 2260 684 ? S 20:58 0:00 udevd
root 1919 0.0 0.0 2260 680 ? S 20:58 0:00 udevd
root 1922 0.0 0.1 28348 3264 ? Sl 20:58 0:00 console-kit-dae
root 1924 0.0 0.0 3280 1488 tty1 Ss 20:58 0:00 login
root 2013 0.0 0.0 2564 1468 ttyS0 S 20:58 0:00 bash
root 2014 0.0 0.0 2564 1460 tty1 S+ 20:58 0:00 bash
root 2083 0.2 0.0 0 0 ? S 21:03 0:10 kworker/0:1
root 2214 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 21:52 0:00 kworker/0:2
root 2217 0.0 0.0 0 0 ? S 22:01 0:00 flush-179:0
root 2219 0.0 0.0 2468 872 ttyS0 R+ 22:01 0:00 ps
root@cubietruck:~# ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 9a:8e:9b:fd:4a:38
inet addr:192.168.1.112 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: fe80::988e:9bff:fefd:4a38/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:3504 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1025 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:332826 (332.8 KB) TX bytes:56620 (56.6 KB)
Interrupt:117 Base address:0x8000
lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:16 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1184 (1.1 KB) TX bytes:1184 (1.1 KB)
root@cubietruck:~# lsmod
Module Size Used by
mali 111175 0
ump 52335 1 mali
lcd 3794 0
sunxi_gmac 30907 0
pwm_sunxi 9251 0
Adding SSH server
root@cubietruck:~# sudo apt-get update
Ign http://ports.ubuntu.com quantal InRelease
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal InRelease
Hit http://ports.ubuntu.com quantal Release.gpg
Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal Release.gpg [316 B]
Hit http://ports.ubuntu.com quantal Release
Get:2 http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal Release [11.9 kB]
Hit http://ports.ubuntu.com quantal/main Sources
Get:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal/main Sources [19.0 kB]
Hit http://ports.ubuntu.com quantal/universe Sources
Hit http://ports.ubuntu.com quantal/main armhf Packages
Hit http://ports.ubuntu.com quantal/universe armhf Packages
Get:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal/main armhf Packages [42.6 kB]
Hit http://ports.ubuntu.com quantal/main Translation-en
Hit http://ports.ubuntu.com quantal/universe Translation-en
Ign http://ppa.launchpad.net quantal/main Translation-en
Fetched 73.8 kB in 3s (23.2 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Ah, it's already installed. Just need a symbolic link in /etc/rc5.d
root@cubietruck:/etc/rc5.d# ln -s ../init.d/ssh S60ssh
root@cubietruck:/etc/rc5.d# ls -l
total 4
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 677 Jul 21 2012 README
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Nov 29 22:21 S60ssh -> ../init.d/ssh
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 Apr 22 2013 S75sudo -> ../init.d/sudo
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Apr 22 2013 S99ondemand -> ../init.d/ondemand
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 18 Apr 22 2013 S99rc.local -> ../init.d/rc.local
Cubietruck default password with Lubuntu card 1.00 image: linaro/linaro
ssh linaro@192.168.1.112
linaro@192.168.1.112's password:
(6 months later) Tried to add SSD. The FTDI connection was flaky-- ~10% of characters were corrupted, and boot seemed to hang partway through. Hmmmm.