Orange Pi Zero
I had the chance a while back to get my hands on some orange pi zeros and I am very
enamoured with them. I currently have about 15 of them. They run FreeBSD perfectly,
run Linux perfectly, and several other O/S. I got mine used for about $8 each. Now,
they do not have an hdmi out, so ssh into the devices is the only way to manage them,
but most servers that is what we do anyway. These are not for desktop/video applications.
But for a server they rock. I am running a phone system, a file server, a plex server,
a firewall, etc on them. Performance is at least as good as a pi3. Here are the specs:
|
| |
|---|---|
| CPU | H3 Quad-core Cortex-A7 H.265/HEVC 1080P. |
| GPU | • Mali400MP2 GPU @600MHz • Supports OpenGL ES 2.0 |
| Memory (SDRAM) | 256MB/512MB DDR3 SDRAM(Share with GPU)(256MB version is Standard version) |
| Onboard Storage | TF card (Max. 32GB)/ 2MB Spi Flash |
| Onboard Network | 10/100M Ethernet RJ45 POE is default off. |
| Onboard WiFi | XR819, IEEE 802.11 b/g/n |
| Audio Input | MIC(via 13 pins external board ) |
| Video Outputs | AV OUT(via 13 pins external board) |
| Power Source | USB OTG can supply power |
| Low-level peripherals | • 26 Pins Header, • 13 Pins Header, with 2x USB, IR pin, AUDIO(MIC, AV) |
| LED | Power led & Status led |
| Supported OS | Android, Lubuntu, Debian, FreeBSD |
Interface definition | |
| Product size | 48 mm × 46mm |
| Weight | 26g |
So it is a quad core with at least 256 Meg of memory. Not a bad little low power usage server. So now let us talk about specifics of how to configure one of them.
Linux install for Orange Pi Zero
If you want linux on one of these, go to the orange pi website,
Orange Pi Software Downloads
and they have ARCH linux along with a droid version.
FreeBSD install for Orange Pi Zero
There are no pre-rolled images for the orange pi and FreeBSD, but rolling your own is quite easy ONCE someone shows you the secrets. First you need the arm version of FreeBSD. Go to the following download page for freebsd and get the arm7 image. FreeBSD Download page
Burn the image to the sd card for the orange pi, 8 GB is my recommended minimum. Use dd, Etcher, etc, whatever you normally burn images to thumb drives and sd cards. Now you have the base image ready, now you need some uboot love. Uboot is like the boot loader that then boots the arm image. You need a freebsd machine for this step. Go into /usr/ports/sysutils/u-boot-orangepi-zero-plus. The instructions to build and write the image resulting to the sd card are in that directory. Here is a link to the port page for it:
u-boot-orangepi-zero-plus
The README for this port says:
U-Boot loader for OrangePi Zero Plus.
To install this bootloader on an sdcard just do :
dd if=$LOCALBASE/share/u-boot/u-boot-orangepi-zero-plus/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/path/to/sdcarddevice bs=128k seek=1 conv=sync
This version is patched so that:
* API features are enabled.
* A boot.scr (U-Boot script) that loads ubldr.bin and execute it is included
For information about running FreeBSD on Allwinner boards, see
https://wiki.freebsd.org/FreeBSD/arm/Allwinner
Now these instructions should work for any version of orange pi, just find the correct u-boot port for your device. There are several to choose from.
Now put the sd card in and boot. After a few seconds you should see the green light on the pi turn on. Go to your router and see what ip address it gives out for the device. Once you have the ip then ssh into the device and use the super secret passwords. freebsd/freebsd and the admin account is root/root. Need I have to tell you to change those ASAP????? Once you are logged into them they are just like any other freebsd device on the planet. Use pkg to start installing packages. These devices will even run jails if you want to get fancy. Go to bastillebsd.org if you want to learn about jails.