Flashing Debian on youyeetoo X1, adapting WiFi 6 AX200

Flashing Debian on youyeetoo X1, adapting WiFi 6 AX200, and MIPI-DSI screen integration

Debian GNU/Linux (abbreviated as Debian) is currently one of the world's largest non-commercial Linux distributions. It also serves as the foundation for other well-known distributions such as Ubuntu. Debian's origins can be traced back to 1993 when it was initially created by Ian Murdock. The latest version, Debian 12, was released in June 2023, codenamed "bookworm."

The youyeetoo X1 is an x86 architecture Single Board Computer (SBC) introduced by Shenzhen youyeetoo Technology. It is powered by the 11th generation Intel CPU N5105, capable of running full-featured versions of Windows and Linux. With features like low cost and high performance, it primarily targets the AIOT (AI + IoT) and automatic control markets. Despite its compact size (115*75mm), it boasts a rich set of interfaces, including 3 UART serial ports, 2 HDMI ports, 6 USB ports, 1 I2C, 1 SPI, and 5 GPIO ports commonly used in AIOT and IoT applications. Additionally, it supports a 7-inch MIPI touchscreen. Debian has been successfully adapted for the Intel x86/64 platform, including the ×6 architecture Flashing Debian on youyeetoo X1, adapting WiFi 6 AX200, and DSI screen integration.

Overview of the process of flashing Debian, adapting WiFi 6 AX200, and integrating the MIPI-DSI screen on the youyeetoo X1. If you have specific details or questions related to this process, feel free to ask!

Therefore, today, the author will guide everyone through the experience of running Debian on the youyeetoo X1.

Image retrieval

Debian's official website is https://www.debian.org/. Here, you can download the system image.

Here are two versions, one is CD, and the other is DVD. The former image file is smaller and contains fewer packages, so the graphical interface is not included and needs to be installed over the network after installing the system.. The latter is the opposite. Here, the author chooses the latter.

After downloading, you will get a file named "debian-12.2.0-amd64-DVD-1.iso".

System flashing.

Find the downloaded image, then use a flashing tool to write it to a USB drive. The recommended flashing tool is Rufus, as shown in the following image:

Select the image, and then choose the partition type, which refers to the partition type of the installation disk. You can use MBR or GPT. Afterward, click "Start" to begin flashing the image to the USB drive.

Then, insert the USB drive into one of the USB ports on the youyeetoo X1, and connect a keyboard. Power on the device, and after powering on, continuously press the delete key to enter the BIOS interface.

In the BIOS interface, use the left and right arrow keys to select the Boot menu. Then, use the + /

Then press F4 to save and exit. The device will restart, and after the restart, enter the Debian installation interface. As shown in the following image, choose Graphical Install for graphical installation.

Next is the configuration of language, keyboard layout, etc. Choose according to personal preferences; no need for extensive explanation. Then comes the network configuration. You can choose to connect to the internet or not at this stage.

Then comes the configuration of the hostname, username, and other settings; fill them according to personal preferences. There is also the configuration of the root user's password. If not configured, you can only obtain root privileges through the initial user using "sudo su."

Then comes the disk configuration. If there are no specific requirements, you can directly choose to use the entire disk.

Then select the disk. Here, there is EMMC on the board, and the installed USB drive; choose EMMC. If you have other storage devices, such as a hard drive, you can also choose the hard drive at this stage.

Then choose to install the system on a partition.

Choose to write the changes to the disk. Next, it will proceed with partitioning and installing the system.

Choose to write the changes to the disk. Next, it will proceed with partitioning and installing the system https://blog.csdn.net/ltmastergo/article/details/131061420.

It is also advisable to select SSH. This allows for remote login.

Next, wait for the installation to complete and the system to restart. Before restarting, remember to unplug the USB drive, or else the Debian installation program will start again.

System Experience

After restarting and entering the system, if you have connected a monitor, you can enter the desktop. Here, the author chose the Cinnamon desktop environment, and the desktop looks like this.

Since SSH is already installed, if you don't have a monitor, you can connect the device to the router using an Ethernet cable and SSH into it from a PC.

Analyzing, you can view some basic system information. CPU and memory information is as follows.

You can use lspci -k | grep -E 'VGA|Display' to check GPU information.

It can be seen that the driver used by this gpu is i915

Usage of Intel wifi6 AX200

The following introduces how to use the intel wifi6 AX200 module in the youyeetoo X1 debian environment.

First you need to install the AX200 module to the WiFi slot on the back of the board, as shown in the picture below, and install the antenna.

After installation, power on the device, and then enter the command lspci in the terminal. At this point, you should be able to see the AX200 device. If you can't find it, it may indicate a poor connection.

The Debian system uses a generic kernel, and hardware-related drivers are loaded in the form of modules. The driver for Intel wireless modules is called iwlwifi, and this driver is included in the system by default.

The AX200 requires firmware to operate, and this firmware needs to be downloaded each time, as it is not saved after a power loss. The iwlwifi driver can send firmware to the AX200 through the PCIe interface, and the firmware can be downloaded from the Linux-firmware Git repository. The download address is: https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/firmware/linux-firmware.git/tree/

By default, in the absence of firmware, execute: sudo dmesg | grep iwlwifi

You can see that the firmware required by the driver is named iwlwifi-cc-a0-72.ucode. Download this file and place it in /lib/firmware. Execute the following command to ensure that the file is placed correctly: Is -Il/lib/firmware/iwlwifi-cc-a0-72.ucode

After that, restart the system. Once logged in, execute the following command again: sudo dmesg | grep iwlwifi

At this point, execute the following command:

ip addr show

Now, if you have a graphical environment installed, you can simply choose the Wi-Fi hotspot in the user interface and connect to it.

Great! Now you should be able to use AX200 on Debian. If you have any further questions or if there's anything else you'd like assistance with, feel free to ask!

Utilization of MIPI-DSI Interface Touchscreen

youyeetoo X1 comes with a MIPI DSI interface, and currently, youyeetoo Technology provides a BIOS for a 7-inch MIPI DSI touchscreen. Updating the BIOS enables support for this screen. Refer to the following steps for the update process: https://wiki.youyeetoo.com/en/x1/FAQ/enter_bios

The display driver for Intel platforms is embedded in the BIOS. Therefore, updating the BIOS is sufficient, and the i915 driver in the system has the capability to retrieve display configurations from the BIOS without any additional modifications. After flashing the BIOS, reboot the system to enable the use of the MIPI DSI screen.

The touchscreen driver is 'goodix_ts, ' and currently, it is included in the mainline kernel. When installing the Debian system, these modules from the mainline kernel are also installed, and they are loaded during the boot process. You can confirm this by using the following command.

In the kernel dmesg log, you can find the following information.

It indicates that the system has successfully loaded the driver and recognized it as an input device.

Summary

This article introduces the process of installing Debian on the youyeetoo X1 and using the WiFi module AX200 and MIPIDS1 screen in Debian. Overall, the installation methods for these Linux distributions on X86 boards are similar. You just need to use a burning tool to write the image to a USB drive, then modify the BIOS settings and boot from the USB drive to start the installation. This process is relatively easier compared to ARM development boards. The youyeetoo X1 has strong expandability and can adapt to various commonly used WiFi modules available in the market. Using the same method, you can adapt to more advanced WiFi modules such as AX400 in Linux distributions. As for the touchscreen, as long as you find the appropriate BIOS and flash it, it can be supported. Modern Debian systems come with drivers for most touchscreen ICs.