How to customize keyboard, time zone?

keyboard:

dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

system language:

# Debian --> https://wiki.debian.org/ChangeLanguage
dpkg-reconfigure locales
# Ubuntu --> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Locale
update-locale LANG=[options] && dpkg-reconfigure locales

console font, codepage:

dpkg-reconfigure console-setup

time zone:

dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

screen settings on H3 devices:

# Example to set resolution to 1920 x 1080, full colour-range and DVI
h3disp -m 1080p60 -d -c 1

screen resolution on other boards:

nano /boot/boot.cmd 

# example:
# change example from 
# disp.screen0_output_mode=1920x1080p60 
# to 
# disp.screen0_output_mode=1280x720p60

mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr	

screen resolution interactive - only Allwinner boards with A10 and A20 with legacy kernel:

# Example to set console framebuffer resolution to 1280 x 720
a10disp changehdmimodeforce 4

Other modes:

0 480i
1 576i
2 480p
3 576p
4 720p 50Hz
5 720p 60Hz
6 1080i 50 Hz
7 1080i 60 Hz
8 1080p 24 Hz
9 1080p 50 Hz
10 1080p 60 Hz

How to alter CPU frequency?

Some boards allow to adjust CPU speed.

nano /etc/default/cpufrequtils

Alter min_speed or max_speed variable.

service cpufrequtils restart

How to upgrade into simple desktop environment?

apt-get -y install xorg lightdm xfce4 tango-icon-theme gnome-icon-theme
reboot

Check this site for others and be prepared that some desktop image features currently might not work afterwards (eg. 2D/3D/video HW acceleration, so downgrading a desktop image, removing the libxfce4util-common package and doing an apt-get autoremove later might be the better idea in such cases)

How to upgrade Debian from Wheezy to Jessie?

dpkg -r ramlog	
cp /etc/apt/sources.list{,.bak}
sed -i -e 's/ \(old-stable\|wheezy\)/ jessie/ig' /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-get update
apt-get --download-only dist-upgrade
apt-get dist-upgrade

How to upgrade from Ubuntu Trusty to Xenial?

apt-get install update-manager-core
do-release-upgrade -d
# further to xenial
apt-get dist-upgrade

How to toggle boot output?

Edit and change boot parameters in /boot/boot.cmd:

- console=ttyS0,115200
+ console=tty1

and convert it to boot.scr with this command:

mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr

Reboot.

Serial console on imx6 boards are ttymxc0 (Hummingboard, Cubox-i) or ttymxc1 (Udoo).

How to toogle verbose boot?

touch /boot/.force-verbose # enable

You need to reboot to conduct changes.

rm /boot/.force-verbose # disable

How to provide boot logs for inspection?

When computer behaves strange first step is to look into kernel logs. We made a tool that grabs info and paste it to the website.

sudo armbianmonitor -b
reboot
sudo armbianmonitor -u  

Copy and past URL of your log to the forum, mail, ...

How to change network configuration?

There are five predefined configurations, you can find them in those files:

/etc/network/interfaces.default
/etc/network/interfaces.hostapd	
/etc/network/interfaces.bonding
/etc/network/interfaces.r1
/etc/network/interfaces.r1switch

By default /etc/network/interfaces is symlinked to /etc/network/interfaces.default

1. DEFAULT: your network adapters are connected classical way.
2. HOSTAPD: your network adapters are bridged together and bridge is connected to the network. This allows you to have your AP connected directly to your router.
3. BONDING: your network adapters are bonded in fail safe / "notebook" way.
4. Router configuration for Lamobo R1 / Banana R1.
5. Switch configuration for Lamobo R1 / Banana R1.

You can switch configuration with re-linking.

cd /etc/network
ln -sf interfaces.x interfaces

(x = default,hostapd,bonding,r1)

Than check / alter your interfaces:

nano /etc/network/interfaces