APT repo specifically for Vero 4k packages?

ZacWolf · 31 March 2017 02:43

Any chance of creating an APT repo specific for the various Vero boxes? For example, I just bought the Vero4k which is an amazing little box, but I’m having to build node js 7.8.0 from scratch because the binaries for arm64 from the nodejs website don’t work on the Vero 4k, and Debian isn’t managing deb packages for arm devices, so I can’t use the various nvm/n/instal.sh methods to install.

-Zac

sam_nazarko · 31 March 2017 03:51

There aren’t any plans to do this, because we are a Debian derivative and we want to stay relatively close to it. There’s also a lot of duplication of effort if we do this, and our focus is to provide a media centre with an expansive Debian system underneath.

Pick the armhf builds of Node and they will work fine without any issues. Let me know if you run in to any problems

ZacWolf · 31 March 2017 17:03

I just ended up building it from source. Wasn’t a big deal, but would be nice to have a repo with Vero specific debian builds since there are differences.

But then I guess building for a 64bit CPU is sort of meaningless with only 2GB of RAM on board?

sam_nazarko · 31 March 2017 17:18

There aren’t any differences.
If you pick the armhf build, it will run just fine without any problems.

You probably didn’t actually built it for arm64 if you used build-essential tools, as userland on Vero 4K is armhf.

ZacWolf · 31 March 2017 17:22

I used the instructions at:

github.com

nodejs/node/blob/main/BUILDING.md#building-nodejs-on-supported-platforms

# Building Node.js

Depending on what platform or features you need, the build process may
differ. After you've built a binary, running the
test suite to confirm that the binary works as intended is a good next step.

If you can reproduce a test failure, search for it in the
[Node.js issue tracker](https://github.com/nodejs/node/issues) or
file a new issue.

## Table of contents

* [Supported platforms](#supported-platforms)
  * [Input](#input)
  * [Strategy](#strategy)
  * [Platform list](#platform-list)
  * [Supported toolchains](#supported-toolchains)
  * [Official binary platforms and toolchains](#official-binary-platforms-and-toolchains)
    * [OpenSSL asm support](#openssl-asm-support)
  * [Previous versions of this document](#previous-versions-of-this-document)

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sam_nazarko · 31 March 2017 17:23

That would have built it for ARMv7, which would be identical to what you’d find in the official Node repositories. There’s little point us duplicating this effort: which is why we don’t provide a repository for it ourselves.

ZacWolf · 31 March 2017 17:26

Ok, stepping back I originally tried this:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_7.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Which failed, because it couldn’t find the architecture matching deb directory.

sam_nazarko · 31 March 2017 17:28

Probably just need to run setarch linux32 before running the command.

Or manually add the repository to /etc/apt/sources.list.

Sam

ZacWolf · 31 March 2017 17:33

Actually, it looks like they JUST ADDED an arm64 distro this morning at 7am. ha ha ha,

https://deb.nodesource.com/node_7.x/dists/jessie/

So I’m gonna test if it works as expected now. Sorry, I’m relearning linux after about a 15yr break!

-Zac

sam_nazarko · 31 March 2017 17:34

Cool!

But you don’t actually need an arm64 repository.
OSMC uses an armv7 repository on Vero 4K, only an aarch64 kernel. The decision was made because Jessie isn’t ready for ARM-64 yet (errata), and because we wanted to maintain compatibility with armhf which is more common.

ZacWolf · 31 March 2017 17:40

I was just going by the the errors I was receiving from the script: https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_7.x, that being that it couldn’t find “main/binary-arm64” entries in InRelease: https://deb.nodesource.com/node_7.x/dists/jessie/InRelease

…which are there now as of 7am this morning.

I did a make uninstall on my custom build from source, then re-ran the script above and it’s working perfectly now.

I was receiving the same errors with the nvm and n tools, so now I’m gonna get if they’ll work so I can have multiple versions installed.

sam_nazarko · 31 March 2017 18:09

It’s adding the wrong repository.
I would not recommend using the ARM64 version unless you know what you’re doing.

Just add the repository to sources.list and the APT key and the armv7 version will install without issues.