linux-helios4

Unofficial PKGBUILD for creating an Arch Linux ARM kernel package for the Helios4 NAS.

What is Helios4?

Helios4 is an powerful Open Source and Open Hardware Network Attached Storage (NAS) made by Kobol Innovations Pte. Ltd. It harnesses its processing capabilities from the ARMADA 38x-MicroSoM from SolidRun, an ARMv7 32-bit SoC.

Why make a specific Linux package for Helios4? Couldn’t I use the official linux-armv7 package?

You could use the official linux-armv7 PKGBUILD, but some features could not work as expected.

Actually, the PKGBUILD provided by this repository is based on the linux-armv7 package. It contains the following additional patches which are initially provided by the Kobol Team for Armbian, and are not merged to the upstream kernel yet:

• 91-01-libata-add-ledtrig-support.patch and 91-02-Enable-ATA-port-LED-trigger.patch: add support for LED trigger on disk activity
• 92-mvebu-gpio-remove-hardcoded-timer-assignment.patch: allows to make the second fan detected by the kernel.
• 94-helios4-dts-add-wake-on-lan-support.patch: add Wake-on-LAN support for Helios4.

Future goal is also to provide a Linux kernel optimizely configured for Helios4.

Are there prebuilt packages ready to install?

Look at releases.

Known bugs

• LEDs do not light up on disk access. (fixed since 4.20.12-1)

TODO

• clean PKGBUILD
• use a kernel configuration file optimized for Helios4
• remove useless patches provided by the linux-armv7 PKGBUILD

Thanks

Thanks to:

• the Kobol Team for this great piece of Open Hardware that is Helios4 NAS
• Aditya from the Kobol Team for his valuable help on explaining various patches and configuration files
• Summers from the Arch Linux ARM forum for his precious advices and encouraging responses