Installing Freedombox on Le Potato

Background

I recently purchased a SBC named "Le Potato" -- the AML-S905X-CC from Libre Computer. Le Potato was developed and released a few years ago. From a hardware standpoint, the board seems solid, roughly analogous to a Raspberry Pi 3B+. From a software standpoint, Le Potato is less supported than the Raspberry Pi. I've cobbled together a few resources on the Internet and managed to install Freedombox on Le Potato.

Steps

Things you will need:

• Separate computer
• Le Potato
• Power cord for Le Potato
• Keyboard (USB)
• SD Card
• Thumb drive (USB)
• Monitor
• HDMI cable between Le Potato and Monitor

Install Debian

The first step is to install Debian. I installed Debian 11 (Bullseye) using the instructions provided in the Google slide presentation available here. Here's my quick summary of the steps to install Debian 11 from the presentation:

1. Using your separate computer, download the firmware for Le Potato here.
2. Decompress the firmware image using: xz -dk aml-s905x-cc.xzaml-s905x-cc-mbruefi.xz
3. Flash the decompressed firmware image to your SD Card
4. Using your separate computer, download a minimal network install Debian 11 image here.
5. Flash the Debian 11 image to your Thumb drive
6. Insert the SD Card into Le Potato and insert the Thumb drive into one of Le Potato's USB ports. Attach the power, keyboard, and monitor to Le Potato.
7. Power on Le Potato and boot into the Debian install menu.
8. Follow the prompts and the guidance in the Google slide presentation to install Debian onto the SD Card. Note that the normal install process will fail during the installation of Grub. You will have to follow the guidance to open a shell window and run distrofix.sh.
9. Finish installation, and remove the Thumb drive when prompted.

Congratulations, you have just installed Debian 11 on your Le Potato!

Install Freedombox

1. Restart your Le Potato. Boot into your Debian 11 command prompt and login as root.
2. Update your package list: # apt-get update
3. Install freedombox package: # DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install freedombox
4. After all of the packages are installed (this takes time), make you view the secret key you will need to setup Freedombox through the web interface: # less /var/lib/plinth/firstboot-wizard-secret