Debian is one of the oldest operating systems based on the Linux kernel, and is the basis of many other Linux distributions. The Debian Project is an association of individuals, sharing a common goal: We want to create a free operating system, freely available for everyone. Now, when we use the word “free”, we’re not talking about money, instead, we are referring to software freedom .
Features: ClockworkPi-Bookworm-6.12.y
Desktop and Lite images available.
Image built using Pi-Gen.
Dark mode for all screens (first boot, login, desktop)
Sane charging defaults applied.
Kernel updates though my APT repo.
External WiFi antenna already set in config.txt.
A few clockworkpi images for wallpapers.
Activate 4g card by uconsole-4g enable and uconsole-4g disable
linux-headers included with kernel
Works with both DevTerm CM4/5 and uConsole CM3/4/5.
Auto-expanding file system
On first boot system will boot expand FS then reboot.
Just follow the instructions at the bottom of the config.txt
If you have a CM5 lite and are having problems with the sd card booting. Try this solution by @paragonnov Your CM5 lite has to have updated firmware that was released after 2025-01-06. Check using vcgencmd version to update sudo rpi-eeprom-update sudo rpi-eeprom-config -e To edit the eeprom.
backup current config, then replace with:
[all]
BOOT_UART=1
# Switch off PMIC outputs on HALT
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=1
# Try boot on SDCard repeatly
BOOT_ORDER=0xf1
SD_BOOT_MAX_RETRIES=2
# Slow down SDCard SDR Mode on bootloader
SD_QUIRKS=1
Raspberry Pi Imager will cause image not to boot if you apply custom settings.
I have added a few working/testing images and kernels with the *.deb files to install in the mega folder if you want for different OSs.
Google Drive link for the main image if Mega doesn’t work for you.
Drime file hosting for if the first two links are out of bandwidth.
Here’s my Github with the rpi-6.12.y branch if you’d like to compile yourself. All the ClockworkPi drivers are pre-marked to compile in bcm2711_defconfig or bcm2712_defconfig. Also the APT repo with kernels and hardware scripts for ClockworkPi devices
Things seem a lot better.
I can confirm audio, battery indicator and wifi are working as intended.
The display is still a little flakey, not always turning on regardless of usb power or not.
Sometimes I do see plymouth for a split second, before the display goes away, which seems new.
I’ve come across a new issue now, it seems whenever I plug in a usb device like my Alfa wifi nic, the keyboard stops working,
I have an internal rtl-sdr, I’ve tried unplugging that as well, my USB port still causes the keyboard to power off.
I haven’t noticed a problem with the built in USB-A port yet I’ll have to test some more. the panel does still have some problems. I’ve seen when I don’t get a image and go to shutdown the panel gets probed again and I’ll see the shutdown messages.
I flashed ClockworkPi-Bookworm-6.12.16.img.xz on my uconsole with a brand new CM5108000 but nothing happens. console does not seem to boot nor does it have the orange charging state when plugged in. Could anyone help me with this?
Your SD card is not booting, You’ll need to update the eeprom like is outlined in the OP, the CM5 is picky about what SD card it boots without changing the eeprom. You can find a SD card with a better chance of working or use another carrier board to make the changes.
can you tell me what steps you have followed to have a successful boot?
I’ve updated the eeprom config as instructed but i still see a black screen and only managed to boot it once.
SSH confirms the device runs and i’ve checked the vcgencmd version and it shows up to date.
I took out the batteries, and left it to boot, and for some random reason, it just worked, even after replacing the batteries. I did all the above steps and edited the eprom.
I did run into trouble though as soon as my battery power fell below 50-40%.
If you can SSH in reboot the screen has a better success rate on reboots then cold boots.
The CM5 drivers are still a work in progress and the panel doesn’t work quite right yet.
My last attempt gives me a black screen on the LCD, although I have a wallpaper on the external screen when I booted with an external screen attached. Since it’s not the “primary” screen I don’t know how to add it to wifi without going through the out-of-box-experience bit.
Holding down SHIFT on an external keyboard got me to the main OOBE screen on the internal display, sideways. Nothing on the external display. I picked my language, time zone, wifi,etc. and chose “skip” on updating software.
I rebooted without holding shift on the promted reboot, and got a sideways screen on the internal display again. I unplugged the external display and rebooted once more. This time, I got the Pi desktop.
Yay! I’ll keep an eye on it. I am also checking to see if I can get it stable with that Waveshare “passthrough” CM4 adapter so I can get away with using a thinner thermal pad.
Part 2: So I was having fun, using pi-apps to install a few things. One thing (Notepad++ or PyCharm?) wanted me to change something in the kernel so I said skip it and moved on. vscode installed next, and then … hard shutdown. Like HARD. I had to hold the power button down for what felt like 30 seconds before it went off, then clicked it back on.
Now that it’s on, I see a blank but backlit internal display and I am able to VNC into it so it is “up”
dmesg on boot shows:
[ 6.750748] panel-cwu50-cm5 1f00130000.dsi.0: CWU50: Failed to read power mode on first attempt, restarting initialization…
[ 6.750750] panel-cwu50-cm5 1f00130000.dsi.0: CWU50: Panel failed initialization after multiple attempts
Tried paragonov’s eeprom settings and … nope. On reboot it came back with no LCD but VNC and SSH were fine.
Switching from a 512GB Samsung Pro Plus to a Samsung 512 Evo Select. Never even lit up the panel backlight after 10 minutes and several retries
Switched to Sandisk Extreme 512. Seems to be far better behaved as I set up wifi etc. Expanded the filesystem and rebooted and the first one came back!
This thing really is sensitive. Thanks for all the hard work. I would never have thought a disk issue would break the display output.
You first SD was working. There is problems with the display driver I’ve been working on. If you’re seeing a backlight the CM5 is booting so the SD is fine. The panel failing to display an image is the driver problem.
My system works well, only thing I noticed is the battery indicator shows 100-98%, which doesn’t look correct (after a hour of running). Someone else have this issue?
The pmu just needs to be calibrated for the batteries you have but right now when the batteries get low like around 50% the panel will cut off anyway right now.
Thanks for the great work