CM4: Getting Started

[adcockm]

Ok, final results for this test. I went ahead and ran it again with the CPU set to 1.0GHz, and the same low power settings I used before. So the settings looked like this:

arm_freq=1000
arm_freq_min=200
core_freq_min=150
gpu_freq_min=150
h264_freq_min=150
isp_freq_min=150
v3d_freq_min=150
over_voltage=-2
over_voltage_min=-4
over_voltage_sdram=-1

It only managed to add another 5 minutes to the time. So I don’t think there’s much point in trying 800Mhz, since I imagine at most it would give another 5 minutes.

Seems like those low power settings I found on that other thread and used for both the 1.5GHz and 1.0GHz tests might be worth considering since they gave the biggest savings compared to the default. I’m sure they could probably be tweaked and improved, but I don’t really know what I’m doing so I’ll leave that to someone else!

You’re right though, it would be good to come up with a standard test that is easy to setup and run. I looked around and there are some CPU, memory, and GPU stress test packages like sysbench, stress-ng, and other things like this made for the Pi GitHub - nschloe/stressberry: Stress tests for the Raspberry Pi and cpu-burn Whats a good way to stress test the processor on my pi 4? Looking to test the cpu fan - Raspberry Pi Forums
A few others are mentioned here:
performance - How can I stress test my Raspberry Pi - Raspberry Pi Stack Exchange
But all of those are assuming you want to test for stability and also test to make sure the device isn’t overheating, so they are burst tests to max things out for 10 minutes or less and then stop. They aren’t really designed to run a battery down, and I’m not sure it would be wise to run them as long as necessary for that.

[adcockm]

To get back to the original thread about setting up CM4 OS… I have learned something about the printer issues I was having, and I think step 3 should be updated, @jan-peter.

Detailed ramblings are here:

CM4 8GB/32GB eMMC, official Bullseye image: error installing upgrade to devterm-thermal-printer

Ok, I got my printer working again, after using these commands to get information about what was installed: apt-cache policy devterm-thermal-printer apt-cache policy devterm-thermal-printer-cm4 apt-cache policy devterm-thermal-printer-cups In my case, after updating it only had …-printer and …-printer-cups installed. But …printer-cm4 was NOT installed. When I installed …printer-cm4, it removed …printer. But THAT caused printing to work again! So apparently with the CM4 based Devterm, we don’t…

But the upshot is, if I have ONLY:
devterm-thermal-printer-cm4
and
devterm-thermal-printer-cups
installed, then the printer works fine, both from CUPS and from command line echo control.

But if I have:
devterm-thermal-printer
installed, my printer breaks.

It seems like the initial update I did, and presumably anyone might do, uninstalled devterm-thermal-printer-cm4 and installed devterm-thermal-printer, which broke it. After manually removing devterm-thermal-printer and installing devterm-thermal-printer-cm4, the printer worked. And the update and upgrade I did afterward didn’t mess things up and kept only those printer packages.

So I think section 3 should be changed to:

sudo apt update
sudo apt remove devterm-thermal-printer -y
sudo apt install -y devterm-thermal-printer-cm4 
sudo reboot

I haven’t tested this on a clean install, but I don’t think devterm-thermal-printer-cups needs to be removed and reinstalled. It probably doesn’t hurt to keep that part though.

[adcockm]

Sadly, my wifi is still broken though. I’m not sure what caused that, but it was something taken with an update.

EDIT: I spoke too soon!

I realized I had removed the dtparam=ant2 line from config.txt before I started testing battery consumption. I added that back in, rebooted, and now wifi shows up and works fine! So that wifi antenna fix seems to be necessary.

I now have a working printer again and working wifi. And the cause of both problems seems to be unrelated, and easily fixed.

EDIT #2 (since the forum won’t let me post again):
Here’s another relevant post about the printer driver. I guess it was already known, but buried in the forum as a lot of useful I formation is. Anyhow, it confirms what I found above.

DevTerm OS CM4 image files

there is a bug in the os image Due to my neglect, both “devterm-thermal-printer” and “devterm-thermal-printer-cm4” coexisted in the system image of cm4, which is an incorrect approach. Although it seems that there are no usage problems, there are potential issues that exist. here is the way to fix if you met any printing problems: sudo apt update sudo apt remove devterm-thermal-printer devterm-thermal-printer-cm4 devterm-thermal-printer-cups -y sudo dpkg --purge devterm-thermal-printer-cups…

[natevw]

Assuming this guide is still otherwise up-to-date, perhaps these instructions should be updated with the newer v0.3e image mentioned at https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/devterm-os-cm4-64bit-image-files/8786/11? (Unclear why the floppy disks page doesn’t get updated — are the 0.2 and 0.3 versions less “officially recommended” than the 0.1 version that’s still the link over there on the dl. page which is slightly easier to find?)

[natevw]

Also if it’s been vetted by other testers, @andypiper’s fan control suggestion here might be worth incorporating into the tips section? Fan not working on CM4 64bit version · Issue #40 · clockworkpi/DevTerm · GitHub

[ZechyW]

Is your external antenna connected directly to the mainboard, by any chance? I had it attached to the mainboard myself at first, and got terrible reception with the configuration fix until I attached it directly to the connector on the CM4 instead.

[Jayson330]

Wanted to update this for 2025 slightly because I just found the thread and did this over the weekend but had a lot of problems.

1. Download the image and set up your SD
2. Go through the Raspberry Pi OS standard setup.
3. Go to command line and uninstall the thermal printer. The automatic update fails if you don’t do this.
4. Run the automatic update - This is the most important step. Running update and upgrade from command line knocked out my wireless driver every time. Only updating through the GUI actually worked and provided a working update. If you don’t this is unfixable without reimaging the disk. All the fixes online fail.
5. Go to command line an reinstall the thermal printer driver.
6. Pick through the forum thread on the Gearbox update and keyboard firmware update, give up and let it go because everything is working fine.
7. Google the improved fan speed controller and read through a bunch of contradictory information. Set it up in Pi OS, move the pin to 17 and hope it works.

[adcockm]

If using a CM4., then the best option is to go with one of Rex’s modern OS builds for the device. Here’s a link to the Debian Bookworm build, but there are other Linux distro options that can be found by searching the forums:

Bookworm 6.12.y for the uConsole and DevTerm

UPDATE: 6.12.28 Image Charge light is back, but only when device is on. Unless device lost power then the charge light wont work with the device off. The kernel can only control the charge light when on. 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. …

The official OS for Clockwork devices almost never gets updated and is hardly usable anyway, beyond just basic testing to see if the hardware works. If you’re using an A06 or A04 module and not a CM4 or CM5, then your options are far more restricted. Some work has been done by the community over the years to improve on the official OS for A04 and A06, but I’m not sure there are any easy options to update to the latest version of any OS. For CM4 there are lots of already update OS options ready to flash and use, with minimal configuration required.