Software Installation Guide

This guide describes how to download aBMC packages, the version directory structure, package relationships, and the installation and upgrade steps for the BMC and sub-boards.

Download

The aBMC packages are shared through Baidu Netdisk. The shared directory is aBMC:

Download link (access code: jctu)

Directory Structure

The aBMC directory is divided into subdirectories by version. Versions are ordered from newest to oldest, and the first one is the latest version.

aBMC
├── v3.2.3
├── v3.2.0
├── v3.1.3
└── v2.9.4

Taking v3.2.3 as an example, the version directory contains the following files:

Package Relationships

All three BMC packages must be installed. On the sub-board, install the client package, or install the system dependencies and udev rules that the client package declares.

Package Details

firefly-abmc (BMC side)

• Automatically installs firefly-abmc-server and firefly-abmc-tools.
• Provides BMC board maintenance services:
  • ADB service: starts ADB for sub-board connections.
  • Service keeper: monitors and restarts core services such as Prometheus.
  • Sub-board control: resets sub-boards and puts them into loader mode.
  • Key handling: GPIO key events.
  • Flashing tools: network / USB flashing (flash-fw-net, flash-fw-usb, rkdeveloptool).
  • Sub-board mapping: /etc/fbmc/*_adb_alias records the USB location and name of each sub-board.

firefly-abmc-server (BMC side)

• aBMC main program:
  • Web management backend: aBMC.service, ffbackend_core.
  • Node services: nodeService (aarch64 / android / riscv64).
  • Upgrade and recovery: flashserver, upgrade_tool, unpack_fw.
  • Web and monitoring: Caddy, Prometheus, Alertmanager, TSDB.
  • Data directory: /var/firefly-aBMC (database, web resources, business files).
• System dependencies are installed by apt automatically (ADB, SQLite, nftables, DHCP, chrony, NFS/Samba, Redis, VNC, netplan, etc.).

firefly-abmc-tools (BMC side)

• Provides board-level MCU firmware:
  • Hex firmware for fan PWM, fan detection, SATA, and other functions.
  • File names correspond to different models (B1 / B2 / C2 / CS-B2 / CS-D2).
• Provides network recovery resources:
  • netrecovery-slave: network recovery / flashing script.
  • RK3399 and RK3588S recovery images for sub-board network recovery / flashing.
• No extra dependencies.

firefly-abmc-client (sub-board)

• Provides the runtime environment required for sub-board communication with aBMC; recommended.
• Package contents:
  • etc/runtime-monitor.ini: runtime monitoring configuration (optional).
  • etc/udev/rules.d/99-rockchip-permissions.rules: RK platform device permission rules.
  • lib/systemd/system/runtime-monitor.service: runtime monitoring service (optional).
  • usr/local/bin/runtime-monitor-arm64 / riscv64: runtime monitoring program (optional small tool).
• If the client deb is not installed: install the 12 system dependencies and add the udev rules; non-RK sub-boards can skip the udev rules.
• Runtime monitoring is optional and does not affect basic aBMC operation.

Installation and Upgrade

When installing or upgrading aBMC, both the BMC and the sub-boards must be connected to the network (with access to the software repositories), so that apt can resolve and install the dependencies.

sudo apt install -y ./firefly-abmc-server*.deb ./firefly-abmc-tool*.deb ./firefly-abmc_*all.deb

sudo apt install -y ./firefly-abmc-client*.deb

firefly-abmc-client/
├── etc/
│   ├── runtime-monitor.ini
│   └── udev/rules.d/99-rockchip-permissions.rules
├── lib/systemd/system/runtime-monitor.service
└── usr/local/bin/
    ├── runtime-monitor-arm64
    └── runtime-monitor-riscv64

sudo apt install -y nftables chrony nfs-kernel-server nfs-common samba \
  cifs-utils sshfs logrotate i2c-tools ethtool netplan.io lsof

sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-rockchip-permissions.rules >/dev/null <<'EOF'
ACTION=="remove", GOTO="permissions_end"

# VPU devices
KERNEL=="avsd", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="vepu", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="h265e", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="rkvdec", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="rkvenc", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="mpp_service", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="vpu[_-]service", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="hevc[_-]service", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"

# RGA device
KERNEL=="rga", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"

# MALI devices
KERNEL=="mali*", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"

SUBSYSTEM=="mmc_rpmb" KERNEL=="mmcblk*[0-9]rpmb", MODE="0666"

# DMA heap devices
KERNEL=="cma", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="cma-uncached", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="system", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="system-dma32", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="system-uncached", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"
KERNEL=="system-uncached-dma32", MODE="0660", GROUP="video"

LABEL="permissions_end"
EOF

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

systemctl status aBMC