

*Please download this document and view it locally*

Getting Started with OMV

Addendum A:

Installing OMV5
On Armbian SBC's

December 8th, 2020 – (Rev2.1)

1
 Table of Contents
1 Introduction 3
About this Guide............................................................................................................................................3
2 Not Supported 3
Desktop versions of Armbian ........................................................................................................................3
3 Supported Devices 4
4 Prerequisites 4
5 Working with the image file 5
Decompress the Image...................................................................................................................................5
Verify the image ............................................................................................................................................6
Format and Test Flash Media.........................................................................................................................7
Flashing Armbian onto an SD-card..............................................................................................................10
6 The First Boot 11
7 Armbian - First Time Logon 12
8 Finishing the Armbian Install 13
9 Install OMV 14
First Time GUI Logon..................................................................................................................................14
10 Finishing Up 15
11 Final Notes: 16
Networking - General...................................................................................................................................16
Wireless Networking....................................................................................................................................16

June 13th, 2020 (rev 1.8) Adding a wireless interface.

July 21rst, 2020 (rev 1.9) Purged extraneous references to *R-PI's*.|
August 21rst, 2020 (rev 2.0) Added note RE PuTTY and keeping it open.
December 8th, 2020 (rev 2.1) Edits to prep for Wiki merge.

2
Introduction
Due to the lack of the numerous Single Board Computers (SBC's) required for testing and integration, providing
images for all Armbian supported SBC's, with Openmediavault (OMV) pre-installed, will not be possible.
However, installing OMV5 on Armbian supported SBC's is a relatively easy task. This document is a guide for
that purpose.

About this Guide

The purpose and intent of this guide is to provide a walk-through to get SBC users up and running as quickly
and as easily as possible. This guide assumes that users have a working Windows Client for installing and
executing the needed utilities. It is also assumed that Mac and Linux desktop users will be able to find, install,
and use utilities equivalent to those called out in Prerequisites.
– This guide contains links to external sources of information and software. It's best used on an Internet
connected PC.
– This is a community document and a work in progress. Input and feedback are welcome and can be sent
to: [email protected]

Not Supported

Desktop versions of Armbian

Armbian desktop versions are not supported and are used at the user's risk. If a desktop is used, SD-card
backup is recommended.

(Continued)

3
Supported Devices
To see if an SBC of interest is supported by Armbian, visit the Armbian Download Page.

OMV5 will install on most SBC devices with Official Armbian support and a Buster image:
– Suitable For Testing , “WIP” (Work in Progress), and No Official Support images may work, but
things may be broken. Use of these images is at the user's risk. These images could be considered to be
in “BETA” state. Problems are to be expected.
– Use of End of Support (EOS) images is discouraged. The state of the OS is undetermined and it may
not update normally. The install process may fail or, if the installation is successful, OMV may be (or
become) unstable. Again, use of EOS images is at the user's risk.
– Use of any of the above image classes is not supported.

Prerequisites
This installation process requires a wired Ethernet connection and Internet access.
Typically, all that is needed to begin the installation is an Ethernet cable, an Armbian supported SBC, a power
supply sufficient for the SBC model being used, and one SD-card (two are preferred for backup).

To get started, a few utilities are needed to expand, check, and work with an Armbian image.

– Armbian images are compressed with a .7z extension. Users will need the 7-Zip utility to decompress
the image. 7-Zip is installable on a Windows client.
– To check the decompressed image, an MD5 – SHA Checksum utility is needed. This utility is portable,
meaning it's not necessary to install it, but it may require support files. Simply run the executable.
– SDformatter is a utility for formatting SD-cards, that does a trim operation on flash media to clear
remnants of old files. SDformatter is installable on a Windows client.
– h2testw_1.4 is a flash media test program. With a freshly formatted SD-card or USB thumbdrive, it
writes files with known content and verifies the content in a read operation, detecting errors in the
process. h2testw_1.4 downloads as a zip file. By right clicking on the zip file, and using “Extract All”,
7-Zip will expand the zip file to a folder named h2testw_1.4 The executable inside this folder is a
portable application. Run the executable.
– To burn an Armbian image to an SD-card, Etcher is recommended. (It burns the image and verifies it in
one process.) Etcher is installable on a Windows client.
– PuTTY is an SSH client that will allow users to connect to their SBC, from a Windows client, and get on
the command line. PuTTY is installable.
– While 8GB is the minimum and will work fine, a 16GB card will provide longer life in the role of a boot
drive. Users are encouraged to get two SD-cards. One is for the installation and the second is for
backing up the OS installation, when configuration is complete.
For the best experience, use only quality new SD-cards, such as Samsung or SanDisk, that are rated A1
Class 10 or better.

(Continued)

4
 – **Important**
- When selecting an Armbian image to download, for best possible compatibility with OMV5, select the
Armbian Buster Server or Buster Minimal image for your device.
- On the Armbian device page, scroll down to bottom, to the “All download options” section, and
select the Buster Server variant. If Buster Server is not available, Buster Minimal will work.
((Due to the potential for package conflicts, a Buster image with a desktop is not recommended or
supported. Lastly, Bionic or Stretch images will not work with OMV5.))
_______________________________________________________________

Working with the image file

Decompress the Image

Armbian images are compressed and will need to be extracted with 7-Zip. Highlight the compressed file, right
click the mouse, and make the menu selections shown below.

The result of the above action is the extraction of files into the current directory. The image file's extension is
.img (For the purposes of this guide, the file ending with .asc can be ignored.)

5
Verify the image
MD5 and SHA hashes check for image corruption that may have occurred during the download.
**Beginners Note**
DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. The chance of image corruption is highest when downloading and it's pointless
to build a server with flawed software. Even the slightest corruption of the image may ruin your installation and
the effects may not be noticed until well after your server is built and in use. Headaches can be avoided by
checking the image.
__________________________________________________

Verify the image file, for your SBC, with the MD5 & SHA checksum utility.

(Note that it's possible to “drag and drop” the file name into the utility, on the File line. Otherwise, use the
Browse button and navigate to the image file.)

With the File, Open, using the ALL Files *.* setting, Notepad can be used to open the file sha256sum.sha

With a sha-256 match, the downloaded image is verified.

6
Format and Test Flash Media
Using SDFormatter, do a clean format:
(Note that SDFormatter does a trim operation on the card which cleans up remnants of deleted or previously
existing files.)
In most cases, SDFormatter will detect the SD-card or thumb-drive. A volume label is not necessary, at this
point, and the default options are fine.

7
After the SD-card format is completed, open h2testw and select your language.
Then, click on Select target

Under Computer, select the flash media previously formatted.

8
 Select Write+Verify. (DO NOT check the endless verify box)

A dialog similar to the following may pop up. Ignore it and click on OK.

“Without errors” is the desired outcome. If the media tests with errors or is much smaller than is indicated by
the SD-card's labeled size, don't use it.

After H2testw verifies the SD-card; do one more clean format, using SDFormatter, before flashing the card.
While optional, at this point, a volume label could be applied.

9
Flashing Armbian onto an SD-card

Start Etcher:
Etcher, in most cases, will auto detect the SD-card or a USB thumb-drive. Click on “Select Image” and
navigate to the decompressed Armbian image. Then click on Flash!
– A windows confirmation dialog may pop up. (Click on OK.)
– Etcher will write the image, then verify it in one operation.

A “Success” flag will pop up when the job is finished and the Etcher window will display “Flash Another?”.
The flash operation is complete.

10
 The First Boot
**At this point, to connect to the SBC with PuTTY and to install OMV in a later process, a wired
Ethernet connection is required.**
- Insert the SD-card, into the SBC, and apply power.
- Wait 3 to 5 minutes.
The IP address to use for logging into the console is available from your DHCP server. In most cases, your
DHCP server will be running on your LAN's router.

(The following is an example.)

With the IP address noted, proceed to First Time Login.

**If there's a problem with obtaining a DHCP assigned IP address:**

– In the event that an IP address is not issued to your SBC, check the wired Ethernet connection and
reboot the device. In some cases this will mean unplugging and plugging the power supply back in.
Allow time for boot up (5 minutes or so) and check the DHCP server again.
– If an address is not issued, or if the user doesn't know how to find the ARM device's IP address on
their DHCP server, connect a monitor and keyboard to watch the boot process until it completes. If
the IP address is not displayed at the end of the boot cycle, login with the user root and password
1234
Unfortunately, this first time logon may kick off a mandatory root user password change and the
addition of a non-root user. Once these processes are complete, type ip add on the command
line. Note the IP address of the Ethernet interface, in the output, and proceed to First Time Login.

11
 Armbian - First Time Logon

Open PuTTY and type in the OMV IP address

A PuTTY Security Alert will pop up in a first time connection.

This is normal. Ignore it and select Yes.

12
When the SSH window opens:
Login as: root The Armbian default password is: 1234

After logging in with the default password, you'll be required to change the root password.
Re-enter the current password 1234, then follow the prompts to enter and confirm a new root password.
(Remember this password.)
When the root password change is complete, Armbian will prompt to create a non-root user, with “sudo” admin
abilities. Follow the prompts to complete the task. (If desired, this user can be altered, deleted, or replaced
later. )
___________________________________________________________________________

Finishing the Armbian Install

On the command line, copy and paste the following command into the SSH window:
apt-get update

When the command prompt returns copy and paste the following command into the SSH window:
apt-get upgrade
(This process with take a few to several minutes.)

Finally, reboot the SBC with the following command:

reboot
In a few minutes, open a new PuTTY/SSH window for the installation of OMV.
** In the event that the SSH client does not respond to the IP address used for the Armbian installation, look at
your DHCP server to see if a “new” IP address has been assigned.**

13
 Install OMV
Installing OMV on Armbian is very easy, thanks to Ryecoaaron for providing a comprehensive installation
script that's executed from a single line.
Copy the following line complete (Ctrl+C) and paste it into PuTTY's SSH window, with a right mouse click.
Then hit Enter.

wget -O - https://github.com/OpenMediaVault-Plugin-Developers/installScript/raw/master/install | sudo bash

Once the script is running, click out of the SSH window so the script will not be interrupted.
**Note: Do Not close PuTTY – that will terminate the root session. Minimizing PuTTY is OK, but it must be
running.**

Depending on several factors, running this script may take up to 30 minutes.

When the script is complete, the SBC will automatically reboot.

First Time GUI Logon

After 3 to 5 minutes, OMV can be logged in using the same IP address that was used for the SSH client, entered
in a web browser address bar. The web GUI user is admin and the default password is openmediavault
_______________________________________________________

**Note**
After the completion of the script:
In the rare event that the OMV console or SSH client does not respond to the IP address used during the
installation, look at your DHCP server to see if a “new” IP address has been assigned.

((Typically, consumer router DHCP leases last at least 24 hours. In cases where DHCP leases are very short - as
it is with some versions of DD-WRT router firmware [10 minutes] - the lease issued to the SBC may time out at
the end of the installation. A different address may be issued on reboot.))

(Continued)

14
Finishing Up
New users can continue with the setup of OMV using the Getting Started with Openmediavault 5 guide ,
starting in the section titled OMV - Initial Configuration.
All users are encouraged to review the section titled Operating System Backup for an easy process to clone
your SBC's SD-Card.

Adding a Wireless Interface

To add a Wireless Interface see Final Notes below. (Unless absolutely required, devices used in a server role
should avoid wireless networking.)

Donate
Openmediavault on Armbian SBC's is the project of OMVextras.org
In addition to enabling the installation of OMV on Armbian SBC's , OMV-extras.org develops plugin's for
OMV that make Portainer (Dockers) and other extensions available for your Armbian SBC's possible.

Please consider a modest donation to support continuing development and to help offset some of the
Developer's costs. OMV-extras.org

15
Final Notes:

Networking - General
The decision was made to depreciate NetworkManager in SBC's running OMV. The primary reason for this
decision was to better support the installation and use of Dockers.
Supporting Portainer, to allow easy use of Dockers, was a priority add-on for OMV5. Unfortunately,
NetworkManager wreaks networking for Portainer and Dockers.

Wireless Networking

First, it should be noted that using a wireless interface, with a server, is not the best idea. To prevent a number
of issues such as interference, bandwidth contention issues with clients, etc., a server should be connected to the
wired LAN ports of a router or a network switch. However it is understood that, in some cases, wired
connections may not be an option.

If your SBC is equipped with a wireless interface, by default OMV will not show it in the GUI but it can easily
be added.
- An existing interface can be added as noted in the following.
- After plugging it in, a compatible add-on USB wireless interface can be added in the same manner.

(**In the example below, a wireless USB adapter is being added to a Rock64 without an onboard interface.**)
Under System, Network, in the Interfaces tab, click on the + Add button. Select Wi-Fi.

(Continued)

16
When the Add Wi-Fi dialog box pops up, select the drop down arrow next to Device. The on-board or add-on
wireless interface will be the only interface in the list. Select it.

In the Wi-Fi section, add the SSID for the wireless network and the encryption Password.

Using the right scroll bar, scroll down to IPv4. Next to Method, click the drop down arrow and make the
appropriate selection. (DHCP is recommended for beginners.)

Click, Save

At this point, the wireless interface will appear under System, Network, in the Interfaces tab. Further
configuration can be done, as needed, by editing the interface in the Interfaces tab.

To further configure the SBC, refer to the wiki Getting Started with Openmediavault 5 - (or PDF), starting in
the section titled Initial Configuration.

17