The HoneyComb LX2 is an ARM SBC with 16 cores and support for up to 64GB of memory.

The HoneyComb LX2 is ARM SystemReady ES certified, which means any off the shelf Linux distribution should boot and basic hardware functionality will "just work".

Prerequisites
  • 1 @ HoneyComb LX2
  • 1 @ Silicon Power 64GB (2 x 32GB) SO-DIMM DDR4 3200MHz (must be a matched pair)
  • 1 @ Samsung 2TB 970 EVO Plus NVMe SSD
  • 1 @ Linksys USB 3 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
  • 1 @ Cable Matters Micro USB to USB-C cable
  • 1 @ SanDisk 32GB Micro SD card
  • 1 @ SanDisk 32GB Flash Drive

Getting Started

Rackmount

I wanted to rack mount the LX2, so I purchased a 1U Mini-ITX form factor rackmount case from the Mini ITX Store:

1U rackmount chassis

I mounted the board and then installed the RAM and the NVMe SSD. I attached the dual 24/20 (sometimes called 20+4) power supply connector to the ATX 24-pin motherboard socket. The fan to the fan PWM socket and the front panel connector ribbon to the board's front panel connectors.

LX2 rack mounted

Firmware

I used the balenaEtcher to flash a firmware image (i.e., lx2160acex7_2000_700_3200_8_5_2_sd_ee5c233.img.xz) to the micro SD card.

Note: You must use the firmware image that matches the clock speed (e.g., 3200 MHz) of your DDR4 RAM.

Linux distribution

I used the balenaEtcher to flash a Debian 11.5 ISO image (i.e., debian-11.5.0-arm64-netinst.iso) to the USB 3 flash drive.

First boot

Connect the USB 3 ethernet adapter to your switch (or router). Insert the Micro SD card and the USB 3 flash drive.

Serial connection

Connect the micro USB to the LX2 and the USB-C cable to your workstation.

Look for the device:

ls -l /dev/*usbserial*

You should see something like:

crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  0x9000005 15 Oct 18:06 /dev/cu.usbserial-DK0D18XC
crw-rw-rw-  1 root  wheel  0x9000004 15 Oct 18:06 /dev/tty.usbserial-DK0D18XC

Use screen to open a connection:

screen /dev/tty.usbserial-DK0D18XC 115200

Screen - New Connection

Power on the server.

Press the esc key when prompted by the UEFI firmware:

UEFI Firmware

Press escape

Navigate to the Device Manager -> Console Preference Selection and set the Preferred console to Serial:

Preferred console

Navigate to the Boot Manager and choose USB SanDisk:

USB Boot Device

Hit esc to launch GRUB:

GRUB

Press e to edit the Install command:

And update it as follows:

arm-smmu.disable_bypass=0 \
iommu.passthrough=1 \
console=ttyAMA0,115200n8 ---

Edit install command

Press Ctrl-x to launch the Debian installer.

After the installation is complete power off the server, remove the USB Flash Drive and then power on the server.

Login:

Login

How to upgrade the Linux kernel

The easiest way to upgrade the kernel is to use the backports repository.

Create a sources list for DebianBackports:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.list

And update it as follows:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bullseye-backports main

Then save (Ctrl+O) and exit (Ctrl+X) nano.

Download the package index from the backports repository:

sudo apt update

Install the kernel package from the backports repository:

sudo apt install linux-image-arm64/bullseye-backports

Check the version:

uname -s -v

You should see something like:

Linux #1 SMP Debian 5.18.16-1~bpo11+1 (2022-08-12)

The updated kernel has driver support for the LX2's gigabit ethernet adapter.

Afterword

Unfortunately, there are some known issues with the ASIX chip drivers (generally used by USB 3 gigabit ethernet adapters) included in off the shelf (mainline) Linux distributions.

Resources: