The AXera M4N-Dock development board comes pre-flashed with a Debian-based operating system. For initial setup, connect an HDMI display, USB keyboard, and USB mouse to the board. Power on the device and wait for the login screen to appear. Enter root as both the username and password to access the system.

Once inside the desktop environment, launch a terminal emulator by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T. The default shell runs with root privileges, eliminating the need for sudo prepended to administrative commands.

Wired Network Configuration

The board provides two Gigabit Ethernet ports. The interface closest to the HDMI1 port typical enumerates as eth1, while the other registers as eth0. To establish a static wired connection, first connect an Ethernet cable between the board and your host machine or router.

Configure the network interface by editing the system network definitions:

nano /etc/network/interfaces

Add the following configuration block to define a static IPv4 adress for eth0:

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
    address 10.0.2.100
    netmask 255.255.255.0
    gateway 10.0.2.1
    dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8 8.8.4.4

Activate the configuration by restarting the nteworking service:

systemctl restart networking

Validate internet connectivity:

ping -c 4 8.8.8.8

Installing Development Toolchains

The base Debian image excludes many development utilities to minimize storage footprint. After confirming network access, update the package index and install essential compilation tools:

apt update && apt full-upgrade -y
apt install -y build-essential cmake git pkg-config
apt install -y libopencv-dev python3-numpy
apt install -y net-tools iproute2 wireless-tools
apt install -y mousepad gedit

Enabling SSH Remote Access

To manage the board remotely, install and configure the OpenSSH server:

apt install -y openssh-server

Enable root login by modifying the SSH daemon configuration file:

sed -i 's/^#*PermitRootLogin.*/PermitRootLogin yes/' /etc/ssh/sshd_config
systemctl restart sshd
systemctl enable sshd

The SSH service now listens on port 22. From a remote workstation, connect using any SSH client with the board's IP address and root credentials. For example:

ssh root@10.0.2.100