OESF Portables Forum

Model Specific Forums => Gemini PDA => Gemini PDA - Linux => Topic started by: oesf@kenny.cat on September 26, 2019, 10:04:51 am

Title: Boot from microSD?
Post by: oesf@kenny.cat on September 26, 2019, 10:04:51 am

Hi there,

I'm currently trying to make the Gemini boot Debian from a microSD card, however I cannot seem to be able to figure out how the initramfs chooses the root partition and where I would need to make changes to allow the device to boot from the microSD.
Does anyone have any pointers?

Thanks a lot!

Best,
kenny

Title: Boot from microSD?
Post by: Adam Boardman on September 26, 2019, 11:50:11 am

Assuming your wanting to boot the gemian from a microSD card then its actually all setup for that:

You either need to create a volume group named planetlinux or sailfishos on your microSD card* (https://github.com/gemian/initramfs-tools-halium/blob/native/scripts/geminipda#L318).

Then flash/dd linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img (http://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img) to one of your bootX partitions.

You then either need to have also unpacked a gemian system image to a gemian logical volume, or have the relevant config (http://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/gemian-config.txt) (after removing the to shrink volume name if you don't have sailfish on the same volume group) and system img (http://gemian.thinkglobally.org/system/gemian-stretch.img.xz) on a usb stick that is plugged in on first boot, if the lv has no os-release file then it will attempt to create the gemian lv and install (https://github.com/gemian/initramfs-tools-halium/blob/native/scripts/geminipda#L220).

Kernel updates should create the relevant kernel image going forwards (assuming your using the patched lk), if not then you can always manually create a lvm-gemian image for the lvm setup on the device:

mkbootimg --kernel /usr/share/kernel/Image.gz-dtb --ramdisk /usr/share/kernel/initrd.img-gemini.cpio.gz --base 0x40080000 --second_offset 0x00e80000 --cmdline "bootopt=64S3,32N2,64N2 log_buf_len=4M root_lv=gemian" --kernel_offset 0x00000000 --ramdisk_offset 0x04f80000 --tags_offset 0x03f80000 --pagesize 2048 -o linux-boot-lvm-gemian.img

Title: Boot from microSD?
Post by: oesf@kenny.cat on September 27, 2019, 09:36:01 am

Thanks a lot! I have gotten it working.

Title: Boot from microSD?
Post by: oesf@kenny.cat on October 01, 2019, 06:03:21 am

Quote from: Adam Boardman

Kernel updates should create the relevant kernel image going forwards (assuming your using the patched lk), if not then you can always manually create a lvm-gemian image for the lvm setup on the device:

Could you give me a pointer on how to install the patched lk? I've found two GitHub repositories but I've failed to successfully build them:

https://github.com/gemian/gemini-lk (https://github.com/gemian/gemini-lk)
https://github.com/sparklespdx/gemini-x27-lk-experimental (https://github.com/sparklespdx/gemini-x27-lk-experimental)

Title: Boot from microSD?
Post by: Adam Boardman on October 01, 2019, 08:15:37 am

https://github.com/gemian/gemian/wiki/Debia...-the-bootloader (https://github.com/gemian/gemian/wiki/DebianTP3#update-the-bootloader)