boots not after try installing arch
#1
I need help, because i'm stupid...

I tried to install arch Linux on my Pinebook Pro.
I flashed the image from the wiki on a usb-stick, booted from it on the pinebook pro and followed a standard arch install routine (in order to that i was setting up a boot, swap, root and home parition), until i tied to run the pacstrap command and realized, that this woulden work.
i shut down the pinebook.
And now it boots from no usb stick anymore.(of cause not from the emmc either, because i wiped it).

I would be really thankful for help.
#2
(06-06-2020, 01:51 PM)definitiv. Wrote: I need help, because i'm stupid...

I tried to install arch Linux on my Pinebook Pro.
I flashed the image from the wiki on a usb-stick, booted from it on the pinebook pro and followed a standard arch install routine (in order to that i was setting up a boot, swap, root and home parition), until i tied to run the pacstrap command and realized, that this woulden work.
i shut down the pinebook.
And now it boots from no usb stick anymore.(of cause not from the emmc either, because i wiped it).

I would be really thankful for help.

I thought PBP didn't boot from USB, only from SD or eMMC ?
#3
(06-06-2020, 01:51 PM)definitiv. Wrote: I need help, because i'm stupid...

I tried to install arch Linux on my Pinebook Pro.
I flashed the image from the wiki on a usb-stick, booted from it on the pinebook pro and followed a standard arch install routine (in order to that i was setting up a boot, swap, root and home parition), until i tied to run the pacstrap command and realized, that this woulden work.
i shut down the pinebook.
And now it boots from no usb stick anymore.(of cause not from the emmc either, because i wiped it).

I would be really thankful for help.

You're not the only one who has been down that road. EMMC install messups are no fun :p. If you happened to buy the EMMC adapter in the Pine64 store, you're off easy. All you have to do is open up your PBP, stick the EMMC into the usb adapter, and flash the EMMC (the process doesn't sound hard at all and is outlined here: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=8714). If you, like me, foolishly didn't purchase one of those handy adapters, well, this is going to be a little harder. As stated by Surehand53 in this thread () "As far as I know I can reactivate the emmc booting from SD card and then turning the switch back on in the decisive moment between uboot load and kernel start. there is a 2 sec. pause there. If the timing is right the SD card is supposed to continue to boot and the kernel can find the emmc and it can be flashed with something working." Somewhere in the forum there is a very detailed description of the exact process, but the process is as follows: 

1. Prepare an SD card with an OS to boot from to flash the PBP's EMMC and stick it into your PBP. Don't turn it on yet. I recommend the default debian build (which you can download here: https://github.com/mrfixit2001/debian_de...226.img.xz) because if you miss the timing window later on there is a different command you can run. The one caveat of using the Debian build is you won't be able to install Manjaro at first because Manjaro only provides an installer the writes from the SD card to the EMMC, so you won't be able to dd the image to the sd card. Don't worry though! You'll be able to install any OS you want after you are able to boot from the EMMC.

2. Take the back off of your Pinebook Pro and locate the EMMC on/off switch (it is number 24 in this diagram: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebo...nal_Layout). Switch it off.

3. Now for the hard part. Open your Pinebook Pro JUST ENOUGH so you can stick your finger or something else skinny into your Pinebook Pro and push the power button until you see the power indicator light turn on. Wait exactly two seconds, and then push the EMMC switch to on. If you're lucky, you will be able to boot into the debian desktop (username and password: rock/rock) and flash the EMMC without much more ado. From there, connect to the internet and download the OS image that you want on your EMMC (I like Q4OS, but that is just a personal preference). While you wait, open the application Gparted and check how many disks there are listed. There should be two-one the sd card and one the EMMC. Another way, mentioned by Surehand53, is as follows: Use command `lsblk` to see which drives are found. There should be two main devices called mmcblkX (X can vary). your emmc is the one without the root mount. If you only see one disk, follow these instructions by Arwen or reboot and then try again:  

Un-TESTED!!!! Use at your own risk. This is from the default Debian, but may
work on others.

       While powered off, switch eMMC to disabled state. Then power on. If the user
is not fast enough with the switch to enabled state, the OS image on the SD card
won't see the eMMC. Thus, it may be needed to un-bind and re-bind the eMMC driver.
Note, it is still REQUIRED to enable the eMMC via the hardware switch. These
instruction below, MAY allow the OS to find it after boot.

       The first 2 outputs may show nothing, which could happen if OS thinks the eMMC
does not exist. The 3rd command checks and sees if it's possible to unbind and bind.
Lines 4 & 5 are the real work. Though again, line 4 may not do anything if the device
is already un-bound.


Code:

Code:
# blockdev --getsize64 /dev/mmcblk1
125069950976

# readlink /sys/block/mmcblk1
../devices/platform/fe330000.sdhci/mmc_host/mmc1/mmc1:0001/block/mmcblk1

# ls /sys/bus/platform/drivers/sdhci-arasan
bind  fe330000.sdhci  uevent  unbind

# echo fe330000.sdhci >/sys/bus/platform/drivers/sdhci-arasan/unbind
# echo fe330000.sdhci >/sys/bus/platform/drivers/sdhci-arasan/bind

3.5. If you think you have SD card booted up and the EMMC mounted, feel free to put the cover on your PBP back on your PBP anytime after this point. 

4. Once you have verified that the EMMC is mounted and the image file is downloaded, open a terminal and navigate to the downloads folder on your computer by typing: cd Downloads. Then run the command ls to list all the files there. There probably will be just one, and it will probably be a zipped file. Unizip it by running the command unxz (name_of_your_os_choice). Copy and paste can be your friend here, but remember that to copy and paste in a terminal, you have to right click and select copy or paste, as the keyboard shortcuts don't work there.

5. Finally, flash your EMMC using the command sudo dd if=the_name_of_your_unzipped_img_file.img of=/dev/mmcblk1 status=progress. If you are like me and paranoid of doing something wrong, you can check to make sure that /dev/mmcblk1 is really your EMMC and not your SD card by opening Gparted again and using the about device tab in Gparted to make sure mmcblk1 is a EMMC device and not an SD (The tab isn't called about device, but it is in one of the drop down menus in Gparted somewhere).

6. Once DD says it is finished, turn off your Pinebook Pro, remove your SD card, take a deep breath, and turn on your Pinebook Pro. If everything worked right, your Pinebook Pro should boot agiain! If you still want to install Arch, there is a tutorial in the forum using a different method. Here is the link: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=8865.

P.S. I found the instructions that I followed by Surehand53, and I have copied and pasted them below. Please share this post and correct me if I have made any errors. I hope this helps! 

So, now have un-bricked my PinebookPro and write this from my new Debian versin from the emmc.


My situation was this:
- emmc was turned off on the board (see wiki)
- SD card did boot

So now to get the emmc back again.

Prep:
- Set a shortcut in your desktop environment to easily start a terminal. (see below)
- Get a tiny pin to switch the emmc back on, ideally isolated.
- Put your boot SD card in

1. Unscrew the 10 screws at the back. You need a tiny screw driver for that, don't force it. then gently remove the bottom part of the PBP cover.
2. There are some medium loose bits inside, so don't turn it back. (see wiki for the screw fixture for example, also the loudspeaker can move when open)
3. The Wiki mentions not to open the display, however to turn it you have to open the display a bit. I did not open it fully, more like a 70 degrees angle. Be careful.
4. now the first tricky bit. You have to turn on the PBP. As the PBP is upside down check where the powerbutton is. Then bring your pin into position on the emmc switch.
5. Turn the PBP on. Wait two seconds (you practice with the stopwatch in your smartphone a bit to get that right).
6. The PBP schould now boot without problems from the SD card. But has the kernel found the emmc ?
7. As you have to operate the PBP upside down you use your shortcut to open a teminal. Then use command `lsblk` to see which drives are found. There should be two main devices called mmcblkX (X can vary). your emmc is the one without the root mount. In my case this worked in the first try, however if the timing in step 5 is not quite right you might have to repeat this. From there.
8. With the emmc active I have now closed my laptop and screwed the bottom back on. 
9. Open the PBP normally (not upside down)
10 Download a PBP image. I have used the standard Debian release. links in the wiki
11. unpack the downloaded image file and dd it to the emmc (instructions in the wiki)
12. reboot. done

It probably sounds more complicated than it is. Use common sense and don't apply pressure on the PBP.

[url=https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=8865][/url]
#4
(06-07-2020, 04:42 AM)flyingscorpio Wrote: I thought PBP didn't boot from USB, only from SD or eMMC ?
Mine boots from USB, but only from the Port next to the microSD-Slot.

(06-07-2020, 07:10 AM)TDC_PBP Wrote:
(06-06-2020, 01:51 PM)definitiv. Wrote: I need help, because i'm stupid...

I tried to install arch Linux on my Pinebook Pro.
I flashed the image from the wiki on a usb-stick, booted from it on the pinebook pro and followed a standard arch install routine (in order to that i was setting up a boot, swap, root and home parition), until i tied to run the pacstrap command and realized, that this woulden work.
i shut down the pinebook.
And now it boots from no usb stick anymore.(of cause not from the emmc either, because i wiped it).

I would be really thankful for help.

You're not the only one who has been down that road. EMMC install messups are no fun :p. If you happened to buy the EMMC adapter in the Pine64 store, you're off easy. All you have to do is open up your PBP, stick the EMMC into the usb adapter, and flash the EMMC (the process doesn't sound hard at all and is outlined here: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=8714). If you, like me, foolishly didn't purchase one of those handy adapters, well, this is going to be a little harder. As stated by Surehand53 in this thread () "As far as I know I can reactivate the emmc booting from SD card and then turning the switch back on in the decisive moment between uboot load and kernel start. there is a 2 sec. pause there. If the timing is right the SD card is supposed to continue to boot and the kernel can find the emmc and it can be flashed with something working." Somewhere in the forum there is a very detailed description of the exact process, but the process is as follows: 

1. Prepare an SD card with an OS to boot from to flash the PBP's EMMC and stick it into your PBP. Don't turn it on yet. I recommend the default debian build (which you can download here: https://github.com/mrfixit2001/debian_de...226.img.xz) because if you miss the timing window later on there is a different command you can run. The one caveat of using the Debian build is you won't be able to install Manjaro at first because Manjaro only provides an installer the writes from the SD card to the EMMC, so you won't be able to dd the image to the sd card. Don't worry though! You'll be able to install any OS you want after you are able to boot from the EMMC.

2. Take the back off of your Pinebook Pro and locate the EMMC on/off switch (it is number 24 in this diagram: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebo...nal_Layout). Switch it off.

3. Now for the hard part. Open your Pinebook Pro JUST ENOUGH so you can stick your finger or something else skinny into your Pinebook Pro and push the power button until you see the power indicator light turn on. Wait exactly two seconds, and then push the EMMC switch to on. If you're lucky, you will be able to boot into the debian desktop (username and password: rock/rock) and flash the EMMC without much more ado. From there, connect to the internet and download the OS image that you want on your EMMC (I like Q4OS, but that is just a personal preference). While you wait, open the application Gparted and check how many disks there are listed. There should be two-one the sd card and one the EMMC. Another way, mentioned by Surehand53, is as follows: Use command `lsblk` to see which drives are found. There should be two main devices called mmcblkX (X can vary). your emmc is the one without the root mount. If you only see one disk, follow these instructions by Arwen or reboot and then try again:  

Un-TESTED!!!! Use at your own risk. This is from the default Debian, but may
work on others.

       While powered off, switch eMMC to disabled state. Then power on. If the user
is not fast enough with the switch to enabled state, the OS image on the SD card
won't see the eMMC. Thus, it may be needed to un-bind and re-bind the eMMC driver.
Note, it is still REQUIRED to enable the eMMC via the hardware switch. These
instruction below, MAY allow the OS to find it after boot.

       The first 2 outputs may show nothing, which could happen if OS thinks the eMMC
does not exist. The 3rd command checks and sees if it's possible to unbind and bind.
Lines 4 & 5 are the real work. Though again, line 4 may not do anything if the device
is already un-bound.


Code:

Code:
# blockdev --getsize64 /dev/mmcblk1
125069950976

# readlink /sys/block/mmcblk1
../devices/platform/fe330000.sdhci/mmc_host/mmc1/mmc1:0001/block/mmcblk1

# ls /sys/bus/platform/drivers/sdhci-arasan
bind  fe330000.sdhci  uevent  unbind

# echo fe330000.sdhci >/sys/bus/platform/drivers/sdhci-arasan/unbind
# echo fe330000.sdhci >/sys/bus/platform/drivers/sdhci-arasan/bind

3.5. If you think you have SD card booted up and the EMMC mounted, feel free to put the cover on your PBP back on your PBP anytime after this point. 

4. Once you have verified that the EMMC is mounted and the image file is downloaded, open a terminal and navigate to the downloads folder on your computer by typing: cd Downloads. Then run the command ls to list all the files there. There probably will be just one, and it will probably be a zipped file. Unizip it by running the command unxz (name_of_your_os_choice). Copy and paste can be your friend here, but remember that to copy and paste in a terminal, you have to right click and select copy or paste, as the keyboard shortcuts don't work there.

5. Finally, flash your EMMC using the command sudo dd if=the_name_of_your_unzipped_img_file.img of=/dev/mmcblk1 status=progress. If you are like me and paranoid of doing something wrong, you can check to make sure that /dev/mmcblk1 is really your EMMC and not your SD card by opening Gparted again and using the about device tab in Gparted to make sure mmcblk1 is a EMMC device and not an SD (The tab isn't called about device, but it is in one of the drop down menus in Gparted somewhere).

6. Once DD says it is finished, turn off your Pinebook Pro, remove your SD card, take a deep breath, and turn on your Pinebook Pro. If everything worked right, your Pinebook Pro should boot agiain! If you still want to install Arch, there is a tutorial in the forum using a different method. Here is the link: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=8865.

P.S. I found the instructions that I followed by Surehand53, and I have copied and pasted them below. Please share this post and correct me if I have made any errors. I hope this helps! 

So, now have un-bricked my PinebookPro and write this from my new Debian versin from the emmc.


My situation was this:
- emmc was turned off on the board (see wiki)
- SD card did boot

So now to get the emmc back again.

Prep:
- Set a shortcut in your desktop environment to easily start a terminal. (see below)
- Get a tiny pin to switch the emmc back on, ideally isolated.
- Put your boot SD card in

1. Unscrew the 10 screws at the back. You need a tiny screw driver for that, don't force it. then gently remove the bottom part of the PBP cover.
2. There are some medium loose bits inside, so don't turn it back. (see wiki for the screw fixture for example, also the loudspeaker can move when open)
3. The Wiki mentions not to open the display, however to turn it you have to open the display a bit. I did not open it fully, more like a 70 degrees angle. Be careful.
4. now the first tricky bit. You have to turn on the PBP. As the PBP is upside down check where the powerbutton is. Then bring your pin into position on the emmc switch.
5. Turn the PBP on. Wait two seconds (you practice with the stopwatch in your smartphone a bit to get that right).
6. The PBP schould now boot without problems from the SD card. But has the kernel found the emmc ?
7. As you have to operate the PBP upside down you use your shortcut to open a teminal. Then use command `lsblk` to see which drives are found. There should be two main devices called mmcblkX (X can vary). your emmc is the one without the root mount. In my case this worked in the first try, however if the timing in step 5 is not quite right you might have to repeat this. From there.
8. With the emmc active I have now closed my laptop and screwed the bottom back on. 
9. Open the PBP normally (not upside down)
10 Download a PBP image. I have used the standard Debian release. links in the wiki
11. unpack the downloaded image file and dd it to the emmc (instructions in the wiki)
12. reboot. done

It probably sounds more complicated than it is. Use common sense and don't apply pressure on the PBP.

[url=https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=8865][/url]
Thank you!
I have an emmc adapter so it was really easy. But i did't found the post with the guide before obviously, so you helped me petty much.


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