Tow Boot install help
#1
Hello, folks... I've been reading https://tow-boot.org/devices/pine64-pinebookPro.html to attempt installing Tow Boot to the SPI. I wrote spi-installer.img to an SD card, but when I boot the PBP with that SD card installed, Tow Boot doesn't show anything.

It just boots into the OS I have installed on eMMC. I can insert another OS, written to an SD Card and the PBP boots into THAT, but it won't boot into the spi-installer.img written to an SD Card.

Am I missing a step to tell U-Boot to boot from that spi-installer.img SD Card? Or am I not grasping something else???
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 pAULIE42o
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/s
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#2
Hi!

Do you see the Tow-boot logo when booting? in that case, press ESC or CTRL+C and select "boot SD Card". It will then run the flash script on the sd card.

If it doesn't work, then temporary disable the eMMC module with the switch, flash tow-boot, and re-enable the eMMC
Kind regards,
Xavier Miller.
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#3
(09-23-2022, 01:12 PM)alchemist Wrote: Hi!

Do you see the Tow-boot logo when booting? in that case, press ESC or CTRL+C and select "boot SD Card". It will then run the flash script on the sd card.

If it doesn't work, then temporary disable the eMMC module with the switch, flash tow-boot, and re-enable the eMMC

Ahhh; no, I'm seeing the u-boot icon as I did update u-boot previously... I just buttoned the machine all back up, but I think I understand what yer suggesting.

I did get a bit further; after updating u-boot I can boot the tow boot sd (spi-installer.img), but it doesn't show a menu. The tow-boot commands go into a loop, and text runs off screen. I can ctrl-c out of it, but entering the command
spi_install (or whatever it is) fails.

maybe i'll try to disable eMMC; I forgot that SPI will still be there if I do that. Hmmmmm... thanks for the suggestion.

(I had almost just decided to stay on the updated u-boot, but do prefer the tow boot feel.)

Why does the new u-boot AND tow boot have that video glitch just before it boots into an OS?
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 pAULIE42o
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/s
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#4
I've flashed Tow-Boot after disabling the eMMC and erasing the SPI. The bootloader can interfere with the installation, so it's better to boot to SD with no IBL installed. You can also try flashing from the userspace as described here, but I would ask on Tow-Boot Matrix channel before proceeding.
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#5
(09-23-2022, 02:17 PM)myself600 Wrote: I've flashed Tow-Boot after disabling the eMMC and erasing the SPI. The bootloader can interfere with the installation, so it's better to boot to SD with no IBL installed. You can also try flashing from the userspace as described here, but I would ask on Tow-Boot Matrix channel before proceeding.

Thanks - since posting this msg at the beginning, I've been by the Matrix project issues page and learned more. It seems like that June 2022 U-Boot update that I pushed to has something to do w/ the issue. I didn't think of Matrix; that might be a great place for info/help. Thanks.

Thanks to all those who helped think thru this. Heres the bottom line;

If you've updated yer U-Boot to the June 2022 version as suggested here: https://www.jwillikers.com/update-u-boot...nebook-pro , Tow Boot's spi-installer.img written to an SD Card will fail to install.

The work around here: https://github.com/Tow-Boot/Tow-Boot/iss...-946644092 worked for me; I was able to write Tow-boot.spi.bin directly to /dev/mtd0 using;
dd if=Tow-boot.spi.bin of=/dev/mtd0

Tow Boot is installed and works fine using eMMC Manjaro and several SD/USB OSes. This worked for me on Pinebook Pro.
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 pAULIE42o
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/s
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#6
Paulie I just read your whole post. and I'm having the same or similar symptoms.

Someone helped me 3 days ago install Manjaro KDE on the Pinebook Pro Emmc. and Manjaro works. but I can not see Tow boot SD when I boot up at all. No text , nothing. and we tried to install SPI directly into the SPI /dev/mtd0 from inside manjaro and that didn't work either. any ideas?

I tried to get help inside live volunteer community chat of Pine64 Pinebook channel (in discord) but no one else has experienced this. We tried a variety of things. All I see is a red power button and dark blue screen with no text.

I am able to boot to Armbian on SD only if I switch off the emmc . otherwise, it boots to manjaro KDE.
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#7
https://tow-boot.org/devices/pine64-pinephonePro.html

ezik
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#8
Code:
sudo dd if=/dev/mtd0 of=Tow-Boot.spi.padded.bin
md5sum Tow-Boot.spi.padded.bin

should give you 6a3ed0edd39a0cbf9da587a1bb660d2c provided that it's padded with 0xFF
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