11-23-2023, 03:51 AM
(11-22-2023, 07:04 PM)food Wrote: Is there a way to install GRUB or some other? I'm kinda frustrated that there's a hardware only solution lol
Sure. There's a sort of BIOS NVRAM that's empty on a Pinebook out of the box: SPI. If you install a boot loader there, it will take priority over whatever it finds on eMMC.
The only boot loader software that I'm aware of is "u-boot", of which there are various versions including a fairly popular variant called "tow-boot". u-boot is apparently already on the eMMC, with Manjaro - that's how the NetBSD SD comes up for me, didn't have to do anything but put it in the slot - but that version doesn't offer a menu, it just goes by priority. Tow-boot has a menu, and apparently u-boot can be configured that way too.
In short, to get a menu, you flash some type of u-boot onto the SPI nvram.
If that goes wrong, however, it becomes a pretty basic problem. There's some pictures around here about how to pry the metal shield off the CPU on the board, so you can short SPI pin 6 to "GND" to disable it while you boot to something else so you can zero it out.
If you haven't tried just putting the SD card in and seeing if the out-the-box eMMC software will boot it, that would be my suggestion for a first step. If it doesn't, I guess I'd go to switching off the eMMC, because 80% chance you will find the problem is not the boot load sequence, it's that your SD isn't a viable bootable install, and when you get that fixed you won't really need an SPI loader.