So, following thing:

I have built a server with the RockPro64 and 4 HDDs. After my SD Card died due to frequent flashing of new images and the immense data writing due to kernel compilation, I have looked into how I could boot my RockPro64 from my HDDs.

Turns out, nothing easier than that!

Just install your (in my case Arch) Linux on the SD card. This will create different partitions, where mmcblk0p7 (or however your System will call the partitions on your SD card), the 7th partition is your root file system.

U-Boot WILL ALWAYS look in the boot/ folder on this partition for the kernel and the extlinux config. But not for the other parts, the root= flag in the extlinux.conf specifies where the kernel should boot the rootfs from.

So, create a partition on one of the HDDs (Raid and LVM should also work, just make sure to edit the mkinitcpio and recreate the kernel config before you continue), format it to ext4 and copy everything from the rootfs on the sdcard into this new partition on the HDD. Make sure you copy them with correct metadata, I recommend rsync.

After that, use fdisk to give a label for this partition, that you will not use any more on the system, like 'hddroot'.

Edit the /boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf on your SD card and change your rootfs to the specified partition label above: 'root=label=hddroot'

now, in the partition on the HDD, edit the etc/fstab to mount your original rootfs from the sdcard somewhere on your system. I created a folder called /sdroot for that. Set another fstab entry to bind mount /sdroot/boot to /boot. This is needed, so that /boot in your system points to /boot on your SDcard. Otherwise, kernel upgrades would install your new kernel on the HDD and U-Boot would still load the old one from the SD card. This way, a new kernel installed to /boot will always land on your SD card, minimizing the write load to kernel upgrades only.

That't it, you're good to go! This is running with a USB HDD and a SATA HDD on my system, I'll try packing the rootfs into a software raid and lvm later. Hopefully this way, my SD card will survive more than just a couple of weeks...

Have fun!

Hi Guys,

I found this very interesting project that is based on Debian, beside the fact that it would be awesome if we can have a customized iso image, I was wondering if, since the moment it is based on Debian, using the Debian iso and the official guide it is possible setup the freedombox, what do you think?


https://freedombox.org/
https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Hardware/Debian

Hello,
I’m trying to run a Minecraft server for a handful of friends, which I was successful doing so, but id like to squeeze as much of the board as I can.

I’m currently running the “Bionic minimal ROCKPro64 0.7.11 1075 arm64 img”, and the server running at 3GB ram (Maybe I can boost it to 3.5? If I disable unneeded services and processes), or is there a more lightweight ISO to server host? All I need is Java/Internet/and that’s about it, a light system.

What would be safe services and process to get rid off if I only need need java and internet?

I must of missed the announcement and can't seem to find any specific details about the new 1080p pinebooks.  Can anyone confirm weather this is just the 11.6" or if it also includes the 14" pinebook that now comes with a 1080p display.

I'm looking at the RockPro64 and would like to put together a working SBC, but I'm not quite sure what ( in addition to the CPU board ) what to purchase.  Is there a comprehensive list of what is needed to get it running?

This also applies to other models.

Hello everyone,
 
I managed to use USART as I/F to GPS (9600 bauds) following https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=5029
 
As mentioned in some point along the thread, USART RX line data may prevent normal re-booting, which is absolutely unacceptable in my application (an autonomous vehicle). Is there any way to completely disable (remove, cancel, annihilate, etc.) the console terminal keeping alive a fresh and pure USART for general purpose connections?
 
Thank you in advance
J

It's been a while since I used my board. For whatever reason, there was nothing on the micro SD card. I put DietPi on it and got a red light. I forgot, do I need to have ethernet connected the first time?

Hello

I am running Ubuntu18.04.1 LTS on my RockPro64 with the 4.4.154-1124-rockchip-ayufan-ged3ce4d15ec1 kernel.

I have trouble to make samba running at full speed (I can expect almost 90MB/s) while transfering a file from the board (SD card) to my W10 desktop.
The speed start around 90 MB/s for almost 70% of the file and fall down to 30 MB/s (even less) for the remaining of the file (and for other files as well).
I test with a 2.5 GB file.

When I transfert a file from my QNAP, I run at 100 MB/s.

Does anybody know how to boost samba preformance ? Boost SD card accesses ?
Problem with the SD card ?


Thank you in advance

Ross

...is a subjective thing of course.

I got my Pinebook late last week and got to play with it quite a bit over the weekend.  I did some light tweaking here and there (disabled autoload of Firefox for one) and got some basic tools (compilers and editors) up and running.  All in all the performance is about what I expected but the experience can probably be improved with a more lightweight windowing environment.

Thankfully there are a number of options available.  For those of you who tried these other OS offerings what would you suggest I look into first?

Thanks.

D.

I've just received a RockPro64 with a 16GB eMMC module. I installed DietPi fine on the module and booted okay, spending a couple of hours configuring. But the next time I came to boot, I had to make several attempts before it actually worked. And then today, it booted on the third attempt but since then, nothing.

I'm powering from the 12V 5A supply I bought from Pine64.

At each attempt, the power LED comes on, but then nothing.

I tried booting from an SD card, and that worked fine. So I reflashed the OS image to the eMMC. I used Etcher for this and noticed that it took an unnaturally long time for Etcher to validate the image. (It did eventually.) But the RockPro64 still won't boot from the eMMC.

Do I have to conclude that this is a dead module? I've read about other people having problems with eMMC modules, so I'm starting to wonder if this is an unreliable way to go.