(08-21-2023, 09:44 AM)fxc Wrote: The vibration and the LED colors are coming from Tow-Boot, so there is already Tow-Boot on the phone installed. That means you don't have to worry about Tow-Boot or the RE button anymore.

On the eMMC it appears that you accidentally wrote the SPI installer image to the eMMC (which should not be done and is definitely a mistake).

The solution for this is to write a disk image to "sde" here, correct. Download an image, extract it from the archive and then flash it using:

Code:

sudo dd if=IMAGE.img of=/dev/sde bs=1M status=progress conv=fsync

(08-21-2023, 04:36 PM)Ctrl_Amiga_1070 Wrote:

(08-21-2023, 09:44 AM)fxc Wrote: The vibration and the LED colors are coming from Tow-Boot, so there is already Tow-Boot on the phone installed. That means you don't have to worry about Tow-Boot or the RE button anymore.

On the eMMC it appears that you accidentally wrote the SPI installer image to the eMMC (which should not be done and is definitely a mistake).

The solution for this is to write a disk image to "sde" here, correct. Download an image, extract it from the archive and then flash it using:

Code:

sudo dd if=IMAGE.img of=/dev/sde bs=1M status=progress conv=fsync

In this example replace the "IMAGE.img" with the filename of the image (make sure the image is compatible with the PinePhone Pro and that you extracted it from the archive, check the file extension) and make sure your device is called /dev/sde.

Makes sense, almost. If tow-boot is installed, already and I dd image to /sde (including sde1-tow-boot) does that mean I am over-writing the towboot or does the image file account for this?
I am asking as my limited use of the "dd" command, I believe that it writes completely over the disk in this case... So I am assuming that it is writing partitions as well.
Just out of curiosity, which file or files within the img file is telling DD to write separate partitions. I would like to learn something, and just to be awkward, I sort of have to see it, or do it, for it to make sense. Kinda when I switched from Amiga's to DOS, just as Win 95 (I think). I would play around with all the dos commands. Change colour of text, created all these wonderful zip and unzip cmd files that I used on my games. I had a "ball of a time" doing all this, and I could see the results right away. If something went wrong, which it did, I unzipped a game and totally stuffed it up, as it uninstalled into it's main directory, then again into a sub-directory and then aborted as I had run out of HDD space (I only had a 110Meg at the time). Once I realised what was going on, easy fix.

It's the same here. I am keen on learning how things are done, then I can move up into bug hunting. Retirement has left me BORED SILLY, and solving problems and fixing a bit code is about all my brain wants to do.
I know I have a huge amount to learn first, so baby steps.
Thanks too FXC

(08-20-2023, 05:46 PM)Ctrl_Amiga_1070 Wrote:

(08-20-2023, 05:07 AM)fxc Wrote: Everything you write here suggests that your phone is shipped with Tow-Boot pre-installed.
--- I must have been one of the very early ones to receive as I ordered and was shipped at very end of June 2022. Yippie...

Could you please power down the phone, remove the microSD card and then hold VOLUME UP and shortly hold POWER to power on the phone while still holding VOLUME UP? Does it show any LED colors there?

Yep. Done all that. Hold vol+up on attaching USB cable connected to PC, NO-Sd-Card. I get Red Light and short buzz, red light stays on for 5 or so secs, then double short buzz, then Blue Light.

I have lsblk showing
sde                           8:64   1 115.2G  0 disk   
├─sde1                        8:65   1    12M  0 part   
└─sde2                        8:66   1    22M  0 part  
using KDE Partition Manager I see
sde                          UMS Disk 0 - 115.25Gib 
├─sde1                        unknown (type)    partition Label = Firmware (Tow-Boot) 
└─sde2                        ext4 (type)            partition Label = spi-installer

From what I almost remember this is normal. All I have to do is add or install which OS I am interested in...
Yes???
OR
No???

Oh!. To install stuff on SD-Card I use the following in order
1. DD
2. UnetBootin (Linux)

I'm not using that "Balena Etcher" thing website mentioned. So... fxc...  I follow this
https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Pro#Flashing_to_the_eMMC
yes or no ??
Thanks to FXC. Can I Plus 1 you for your assistance or up armour or something similar?

(08-22-2023, 02:20 AM)Ctrl_Amiga_1070 Wrote:

(08-21-2023, 04:36 PM)Ctrl_Amiga_1070 Wrote:

(08-21-2023, 09:44 AM)fxc Wrote: The vibration and the LED colors are coming from Tow-Boot, so there is already Tow-Boot on the phone installed. That means you don't have to worry about Tow-Boot or the RE button anymore.

On the eMMC it appears that you accidentally wrote the SPI installer image to the eMMC (which should not be done and is definitely a mistake).

The solution for this is to write a disk image to "sde" here, correct. Download an image, extract it from the archive and then flash it using:

Code:

sudo dd if=IMAGE.img of=/dev/sde bs=1M status=progress conv=fsync

In this example replace the "IMAGE.img" with the filename of the image (make sure the image is compatible with the PinePhone Pro and that you extracted it from the archive, check the file extension) and make sure your device is called /dev/sde.

Makes sense, almost. If tow-boot is installed, already and I dd image to /sde (including sde1-tow-boot) does that mean I am over-writing the towboot or does the image file account for this?
I am asking as my limited use of the "dd" command, I believe that it writes completely over the disk in this case... So I am assuming that it is writing partitions as well.
Just out of curiosity, which file or files within the img file is telling DD to write separate partitions. I would like to learn something, and just to be awkward, I sort of have to see it, or do it, for it to make sense. Kinda when I switched from Amiga's to DOS, just as Win 95 (I think). I would play around with all the dos commands. Change colour of text, created all these wonderful zip and unzip cmd files that I used on my games. I had a "ball of a time" doing all this, and I could see the results right away. If something went wrong, which it did, I unzipped a game and totally stuffed it up, as it uninstalled into it's main directory, then again into a sub-directory and then aborted as I had run out of HDD space (I only had a 110Meg at the time). Once I realised what was going on, easy fix.

It's the same here. I am keen on learning how things are done, then I can move up into bug hunting. Retirement has left me BORED SILLY, and solving problems and fixing a bit code is about all my brain wants to do.
I know I have a huge amount to learn first, so baby steps.
Thanks too FXC

Tried to find an IMG file to download for emmc flashing, but I get an uncompressed folder with like 5 or 6 .IMG files.
Very confused about this.
So I tried the other method of sd-card IMG
I downloaded it, uncompresed it, DD it to a blank SD card (as in no partitions, no format)
NOW. Instructions are, power on + vol-DOWN. I get a single short buzz, then red light, then 5 seconds later, double short buzz and blue light, then I release vol+down, and shortly there after I get a triple buzz then a yellow light. UNABLE to see phone or sdcard from pc and yes the cable is connected.
I went to the other method of powerOn + vol UP and I can see lsblk sde sde1 & sde2
I do NOT see anything called dev/mmcblk2 or anything similar.
What have or am I doing wrong. The IMG file is on the sd-card, and the command is to dd that to emmc.
How do I know or find out which is the emmc?
Thanks

---

(08-20-2023, 05:46 PM)Ctrl_Amiga_1070 Wrote:

(08-20-2023, 05:07 AM)fxc Wrote: Everything you write here suggests that your phone is shipped with Tow-Boot pre-installed.
--- I must have been one of the very early ones to receive as I ordered and was shipped at very end of June 2022. Yippie...

Could you please power down the phone, remove the microSD card and then hold VOLUME UP and shortly hold POWER to power on the phone while still holding VOLUME UP? Does it show any LED colors there?

Yep. Done all that. Hold vol+up on attaching USB cable connected to PC, NO-Sd-Card. I get Red Light and short buzz, red light stays on for 5 or so secs, then double short buzz, then Blue Light.

I have lsblk showing
sde                           8:64   1 115.2G  0 disk   
├─sde1                        8:65   1    12M  0 part   
└─sde2                        8:66   1    22M  0 part  
using KDE Partition Manager I see
sde                          UMS Disk 0 - 115.25Gib 
├─sde1                        unknown (type)    partition Label = Firmware (Tow-Boot) 
└─sde2                        ext4 (type)            partition Label = spi-installer

From what I almost remember this is normal. All I have to do is add or install which OS I am interested in...
Yes???
OR
No???

Oh!. To install stuff on SD-Card I use the following in order
1. DD
2. UnetBootin (Linux)

I'm not using that "Balena Etcher" thing website mentioned. So... fxc...  I follow this
https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Pro#Flashing_to_the_eMMC
yes or no ??
Thanks to FXC. Can I Plus 1 you for your assistance or up armour or something similar?

Yeah. I am getting this again. I'm on a merry-go-around here. I am making some mistakes.
NOW. if I use the non sd-card gz file, uncompressed into its on folder, can I DD that to the sd-card to make the sd-card boot the OS?

• Please boot the phone while holding the volume up button
  
• Use the command "lsblk" and check if the disk sde and the partitions sde1 and sde2 appear:
  
  Code:

  lsblk

• It should output something like the following. Make sure that "sde" is the eMMC device with the 115.2G memory (it should display "115.2G  0 disk"):
  

• Quote:sde                          8:64  1 115.2G  0 disk 
  ├─sde1                        8:65  1    12M  0 part 
  └─sde2                        8:66  1    22M  0 part 

• Change directory to your "Downloads" folder:
  
  Code:

  cd ~/Downloads/
• Download a compatible image with "wget":
  
  Code:

  wget https://github.com/manjaro-pinephone/plasma-mobile/releases/download/factory_202212201610/Manjaro-ARM-plasma-mobile-pinephonepro-202212201610.img.xz
• Extract the archive using "unxz":
  
  Code:

  unxz Manjaro-ARM-plasma-mobile-pinephonepro-202212201610.img.xz
• Write the extracted image to the disk:
  
  Code:

  sudo dd if=Manjaro-ARM-plasma-mobile-pinephonepro-202212201610.img of=/dev/sde bs=1M status=progress conv=fsync
• Reboot the phone after the flashing is finished. It should now boot into Manjaro with Plasma Mobile.
  

(08-22-2023, 01:27 PM)fxc Wrote: Regarding your above question: Tow-Boot is stored on a separate chip called the SPI flash memory on the PinePhone Pro. So no, overwriting the eMMC flash memory does not touch Tow-Boot.

Regarding your question with the image files: You can imagine images like a full copy of a disk, including all the partitions and the partition table. So the disk image file is written to the full disk.

I have trouble following you with the rest of the question, some of them are super obscure. For example you mention a file which has 6 images (?) and you don't even mention any of the commands you used for flashing or how the files are even called. At this point it is getting very difficult or even impossible to help you as I have no idea what you are doing.

My last option is to give you an instruction step by step and you have to write every command exactly as written. Do not write the commands by hand, please copy and paste every command without changing any of the contents:

• Please boot the phone while holding the volume up button
  
• Use the command "lsblk" and check if the disk sde and the partitions sde1 and sde2 appear:
  
  Code:

  lsblk

• It should output something like the following. Make sure that "sde" is the eMMC device with the 115.2G memory (it should display "115.2G  0 disk"):
  

• Quote:sde                          8:64  1 115.2G  0 disk 
  ├─sde1                        8:65  1    12M  0 part 
  └─sde2                        8:66  1    22M  0 part 

• Change directory to your "Downloads" folder:
  
  Code:

  cd ~/Downloads/
• Download a compatible image with "wget":
  
  Code:

  wget https://github.com/manjaro-pinephone/plasma-mobile/releases/download/factory_202212201610/Manjaro-ARM-plasma-mobile-pinephonepro-202212201610.img.xz
• Extract the archive using "unxz":
  
  Code:

  unxz Manjaro-ARM-plasma-mobile-pinephonepro-202212201610.img.xz
• Write the extracted image to the disk:
  
  Code:

  sudo dd if=Manjaro-ARM-plasma-mobile-pinephonepro-202212201610.img of=/dev/sde bs=1M status=progress conv=fsync
• Reboot the phone after the flashing is finished. It should now boot into Manjaro with Plasma Mobile.
  

(08-22-2023, 01:27 PM)fxc Wrote:

(08-22-2023, 02:20 AM)Ctrl_Amiga_1070 Wrote: Tried to find an IMG file to download for emmc flashing, but I get an uncompressed folder with like 5 or 6 .IMG files.
Very confused about this.
So I tried the other method of sd-card IMG

---

(08-27-2023, 11:20 PM)Ctrl_Amiga_1070 Wrote: ather than the SD-Card version, as

(08-22-2023, 01:27 PM)fxc Wrote:

(08-22-2023, 02:20 AM)Ctrl_Amiga_1070 Wrote: Tried to find an IMG file to download for emmc flashing, but I get an uncompressed folder with like 5 or 6 .IMG files.
Very confused about this.
So I tried the other method of sd-card IMG

---

I downloaded this file

gd-lineageos-pinephonepro-userdebug-2023w13.tar.gz

rather than the SD-Card version as I am having difficulty getting the pine64 to boot with the sd-card inserted

and it extracted to these multiple .img files. I don't know which one to write. And FYI, no I am not being mad with you, I am grateful for your assistance, but I am aware of how .img files work. I used to Image my primary HDD to backups, but 8TB takes to long and purchasing a second and third 8+Tb just for a backup is a waste of money.