no image works except stock here!

[mutterhunt]

I got to run postmarket OS one time, but as they make a UNIX login, I didn't know the password. I've been using Arch Linux on the X86_64 normally with Plasma and now NONE of the system in the list at pine64-software-site doesn't boot, no matter if I use the tool on the SD-Card nor with dd, nor with balenaETCHER. Should there be some bootloader unlocked or anything like  this? I'd really like to have my favorite system on a mobile.

If someone else recovers this error (and I think it is a lot of people), I also ask in their name what to do? FreeBSD isn't able to turn on, too.

Lizbeth

[Nooblife]

most distroes are downloaded as an img.xz file. you need to extract the img file from that before you do anything else.

[RonaMacGuffin]

I thought I had this problem. Fixed it by pushing the SD card all the way in.

[wibble]

There is no bootloader unlock. The boot order is baked into the processor and can't be altered by software or firmware changes, so unless there's a hardware problem you should always be able to boot from a correctly written uSD card.

Usually the problem is a mistake in writing the image to the card, such as:
* not extracting a compressed image that the writing tool doesn't handle automatically
* writing the image to the wrong place, often to a partition on the card (sda1, mmcblk0p1 etc.) instead of the whole device (sda, mmcblk0 etc.)
* corrupt image file download - forgot to check the checksum
If you can't find anything wrong then post the details of precisely what you did (which instructions you were following, which image file you used etc.) in case someone can spot something you've missed.

Sometimes it's a hardware problem:
* Broken uSD card (should be detected by verifying the image write, unless it's a rare intermittent failure)
* uSD card in SIM slot - don't laugh, it does happen!
* broken card detect switch in the uSD socket - rare but it can happen. There are workarounds but it takes a bit of effort. We can look into this if all else has failed.