Burning Android Image Hell

[Major_Sarcasm]

Hi Guys

Yesterday, I received my Pine 2GB (yay ).

Yesterday, I wasted around 4 hours trying to burn the newest Android image via PhoenixCard (not yay ).

No matter what I did, no matter how I formatted the card beforehand, no matter what order I tried the steps in; error at some point in the write process. Tried two different cards (both known good cards, both Sandisk Ultras), one 32GB that I use in a GoPro and one 16GB that I bought for the Pine. I also tried using a USB Micro adaptor, and also a dedicated card reader.

After 4 hours, I gave up. All the more frustrating because about a month ago, I successfully wrote an earlier Android image to the same card. The only reason I deleted that image was to update to the newest version.

No problem, I thought. Today I'll write the DD image with Win32 Disk Imager instead! Duly downloaded and unzipped. Opened Win32 Disk Imager and got the attached error message. Also tried Rufus with a similar error.

Please help.

   

[psychedup]

Sorry to hear about your frustrating experience.

It sounds like your microsd card is not big enough for the 16GB image - the manufacturers seem to have their own definition of what a MB or GB is.

I have a Sandisk microsd card and was going to try it to see if I'd get the same error, but I can't find a 16 GB image. Where did you find it?

[Major_Sarcasm]

I got it here - http://files.pine64.org/os/android/andro...4-16GB.zip

Linked from this page: http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pine_A6...re_Release

[psychedup]

I got it here - http://files.pine64.org/os/android/andro...4-16GB.zip

Linked from this page: http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pine_A6...re_Release

I found it right after I posted that. I downloaded it and it copied successfully to my 16GB Sandisk card, but it's an old slow card so I guess that doesn't tell us anything. I'd recommend trying the 8GB image for now. There ought to be another way to resize the data partition afterwards to let you use the whole 16GB... I'll look into that.

[psychedup]

I got it here - http://files.pine64.org/os/android/andro...4-16GB.zip

Linked from this page: http://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pine_A6...re_Release

I found it right after I posted that. I downloaded it and it copied successfully to my 16GB Sandisk card, but it's an old slow card so I guess that doesn't tell us anything. I'd recommend trying the 8GB image for now. There ought to be another way to resize the data partition afterwards to let you use the whole 16GB... I'll look into that.

Ugh... it seems like all you'd have to do is figure out which partition is /data and resize it using Linux, but I tried and am not getting anywhere. I'm afraid the android partitioning scheme is a bit over my head, and since I don't have my pine64 yet to test on, I don't want to screw up your sdcard.

My recommendation is to just use the 8GB image for now, unless you want to try Phoenixcard again (make sure you select the Startup option).

Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[Luke]

Thanks psychedup for trying to help! 

First some troubleshooting/ checklist of using phoenix card: 

1) Some people reported that they get successful burns using win 7 legacy mode in win 10 - so try that
2) Are you certain that you downloaded the correct image for phoenix ? (this image)
3) Did you use 'Startup!' when burning the image with phoenix ? 

[edit] dont know if this is applicable to you, but see this

About resizing the DD image (please note I don't know much about it but it looks like it is possible - but I may be wrong): 

You could burn the 8/16GB image and then potentially use one of these methods: this or this

Let us know if you have any success either way.

[Major_Sarcasm]

Thank you both for your replies and help. I'll post back with how I get on.

Edit: a quick try with compatibility modes (win 7, 8 & XP) didn't work. Ironically, I tried writing in Product mode and it wrote 1st time!! Useless for booting I know, but odd all the same.

Going to download the 8GB version of the DD image and use Win32 DI to write that. Last resort!

Thanks again for help guys. Would be cool to get this Pine booting.

[g_t_j]

I dodn't bother with Phoenix Card at all and I'd suggest you do the same.

I used win32diskimager and burnt 3 x Sandisk 16GB U3 cards for 3 different boards.
Not only all burnt images are working flawlessly but all my 3 Pines booted within seconds. I was expecting something like 15 or 20 min for a first time boot(as this is what they had been writing in here) however mine booted in a blink of an eye.

Android 20160505 runs smoothly with no crashes.

[Major_Sarcasm]

Downloading the 8GB image now. I'll try resizing it with a partition tool that I have.

[Luke]

Downloading the 8GB image now. I'll try resizing it with a partition tool that I have.

I had issues with gparted - just letting you know. Come back and report if you got it to work