100% SD bootable img

[untitled]

Can someone point me to an image of linux/bsd that is 100% bootable on Pibebook Pro from SD card with eMMC physically removed?

I tried latest Manjaro for ARM and a custom Debian from mrfixit2001, no luck.

Do I have to write u-boot separately after burning a distro img?

[wdt]

Did you do a 'hard reset' between each try?
(press AND hold pwr 20+s OR button inside)
Nearly all img have a uboot package
CPU actually is looking for idbloader, more specifically its signature (at sector 64)
8c3b fcdc 9fbe 519d
all versions of idbloader have this,,idbloader enumerates and enables mainboard mem
So, then there is room for uboot, which is assumed to be on same media

[dumetrulo]

Can someone point me to an image of linux/bsd that is 100% bootable on Pibebook Pro from SD card with eMMC physically removed?

I tried latest Manjaro for ARM and a custom Debian from mrfixit2001, no luck.

Do I have to write u-boot separately after burning a distro img?

Any image specifically designed for Pinebook Pro should have U-Boot included at the correct position, and thus work with the eMMC disabled or removed. This includes Manjaro and Armbian (and should also apply to mrfixit2001's Debian), but be sure to download and flash the ones specifically stating that they are for Pinebook Pro.

EDIT: If you haven't already, flash Tow-Boot to an SD card (the smallest one you have will do), and install it to the SPI. That will make you independent from whether eMMC is present or not since SPI comes first in the boot order.

[KC9UDX]

NetBSD will certainly work. But getting a working image is not so straightforward anymore. I have a working SD card of the Mr Fixit Debian, and do know that it works without the eMMC. But an image to make the one that I have might not be readily available anymore.

[KC9UDX]

NetBSD will certainly work.  But getting a working image is not so straightforward anymore.  I have a working SD card of the Mr Fixit Debian, and do know that it works without the eMMC.  But an image to make the one that I have might not be readily available anymore.

Just going through the links in the wiki (which are terribly out of date), the first image I found today that just works is Diet Pi.

[untitled]

I found a superb solution -- postmarket os. Boots like a charm and has instructions on their website on how to flash u-boot to SPI. Default passwd is 147147.

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NetBSD will certainly work.  But getting a working image is not so straightforward anymore.  I have a working SD card of the Mr Fixit Debian, and do know that it works without the eMMC.  But an image to make the one that I have might not be readily available anymore.

Just going through the links in the wiki (which are terribly out of date), the first image I found today that just works is Diet Pi.

We might have different versions of the laptop. I ordered mine just a week ago and I noticed that most of the instructions/images from 2020 don't work. Also layout of motherboard is different.

[KC9UDX]

I found a superb solution -- postmarket os. Boots like a charm and has instructions on their website on how to flash u-boot to SPI. Default passwd is 147147.

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NetBSD will certainly work.  But getting a working image is not so straightforward anymore.  I have a working SD card of the Mr Fixit Debian, and do know that it works without the eMMC.  But an image to make the one that I have might not be readily available anymore.

Just going through the links in the wiki (which are terribly out of date), the first image I found today that just works is Diet Pi.

We might have different versions of the laptop. I ordered mine just a week ago and I noticed that most of the instructions/images from 2020 don't work. Also layout of motherboard is different.

I have three.  The one I'm dealing with today is probably exactly like yours, I just received it last week (maybe the week before?).  One is from the 2nd production run (I think) and one is somewhere in the middle.  What I'm surmising is different about this latest one is that Manjaru U-boot has been changing, and the new PBPs come with the latest one, which is incompatible with the older images.  The thing I did find out for sure is that none of the bootable micro-sd cards that I have actually boot without a working U-boot on the eMMC.  (The Diet Pi image from the wiki does boot, which is how I'm using the PBP today to try to get a working NetBSD image)

Unfortunately for me, I assumed that everything I made with PBP#2 would actually just work on this new one.  Else I would've kept #2 at home to support trying to get the new one to work.

Hardware-wise the thing I really don't like about this new one is the new switch to disable the eMMC.  It could just be my imagination, but it seems more fragile than the original.

[untitled]

Hardware-wise the thing I really don't like about this new one is the new switch to disable the eMMC.  It could just be my imagination, but it seems more fragile than the original.

Yep. When I toggle what is supposed to be an eMMC switch (it is different than in the pictures from the wiki, so I don't know), the laptop won't boot even from SD.

[KC9UDX]

Yep. When I toggle what is supposed to be an eMMC switch (it is different than in the pictures from the wiki, so I don't know), the laptop won't boot even from SD.

Mine wouldn't either; because I found out none of the bootable cards I currently have would boot without U-boot on the eMMC.  This includes some made directly from official images.  So all the cards I had been using were not really bootable.  I did get DietPi to work.  It will boot from micro-sd with the eMMC switch turned off.  (I only used DietPi because it was the first official image I could find that actually worked.  It was serendipitous anyway, as being Debian based, I can use telnet and ftp without selling my soul.)

I also got the U-boot from pkgsrc to start to work.  It stops early and I'm going to need to use the serial console to figure out why.

I think the working NetBSD installation on my other PBP uses the U-Boot from the "Debian Desktop" that came with my first PBP.  I know that during the process of getting that one to work, I did have several cards that would boot without the eMMC, as I botched the U-boot and had to zero the eMMC (which I also did to this latest one).

[snorwood]

Fedora definitely works, but you need to install the bootloader (either Tow-Boot or the Fedora U-Boot implementation) on the SPI flash. Not sure why it will not boot entirely from the SD card.