Vanilla mainline Debian 11 (Bullseye) on the RockPro64
10-01-2021, 07:48 PM
I don't live in an English-speaking country, so I am not able to convey the most delicate nuances.
In addition, my English skills are extremely poor. Please keep that in mind first.
----
Now, let's get down to business.
Since you've already tried "Manjaro" & "Armbian", I'll use that as an example.
If you look at the file structure of each distribution yourself, you can check the contents.
In the case of "Manjaro",
/boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf ...
For "Amabian", it is
/boot/boot.scr ...
These boot files are directly interpreted and executed by "u-boot".
*) This is a rough analogy, but these files are equivalent to the configuration files of "GRUB".
If you have a specific reason to use GRUB, that's one thing.
Otherwise, you don't need to use GRUB (which is poor quality) to boot Debian,
you can just boot it the same way as any other distribution.
---
If you can provide the exact version of "u-boot" you are using, and whether or not you have a "serial console",
I can tell you exactly what to do.
However, I don't know your "separation of /var etc..." will have any negative effect.
*) You can do without the "serial console", but it will make a difference in the amount of work to change the "boot-loader".
In addition, my English skills are extremely poor. Please keep that in mind first.
----
Now, let's get down to business.
Since you've already tried "Manjaro" & "Armbian", I'll use that as an example.
If you look at the file structure of each distribution yourself, you can check the contents.
In the case of "Manjaro",
/boot/extlinux/extlinux.conf ...
For "Amabian", it is
/boot/boot.scr ...
These boot files are directly interpreted and executed by "u-boot".
*) This is a rough analogy, but these files are equivalent to the configuration files of "GRUB".
If you have a specific reason to use GRUB, that's one thing.
Otherwise, you don't need to use GRUB (which is poor quality) to boot Debian,
you can just boot it the same way as any other distribution.
---
If you can provide the exact version of "u-boot" you are using, and whether or not you have a "serial console",
I can tell you exactly what to do.
However, I don't know your "separation of /var etc..." will have any negative effect.
*) You can do without the "serial console", but it will make a difference in the amount of work to change the "boot-loader".