Problem Installing Linux on Rock64

[Rockfan]

I wonder if the extracted images are the problem.

Can you try writing the image by piping the .xz file to disk while it extracts? Example:

Code:

xz -k -d -c -v stretch-minimal-rock64-0.5.15-136-arm64.img.xz | dd of=/dev/<sdcard> bs=1M

Well I've tried dd'ing the images to the micro sd cards. The imaging seems to be fine, no errors. To be double sure I used gparted beforehand to manually delete all the old partitions from the cds to make sure they are gone.




output from the dd commands below:

xz -k -d -c -v stretch-minimal-rock64-0.5.15-136-arm64.img.xz | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=1M
stretch-minimal-rock64-0.5.15-136-arm64.img.xz (1/1)
  100 %     216,1 MiB / 2.177,0 MiB = 0,099    18 MiB/s       2:02             
0+214435 records in
0+214435 records out
2282749952 bytes (2,3 GB, 2,1 GiB) copied, 279,79 s, 8,2 MB/s


xz -k -d -c -v xenial-mate-rock64-0.5.15-136-arm64.img.xz  | dd of=/dev/sdb bs=1M
xenial-mate-rock64-0.5.15-136-arm64.img.xz (1/1)
  100 %   1.103,3 MiB / 5.249,0 MiB = 0,210   4,7 MiB/s      18:45             
3+418854 records in
3+418854 records out
5503975424 bytes (5,5 GB, 5,1 GiB) copied, 1346,12 s, 4,1 MB/s


Same results as before:

The stretch image just gives mmcblk  i/o buffer error and stops.

the xenial image seems to get further, more information on the screen about mali, ALSA and other things, but doesnt get any further than that.


Ive tried with the emmc in the card and with it outside, no difference. I am trying to boot from the sd card.

Perhaps the images arent suitable for rock64 4GB with an emmc? Is there anything that has to be set manually on the rock64 board? I have also tried pressing the tiny reset and recovery switches on the board.

Ive attached a pic of the boot messages I get from the xenial-mate sd image.

---

Actually doing my first install as well, with a ROCK64 4GB 32GB emmc. 
 
I downloaded the bionic minimal development image. I used a free partition manager for windows called EaseUs. With this I  deleted all partitions and rebuilt the emmc mbr. Then created a full partition as a primary 32GB FAT32. Kept the minimal image in .xz format. Started etcher and loaded the image, then selected my emmc module, then wrote the image and verified. Plugged my emmc module into the ROCK64. Powered up and it loads right into bionic minimal. From there I have tried a few different desktops. 

Do note, I did use a sdcard to enable SPI flash before starting this process.


Hope this helps

But you have to have an emmc adapter device to flash directly to the emmc? I dont have that.

Hello Rockfan,

To "flash" -> burn the unzipped file (.img) use the utility pine64_installer and follow the simple instructions.

In case you need further assistance, please let us know.

OK, I did all that. No problem with the image flashing, and so far Ive tried pine64_installer, Etcher and dd.  No errors. It all seems to flash ok.

The trouble is it doesnt boot and I dont know why.

---

Actually doing my first install as well, with a ROCK64 4GB 32GB emmc. 
 
I downloaded the bionic minimal development image. I used a free partition manager for windows called EaseUs. With this I  deleted all partitions and rebuilt the emmc mbr. Then created a full partition as a primary 32GB FAT32. Kept the minimal image in .xz format. Started etcher and loaded the image, then selected my emmc module, then wrote the image and verified. Plugged my emmc module into the ROCK64. Powered up and it loads right into bionic minimal. From there I have tried a few different desktops. 

Do note, I did use a sdcard to enable SPI flash before starting this process.


Hope this helps

But you have to have an emmc adapter device to flash directly to the emmc? I dont have that.

Yes I do have the adapter, saves a bunch of confusion when testing different distros. Worth it

Well i am trying it via the micro sd card. With or without the emmc in the board. Ive tried both.  No difference.

I think the problem is with these images.