06-11-2021, 09:42 AM
(06-10-2021, 04:02 PM)calinb Wrote: The latest multi-distro image was working great on my SD card until recently. For unknown reasons, multi-distro now always boots to Arch Linux ARM 2021-06-02 (terminal only) when I power it up with the power button. The only way I can access the multi-distro menu and boot something else is by unplugging and re-plugging the USB power cable or wall wort power supply. When I toggle power in this manner, I get the usual multi-distro menu with the Arch Linux ARM 2021-06-02 menu selection highlighted but the text is green, instead of white like the other OS selections. I don't remember it being green in the past but I don't recall the previous color with high confidence.What probably happened was at some point the Arch Linux ARM distro was selected as the boot default, likely by accidentally holding the power button over it instead of just pushing it. Holding power will highlight that distro on the p-boot menu, indicating it will now default boot to this distro. To boot to the p-boot menu instead, hold the volume down button while you press the power button. In the menu, you can then hold the power button while over a distro you prefer as default, which will get highlighted and boot on power unless the volume down key is held.
Does anyone know what caused this change in multi-distro behavior and how it might be corrected, other than re-flashing my SD card with the multi-distro image?
Also, it is a bit of a problem to have Arch Linux ARM 2021-06-02 as the default highlighted selection in multi-boot, because it's too easy to unintentionally boot it by accidentally pressing the single power button instead of pressing rocker button to highlight the desired selection. (It often happens to me when I'm trying to remove the back cover on the phone.) I'd prefer a windowed Linux selection as the default highlighted selection or maybe "Power-off." (Actually, I'd most prefer the default highlighted selection to be the eMMC boot, but perhaps not everyone has an OS installed on their eMMC). Given the Arch terminal CLI only, it is necessary to either power off the phone with the power button (hold it down) or hook up a USB keyboard to logon and "sudo poweroff" or "sudo reboot" to cleanly shut down Arch.
There's more boot configuration options and I would assume it's possible to unhighlight the default without selecting a new one, but I can't seem to find that info in the documentation. @megous, if you're able to clarify if that setting can be cleared and the other boot config options or point to where these are documented, that would be very useful info. This bootloader and multi-distro images have made the PinePhone much more rewarding to mess around with!