06-09-2023, 05:39 AM
Hello,
Beside the default OS from DanctNix I would like to experiment with other OSes. Documentation states simply said "... put bootable OS on an SD-card and reboot ..." but that aint't gonna work obviously.
So now I try getting grip on the boot procedure. the boot partition (EFI) on the eMMC contains files for the u-boot boot loader. It has a routine (boot.txt) that checks for the presence of a SD and two or more partitions on it. It expects /boot with Image.gz, initramfs-linux.img and .dtb files on the first, and / (root) sits as the OS on the second.
As far as I can understand (I am not familiar with u-boot), without changing things on the eMMC, if I copy the files from the eMMC to a SD-card first partition and a compatible OS to a second partition, the SD-card might be bootable but I suppose Image.gz and initramfs-linux.img will need (Q1) to be altered ? In this setup, if no SD-card is present, my Pinetab2 boots the default OS, if SD-card is present it will boot the one (and not more than one) OS on the SD-card.
Is there an easy way with u-boot to provide a boot menu and thus possible (Q2) access to multiple OSes ? Has Tow-Boot something to do with it ? I found some references but I'm not sure things apply to the Pinetab2 ...
Is it possible to (Q3) let UEFI provide boot options ? It would need the Rockchip RK3566 and it's chipset to be UEFI aware, I suppose.
If I check the danctnix factory image file, I find multiple partitions. The first two have no mountable filesystem, the third has a extlinux.conf file and the fourth has the OS files. In this post Manuel Traut uses this setup to start from and then adapts partition 3 and 4 to run another OS. But (Q4) what is the function of the first two 'mystery' partitions ? And (Q5) could there be some risk this setup will overwrite the eMMC as is originally intended ?
Finally, the Pinetab2 ships with a debug UART adapter. Is there (Q6) more information about this adapter than what I find in the Pinetab2 Wiki ? Can I use this adapter to change the initial boot order where the eMMC has prevalence over the SD-card ?
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next experiments !
Beside the default OS from DanctNix I would like to experiment with other OSes. Documentation states simply said "... put bootable OS on an SD-card and reboot ..." but that aint't gonna work obviously.
So now I try getting grip on the boot procedure. the boot partition (EFI) on the eMMC contains files for the u-boot boot loader. It has a routine (boot.txt) that checks for the presence of a SD and two or more partitions on it. It expects /boot with Image.gz, initramfs-linux.img and .dtb files on the first, and / (root) sits as the OS on the second.
As far as I can understand (I am not familiar with u-boot), without changing things on the eMMC, if I copy the files from the eMMC to a SD-card first partition and a compatible OS to a second partition, the SD-card might be bootable but I suppose Image.gz and initramfs-linux.img will need (Q1) to be altered ? In this setup, if no SD-card is present, my Pinetab2 boots the default OS, if SD-card is present it will boot the one (and not more than one) OS on the SD-card.
Is there an easy way with u-boot to provide a boot menu and thus possible (Q2) access to multiple OSes ? Has Tow-Boot something to do with it ? I found some references but I'm not sure things apply to the Pinetab2 ...
Is it possible to (Q3) let UEFI provide boot options ? It would need the Rockchip RK3566 and it's chipset to be UEFI aware, I suppose.
If I check the danctnix factory image file, I find multiple partitions. The first two have no mountable filesystem, the third has a extlinux.conf file and the fourth has the OS files. In this post Manuel Traut uses this setup to start from and then adapts partition 3 and 4 to run another OS. But (Q4) what is the function of the first two 'mystery' partitions ? And (Q5) could there be some risk this setup will overwrite the eMMC as is originally intended ?
Finally, the Pinetab2 ships with a debug UART adapter. Is there (Q6) more information about this adapter than what I find in the Pinetab2 Wiki ? Can I use this adapter to change the initial boot order where the eMMC has prevalence over the SD-card ?
Anyway, I'm looking forward to the next experiments !