Updating Ubuntu 16.04
#1
I have a Pine A64 2GB, with a 32GB microSD. Monitor is 27 inch Iiyama 1920 x 1080 with HDMI connection

I downloaded Longsleep's Ubuntu image 'https://www.stdin.xyz/downloads/people/longsleep/pine64-images/ubuntu/xenial-pine64-bspkernel-20161218-1.img.xz' 
The image was transferred to the microSD using my 64 bit Ubuntu Mate 16.04 system, using 'xzcat xenial-pine64-bspkernel.xz|pv|sudo dd of=/dev/sdd bs=1M oflag=sync'

I then transferred the MicroSD to the Pine and booted it. I logged in as ubuntu and ran 'sudo /usr/local/sbin/resize_rootfs.sh'
Following resizing of the root filing system, I rebooted and ran 'sudo /usr/local/sbin/install_mate_desktop.sh'
Rebooting after this, I get the Mate login screen and login as ubuntu.

So far, so good. It looks excellent!

However, I did a check for updates and there are some.
But Ubuntu tells me there isn't enough space on /boot to do the updates.
I've checked the structure of the MicroSD and there is a small unallocated space at the beginning, /boot, which is about 52MB followed by / which takes up the rest of the 32GB space.

Is there a reason why the updates are trying to install to /boot rather than /?
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#2
(01-31-2017, 07:34 AM)SteveBlack Wrote: <snip>

However, I did a check for updates and there are some.
But Ubuntu tells me there isn't enough space on /boot to do the updates.
I've checked the structure of the MicroSD and there is a small unallocated space at the beginning, /boot, which is about 52MB followed by / which takes up the rest of the 32GB space.

Is there a reason why the updates are trying to install to /boot rather than /?

I am fairly certain that you are misinterpretting something .

... reboot your pine board and open a terminal.  Next ;  sudo -i

cd
apt update
apt upgrade

... see if that works.


Its not going to try to put the updates on /boot...
marcushh777    Cool

please join us for a chat @  irc.pine64.xyz:6667   or ssl  irc.pine64.xyz:6697

( I regret that I am not able to respond to personal messages;  let's meet on irc! )
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#3
(01-31-2017, 08:06 AM)MarkHaysHarris777 Wrote:
(01-31-2017, 07:34 AM)SteveBlack Wrote: <snip>

However, I did a check for updates and there are some.
But Ubuntu tells me there isn't enough space on /boot to do the updates.
I've checked the structure of the MicroSD and there is a small unallocated space at the beginning, /boot, which is about 52MB followed by / which takes up the rest of the 32GB space.

Is there a reason why the updates are trying to install to /boot rather than /?

I am fairly certain that you are misinterpretting something .

... reboot your pine board and open a terminal.  Next ;  sudo -i

cd
apt update
apt upgrade

... see if that works.


Its not going to try to put the updates on /boot...

Many thanks for this advice. It worked perfectly.

I was trying to update from the Mate System/Administration/Software Updater menu option, which listed a number of updates. When I clicked 'Install' I got the dialog in the attachment to this post.

I then used 'apt update' and 'apt upgrade' as you advised and all of the updates were installed. I then rebooted and used the System/Administration/Software Updater menu option again and Ubuntu reports that the system is up to date.

I'm happy that the update is done, but as you can see from my attached screenshot, there is an issue about space on /boot.

I'll use the terminal to update in future, but I thought it useful to post the screenshot.


Attached Files Thumbnail(s)
   
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#4
(01-31-2017, 03:18 PM)SteveBlack Wrote: I'm happy that the update is done, but as you can see from my attached screenshot, there is an issue about space on /boot.

I haven't checked how the images are partitioned lately, but this error is typically due to the boot partition being too small for a kernel update to be installed, as they are normally installed side by side with the currently running kernel, in case there is an issue with a new kernel that prevents your machine from booting. If you have several kernel versions installed, it is possible to clean-up some of the older ones, and gain back space in /boot. This is a pretty common problem on ubuntu also, when you have a multi-partition setup... there are no end of people on the ubuntu forums wondering what is going on, and why Ubuntu doesn't do some self-cleanup every once in a while when updating! :-O

I'd be surprised if this is the case though, unless there has been a change in the last month or two whereby the kernel for the pine64 is now packaged in a repo and checked when running apt-get, instead of via the custom update-kernel and update-uboot shell scripts.
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#5
That is one of the reason why I hate those BSP images where their U-Boot are obsolete and unable to read ext4 partitions and requires those stupid small vfat partition to load kernel.
I'm much prefer single ext4 rootfs such as Armbian kernel 4.10.x with Apriztel's U-Boot, even been able to boot directly from USB drive.
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#6
Many thanks to everyone for the comments here, particularly @MarkHaysHarris777 which solved the problem. Users of the Mate desktop on Raspberyy Pi 3 are having similar problems. I have directed the users of that forum to this thread for a potential solution.
Cool
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#7
(02-01-2017, 10:26 AM)martinayotte Wrote: That is one of the reason why I hate those BSP images where their U-Boot are obsolete and unable to read ext4 partitions and requires those stupid small vfat partition to load kernel.
I'm much prefer single ext4 rootfs such as Armbian kernel 4.10.x with Apriztel's U-Boot, even been able to boot directly from USB drive.

I'm doing my research so as to boot from USB drive, but have run into so many outdated posts that I am completely confused what the current state of U-boot and other firmware parts are...in case you would care to lend some friendly guidance about doing that.  I've run longsleep's uboot and kernel update script lines as below and received "You are already on the latest...":
Code:
bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image/master/simpleimage/platform-scripts/pine64_update_uboot.sh)
bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image/master/simpleimage/platform-scripts/pine64_update_kernel.sh)
I know you say:
Quote:It requires a small SPI-NOR flash connected to the header and having u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin flashed into it.
[OBSOLETE: But I am not familiar with how a "SPI-NOR flash" is flashed and soldered in.]



  (I have a $2 USB 2 to SATA cable being shipped to me & 64GB SSD ready to install, but I also have 32 GB flash drives - USB 3.x - galore that should do the USB boot-drive job in the meantime, right?  I moved to DietPi in the hopes of good youtube videos, but did have longsleep's image working at one time also.  My system is for automation around the house.  I've avoided using OpenHAB image until I understand it deeper, like can I just keep DietPi and do manual OpenHAB install; what will happen to my current automation programming; etc.)
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#8
Let's say that u-boot provide a kernel argument called "root=<something>" and that "something" could be either a partition device such as "/dev/mmcblk0p2" for the partition #2 of an sdcard, or such as "/dev/sda1" for partition #1 of an USB HDD. Only changing that should be enough for you to be able to have your rootfs on external drive, although you will still need the sdcard inserted for u-boot itself been executed.
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#9
(03-11-2017, 09:02 AM)martinayotte Wrote: Let's say that u-boot provide a kernel argument called "root=<something>" and that "something" could be either a partition device such as "/dev/mmcblk0p2" for the partition #2 of an sdcard, or such as "/dev/sda1" for partition #1 of an USB HDD. Only changing that should be enough for you to be able to have your rootfs on external drive, although you will still need the sdcard inserted for u-boot itself been executed.

I appreciate your accommodating me thus far, martinayotte, but I feel I am hijacking this thread to continue any longer on this topic.  I'll just search other places, including your various posts, for enlightenment on the current, confusingly-rapidly-changing state of booting the Pine64 using options that Uboot (whatever that even is ;-) ) will give me for my purposes; i.e., to offload device writes from u-SD card so I'm not worried about storage device lifespan for a good long time.
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#10
(01-31-2017, 08:06 AM)MarkHaysHarris777 Wrote:
(01-31-2017, 07:34 AM)SteveBlack Wrote: <snip>

However, I did a check for updates and there are some.
But Ubuntu tells me there isn't enough space on /boot to do the updates.
I've checked the structure of the MicroSD and there is a small unallocated space at the beginning, /boot, which is about 52MB followed by / which takes up the rest of the 32GB space.

Is there a reason why the updates are trying to install to /boot rather than /?

I am fairly certain that you are misinterpretting something .

... reboot your pine board and open a terminal.  Next ;  sudo -i

cd
apt update
apt upgrade

... see if that works.


Its not going to try to put the updates on /boot...

I concur that this happens in the graphical system update for Ubuntu Mate if you go to "System->Administration->Software Updater"   It will give you a message that there is not enough storage left in /BOOT to finish the update.  At no time did I ask it to start in /BOOT.
  Reply


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