Boot from SD card / boot options

[lodger]

Can someone please tell me how to boot from SD card on the pinebook? Is there documentation on boot mode / options somewhere? I guess there's Uboot at work but I don't know how to access the bootloader etc.

EDIT: okay, so you just have to insert an sd card with a proper pinebook image into the sd card slot and power up the device. nice. right now I'm testing android 7.1 running from an sd card.

[xalius]

You can read all about how A64 boots and the different firmware parts involved at the http://linux-sunxi.org/Pine64 wiki. Generally A64 boots from it's internal ROM first then checks if there is a boot0 binary at a certain location of the SPI Flash/SDcard/eMMC module, if that is valid, the boot0 binary will initialize DRAM and hand over to u-boot and the ATF, which in turn boot Linux/Android/BSD/....

You can find all the different parts and sourcecode for the Android/Linux images at some community github repos, like

https://github.com/ayufan-pine64
https://github.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image

Code:

A64 boot-> check fel key pressed (yes)--> FEL mode (boot from USB OTG)
                         \  
                     (no) \
                           \-------> 1) try to boot from SMHC0 (SD card)
                                     2) try to boot from SMHC2 (eMMC)
                                     3) try to boot from SPI0 (SPI NOR Flash)
                                     4) FEL mode (boot from USB OTG)

[lodger]

You can read all about how A64 boots and the different firmware parts involved at the http://linux-sunxi.org/Pine64 wiki. Generally A64 boots from it's internal ROM first then checks if there is a boot0 binary at a certain location of the SPI Flash/SDcard/eMMC module, if that is valid, the boot0 binary will initialize DRAM and hand over to u-boot and the ATF, which in turn boot Linux/Android/BSD/....

You can find all the different parts and sourcecode for the Android/Linux images at some community github repos, like

https://github.com/ayufan-pine64
https://github.com/longsleep/build-pine64-image

Code:

A64 boot-> check fel key pressed (yes)--> FEL mode (boot from USB OTG)
                         \  
                     (no) \
                           \-------> 1) try to boot from SMHC0 (SD card)
                                     2) try to boot from SMHC2 (eMMC)
                                     3) try to boot from SPI0 (SPI NOR Flash)
                                     4) FEL mode (boot from USB OTG)

Yeah, exactly what I was looking for. Thank you for providing me the details!

[DannyJack]

My Pinebook wont boot from SD, just gives me a blank screen, but i know the screen works...

I used the pine version of etcher to burn the SD and the SD has been used for lots of other things in the past, any ideas anybody?

[Luke]

My Pinebook wont boot from SD, just gives me a blank screen, but i know the screen works...

I used the pine version of etcher to burn the SD and the SD has been used for lots of other things in the past, any ideas anybody?

Which image are you trying to boot? is this one of the new 1080p Pinebooks ?

[giel]

I have exactly the same symptom/problem as DannyJack, see: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=7507 in the linux section of the forum.

Maybe its caused by an old sd-card? Did you try a new one? That's the next step I'm going to try......

Update: i tried the q40s image for 1080 pinebook and it works!!!!

[giel]

I tried the following image: https://sourceforge.net/projects/q4os/fi...p/download

And it booted!

I very much like Q4OS!!! I only use it for a few days now, but I'm impressed by the pretty looks and the performance (although booting from microSD is pretty slow).

[ryannshit]

I cannot get the Pinebook 1080 to boot to MicroSD card using the Q40 image with Etcher. Tried multiple SD cards as well. Is there anywhere I can check my system boot options? I have a feeling it is not even trying to boot to MicroSD.

[ryannshit]

I cannot get the Pinebook 1080 to boot to MicroSD card using the Q40 image with Etcher. Tried multiple SD cards as well. Is there anywhere I can check my system boot options? I have a feeling it is not even trying to boot to MicroSD.

.

Tried Neon as well and it will not boot to SD Card. Etcher shows it writes to SD successfully , the card mounts and shows up on the Pinebook, but it wont boot.

[ryannshit]

I cannot get the Pinebook 1080 to boot to MicroSD card using the Q40 image with Etcher. Tried multiple SD cards as well. Is there anywhere I can check my system boot options? I have a feeling it is not even trying to boot to MicroSD.

.

Tried Neon as well and it will not boot to SD Card. Etcher shows it writes to SD successfully , the card mounts and shows up on the Pinebook, but it wont boot.

Purchased new Samsung Evo SDHC 32gb cards and still a no go! What am I doing wrong here? Is there a way to check or configure the boot order somehow?