Debian to eMMC?

[Hoerli]

Hello!
I am the proud owner of a new ROCK64
I have already tried Android and would like to install a "normal" system on the ROCK.

Currently there is only Xenial Mate for the eMMC chip.
This is currently running, but not really stable / good.
It hangs when you update. So I had to reinstall the system 4 times.
Is there an easy way to get e.g. Debian on the eMMC chip?
So far I only found a manual with a console cable, but I don't own one.

Hope there will be a good possibility to install e.g. Linux Mint soon. To be honest, I also like the Cinnamon surface more than mate.

[Luke]

Hello!
I am the proud owner of a new ROCK64
I have already tried Android and would like to install a "normal" system on the ROCK.

Currently there is only Xenial Mate for the eMMC chip.
This is currently running, but not really stable / good.
It hangs when you update. So I had to reinstall the system 4 times.
Is there an easy way to get e.g. Debian on the eMMC chip?
So far I only found a manual with a console cable, but I don't own one.

Hope there will be a good possibility to install e.g. Linux Mint soon. To be honest, I also like the Cinnamon surface more than mate.

Define normal? What is your use-case for the board (I assume desktop?). Have you looked in ayufan's git ? - I suggest using the LXDE pre-release build. Then there's the WIP Armbian which comes with XFCE. I think that Cinnamon is quite heavy-duty for a board like this, but you could just install it yourself on bionic.
https://www.armbian.com/rock64/

[KeithJohnAlger]

Hello!
I am the proud owner of a new ROCK64
I have already tried Android and would like to install a "normal" system on the ROCK.

Currently there is only Xenial Mate for the eMMC chip.
This is currently running, but not really stable / good.
It hangs when you update. So I had to reinstall the system 4 times.
Is there an easy way to get e.g. Debian on the eMMC chip?
So far I only found a manual with a console cable, but I don't own one.

Hope there will be a good possibility to install e.g. Linux Mint soon. To be honest, I also like the Cinnamon surface more than mate.

The easy way to get a Debian build onto an eMMC module is to use the USB carrier device ( https://www.pine64.org/?product=usb-adap...mmc-module ) and just load the SD image onto it!

As for the desktop that you want, Cinnamon and Gnome3 are way too resource hungry for the board; they'll run but it's like wading through tar!  KDE is just about usable, but it's still far from responsive!  Mate runs quick and smooth, and both xfce and LXDE are quick if not so smooth!

[Hoerli]

Thanks already once for your feedback.
That Cinnamon is too much for the board, I would not have thought at first.
@Luke Yes, by normal I mean the desktop version without extra tools. Just the plain system.
For example, the background of the images was adapted. Not bad, but who knows what else has been put in.
I hadn't looked at armbian yet, as there is no way for me to install it on the eMMC either.

@KeithJohnAlger I think I'll get this adapter in the next few days.

[Luke]

Thanks already once for your feedback.
That Cinnamon is too much for the board, I would not have thought at first.
@Luke Yes, by normal I mean the desktop version without extra tools. Just the plain system.
For example, the background of the images was adapted. Not bad, but who knows what else has been put in.
I hadn't looked at armbian yet, as there is no way for me to install it on the eMMC either.

@KeithJohnAlger I think I'll get this adapter in the next few days.

Installing to eMMC is possible even without an adapter - please read the NOOB wiki section. As for armbian, I believe their nand-sata-install script installs to eMMC on the R64 (not 100% sure).

[pfeerick]

@KeithJohnAlger I think I'll get this adapter in the next few days.

Installing to eMMC is possible even without an adapter - please read the NOOB wiki section. As for armbian, I believe their nand-sata-install script installs to eMMC on the R64 (not 100% sure).

Using the adapter, you can write directly to the eMMC card, and skip the intermediate write to SD and then run nand-sata-install step.

[Hoerli]

Ok i try to get a USB-adapter.

Can I flash the IMG files for an SD card without problems or will there be problems?

[pfeerick]

Ok i try to get a USB-adapter.

Can I flash the IMG files for an SD card without problems or will there be problems?

I haven't had any problems with either ayufan's images nor the armbian one by simply writing them to eMMC using the adapter instead of a microSD via card reader. They've been properly set up so that they work out the boot media and change paths appropriately.