How to install Ubuntu to eMMC and to install KDE (Neon)

[wdt]

If I understand right, bionic boots OK?
check with fdisk that 1st partition starts at 32768 sectors,
but maybe not, don't ayufan images use gpt partitoning?
So, this advice would need to be modified
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...8#pid60848
Instead of saving 1 sector for mbr/partition table, save 34sectors I think (maybe 36?)
Then, boot uSD , update (mrfixit) and do again (for updated uboot, idbloader)
idbloader starts at sector 64

[poltergiest]

Sorry life got in the way for a bit.
Yes bionic boots fine from a uSD.  
I will check later and see what the sectors are.
Should I just reformat the emmc before doing the update?


If I understand right, bionic boots OK?
check with fdisk that 1st  partition starts at 32768 sectors,
but maybe not, don't ayufan images use gpt partitoning?
So, this advice would need to be modified
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...8#pid60848
Instead of saving 1 sector for mbr/partition table, save 34sectors I think (maybe 36?)
Then, boot uSD , update (mrfixit) and do again (for updated uboot, idbloader)
idbloader starts at sector 64

[wdt]

I must have misunderstood you, I thought emmc was able to boot?
If so, just change 1st 16M
1) If disk is mbr, save sector 0 ,, if gpt save 34 sectors (fdisk or cfdisk will tell if mbr or gpt)
2)Write 1st 16M from a mrfixit image or SD
3) restore saved data from 1)

If emmc does not boot, just install, then do 1,2,3
Before writing 1st 16, check with fdisk, see if 1st partition starts 32768 (16M)

[Mattmig]

Hi,

I tried the seqence of instructions shown above and I now cannot power on my Pinebook Pro at all.

I just get a red light over the power indicator when I try to switch on the machine wheter I try to boot from the eMMC or the SD card.

I'd appreciate any thoughts \ help with this,

 

Thanks.

I have the same issue. Did you reach a resolution? I only have an orange solid LED when booting from eMMC and an SD card. I've tried a few cards and images with no luck.

[Wizzard]

I am very sorry about that, but if you have not, check this thread: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=9053 It helped me with the same problem.

Also, now I recommend to switch to this release: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?...0#pid61390

I am using it and it is the best distro in my opinion, cause it contains the latest kernel and also the same Ubuntu repo.

[rbma]

Hi, I will share my experiences with installing Ubuntu to eMMC, cause I want a fast and up to date system

1. Write Ubuntu image to SD card. I used Mate build: https://github.com/ayufan-rock64/linux-b...mhf.img.xz and decompress it using unxz and write to SD.

I RECOMMEND TO CHECK LSBLK OR GPARTED WHICH DEVICE IS YOUR SDCARD BEFORE RUNNING "DD" COMMAND!

Code:

sudo apt install gparted

Code:

unxz bionic-mate-pinebookpro-0.9.14-1159-armhf.img.xz
sudo dd if=bionic-mate-pinebookpro-0.9.14-1159-armhf.img of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=4M status=progress

2. Boot Ubuntu from SD card.
3. Download Ubuntu image again when booted from SD or copy the downloaded file from eMMC.
4. Write Ubuntu image to emmc.

I RECOMMEND TO CHECK LSBLK OR GPARTED WHICH DEVICE IS YOUR EMMC BEFORE RUNNING "DD" COMMAND!

Code:

unxz bionic-mate-pinebookpro-0.9.14-1159-armhf.img.xz
sudo dd if=bionic-mate-pinebookpro-0.9.14-1159-armhf.img of=/dev/mmcblk1 bs=4M status=progress

5. Turn off PBP, remove SD card and turn PBP on. It should boot with Ubuntu installed.

When it does not boot, boot from SD card again and check the partitions on the eMMC in Gparted. I had the problem that boot partition was written in different fs (fat32 instead of fat16) so I needed to delete that boot partition from eMMC and to copy the boot partition from SD to eMMC in Gparted. Then it worked. I also resized the rootfs on eMMC to fill whole available space.

6. Now you have Ubuntu installed on eMMC and you can also boot from SD card, but only the same operating system. If we need also to boot other operating systems, we need to apply uboot fix. So download all the files from here https://github.com/mrfixit2001/updates_r...filesystem and run the mrfixit_update.sh script while running from eMMC. From now on you should be able to boot also other OS from SD like before.

7. Before installing KDE I suggest to enable ubuntu-backports and ubuntu-proposed repos in sources.list to get more recent packages.

My sources.list:

Code:

deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/ bionic main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/ bionic-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/ bionic-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/ bionic-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://ports.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-ports/ bionic-proposed main restricted universe multiverse

Before installing KDE I also recommend to enable Kubuntu PPA Backports to get a little newer packages:

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

Alternativelly, you can try KDE Neon packages for the newest KDE software.

Code:

sudo apt-add-repository http://archive.neon.kde.org/user
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E6D4736255751E5D
sudo apt update

Installing KDE:

Code:

sudo apt install plasma-desktop kde-full kubuntu-full kubuntu-desktop krusader konsole plasma-nm muon kwin sddm kinfocenter systemsettings powerdevil kde-config-sddm kde-config-screenlocker kde-config-gtk-style partitionmanager libkdesu5 kubuntu-notification-helper libkf5su-bin

Optionally install Calligra Office Suite, what is KDE alternative for LibreOffice.

Code:

sudo apt install calligra

After installing you may just restart the computer and select Plasma in SDDM login screen.

To enable Netflix and Spotify in Chromium, run:

Code:

sudo install_widevine_drm.sh

Hello,

I tried following these steps, but after running the dd command to write the img file to the eMMC the PBP no longer boots from either the eMMC or an SD card.

I tried to re-flash the SD card, but the light on the PBP when powered stays orange.

Any ideas as to what may be happening and how I should resolve this?

[Wizzard]

Hi, have you solved that problem? What exactly did you do? Running from SD card flashed the system to EMMC?