noobie question regarding install

[HLing]

A quick question regarding installing Mobian.  Can I use the Jumpdrive method to install one of the Mobian images?

Thank you!

[0x070]

A quick question regarding installing Mobian.  Can I use the Jumpdrive method to install one of the Mobian images?

Thank you!

Yep, that's what I did.

[HLing]

A quick question regarding installing Mobian.  Can I use the Jumpdrive method to install one of the Mobian images?

Thank you!

Yep, that's what I did.

Great! Thank you for your prompt reply!

[bcnaz]

QUESTION :
Is that to install to the eMMC ?

[devrtz]

QUESTION :
  Is that to install to the eMMC  ?

Yup. Take a look here.

[wibble]

Also since Mobian provides the .bmap file you can save some time and flash write cycles by flashing with bmaptool rather than dd. The package will be called bmap-tools or similar. In theory Etcher can handle bmap files, but last I looked it wasn't working.

[HLing]

Also since Mobian provides the .bmap file you can save some time and flash write cycles by flashing with bmaptool rather than dd. The package will be called bmap-tools or similar. In theory Etcher can handle bmap files, but last I looked it wasn't working.

just wanted to thank you all for the most responsive OS community in the forum! I am needing some more reading to ask the right questions as my install didn't work properly. I think my previous jumpdrive successes were beginner's luck. I will be back

[HLing]

Also since Mobian provides the .bmap file you can save some time and flash write cycles by flashing with bmaptool rather than dd. The package will be called bmap-tools or similar. In theory Etcher can handle bmap files, but last I looked it wasn't working.

So, after some trial and error, I managed to install the Mobian 20200706 image onto my pine phone (Ubports community edition) emmc, using the jumpdrive. I am very grateful for all the work that has been put in to make it work! I'm embarrassed still to take so many detours getting there, but wow, Mobian really is getting things done!    I am hopeful once again that there can be a functional mobile phone without the bloatware, and that I am not forced to use the Apple nor Android. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

I've observed a couple of things that may help other noobies: 
1) that I could actually take the battery out to charge (using my chinatown bought universal charger) while I flash the emmc using the jumpdrive on a micro SD. * The first time I flashed incorrectly to emmc the phone would not boot up, nor charge (likely because there was no OS) when I plugged in the power.  I was thinking I have bricked my phone. Two or three days went by before I had the courage to try again.

2) It helped to know what a properly flashed drive looks like. I saw the flashing process start and finish with no error  messages, but by the 5th time I realized that if the block says some such Gigs of "unknown", it's probably not going to boot the phone up.  (I have learned though, how to open the phone case, which is still a clumsy process but at least now i know how to not press on the power button accidentally while trying to open the case.

I do have a question for Wibble: what does one do with the .bmap file ?

[devrtz]

You need bmap-tools installed.
The usage is then basically:

Code:

bmaptool copy <path_to_image_file> <block_device_to_flash>

As @wibble has noted it will take into account regions inside the image file which are unused/full of zeros and skips them when flashing the image,
thus both speeding up the flashing and reducing the wear on the flash storage by not wasting unnecessary write cycles.

[HLing]

You need bmap-tools installed.
The usage is then basically:

Code:

bmaptool copy <path_to_image_file> <block_device_to_flash>

As @wibble has noted it will take into account regions inside the image file which are unused/full of zeros and skips them when flashing the image,
thus both speeding up the flashing and reducing the wear on the flash storage by not wasting unnecessary write cycles.

So...I did install the bmap tools onto my laptop.   Are you saying instead of using the large image file that ends in .gz one could just use the small image file that ends in .bmap ?!!