Unsure how to install, help needed

[GloriousCoffee]

Hi

Just got my PinePhone in the mail, looks lovely!
Wanted to try PostmarketOS and have a microSD I want to install to. Ran the pmbootstrap process but it ended with:


New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully
[18:17:38] NOTE: No valid keymap specified for device
[18:17:42] *** (3/5) PREPARE INSTALL BLOCKDEVICE ***
[18:17:42] ERROR: /dev/sdc1 is mounted! Will not attempt to format this!
[18:17:42] See also: <https://postmarketos.org/troubleshooting>
Run 'pmbootstrap log' for details.


If I unmount the device, I just get:
[18:18:25] ERROR: /dev/sdc1 doesn't exist, is the sdcard plugged?
[18:18:25] See also: <https://postmarketos.org/troubleshooting>
Run 'pmbootstrap log' for details.


I'm unsure what the problem is.
Do I need to format the SD in any particular kind of way?

[fernando_c_m]

Hi

Just got my PinePhone in the mail, looks lovely!
Wanted to try PostmarketOS and have a microSD I want to install to. Ran the pmbootstrap process but it ended with:


New password:
Retype new password:
passwd: password updated successfully
[18:17:38] NOTE: No valid keymap specified for device
[18:17:42] *** (3/5) PREPARE INSTALL BLOCKDEVICE ***
[18:17:42] ERROR: /dev/sdc1 is mounted! Will not attempt to format this!
[18:17:42] See also: <https://postmarketos.org/troubleshooting>
Run 'pmbootstrap log' for details.


If I unmount the device, I just get:
[18:18:25] ERROR: /dev/sdc1 doesn't exist, is the sdcard plugged?
[18:18:25] See also: <https://postmarketos.org/troubleshooting>
Run 'pmbootstrap log' for details.


I'm unsure what the problem is.
Do I need to format the SD in any particular kind of way?

The last time I tried, it had to be formated in ext4.
https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/FAQ
The error messages are not particularly helpful, and should be maybe reworked.

[GloriousCoffee]

Thank you, but that did not seem to make any difference. I formated the partition as ext4 and I still get the same errors.

[GloriousCoffee]

Ok, so I got it to work finally. The documentation for PostmarketOS could be better.
My solution (if anyone finds this post and has the same issue).

1: Created first partition on SD card with 128mb size, ext4.
2: Created second partition of remaining size, ext4.
3: Ran python3 pmbootstrap.py install --fde --sdcard=/dev/sdc

Although installed plasma-desktop on it, wasn't the best idea apparently.

I tried clearing out ~/.local/var/pmbootstrap/ and re-running the installation but it quits:
[22:00:15] WARNING: The chroots and git repositories in the work dir do not get updated automatically.
[22:00:15] Run 'pmbootstrap status' once a day before working with pmbootstrap to make sure that everything is up-to-date.
[22:00:15] Done!

This without flashing the SD etc.
What can I do to start over?

---

Well, solution was easy.
Don't follow the wiki, just grab img from https://images.postmarketos.org/pinephone/ and flash to SD. That solved everything.

[danielnoiz]

I'm not having any luck either. I've formatted the SD card as one volume and as two, one at 128 mb. I keep getting this error:

[13:58:54] (native) partition /dev/install (boot: 128M, reserved: 0M, root: the rest)
[13:58:57] ERROR: Unable to find the partition prefix, expected the first partition of /dev/sdb to be located at /dev/sdb1 or /dev/sdbp1!
[13:58:57] See also: <https://postmarketos.org/troubleshooting>
Run 'pmbootstrap log' for details.


Any ideas?

[nieral]

Ok, so I got it to work finally. The documentation for PostmarketOS could be better.
My solution (if anyone finds this post and has the same issue).

1: Created first partition on SD card with 128mb size, ext4.
2: Created second partition of remaining size, ext4.
3: Ran python3 pmbootstrap.py install --fde --sdcard=/dev/sdc

Although installed plasma-desktop on it, wasn't the best idea apparently.

I tried clearing out ~/.local/var/pmbootstrap/ and re-running the installation but it quits:
[22:00:15] WARNING: The chroots and git repositories in the work dir do not get updated automatically.
[22:00:15] Run 'pmbootstrap status' once a day before working with pmbootstrap to make sure that everything is up-to-date.
[22:00:15] Done!

This without flashing the SD etc.
What can I do to start over?

---

Well, solution was easy.Is it possible
Don't follow the wiki, just grab img from https://images.postmarketos.org/pinephone/ and flash to SD. That solved everything.

I never had to partition the sd card manually. This is done by pmbootstrap when you run "pmbootstrap install .....".

If you want to start over again, remove the chroots with "pmbootstrap zap"

Update the repositories with "pmbootstrap pull". To update the apk index files run "pmbootstrap update". After that you can run "pmbootstrap init" again. This worked for me.

I wonder why your sd card appears as "sdc1" or "sdb". This was only the case when I connected the phone via jumpdrive to get a direct access to the emmc. When I plug in the sdcard into the cardreader of my linux laptop it appears as "mmcblk0" (the internal emmc as "mmcblk2"). In this case it wouldn't be a surprise that flashing the sd card was not possible, as jumpdrive runs from the sdcard.

Flashing the sd card with a prepared image is different to create your own image via pmbootstrap, where you can create your own username, choose additional software and enable full disk encryption.

If you previously flashed postmarket OS or a different OS to the sd card you should zero out the first MB of the sdcard, otherwise the phone won't boot from the emmc or pmbootstrap believes, that there is a existing pm os installation on the sdcard.

run: sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/<your-sdcard> bs=8k seek=1 count=4

And be sure it is your sd card and not your hard drive.

Finally, there is a great installation guide from pine64 with several installation methods:

https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php?title=...t_priority

Have fun with your pinephone!

[bitnick]

Well, solution was easy.
Don't follow the wiki, just grab img from https://images.postmarketos.org/pinephone/ and flash to SD. That solved everything.

Is it possible to find recent images somewhere? Having to install an installation script (pmbootstrap) along with its dependencies, and learn how to use it, seems very contrived compared to just writing an image to the SD card with dd...

[PureTryOut]

You can just flash the latest image from there and update it like anyone else...

Code:

apk upgrade -a

Or even via GNOME Software.

[bitnick]

Ah, so the last image on that site (pine64-pinephone-20200726-phosh-v20.05-factory.img.xz) is the one flashed to the PostmarketOS CE Pinephone? That seems reasonable, I should have figured that out. Thanks!