01-28-2020, 03:52 PM
(01-28-2020, 03:27 PM)bsammon Wrote: To elaborate on my question:You want more than one bootable installation on the same block device? I think that's what you're asking.
I already have two partitions on my eMMC with working (i.e. I can log in and run "ls") installs. I've created another empty 10 gig partition. With the boot-from-CD x86 debian installers I've used in the past, I could do an install that does not modify the partition table, and use the partition-tool to simply select a preexisting partition to install onto. I'd like to be able to do that on my PBP.
Also, I'd like to be able to run the installer while running from one of the other installs on the eMMC. If I'm not modifying the partition table, it shouldn't matter, I think.
There's two questions wrapped in one:
Can I do this with the current version of the installer?
If not, could this functionality be added (easily?) to a future version of the installer?
It sounds like xmixahlx knows of a way of modifying the installer that would enable that; having never looked at the guts of the installer, I find it hard to understand what he's talking about.
You COULD work with the files in the installer to accomplish this, as xmixahlx describes. However, my assumption is that you can't have more than one /boot partition per block device, as the existing uboot isn't made for this, and there's no ability to select between /boot/initrd options - as there's no uboot console on the LCD and KB.
Eventually, we will have a working GRUB or equivalent on the PBP, but until then, alternative installations need to be located on separate block devices, like microSD, for booting "blind".
— Jeremiah Cornelius
"Be the first person not to do something, that no one has thought of not doing before’’
— Brian Eno, "Oblique Strategies"
"Be the first person not to do something, that no one has thought of not doing before’’
— Brian Eno, "Oblique Strategies"