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Title: Boot from external USB stick / drive?
Post by: Stephane80 on January 19, 2013, 09:08:23 PM

Hello
it's possible to boot from an external USB stick / drive ?
thanks

Title: Re: Boot from external USB stick / drive?
Post by: Stephane80 on July 25, 2013, 12:36:37 AM

I found process tu boot from usb hdd on a raspberry
http://www.framboise314.fr/booter-le-raspberry-pi-sur-un-disque-dur-usb/
Any ideas for A13 ?

Title: Re: Boot from external USB stick / drive?
Post by: jwischka on July 25, 2013, 03:54:06 AM

Quote from: Aqua-Passion on July 25, 2013, 12:36:37 AM
I found process tu boot from usb hdd on a raspberry
http://www.framboise314.fr/booter-le-raspberry-pi-sur-un-disque-dur-usb/
Any ideas for A13 ?

I don't think the support is there in uBoot, which is what would be required to make this work on any number of these boards which use uBoot for their bootloader (which the RPi does not).

Title: Re: Boot from external USB stick / drive?
Post by: Stephane80 on July 25, 2013, 07:41:45 PM

I think I managed to make it work

I have formated an usb external hdd in ext4
in the a13 this drive is /dev/uba

copy root file system :

Code Select

sudo dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p2 of=/dev/uba bs=512

created a uEnv.txt file on the sd card in the dir with script.bin
uEnv.txt content :

Code Select

root=/dev/uba rootwait

And modified /etc/fstab :
added

Code Select

/dev/uba / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 1

Title: Re: Boot from external USB stick / drive?
Post by: drspastic on August 10, 2013, 05:48:32 PM

this thread should be stickied. :)
especially now my sdcard is held in with hot melt glue!

Title: Re: Boot from external USB stick / drive?
Post by: anra on August 11, 2013, 01:42:10 PM

Hi
What are the advantages of a usb stick?

Title: Re: Boot from external USB stick / drive?
Post by: granite_crusher on August 11, 2013, 02:35:51 PM

I guess speed, and reliability (well I wish I could put my PATRIOT RAGE USB2 stick which uses full speed of USB 2.0 (something as 30MB/s? or 480Mbs?, I still am wondering how does booting works, but do not want to burn my stick with experimenting (nowadays is impossible to get such, all sticks in market are USB3 specification what I guess makes it impossible to boot from USB 2.0 hardware; at least I had such problems on PC which have just USB 2.0)))
I am not sure but USB probably is more prone to power failure during read/write where SD gets easy corrupted.
However SD cards nowadays present in market beats USB 2.0 devices present in market in speed. there is no more fast USB 2.0 in production as best brands focuses on USB3.0.
through USB it is possible to add hdd not only usb sticks.
Is it possible to boot from USB3.0 on olimex A13?

Title: Re: Boot from external USB stick / drive?
Post by: JohnS on August 11, 2013, 05:31:14 PM

You have to boot initially from a device supported by the Allwinner cpu. USB is not. You can boot from (say) SD and then continue from USB when the kernel is up. Unless Allwinner change their cpu you simply cannot boot from USB.

John

Title: Re: Boot from external USB stick / drive?
Post by: granite_crusher on August 11, 2013, 05:35:32 PM

I thought that it is enough to have just u-boot in sd, but kernel can be in USB?

Title: Re: Boot from external USB stick / drive?
Post by: JohnS on August 12, 2013, 08:21:56 PM

Maybe - try it.

I don't think uboot supports Allwinner USB.

John

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OLinuXino Android / Linux boards and System On Modules => A13 => Topic started by: Stephane80 on January 19, 2013, 09:08:23 PM