How do I boot A10S-OLinuXino-MICRO-4GB from SD (not uSD) card?

kbro · December 31, 2013, 01:07:40 PM

I have a A10S-OLinuXino-MICRO-4GB which boots into Android from the onboard NAND, and I want to boot it into Linux. I've done the following:-

1) Download latest Debian image from https://www.olimex.com/wiki/A10s-OLinuXino-MICRO#Linux
2) write to 4GB class 10 SD (not uSD) card using dd if=<image> of=/dev/disk1 bs=1m, then sync before removing card, on my Macbook Air 2013 running OS X Mavericks 10.9.
3) insert SD card in slot beneath board
4) connect board to display using HDMI connector
5) connect +5V using barrel connector

The board boots into Android just as if the card was not there.

Should I be using uSD card instead of SD? Or am I missing something else?

Thanks

martinayotte · January 01, 2014, 12:12:03 AM

To my knowledge, default uBoot bootloader doesn't check boot image located in SD (the big one, which is seen as secondary), it only check uSD and then if not found defaulting to NAND. But maybe I'm wrong. But, also, maybe it is possible to do it by modifying the uBoot and recompile it.

kbro · January 09, 2014, 03:40:36 AM

I downloaded the A10s ANDROID SD card image and wrote it to a 4GB Class 10 uSD card using "dd if=<image> of=/dev/disk1 bs=4m" on my 2013 Mackbook Air (Mavericks), then put the card in the uSD slot and powered on my A10s board. It booted into the image in the NAND flash, not the one from the uSD card. Very disappointing. Am I missing something subtle here?

JohnS · January 09, 2014, 09:26:16 AM

The boot sequence is documented in the linux-sunxi wiki.

John

CDL_Android · January 09, 2014, 12:18:41 PM

1. You can't boot from the SD card as of now.
2. the image in the uSD hasn't worked -> the device booted on the default, NAND image.

kbro · January 09, 2014, 02:35:20 PM

@JohnS - sorry, but not a hugely helpful answer - it boils down to "read the entire wiki, after you've found it". Any chance you could post a link to the relevant page, or even quote from it? Thanks. AFAIK the µSD card is tried before the NAND, but I can't immediately put my hands on the proof.

@CDL_Android. I am trying to boot from microSD (u = µ - assuming that the mu I wrote gets rendered correctly!), not a standard SD.

CDL_Android · January 09, 2014, 04:07:35 PM

Sorry for the confusion. But I think I took it right.
In my reply point '1' was about 'booting form SD card' - the issue raised in the original post
Point2 was about your last post - that it booted from NAND, not the uSD'.
If you have a valid uSD (micro SD card) image, then it would boot from it, else looks for a bootable image in NAND.

JohnS · January 10, 2014, 10:47:45 PM

Put words like boot into the wiki.

John