Booting Debian from SD-card (Was: [fso] sending pin failed)

[Rask Ingemann Lambertsen]

On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 09:07:08PM +0100, Tomas Nackaerts wrote:
> 
> i was also unable to boot a distribution like debian or hackable from a 8gb 
> sd-card, but i'm not sure it is related. 

   You're being cryptic here. Please explain how you know it isn't working.
Anyway, here's how I installed the Debian distribution to an 8 GB SD-card on
a Freerunner (still with Om 2007.2 in the NAND flash ROM):

--- begin Debian on Freerunner HOWTO ---
Purpose:
Install Debian on Neo Freerunner/1973 such that the default u-boot setup
works and dpkg, which doesn't support vfat partitions, is still happy.

Strategy:
Create two partitions (vfat+ext2) but install as if we only use one partition.
Manually copy the kernel image to the vfat partition after installation or
upgrade of the kernel package.

The details:
Read the instructions from the Debian Wiki and download install.sh for your
Neo:

https://wiki.debian.org/DebianOnFreeRunner
https://wiki.debian.org/DebianOnNeo1973

Remap the partitions for install.sh:

# ln -s /dev/mmcblk0p2 /tmp/mmcblk0p1
# ln -s /dev/mmcblk0 /tmp/mmcblk0

Optionally: Verify your setup and set the system time:

# SD_PART1_FS=vfat SD_DEVICE=/tmp/mmcblk0 ./install.sh testing time

Partition and format your SDcard. Either do so yourself or use install.sh:

# SD_PART1_FS=vfat ./install.sh partition format

Run the rest of the installation. Feel free to add options as you see fit:

# SINGLE_PART=true SD_DEVICE=/tmp/mmcblk0 ./install.sh mount debian apt fso configuration kernel

Copy the kernel image to the vfat partition:

# mount -t vfat /dev/mmcblk0p1 /media/card
# cp -p /mnt/debian/boot/uImage.bin /media/card
# umount /media/card

Optionally: Copy your existing SSH setup:
# cp -a ~root/.ssh /mnt/debian/root

Unmount the Debian partition:

# SINGLE_PART=true SD_DEVICE=/tmp/mmcblk0 ./install.sh unmount

Clean up:

# rm -f /tmp/mmcblk0 /tmp/mmcblk0p1 ./install.sh
--- end Debian on Freerunner HOWTO ---

-- 
Rask Ingemann Lambertsen
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