Linuxium's Bootloader software updated to include booting Linux from an USB connected drive

[linuxium]

My latest update extends the dualboot of Android and Linux functionality to include booting or installing Linux from a drive connected by a USB port. This means that besides booting Android, you now have the choice to boot Linux from an SD card, from a drive (USB stick or HDD or even another SD card in a card reader) or from NAND.


The drive is prepared exactly in the same way as before when creating an SD card. A root file system (RFS) image can be written to either the drive or its first partition, or the RFS files can be copied to a previously made 'ext4' file system on the disk drive.


As this is an upgrade, first apply the last version of the software (see https://plus.google.com/109451178006...ts/BanoyXvmTpF). To apply the upgrade first download the relevant updated boot image:


Radxa Rock - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B99...WltVUV4OWZvZlk
Minix Neo X7 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B99...DVBV2VaRlhJbm8
Rikomagic MK802IV (latest model) - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B99...GttSURNaHB6OGs


and overwrite the original 'boot.img' with this one. Then connect your RK3188 device in bootloader mode and for Linux use the Linux upgrade tool and enter:


./upgrade_tool di -b


to flash just the boot partition or for Windows use the 'RKAndroidTool.exe' tool and flashing only the boot image.


When the RK3188 device is booted with an USB connected drive containing a valid RFS then additional boot options will be displayed allowing the booting and installation from the drive.


There is a limitation in that the drive must be the first connected USB device (i.e. /dev/sda) and the RFS must either be on the drive or its first partition (i.e. /dev/sda or /dev/sda1). More complex scenarios should consider modifying the source code.


And the mandatory caveat: Flashing software to a device can cause the device to become 'bricked'. Typically this is due to a specific cause e.g. poor quality USB cable, insufficient power source, manual interruption/intervention, incorrect flashing software etc.. There are several techniques to recover from this situation published on the internet. Whilst this software has been extensively tested on the specific devices without problem, your usage of it is at your own risk.

[morfarj]

Thanks

Thanks for this.. Can i flash it to recovery partition and use reboot recovery?

[linuxium]

Thanks for this.. Can i flash it to recovery partition and use reboot recovery?

No because the init script will either boot Linux (from kernel) or Android (from recovery) so it needs to be flashed to boot.

[jakson]

Kernel Source

Can you give the kernel source of your Rikomagic MK802IV image?

[linuxium]

Can you give the kernel source of your Rikomagic MK802IV image?

github

[drakaz]

I tried on my rk809III, seems to be working when booting xubuntu from usb stick and 802IV android also works. What didnt work for me is booting from hdd, I created two partitions on hdd one is ntfs with all my files set as logical and another one as ext4 primary. I tried both ways dd from linux and win32 imager to write xubuntu RFS system to primary partition ext4 of hdd, but it does not detect that hdd at the beginning of bootloader, the same image works with usb key, but there's only one partition. So can you confirm if bootloader only searches for linux images in /dev/sda? Because it seems that it does not check /dev/sda1 for some reason.

The reason why I prefer hdd is a performance increase when using samba or rtorrent.

[linuxium]

I tried on my rk809III, seems to be working when booting xubuntu from usb stick and 802IV android also works. What didnt work for me is booting from hdd, I created two partitions on hdd one is ntfs with all my files set as logical and another one as ext4 primary. I tried both ways dd from linux and win32 imager to write xubuntu RFS system to primary partition ext4 of hdd, but it does not detect that hdd at the beginning of bootloader, the same image works with usb key, but there's only one partition. So can you confirm if bootloader only searches for linux images in /dev/sda? Because it seems that it does not check /dev/sda1 for some reason.

The reason why I prefer hdd is a performance increase when using samba or rtorrent.

It does check both /dev/sda and /dev/sda1 but nothing more as I wanted ro keep it relatively simple plus more complex situation can be handled by modifying the code itself. The way I read your hdd description it sounds like sda1 is your ntfs and sda2 is your ext4 - if this is the case it won't detect your Linux RFS - make sure your ext4 is on sda1 with your ntfs on sda2 and it should work.

[knawnd]

As this is an upgrade, first apply the last version of the software (see https://plus.google.com/109451178006...ts/BanoyXvmTpF).

Ian, I would like to try your bootloader on my Minix Neo x7. As far as I understand first I have to install bootloader mentioned at https://plus.google.com/109451178006...ts/BanoyXvmTpF. But I a file for my device (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B99...UpSRzlqRGhXWmc) is not available. Could you please upload it again and share?

UPD: Sorry for the noise. I was unable to download mentioned file using Firefox 28.0 but could do that using Chromium.

[linuxium]

Ian, I would like to try your bootloader on my Minix Neo x7. As far as I understand first I have to install bootloader mentioned at https://plus.google.com/109451178006...ts/BanoyXvmTpF. But I a file for my device (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B99...UpSRzlqRGhXWmc) is not available. Could you please upload it again and share?

UPD: Sorry for the noise. I was unable to download mentioned file using Firefox 28.0 but could do that using Chromium.

Good to hear you were able to download it.

[Mightyous]

thanks for the great work.
But can i use it on a custom rom? I´ve tried RKAndroidTool, load all custom rom files and changed the updated linuxium boot.img. But it was not able to boot. It only boot to clockword mod.

[Boocy]

My latest update extends the dualboot of Android and Linux functionality to include booting or installing Linux from a drive connected by a USB port. This means that besides booting Android, you now have the choice to boot Linux from an SD card, from a drive (USB stick or HDD or even another SD card in a card reader) or from NAND.

Sir, can you please enable it to boot Android from USB drive too?

Regards.

[knawnd]

boot kernel from sdcard

Ian, is it possible using your bootloader to boot linux kernel located on sdcard instead of from kernel or recovery partitions?
I am looking for a possibility to change for booting different linux kernels by e.g. just making symlnks in /boot on sdcard instead of necessity to flash kernel into corresponding partition.
I tried the way described in that thread and indeed it boots the kernel from sdcard but I have a hard time to put linux root fs on formatted such way sdcard because of its wrong partition table (i.e. I can't mount any sdcard partition to put linux root fs on it).

[linuxium]

Ian, is it possible using your bootloader to boot linux kernel located on sdcard instead of from kernel or recovery partitions?
I am looking for a possibility to change for booting different linux kernels by e.g. just making symlnks in /boot on sdcard instead of necessity to flash kernel into corresponding partition.
I tried the way described in that thread and indeed it boots the kernel from sdcard but I have a hard time to put linux root fs on formatted such way sdcard because of its wrong partition table (i.e. I can't mount any sdcard partition to put linux root fs on it).

See https://plus.google.com/109451178006...ts/TTXkb7pX7SG