On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 10:15:33AM -0700, Vagrant Cascadian wrote: > > I admit I do not mind about the graphical installer - I always use the > > test based installer. > > The "text based installer" may only work over serial console... slightly > more information below.
How do I install a serial console (any link to docs)? > > My question is rather: Can I simply `dd` the Debian arm64 install disk > > to a miniSD card, boot from this and install on the internal emmc of my > > pinebook. This was *not* possible when I bought this device and I would > > love if somebody would confirm here before I mess up what is now > > "somehow working". > > The debian-installer concatenateable images from buster *should* work > with *serial console*: > > > https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/README.concatenateable_images So I need to wget https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/firmware.pinebook.img.gz wget https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/buster/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/partition.img.gz zcat firmware.pinebook.img.gz partition.img.gz > complete_image.img How can I now install this image. If I understand, this dd if=complete_image.img of=/dev/my_mini_sd_card is no solution, right? > Getting the installer running on LCD is still a work-in-progress, but > you *might* be able to get the text console running by editing the boot > arguments on the boot media and passing console=tty0 and adding the > appropriate modules to the initrd by appending an additional cpio > archive to it... finding out exactly which modules... is a > project. Though you could append all of the modules for the matching > kernel version. I admit that sounds *way* more complex for a thing that I consider rather a "toy" than a work horse. Please do not understand me wrong: I'm currently in a long term Debian Med sprint to fight COVID-19. Fiddling around with an arm64 box that does not contribute at all to that important task should not comsume more than 30min and I want to have a clear view on the real chances that the procedure will succeed and not end up in endless questions here. > But no, there's no image that will "just work" without some fiddling. OK, that makes me just "wait" for more progress and I will ask here 6 month later or so. Is there any chance to safely bump the kernel on my existing system? What u-boot should I install to approach this? Or is this idea also a bit dangerous to break the whole system. Kind regards Andreas. -- http://fam-tille.de
