Booting (/boot) rockpi-4c (armbian,20.08.1,focal,5.8.6) from emmc (or sdcard) with '/' (root) on nvme.

#1

Current Hardware Setup: Rockpi 4C,eMMC module,eMMC to SD Card Adapter, M.2 Extension Board, NVME Drive, USB To Serial Debug Cable.

OS: Armbian_20.08.1_Rockpi-4b_focal_current_5.8.6.img.xz

(Right now, I’m using the above mentioned os from sdcard and the os can detect nvme disk using ‘lsblk’ command)

Query: How one can install ‘/boot’ partition on eMMC (or sdcard) and ‘/’ (root-partition) on NVME disk (attached to rockpi 4c through M.2 Extension Board) ?

(aim is to boot from either eMMC or ssd and use nvme disk as / partition)

Waiting for your valuable suggestions.

Thanks in advance from,
Spherulite.

#2

Tried this way?
https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Getting-Started/#how-to-install-to-emmc-nand-sata-usb

#3

@spherulite

I recently done that few times. Rules are:

  1. the same files = kernel in /boot/ on media that is booting up and the root file system (version of the packets)
  2. /boot/ files configuration must use root file system redirection to your root file system, for example you need to mention UUID of root partition in /boot/ partition configuration file, it must be different than /boot/ partition UUID, or you can use ~"/dev/sda1"
  3. /boot/ usually needs FAT file system but not in Armbian case, Armbian accepts ext4 so it is enough to create only /boot/ folder with files on the starting media
  4. MBR/GPT sector (first) on boot media must be given by installation of corresponding Linux, so it is not enough to just copy files

And that’s all!