Install OS from USB-dongle

#21

I haven’t used an SSD yet but what I can say is this:

Full image on USB: Boots into that image on USB

Full image on USB & full image on SD card: Uses bootloader from USB and boots into SD card

Boot from USB3 HDD
#22

Is it something like this what you see? Because i don’t understand what it exactly does. Does that mean the bootloader is on the sdcard or on the SPI? And if you boot from it, that it will look if you have the OS on the SATA device (first), USB device (second) or NVME device (third).

#23

I do have that yes, but not on boot.

Might be better to explain how I discovered this.

About a month ago I encountered a corrupted boot on the SD card I use on my 5b.
I then installed a fresh version of the image I had been using on a USB drive. I then inserted that drive into a USB of the 5b and tried to boot. I was expecting it to boot into the fresh image, just so I could access some of the files I needed on the SD card.

To my surprise, it booted right into my old image just fine, all of my files were present on the desktop, apps, etc. So then, I removed the USB and rebooted. It would not boot. Reinserted USB, and it booted. So I then I ran lsblk and saw that /boot was actually coming from the USB, while everything was from the SD card. I then used this to fix the boot on my SD card. After this, I removed the SD to see if it would boot into the fresh image on the USB with just the USB installed, and it did.

#24

Interesting development. Thanks for sharing that. Going maybe test with both of the NVME SSD having a bootloader and the USB dongle having a bootloader. To see which one will boot first.

#25

I did read this the other day and some other posts about the development of the Rock5B. Maybe even just scrap the whole USB booting, just go to network boot directly. Much less hassle. But all functionality for all cases is welcome.

#26

Oke, since yesterday i have been very busy with testing different SPI and images.

So far the conclusion:

  • I had a lot of problems with images. Somehow they just refuse to work. The only one that does work is the Ubuntu 20.04 server Focal image.
  • I used the Armbian SPI.
  • If you use the Armbian SPI and have put the whole OS on the microSDCard and NVMe-SSD, it will boot from the microSDCard. If you turn off the board and take out the MicroSDCard, it will boot up the OS from the NVMe-SSD.
  • I have tried to use the same way but with a USB flash drive. I have used all of the ports, but it just won’t boot in to it.

For now i am at least happy that the microSDcard has priority over the NVMe. So the users with the metal case can put the whole SBC togheter without taking it apart just to put the OS on the NVMe-SSD.