Boot os 13.2.0 from SD card (XO-1, XO-1.5)

[James Cameron]

On Thu, Aug 22, 2013 at 07:52:44PM +0000, Chris Marshall wrote:
> In fact, if I have an ext2/ext3/ext4 file system on the SD card, the
> OFW doesn't even see the card (it does if the fs is FAT32).

Which version of Open Firmware?  I did a lot of work to fix this.
Consider upgrading to the latest.  [1]

It works for me.  Perhaps you have an unusual partition table or
filesystem features enabled?  Happy to diagnose further; to test it,
get to the Ok prompt [2] and type:

	dir ext:\boot\olpc.fth

and show me what happens.  You might use a serial console [3] or
telnet [4] to capture the result.

1.  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Upgrading_firmware
2.  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ok
3.  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Serial_adapters
4.  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Firmware/Remote#Using_telnetd

Most likely cause is old firmware, or not setting bootable flags on
partitions.

> Are there any updated/consolidated instructions
> for an SD card boot creation (as used to be
> available in the standard OS builds)?

No, the instructions for the current 13.2.0 release on XO-1.5,
XO-1.75, and XO-4 require combining content from two pages:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Firmware/Storage#How_to_install_to_SD_card
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/13.2.0#Installation

I'd rather not have the release notes explain the option of SD card
install, because it is rare and would complicate the installation
instructions for the majority of users who are installing to internal
storage.

Feel free to wipe out those old instructions once you have it figured
out for 13.2.0.

> > To install to an external SDcard for 1.5, 1.75, 4's you would need to
> > have your *.zd file on a usb flashdrive inserted into the XO, access
> > OFW's OK prompt then type:
> >
> > devalias fsdisk ext:0 <enter>
> > fs-update u:\<image>.zd <enter>
> >
> > <enter> is the enter key
> > replace <image> with the name of the image you want to install.
> > Please remember that *1.zd is for XO-1.5's, *2.zd is for XO-1.75's,
> > *4.zd is for XO-4's.
> 
> This worked perfectly.  Is there something comparable for a G1G1
> XO-1?

No.  The missing components would need to be inserted into the dracut
scripts, to locate the root filesystem.  Then regenerate the
initramfs.  We had discussion on this recently on server-devel@ or
devel at .

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/