Booting from a flash card
 |
This is an article from the old midgard wiki that hasn't yet been fully updated for this wiki, please update it. Please see the talk page for discussion. |
 |
Contents |
Why would we want to boot from a flash card?
- For more space to install applications.
- An easy-to-user bootable backup.
- To improve performance (note, this is dependent on the quality of your flash card).
Gain root access
First of all you need to be able to gain root access.
Partition your card
Follow the instructions to partition your card.
Install bootmenu
Connect your device to the charger, as running out of battery power during the flashing process could damage the device.
First, we need to install wget, so open Xterm and, as root, run:
apt-get install wget
Then run:
mkdir /home/user/local/bin cd /home/user/local/bin wget http://www.nmacleod.com/nokia/bin/nupgrade.sh wget http://www.nmacleod.com/nokia/bin/tar chmod +x nupgrade.sh tar
Now we need to download and install fanoush's initfs flasher, so, as root, run:
cd /home/user/local/bin wget http://fanoush.wz.cz/maemo/initfs_flasher.tgz tar zxvf initfs_flasher.tgz cd initfs_flasher/ ./initfs_flash
Follow the onscreen instructions. You can answer yes to all of these questions if you don't understand what they mean.
Now we need to load the kernel modules for ext2, so, as root, run:
insmod /mnt/initfs/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/mbcache.ko insmod /mnt/initfs/lib/modules/$(uname -r)/ext2.ko
Clone to the card
Now it's time to clone your install over to partition 2 of the internal card. The script works in stages to allow better control and error detection, and should take about 10 minutes to complete:
- 0 - Create ext2 filesystem on partition 2 of the Internal memory card
- 1 - Mount partition 2 as /opt
- 2 - Mount rootfs as /floppy
- 3 - Perform cloning process
- 4 - Commit filesystem updates and unmount /floppy and /opt
So, as root, run:
cd /home/user/local/bin ./nupgrade.sh 0 ./nupgrade.sh 1 ./nupgrade.sh 2 ./nupgrade.sh 3 ./nupgrade.sh 4 reboot
Your device will reboot when done, and you can select the partition you want to boot from from the bootmenu.
Remove the menu
If you decide you do not wish to see the bootmenu any longer, you can uninstall it by either reflashing the whole OS image, or just flashing the initfs (in Linux and OS X) by running:
sudo ./flasher-3.0 -F <FIASCO image> --flash-only=initfs -R