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[Ralph Houston]

Hi Kevin and James
Like your friend, Kevin, I'm not at all happy with the use of dd for this purpose.
The problem is not so much multiple partitions as variant device sizes and also defective locations, as various people have stated.

I strongly advocate the use of for example tar archives which take advantage of the file system's ability to use the space available to it and work around defects. The original ubuntu and debian file systems were supplied like this. Would it be possible please, NewIT, to make these available? You'd also only need one archive per operating system, instead of different images for different sizes of SD card.

This is maybe too obvious, but as a point of detail, do remember to run md5sum on the copied card (e.g. 'md5sum /dev/sdc') before attempting to boot it.

Best regards
Ralph

[noname]

probably a stupid question, but can i just use the dd command to write the new image to the internal flash, while i'm running the system (which is also on the internal flash)  ?

If no, is there a HowTo how to deal with these images or could someone just explain it in a few words ?

Thanks a lot in advance,
noname

[Ralph Houston]

While the system is running on the interal micro SD, you can't update it.
One way to do it is to boot from another image on the external SD, then you can overwrite the internal one. This needs a JTAG to change the boot.
The simplest way is to open up the box and write the card in another machine. NewIT have acknowledged this themselves: don't worry about warranty scares.
Use the latest images and make sure dd reads and writes the same number of blocks.

[noname]

thanks a lot for you answer. Helps a lot

[bobylapointe]

hello
es it possible to have the same images but with up directories as separate as can be a little more free?
especially for the 2GB version
thank you

[Ralph Houston]

...
the same images but with ... directories separate?
especially for the 2GB version

Do you mean the separate partitions?
This has been discussed quite a lot. A solution that works is described here:

...
If you don't want to use 'dd' to write your SDHC Cards, then make your own gzip'ped tar file from a New IT image...
...
NB see earlier in this thread for 'mount-img.sh'

Which 2GB image do you actually want, the one that is shipped?

Regards
Ralph

[bobylapointe]

Separete by partition after u CAN mangea it with fstab!.!!!


Ex:
- For servers: "/" Of about 5 GB or more to be quiet "/ Boot" (boot files + core) 100 to 150 MB no more "/ Var" (the system log files + volatile) from 600 MB to 6 GB "/ Tmp" (temporary files) 2 to 3 GB average "Swap" can reboot => swap big> 500 MB Tip: separate swap multiple disks if possible "/ Home" (include the web, ftp, BD, etc.) rest of the disk (very large) "/ Usr" (optional) (user applications and libraries) from 3 to 4 GB

[Ralph Houston]

Separete by partition after u CAN mangea it with fstab!.!!!

?

Don't be so anxious - re-read and correct before pressing 'Post'.

I deduce what you want to do is put the various directories /tmp, /var, /usr etc. in different partitions. This is quite possible using the normal linux methods in /etc/fstab, with two provisos:

1) Without changing the boot sequence, the root directory must be in partition 2.
2) The assignment of partitions to drive names happens at boot and may change depending on what's plugged in: this is why guiplug doesn't use fstab. As an experiment, I split up a 4GB SD card into 8 partitions, moved the files concerned and created an fstab assuming the card would be /dev/sdb (external SD). This seems to work.

I have seen a suggestion on this matter, but haven't tried it:

Concerning the device order problem (/sda/sdb/sdc/sdd), it seems that there is a workaround: using a disk label.
Set up a label with the e2label command (ie: e2label /dev/sda bootdisk), then, at the boot prompt, add the following parameter: root=LABEL=bootdisk

Please share any progress you make.

[OMcGovern]

Hi,

I'd just like to share my "gotcha" issue, which caught me out for a day or two.
While I'm a senior programmer I'm relatively green on the advanced Linux commands.

I had a 4Gb SD Card and and used "dd" to write the new image to my card.
It replied that it was successful, and had read and written the same number of blocks.
But when I tried putting it in the internal SD card slot and booting, the JTag serial console showed
that it couldn't find the uImage.

Cause: I previously had used the SD card in a Windows machine, so it had an existing FAT16 partition.
          I assumed that the DD command would overwrite the whole disk including partition information.

Solution: I used "fdisk -l" to get the device name.
             I think it was  /dev/sda1
             Then "fdisk /dev/sda1" menu of commands to delete the existing partition off it.

When I reran the dd command, it worked and I know it was right as soon as I saw
fdisk -l listing two partitions in the card afterwards.

regards,
Owen

[Confusticated]

Finding your way around the devices as a newbie can be quite daunting, many people slip up in the early days.

Then "fdisk /dev/sda1"

This is not correct, this is the first partition on the device, not the device itself.
If you had previously also "dd of=/dev/sda1 ...." instead of "dd of=/dev/sda ..." this could explain your odd results.

the DD command would overwrite the whole disk

This is correct, it can, but you must point dd at the 'whole disk' (and what you are writing must be long enough to reach the end).

[piratebab]

Hello,
I have downloaded the debian wheezy 2G image.
I will transfert it into /dev/sda2 (internal SD card) , the dreamplug in booted on external stick (the globalscale way of instaling debian on google code)
But where can I found the corresponding uImage for /dev/sda1 ?

[Confusticated]

Code: [Select]

dd if=NewIT-Dreamplug-Debian-Wheezy-2Gb-31Aug11.img of=/dev/sd?where '?' is the device corresponding to your SD card (e.g. /dev/sdb NOT /dev/sdb2 which is the second partition on the device)

where can I found the corresponding uImage for /dev/sda1 ?

Both partitions are already in the image (reading the posts already on this forum first would save you a lot of time).

[piratebab]

I have read it, but not understood that it is a complete system image. My mind was still focused on globalscale image (root fs and uImage). 
Newit image is installed and work fine. 
I will post some question on more appropriate sub forum.

[pobox]

My DreamPlug is a V9 (0901 next to serial Number), I see that the SD Images available are for V8, will these work on the V9?

Is it possible to get the original Factory SD Images for the V9 for both Ubuntu and Debian for the standard 4Gb SD card?

Thanks

[dinosaur]

I need help. What am I doing wrong?

Code: [Select]

 % md5sum NewIT-Dreamplug-Debian-Wheezy-4Gb-31Aug11.img
6e583d4c026fb72b2aa9edd89a9241ff  NewIT-Dreamplug-Debian-Wheezy-4Gb-31Aug11.img

  % cat NewIT-Dreamplug-Debian-Wheezy-4Gb-31Aug11.img.md5
6e583d4c026fb72b2aa9edd89a9241ff  NewIT-Dreamplug-Debian-Wheezy-4Gb-31Aug11.img
I check the md5sums, everything seems good so far.

Code: [Select]

 % ls /dev/ | grep sd
sda
sda1
sda2
sda5
sda6
sda7
sda8
sda9
sdc
sdc1
sdc2
Okay cool, `sdc` is the sd card.

Code: [Select]

 % sudo dd if=NewIT-Dreamplug-Debian-Wheezy-4Gb-31Aug11.img of=/dev/sdc bs=1M
3780+0 records in
3780+0 records out
3963617280 bytes (4.0 GB) copied, 818.377 s, 4.8 MB/s
Okay cool it's done. records in == records out. Let's check our result.

Code: [Select]

% sudo md5sum /dev/sdc                                                                                               !2003
c4d495ea8a1f602d6bfbee3597c69ae5  /dev/sdc
What, the md5sum of the device doesn't match the image. I've tried a few times, always with the same resulting md5sum.

If it helps,

Code: [Select]

% sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sdc: 3965 MB, 3965190144 bytes
122 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1023 cylinders, total 7744512 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9391498e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1              62      105895       52917    6  FAT16
/dev/sdc2          105896     7737971     3816038   83  Linux

When I try to start up the DreamPlug with this image, only the green power light is on and after about 20-30 seconds 3 red lights go on back where the SD card is (next to R19, R22, and R21). Why is this happening and what can I do to fix it?

Thanks,

EDIT: Also already tried https://newit.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,2491.msg8931.html#msg8931, no change.