Hello,


after doing tons of tests on my efikamx system i completely messed up with the system, and i'd like to reinstall it from scratch (ubuntu). I downloaded the ubuntu installer on the genesi website but how do i launch it on the efika ? is there some information available somewhere ? (maybe i didn't look right).


thanks

If you did not modify u-boot , it will autoboot from the sd card.
So , get the install image. Use the "dd" command to put it on a sd card(something like dd if=$filename of=/dev/yoursdcard) . Insert it into the Efika MX. Start it. It should now boot from it.

There is a install script on the sd card , just look for it , I can not remember the path for it right now.

/Michael

One day I'll write docs but until then, the above works great, with the following clarifications:
The bs bit is important otherwise it will take *forever*. If you are lucky to have dcfldd installed (please try) then you can add
.. and you'll get ome progress status without having to do dd SIGUSR1 tricks.

The installer is under
You need to log in as oem/oem to use it (same as the Efika MX came with) and sudo the script. The "flasher" tool allows you to build the card manually if you don't have an exactly 2GB SD card. All the files are available in parts under EfikaMX but you may have to fiddle a path or two in the installer script (easy).

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Matt Sealey

seems doable : )
i'll give a try to it tomorrow, thanks to both of you for help.

ok i did try, following your instructions, i used a 2gb sd card and dcfldd the image on it under ubuntu on my x86 PC. But the efika refuses to boot on it, it still boots my old system.
I also tried to use dd but it says i don't have permissions to access /dev/sdf1 (my sdcard) while i sudo it.
Is there a way to access uboot ?

I made more attempts to boot from the SD, using different cards, different dd options, but still no luck. Is it possible to get an "how to" or something so i can be sure i'm not doing a mistake ? thanks.

and i ask it again, is it possible to access uboot in graphical mode ?

You just need a ~2GB or bigger SD card, dd the image to the card (uncompress it on the fly or uncompress it first, your choice) using simple dd (if, of) and then boot the Efika from cold with the SD card inserted into the big SD card slot.

It will boot from the SD card, there is really little else to it. It was so simple I didn't think it needed documentation (which is now above) and nobody else had any problems.

If you want to grab flasher, modules, boot and karmic archives from Platform Support it will build a card from scratch. You will need to extract the "flasher" archive and then edit the script manually to make sure the files and filenames are in the right place, but it really is as simple as creating an MBR, partitioning, formatting, copying a couple tarballs out and synchronising the filesystem before giving you the finished SD card.

If you would like to do it manually - grab the "boot" archive:

this is all under sudo Or something to that effect. As long as "type_id.bin" and "uImage" exist on the FIRST fat formatted partition of the SD card, the Efika MX will boot from that kernel (and try and mount the second partition as rootfs).
No.

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Matt Sealey

thanks matt for the clear explanation, i finally managed to boot from the SD and reach the installer script. For that i had to re-lzma the boot archive on the first partition manually. While the boot files where there with a dd from the installer.img it simply never booted on the efikamx. By copying them myself on the sdcard it worked. Weird.
So i found the "go" script under /installer and launched it. It made the partitioning, copied the rootfs etc and rebooted. Unfortunately it doesn't boot on anything than the sd card now : ) i'll investigate further tonight.

You may want to check that your dip switches are set correctly (iirc, its on on on off - but I may be incorrect and its off off off on) - also, make sure when you attempt to boot that you don't have the sd card plugged in. If you have a serial cable, definitely use that to see what is going on in uboot.

You shouldn't need to set the boot switches at all to reinstall the Efika. The correct settings are

Boot from SD: off off off on
Boot from NOR: on on on off
(Boot from MicroSD: off off off off)

The "on on on off" setting will pick U-Boot from NOR, load it and it will autodetect whether to load from SD (if it's present) or PATA (if the SD is not bootable).

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Matt Sealey

there are two images on this web pages
http://www.powerdeveloper.org/platforms/efikamx/linux

which one should i use
I want to reinstall from scratch too .-)

Thanks

NG

One is an installer SD card, one is a filesystem tarball; the installer SD actually contains the filesystem tarball so using either will get you the same thing.

If you want to generate the SD card image yourself, get the "flasher" tool (firmware update page) and the rest of the files and a few modifications later you will have something similar to the .img.

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Matt Sealey

ok thanks, i'll use the SD card installer i'd rather Keep It Simple ;-)

As i plan to use efika mx as a webserver and it works quite well ;-), i have some concerns on read write on the internal ssd and oin case of emergency is it possible to run a complete system via the sd card ?

I didn't try by now, i just done the dcfldd thing by now (with some pain i have formatted the sd card in ext 2 and had to use sudo after the pipe to make it work ).

Thanks for your answer

G

Very possible. Just use the installer card as a template. You need vfat with uImage & type_id.bin and an ext2/3/4 partition as partition 2. You can put whatever else you like on it (further partitions for swap or data etc.) after that.

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Matt Sealey