Boot method: iso cp'd to usb stick
Image version: https://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/bookworm_di_alpha2/arm64/iso-cd/debian-bookworm-DI-alpha2-arm64-netinst.iso
Date: 14 March 2023

Machine: Pinebook Pro
Processor: Rockchip RK3399 system-on-chip
Memory: 4GB

Base System Installation Checklist:
[O] = OK, [E] = Error (please elaborate below), [ ] = didn't try it

Initial boot:           [O]
Detect network card:    [O]
Configure network:      [O]
Detect media:           [O]
Load installer modules: [O]
Detect hard drives:     [O]
Partition hard drives:  [O]
Install base system:    [O]
Clock/timezone setup:   [O]
User/password setup:    [O]
Install tasks:          [E]
Install boot loader:    [ ]
Overall install:        [ ]

Comments/Problems:

See the attached syslog and partman files.

Hi,

Znoteer <znoteer@mailbox.org> (2023-03-14):

How reliable is your storage?

Mar 14 21:26:04 in-target: dpkg-deb (subprocess): decompressing archive '/tmp/firmware-brcm80211_20230117-2_all.deb' (size=5349764) member 'data.tar': lzma error: compressed data is corrupt
Mar 14 21:40:09 in-target: dpkg-deb (subprocess): decompressing archive '/tmp/apt-dpkg-install-JqSiZc/097-libllvm15_1%3a15.0.6-4+b1_arm64.deb' (size=20662856) member 'data.tar': lzma error: compressed data is corrupt^M


Cheers,

Hello,

[snip]

I'm not sure how to answer that. It's an nvme drive that I bought for this pinebook pro, so was new though I've had the pinebook pro for some time.

I was getting similar errors when trying to install the internal eMMC of the Pinebook Pro. That emmc chip is the one that came with the PBP, so presumably new.

I thought it was may be my SD cards and USB sticks, so I bought a new USB stick.

Now when I say the nvme and emmc are new, that means that I'd never used them in anything but the PBP. I have  owned them all for several months. But they have hardly been used besides maybe a hour of playing with the Manjaro the PBP came instlled with, an install of Diet Pi which went well, but which I never did more than play with for 15 min. None of my many many debian installation attempts has gone well.

So, should be new, hardly used. Is there some test I can run on my eMMC and nvme drives to test them? Like memtest for RAM?

I've succesfully installed, first try, Armbian to the eMMC of my Pinebook Pro. Install is maybe not as accurate as "copied".

To "install" Armbian, one burns a bootable, runnable image to SD card. The first boot of that SD card asks for a user who will have sudo privileges and passwords for them and root. Then the gui is started and Armbian can now be run from SD.

To get it onto eMMC, one runs the script armbian-install which gives choices about where to install the bootloader and the system. I chose SPI and eMMC. The eMMC was first fdisk'd to make the whole disk a single EXT4 partition. So, no LVM, nor LUKS.

I didn't format the partition because I didn't know what the armbian-install script was going to do, eg. make boot and efi partitions, etc. It didn't. It mke2fs'd the whole thing ext4 and then simply copied the system from the SD card to that eMMC partition.

I took out the SD card after and rebooted (I chose not to write anything to SPI as I was confident that Tow-boot would do).

The system boots. I could surf the web. I found this installation report using the bug number.

The process doesn't much resemble what D-I does. I don't know if this is sufficient proof of the reliability of my eMMC or not.

Please let me know what you think. If there is anything you would like me to try with this armbian system to stress test, or whatever, the eMMC, I'd be happy to try things.

Thanks,

Some NVME draw a bit too much power with the default power profiles, but
can be configured to be a bit more conservative. I picked slower NVME
devices partly to avoid having to do this, and still I had one NVME that
was reliable, and one that was not out-of-the-box (but worked fine in
another computer).

You might want to set the NVME power usage (using the "nvme" command
from the "nvme-cli" package):

https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/Pinebook_Pro#Post_NVMe_install_power_limiting

Main commands that are useful are "nvme id-ctrl" to see the various
power profiles, and "nvme get-feature" and "nvme set-feature" to select
a different profile.
...

Since you're using Tow-boot (presumably installed to SPI?), you might be
booting in EFI mode, and grub might be using the device-tree that is
provided by Tow-boot... which might not be fully compatible with the
kernel you are running. You might have to configure grub to use the
device-tree consistent with your kernel (which is unfortunately more
difficult than it ought to be).

Alternately, switch to using u-boot-menu which generates an
extlinux.conf boot menu, or flash-kernel boot scripts... both of those
will use a device-tree that matches your running kernel.

Another option might be to try the sd-card-images:

https://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/bookworm/main/installer-arm64/current/images/netboot/SD-card-images/

Or the same thing from the daily-images:

https://d-i.debian.org/daily-images/arm64/daily/

  ... which appears to be missing the netboot images today (probably in
  the middle of the kernel transition) ...

Technically, the Tow-boot on your SPI (or eMMC?) will likely take over
and not use the u-boot on the microsd, but I *think* it should support
those images, which should pass the correct device-tree at least. You
might need a USB-ethernet adapter if the wifi firmware is not included
in those images... or otherwise do the firmware dance to get the wifi
working (I've only ever used the pinebook-pro-rk3399 with USB
ethernet/wifi).


live well,
  vagrant

Vagrant Cascadian <vagrant@debian.org> (2023-04-26):

Yes, the linux upload is a little too young, and I'm planning on
sticking with linux/testing for the RC 2. One part of my plan for the
upcoming debugging session was building a netboot image (mini.iso and/or
SD images) against testing.


Cheers,