Re: Jessie for Udoo X86?
On Tue, 18 Apr 2017 08:30:00 +0000, GiaThnYgeia
<GiaThnYgeia@openmailbox.org> wrote:
>
>
>Larry Dighera:
>> I found the 'debian-8.7.1-amd64-DVD-1.iso' image here:
>> <http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-dvd/>, burned it to
>> SD card in a USB reader with Rufus <https://rufus.akeo.ie/>, and booted it
>> from USB on the Udoo X86 Advanced hardware (Intel quad-core Celeron N3160
>> 2.24 GHz & Intel® Quark SE core 32 MHz plus 32-bit ARC core 32 MHz, Intel HD
>> Graphics 400 Up to 640 MHz 12 execution units, 4 GB DDR3L Dual Channel RAM
>> and 32GB eMMC Storage).
>
>The link I sent you was for live versions where a complete Debian
>installation boots up (if it is possible based on the hardware) which is
>a very good indication that your installation will act just like it.
>You can select any desktop and then switch and install any desktop you
>like from the system once it is running. I always use lxde as it is
>lean and mean. This live version includes the debian installer which
>you can reboot and run from scratch or run it within the live debian
>system. I prefer to reboot and run the installer alone after I have
>made sure live runs fine. This gives the installer maximum resources
>and there are less things to confuse it. You see from live when grub is
>installed it picks up the live drive as one of the installed systems.
>You have to keep an eye on what you select on the grub installation.
>But this would be a small problem, having an invalid boot option on your
>grub.
>
>> I selected the GUI Install from the menu, and all proceeded remarkably fast
>> and smooth without a hitch (except the WiFi, but gigabit Ethernet enabled
>> downloading all required additional files) until the last when it came to
>> grub.
>
>Don't get me started down that path ;)
>
>> The installer advised that it had detected another OS being installed, and
>> presented me with a few choices to which I wasn't sure of the correct one,
>> so I took the default. That must have been wrong, as now Debian won't boot
>> with grub from the eMMC "Hard Drive." I'm not at all familiar with grub.
>
>Were you aware that there was an installed system on that disk and what
>it is? Is it now an option on the grub boot-up screen? Remember that if
>you move the arrow up and down within the first 5" the default autostart
>that is timed to 5" is deactivated and you now have time to study it.
>Your first option on the base screen should be the debian you installed.
> The second should be for recovery which opens up a second screen where
>recovery is the 2nd option. Is that what you used?
>Then on the base screen you should have 3 lines of memtest options, and
>at the bottom the "other" system that was previously installed. It may
>be freedos or something factory???
>
>> I can boot into recovery mode though, and from the command line it appears
>> the install was successful. So I'm close, but don't know exactly how to
>> proceed to make it bootable.
>
>In order to get to the grub part of the installation the system was
>completely installed and it is there. There is an option to install
>grub to handle booting of all systems on the drive (possibly sda) and/or
>the partition itself where Debian was installed in which case it makes
>the partition bootable. I assume the default is the first.
>
>> Any clues sincerely appreciated.
>
>When you pick the first option of Debian to boot, what do you see on the
>screen?
It happens very quickly. There is a brief flash of color, and perhaps a few
lines of text, then an interminable black screen with no response to
keyboard/mouse input.
>Lines of white text running some green and maybe red stuff?
>If it is all green you are in good shape, if it is red you have to
>concentrate on that first red tag and tell us what it says.
>
I'm familiar with the dmesg output at boot time. I see that when I choose
to boot into recovery mode from the grub menus. When the scrolling text
stops, I'm left with what I thought was a frozen screen, but it turns out to
be login, without a prompt, waiting for me to provide the root password.
Once I submit the root password, I have a command line interface to a
reasonably functional Debian system.
>
>Again, if there was a hardware issue the live system would have
>identified and displayed what the obstacle was. Possibly you have to go
>into recovery, edit the sources (/etc/apt/sourced.list) and add "main
>contrib non-free" to where it says "main" if such firmware exist. Then
>$apt update, $apt upgrade but then you have to know what you are missing
>to find the appropriate package to add if it exists.
>
What I have discovered thus far, is that Debian wants to launch X11 by
default, instead of the command line UI. That appears to result in a black
screen with a frozen system.
At this point, I have no idea of the correct way to boot to the command line
interface, so I temporarily renamed lightdm, and now it boots to the command
line interface apparently after X11 fails to launch. So, it appears that it
is X11 that has possible issues with the hardware or is misconfigured.
Perhaps there is something in X11's /var/log file that will provide a clue
about why it was failing to successfully launch.
So, it appears that grub is correctly configured after all.
What is the correct way to configure the system to boot to the command line
UI instead of X11? Do I need to edit things, or add files to, /etc/rc.d
someplace? Or is there a higher-level way to tell systemd that I prefer to
manually launch X11?
I'm aware that running the startx script is a reasonable way to launch X11
when I want it, but I'll have to diagnose its issue(s) first. My past
familiarity with AT&T Unix from the early '80s through the '90s was pre-X11,
so I'm going to have to learn how to administrate X11 now I suppose.
I sincerely appreciate your kind efforts in guiding me. I gives me the
motivation to continue spending the time to get Jessie up on the new Udoo
X86 platform.
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