Instructions for moving the rootfs from uSD card to SATA disk, because I couldn't find it anywhere:
Connect SATA disk. An old 2.5" should do, a 3.5" should work too as long as it's powered from somewhere (not the cubieboard). A cheap PATA/SATA converter works too and it's possible to make use of old 2.5" PATA disks if they have enough space for the purpose. My cubieboard was shipped with a nifty power/data SATA cable, with a plug to go onto the board's "SATA 5V" 2-pin header. This power header turned out to be useless (I tried half a dozen different disks, some SATA) because it doesn't provide enough voltage for the disk to spin up. I measured around 4.5V. So it's necessary to power the 2.5" from some other source too. There are some cubietruck mounting boards that might fit here. Boot the cubieboard, I assume from uSD card. The SATA disk can be connected any time, the SATA port is hot-pluggable! Yes SATA ports and SATA power are always hot-pluggable without damaging hardware, but that doesn't mean the kernel driver will also play that game. This one works, the disk is immediately recognised. Nifty! The rootfs is on /dev/mmcblk0p2, let's say the SATA partition is /dev/sda1 # mkfs -text4 -m1 /dev/sda1 (or whatever preference) # mount /dev/sda1 /mnt # nice cp -ax / /mnt/ (copy rootfs) # cd /boot Edit boot.script, replacing /dev/mmcblk0p2 with /dev/sda1. Re-create boot.scr: # mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d boot.script boot.scr Fix up fstab: # cd /mnt/etc Edit fstab, replacing /dev/mmcblk0p2 with /dev/sda1. In my case, /mnt/proc was not copied, but the system hangs on boot if it doesn't exist. Check, and do # cd /mnt # mkdir proc # chmod 555 proc Done. # reboot Note that /boot is still located on uSD card, /dev/mmcblk0p1. Apparently the hardware can not boot from SATA directly, although it should be possible to move /boot into the nand flash - but I don't know how. Until then a (very small) uSD card remains necessary. Swap space is also still located on the uSD card, /dev/mmcblk0p3. To move it to SATA disk, create a partition for it, and initialise it. Edit /etc/fstab (on the rootfs, now on SATA disk!) to activate it and reboot. HTH, Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann http://volker.top.geek.nz/ Please do not CC list postings to me. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] To contact the owner, e-mail: [email protected]
