Dual booting N810 problem; chinook on internal, diablo on external
 

i recently got a n810 so i'm fairly new to it. so hopefully i get my wording correct here and my question kinda makes sense.

1. so here is what i did. i set up a dual boot of diablo. with diablo installed on internal flash, i cloned diablo to my external 4gb card (mmc1). both flash and mmc1 boot well.

2. i wanted to put chinook back on flash for a backup OS or if i decided to ditch diablo

3. so i reflashed my n810 with chinook
# sudo ./flasher-3.0 -F RX-44_2008SE_2.2007.51-3_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

4. rebooted the tablet and it booted directly into flash (as expected) and chinook works perfectly

5. ran fanoush's initfs_flasher with my custom bootmenu.conf

6. rebooted tablet and boot menu appears and can boot into both chinook (flash) and diablo (mmc1)

7. when i updated diablo from from 4.2008.23-14 to 4.2008.30-2 i notice OS2008 feature upgrade updates:
initfs-flasher (0.95.16-200829maemo1)
kernel-diablo-flasher (2.6.21-200829maemo1)
flash-and-reboot (3)

so i figure it will wipe my boot menu, etc and will only be able to boot to flash, won't be able to boot to mmc1. i figure no bid deal, just rerun initfs_flasher.

*8. here is where i start to run into problems. after OS2008 feature upgrades finish installing my n810 restarts and gets to the initial nokia start screen and just hangs there. i have to take the battery out to get it to shut off. it will not boot at all. not even to flash.

9. so i reflash my n810 with chinook and once again i can boot into diablo after rerunning fanoush's initfs_flasher

i know that the kernel, initfs, etc are updated in diablo. but with chinook on flash and diablo on my external card diablo works, but diablo shows that it is running chinooks kernel and initfs (under control panel as well as xterm # uname -rsv) and every time i install the OS2008 feature upgrades my NIT won't boot because it changes the initfs, etc. so i have to reflash chinook on flash then rerun fanoush's initfs_flasher.

here is where i need some help. how can i get diablo to boot it's updated initfs and kernel when chinook is installed on flash?

is there a way to get/keep chinook's initfs and kernel when booting chinook from internal flash and also be able to boot diablo on my external card booting diablo's updated initfs and kernel?

TIA

Re: Dual booting N810 problem; chinook on internal, diablo on external
 

Is there something in Diablo that does not work for you? Currently you only get 1 initfs and kernel, you can't have both. You could create a custom script to flash the kernel/initfs and reboot. Have the script in flash write out diablo and reboot, and have sd write out chinook and reboot.

But my question would be why, Diablo works great

Re: Dual booting N810 problem; chinook on internal, diablo on external
 

Boot from SD, Install the upgrade from command line, with

apt-get install osso-software-version-rx44

This will not reboot. Then run initfs_flasher (the documentation warns against running initfs_flasher while running from SD, but it should work).

But, as you noted, chinook system will not work with diablo kernel/initfs, so you won't be able to boot to chinook.

Re: Dual booting N810 problem; chinook on internal, diablo on external
 

You won't?

I booted into Chinook with Diablo (SSU n-1) before the last SSU, and my Chinook partition booted fine. Did something break?


EDIT: Heh, I guess it did; my Chinook won't boot now.
Maybe back up either initfs or kernel a notch and see which is to blame, then run the old one?
(Or just do like PB said, and reflash with every reboot.)

Re: Dual booting N810 problem; chinook on internal, diablo on external
 

I am not sure I understand the problem. Anyhow, I have Diablo in flash, chinook on intSD and Diablo in extSD, they ALL boot well. And of course, I also SSU upgraded to 30-2, so far, everything works.

When I am with chinook, I cloned the system to intSD. I then flashed to Diablo, and cloned Diablo to extSD.

Flash boot: about product: 4.2008.30-2
IntSD boot: about product: unknown
ExtSD boot: about product: 4.2008.30-2

How do I know IntSD boot is chinook? I just do................................. by the app manager user interfacce.

Why do I keep chinook? So that I can argue with Chinook users, when Chinook say this and that, I can check them out.

Why dont I SSU to 36-5? 1) I am scare :) 2) nobody show me how?!

bun

Re: Dual booting N810 problem; chinook on internal, diablo on external
 

i'd like to keep chinook on flash for testing out an app, etc that might not be working well or at all in diablo. i've only been using diablo for a week or so now and most seems to be working well. i'm also trying to understand the n810 and linux/maemo in more detail.

oh, and i also like to try to brick newly acquired things ;)

i've read through the threads and saw that you put together a custom install .deb. looks good, tho i didn't try it out. that's some skills putting that .deb together.

thanks matan, i'm currently testing my n810 now, and if it still doesn't work i'll give your suggestion a try.

first, it sounds like you have a n800. i've not ever used a n800 so i can't be sure if my problem would be similar on your n800. i think your internal flash and sd cards are setup slightly different than a n810... i don't think it would matter much in the long run, but i can't say as i don't have a n800 to test on.

second, and most importantly, you have diablo in flash. with diablo in flash the bootloader, kernel, initfs, etc are as they should be to get your nit up and running after a diablo update. but when chinook is in flash and diablo is in mmc1 and you run diablo's OS2008 feature upgrade, it rewrites/updates the kernel, initfs, etc and also wipes the boot menu. so when your nit reboots after the diablo update, it has a new initfs, etc that is looking for a default diablo install on flash. when it finds chinook on flash it freezes up and won't boot.

if you start application manager, from the "main view" window, click the "check for updates" selection. if it says "no updates available" click the small circle in the bottom right of the window and that will "refresh" and it should list the 2008.36-5 feature upgrade. then you can simply SSU it.

scared? i guess i can kinda understand?

ok. i think i found a way to get around my original question... all seems to be working good now. i'll post my install notes and see if anyone wants to give it a try or give pointers, etc.

jbk

Re: Dual booting N810 problem; chinook on internal, diablo on external
 

I have it the other way and it works. Chinook on SD and Diablo in flash (it is easier for updates) and it worked for all past Diablo updates and works still with the last one.

So my experience is that Chinook (on SD) works fine with any Diablo kernel and initfs pair.

Hmm I have no idea why it doesn't work. The procedure looks fine.

Re: Dual booting N810 problem; chinook on internal, diablo on external
 

BTW this also flashes old NOLO bootloader so after you upgrade to diablo you get old bootloader booting newest kernel and initfs. This may break something. If you insist of keeping the oldest system (=chinook) in flash then unpack latest firmware and try to flash at least Diablo bootloader (the command line is quite long, I don't remeber it, you need to give it all 3 bootloader pieces).

Re: Dual booting N810 problem; chinook on internal, diablo on external
 

that's the way i originally had my n810 set up too. with diablo installed to flash, SSU's worked good and didn't give chinook any problems after. but i rarely boot to flash so i decided that i'd load chinook back to flash and diablo to SD.

that's when i ran into issues. so after a few trials and fails... a few complete reflashes... i think i got it nailed down.

@fanoush:

i'll post my steps of what i did in a guide format in a second. maybe you, and the rest of the users can take a look and tell me what you think.

it's working perfect for me now, tho i've only been testing it for today. diablo on SD works well, and when running the SSU it does not cause my n810 to brick. chinook on flash works great. and both chinook and diablo are able to load my seperate swap partition so things seem to be running pretty fast/stable.

jbk

Re: Dual booting N810 problem; chinook on internal, diablo on external
 

Booting Diablo on external SD with chinook installed to flash --> ON A N810 ...as easy as A,B... through G ;)

okay, so i wanted to setup a dual boot on my n810 rather than simply having a, what i'm gonna call a "clone boot". i had originally tried diablo on flash and chinook on external and that was easy. everything worked as it should. so then since i rarely boot to flash, i decided i wanted to make diablo my default boot on SD/mmc1 and have chinook on flash. this posed a bit of a challenge.

A. you need an external sd card with diablo currently installed. i prefer a clean diablo clone on an external card. there are many ways to clone your OS so i won't go into that here. and since you're a civilized person, you're already on a linux pc so you can run the flasher-3.0 tool (sorry, winblows users, this guide won't help you much).

B. optional but recommended. reflash diablo to n810 internal flash (this gets diablo's initfs, bootloader, kernel, etc loaded to flash which is needed to not brick your n810 after a diablo update from mmc1). note: you don't need to do this if you already have diablo installed on internal flash. tho i'd still do it for a squeaky clean install. i had my external SD card not installed when i did this.

running the above command should give you something like this:
C. now flash just chinooks rootfs to internal flash. shut down diablo and use the command from your linux pc:

or, if you have not unpacked your fiasco image you can run:
# sudo ./flasher-3.0 --flash-only rootfs -f -F RX-44_2008SE_2.2007.51-3_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -R

running either of the above commands should give you something like this:
now boot into flash and you should see a fresh install of chinook running diablos initfs and kernel. if you want to check the kernel version, type this in xterm:
and it should give you this:
Linux 2.6.21-omap1 Wed Jul 16 12:29:11 EEST 2008 is diablo's initial release. make sure everything is working as it should then shutdown chinook.

D. now install your external sd card that has your diablo install. then set the root device of your n810 to mmc
and it should give you something like this:
E. boot into diablo on mmc1 and run updater via control panel. update to the latest OS2008 feature upgrade.

F. after updating diablo to latest OS2008 feature upgrade, run fanoush's initfs_flasher (thanks fanoush for the awesome work btw) and setup dual boot (i've read that you should be wary of running the initfs_flasher from an exteranl card, but it seems to be working for me. so boot into flash/chinook and run initfs_flasher if wanted - just more work with future updates, etc).

done! reboot into each OS and make sure everything is as it should be. G & H are optional.

G. optional: make boot menu appear when powering on. run as root from your nit's xterm:
H. now run a quick check from flash for your SD card. from chinook/flash run from xterm with e2fsprogs installed:
note: i have only done this on my n810. i do not know if this will work on a n800/n770 as i have not ever owned one before. i'm still fairly new to my n810 so hopefully this guide will help others. enjoy at your own risk.

jbk

Re: Dual booting N810 problem; chinook on internal, diablo on external
 

I am talking N810, i.e, Diablo on flash and Diablo on ext SD (removable SD) and Chinook on int SD (int flash or non remoable SD)

bun