Hi,
I am new to all things Linux/Ubuntu related though I have been familiar with Windows for decades.

After years of becoming more and more despondent of Microsoft products and interminable Wndows updates I have been using Android more and more which led me to experiment with Ubuntu and then Linux. I created a couple of bootable USB drives with Ubuntu and Mint and installed on some ancient little netbooks and both ran flawlessly.

I was given an Asus netbook by a friend with the intention of installing a "short" Win 10 for him as there is now no more room due to the ever expanding Windows monster. The netbook uses the EMMC storage solution, 4GB RAM, 32GB RAM. I have booted in to Linux from USB and all runs perfectly, Bluetooth, WiFi perfect, no problem. My question is, will I be able to now install LM on the premise that the device has booted perfectly with no issue. On the desktop in LM, as well as "computer" there is a "OS" icon which I am guessing is the EMMC. I have read that people have done this "apparently" successfully however, on reboot the device does not seem to see the OS.

Any help or advice would be gratefully received, thank you.

Try setting the computer BIOS boot mode to legacy instead of UEFI and reboot, if that doesn't help, make sure you've installed the boot loader(GRUB) to emmc not usb drive. Maybe reinstall to make sure and select the proper device.

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while how a system runs a live usb is a good indicator of how the full install will work, there is no guarantee that you will get the same performance. it is a process you just have to try to get an answer to.

as tinfoil3d has alluded to, one thing most windows users aren't aware of is the bootloader that starts the operating system. mint uses grub 2 and it sounds like that wasn't installed correctly or to the right place.

to help you further some info about your system (at minimum the make and model, but also if you know if it has a gpu) and how you performed the installation would be useful.

also as tinfoil3d has suggested, the first installation attempt isn't always a success even for those of us that have used linux for a while. trying more than once and paying attention to the process is definitely a good idea.

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Many thanks to tinfoil and cordx. The machine is an Asus E402M, 2GB RAM 32GB ROM the GPU in Intel Graphics HD and I'm happy to say that Linux Mint 20 is now running smoothly, albeit that it took two attempts. On the first attempt I did not delete the partitions on the EMMC card, second attempt I did and bingo, it loaded and installed.
In the BIOS I selected the USB to boot from, disabled fast boot but did not enable Legacy.

I had prepared a Linux Mint ISO and rendered it bootable with Etcher, I didn't have to make any special Grub preparations, (fortunately, as I attempted it just before Tinfoil replied :-)
I know there are quite a few of these 32 and 64GB devices out there and they make a brilliant alternative to Chromebooks when Linux or Ubuntu is installed but, in some cases, the installation to EMMC can be a nightmare judging by some of the stories I've read, it seems to go either perfectly or disastrously with no middle ground.
Further to the above, this particular machine has a spare drive bay and I am now wondering how difficult it would be to put the OS on a SSD drive and simply not use the EMMC Drive, any thoughts?

Thanks again for your help 👍👍👍

Well, you'd HAVE to optimize your OS so that it won't write stuff that's not needed, to save mmc life. That usually involves using more flexible distros like devuan but they come at cost of much more complicated installation and operation, usually. That's the only thing I personally would recommend considering. Take care of the flash. If there's a SATA slot available use it by all means. Some lappies tend to have it but it's not soldered in. Albeit being physically there, on the board.

Hi,

I need some help about emmc with Linux on my ASUS E406SA model with 64 Gb emmc and 4 Gb RAM.
I've erased all windows partitions from the emmc.

I've tryied to install Ubuntu 20.04 and the last MINT but when I try to boot, the emmc never appears in my Bios boot Driver Option Priorities.
Can you help me to solve that?

I don't want to return on Windows on this machine.

Thank very much.
Jacques.

I have, as you can probably see, a similar device did you boot from the USB whilst Windows was still installed to check out your Ubuntu/Linux distribution and if you did, did it run OK, if it did, did you then click on the "install" option. I am assuming that you disabled fast/secure boot in order for your device to see your USB drive ?

Just had a thought, if you have deleted the partitions on the EMMC and therefore the operating system, does hard disk appear in your bios, rather than EMMC ?

Hi Road Warrior,

I've tested Linux on it before deleting all Windows data and partitions via booting on an usb key with live Linux.
The Linux was full ok via this live test so I was sure of the good following. But that was wrong
After that I've killed all Windows data during the install.

So during the install, I created all Linux partitions on the 64 Gb emmc (/ , /boot, /home, , /opt, /tmp, /usr, /usr/local, /var, /swap)
At the end of each install I've watched on the grub install, at there is always no error.
But the emmc never appear in the bios on the next boot without any usb key.
So no disk is visible in the bios.

Do you the commands to make emmc bootable via a live linux?
Where can I find info on installing Linux on emmc?

Some web sites tell to use f2fs partitions, but this kind of partitions doesn't appear in the available partition's types list.
f2fs seems to be better for emmc. I don't know how to use it.

Thanks for your help.
Jacques.

Hi Jacques,
Sorry you're having an issue with the installation. When I installed Linux, I allowed the installation to decide the whole process, I didn't delete or create partitions though I know that's an option. I am wondering, given the installation that you carried out showed no errors, if the issue is with the BIOS settings post install. I found this which may be of some help. There is loads of info online re. the problems encountered installing Linux on eMMC devices. I hope that someone here, with more knowledge of Ubuntu and Linux, can help you further:

https://forum.up-community.org/discu...n-boot-options

https://askubuntu.com/questions/8799...-compatibility

This is definitely not necessary.
Usually - in most cases - two partitions are enough: one for swap (and it isn't called "/swap" because it doesn't hook into your filesystem at all) and a root partition ("/").
Like the previous poster said, just let the Ubuntu installer do its thing.

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