glorsplitz - I don't mean to derail the convo or lead you in the wrong direction, but have you tried to flash the SPI from within manjaro? The needed package with the software is mtd-utils and a lsblk should list the SPI when invoked. If you download the file from the slackware image (or optionally use tow-boot) you can flash it right from within manjaro using:

I believe the itb file is the u-boot file you'd want to flash [need citation]:
http://slackware.uk/slackwarearm/pla...-boot-2022.04/

Or Tow-boot works on my pbp to boot slackware: https://github.com/Tow-Boot/Tow-Boot....10-005.tar.xz

Again, I don't mean to spread mis-information, but since you're not having luck booting anything else, this may be of direct value.

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This is the flashing tool to flash the correct version of U-Boot to the SPI flash.

In the script is the usage example.

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flashing tool seems to have worked

I don't distro hop, I know nothing anything not slackware, took me little while to get wifi going to get pacman to install mtd-utils, as the flashing tool needed flashcp.

Screen flashed several things, some error, restarted, I didn't notice "the process will begin in 10 seconds' time, and to release the SPI jumper." part, I assume it did that.

Now I'm at "Hit any key to stop autoboot" so I assume I good to go with rest of install instructions. BTW, green led power is red as this point.

Thanks everyone for the helping! Will post back soon.

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red led power light means it's in u-boot until installed system takes over

I assumed flash-spl flashed a Slackware version of the U-Boot Boot Loader to the SPI flash of the Pinebook Pro, as in Screenshot_20221123_212855.jpg.

However, with the Micro SD card containing the Slackware Installer inserted into the PinebookPro's MicroSD card slot, it fails for some reason. Screenshot_20221123_213001.jpg

I tried to get reasonable screen shots.

I did all this with rockpro64 not sure why pbp is being difficult.


EDIT: With sd card flash or sd card installer or no sd card, same result.

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Sometimes the 'recovery' images contain an older version of U-Boot, but presently it's exactly the same binary whether you flash from the recovery image, within the installer or use the flash-spl script.

I only saw this once on my Pinebook Pro, and I power cycled it and it worked.

What you could do is try tftp booting the Installer - look at slackwareaarch64-current/installer. That said, even if you manage to install, you'd still have a problem because the boot process is identical whether you boot the Installer or the OS.
You also need to ensure you have disabled eMMC and removed any USB devices before booting.

Just asking and wild guessing, as with the different emmc switch, this means pine64 changed things. What else did they change that might affect the way aarch64 should install?

I moved emmc switch other way and manjaro booted fine.

I looked up power cycling: disconnect battery, disconnect everything else, I disconnected nvme ribbon cable, hold down power button 30 seconds, connect ac, hold down power button, nothing happened, disconnect ac, reconnect battery.

Still booted same way, failed to find installer sd card.

See attached new image. At top says "pine64 pinebook pro", at bottom says "script failed continuing".

Even if I could figure out tftp booting, I don't have docking station for ethernet and there's no slackwareaarch64-current/installer/rk3399-pinebookpro* files.

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It looks like it cannot find the SD card at all which is why it tries the other options.
Apart from the voltage warning at the top, you should not have those other errors below it -- mine doesn't.
Perhaps try a different SD card? Other than that I don't know.

DOH! I forgot about that :-) I had wondered if I could build in the driver that's in the docking station (or some other USB NIC drivers into U-Boot, but I haven't looked yet).

There's a HOW-TO-USE document in there that explains how to set it up, but as you say, with no Ethernet you don't have that option available anyway.

My rockpro and pinebook pro will attempt to connect to Ethernet for tftp if I power cycled either from within the installer, or perhaps after assigning an IP address with dhcp in uboot. In this case I can recover if I completely power off and power back on.

Do you see the same errors? You should see u-boot starting up and looking for the installer on SD card. I also had similar experiences where I just swapped the sd card to a better quality sd card.

Yes to first part and then it fails not finding sd card.

sd card is new "SanDisk Ultra 32GB UHS-I/Class 10 Micro SDHC Memory Card", also tried similar 64GB and had same result and same result without sd card.

I created pine64 help desk ticket explaining what's going on.

Write the Slackware Installer to the Micro SD card
looks like this on sd card, is this correct, not correct?

BTW, I found this "this is u-boot trying to read from the microSD that “isn’t” in the microSD slot", I think the slot clicked a little when I inserted sd card firmly with my thumbnail.

In u-boot prompt 'help' says usbboot is something available.

I have the Slackware Installer image on the MicroSD card in a usb card reader in the pinebook pro usb slot but there's no device is present, is this because usb is not configured in slackware SPI flash?

Is it possible to boot the slackware installer image from pinebook pro usb slot?

Or does that mean down the road system updates won't be able to find the sd card slot boot folder?

I think you can load uboot and edit the boot_targets, bootargs, fdtfile, bootcmd, devnum, devtype, and one other that sets the path to the dtb file. I am away from the computer today and cannot remember the last.

I think the devnum and devtype are what you need to edit. Use the 'editenv' command and 'setenv' command.

I believe the mmc0 is the eMMC and mmc1 is the sd card. Push the usb0 to the front of boot_targets and switch up devnum if necessary.

The u-boot shell reminds me of a cisco switch or router console. Fairly straightforward.

Edit:. I remember the last uboot setting. Edit distro_bootpart.

EDIT2: These variables need to be modified for usb boot. I am 80% sure that with a u-boot shell you can boot from usb. (I have not tried it yet)

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mralk3, thank you for replying.

I created a very detailed ticket of installing slackwareaarch64 on pinebook pro to pine64 help system, links to install guide, install video, this lq thread, their response was try our forum for help.

Looking through some posts, there was something about erasing spi-flash, I don't know this stuff, maybe it was like jloco #31 post here, I erased spi-flash, there was no u-boot, red led black screen, then I did drmozes #32 post flashing tool, got slackware u-boot.

Got same result, didn't boot from sd card installer in sd card slot.

Then I tried card reader with sd card installer in left usb slot, it booted?! without me telling u-boot to do anything different.

Will post back soon when I have time to continue with install.

Thanks for all the help.

I've tried to follow what justwantin and jloco have posted here.

tow-boot is now installed, I can select and boot manjaro and slackware installer sd card without flipping emmc switch.

Can't get slackware installer sd card to boot from sd card slot but boots from usb card reader in usb3 slot.

Slackware installs to nvme, said yes to resize /boot on sd card, reboot, goes to slackware installer again, what I expected as jloco said here "you will have to write the bootloader to sd in order to boot the nvme, it will not directly boot".

"write bootloader to sd" is that like uefi? I was able to do that on another laptop but I'm not sure how to proceed here.

What I meant by that is the Slackware installer/boot disk.

That’s what you need on the sd in order for it to boot the distro, as the pbp does not have the ability through hardware to boot directly to nvme. In reality you are booting to sd and then sd loads the modules for nvme, kernel, extlinux, etc and Slackware boots.

Not sure how your system is getting on, but on mine I have to hold ESC to get the menu up when booting, select “boot from sd” then once that loads I have the choice of booting 1) Slackware boot disk or 2) Slackware installer (I choose to keep the installer on my sd card).

I have since changed my system even more (to the land of unsupported madness) and moved my install to emmc and removed the nvme as battery drain and crashing was constant and made the system unattractive to use (even with all the hacks to lower the nvme states) so I likely can’t be much help on the rest of the road, as I’m doing what the install doc basically says to not do. (Rebel

I posted here, there've been no replies and I can't find anything anywhere else.

With tow-boot installed I can select usb boot where the slackware installer is on sd card in usb card reader, install slackware to emmc or nvme but not be able to boot.