[SOLVED] Installing to eMMC target partitions

Pithium · 03-15-2020, 07:58 PM

Hi all,

There are some posts about this from a few years ago, but I figured I'd bring it up again since I'm dealing with a new hardware platform.

I'm installing Slackware on a Pixel Slate (chromeos tablet) with 64GB of internal eMMC storage.

eMMC block devices are listed using the following format
/dev/mmcblk?p?

I can partition these devices normally using cfdisk/cgdisk however setup is not able to enumerate these partitions and only shows me the USB installer. The setup2hd script provided by Alien Bob in liveslack doesn't appear to have this limitation and I've used it to successfully install slackware to this device.

Other than the issues on install, Slackware on a Pixel Slate is a pretty smooth experience. I might try my hand at editing the install scripts, but I honestly don't know the best way to submit a patch.

Intel has some x86 chips that are really low power, and AMD has released 7nm x86 processors so we are likely to see this kind of thing more often with x86 computers in the "mobile" space.

Pithium · 03-16-2020, 10:25 PM

Marked as solved since I have workarounds. But I'm probably going to rip the initrd into pieces to fix the problem manually, so if someone wants to educate me on where to send patches, feel free

bassmadrigal · 03-17-2020, 03:08 PM

Are you happening to do this with a 14.2 install disc? Because this has supposedly been corrected in -current back in NOV 2017. These are the relevant changelog entries.

Code:

+--------------------------+
Wed Nov 22 05:27:06 UTC 2017
isolinux/initrd.img:  Rebuilt.
  SeTEFI: Don't use fdisk to detect gpt (it's not neccessary).
    Thanks to Didier Spaier.
  SetEFI: Scan /dev/mmcblk[0-9]. Thanks to zerouno.
  probe: Filter another possible EFI partition label. Thanks to Didier Spaier.
usb-and-pxe-installers/usbboot.img:  Rebuilt.
  SeTEFI: Don't use fdisk to detect gpt (it's not neccessary).
    Thanks to Didier Spaier.
  SetEFI: Scan /dev/mmcblk[0-9]. Thanks to zerouno.
  probe: Filter another possible EFI partition label. Thanks to Didier Spaier.
+--------------------------+
Tue Nov 21 05:05:41 UTC 2017
a/elilo-3.16-x86_64-5.txz:  Rebuilt.
  Double the allowable kernel image size from 8MB to 16MB.
  Thanks to Didier Spaier.
  Patched eliloconfig to work with MMC devices. Thanks to zerouno.

Eric makes -current ISOs available on his site.

Pithium · 03-17-2020, 05:50 PM

Hmmm, I'll have to doublecheck that my NFS mirror is up-to-date. I suppose it is possible that I copied 14.2 onto the stick instead of current, but I doubt it. I haven't had a chance to root cause the problem so it could easily be user error on my part. I need to revisit the install process for this tablet anyway.