No "boot from sd1" option

[Sevaserg]

Hey people. Last two or three weeks I'm experiencing some sort of trouble with my Openpandora 1GHz ed..
The actual problem was in "i/o error", which was displayed when I was trying to install any app. I've decided to reflash, but after holding the R button there was no "boot from SD" option.

Then I tried updating it via wifi, which made the situation worse — the store has disappeared, and the apps, which I've downloaded after the problem appearance, don't work, no matter how many times I've tryed. So I think reflash is the best option, but HOW? The card was mounted via pandora itself into FAT32, it is seen with XFCE but it can't be seen via boot menu.

What's the problem? Am I doing something wrong? I'm new to Linux, so I apologize for a stupid question in case if the problem was already solved and I've missed it.

 

[levi]

What card are you using? Some especially large cards take too long to be recognised for the boot system to pick them up before the menu pops up - one of the more recent released extended that time to make it more compatible with newer, larger cards, but it can still be problematic sometimes.

I'd suggest creating a small partition at the start of the card, and formatting that to FAT32 and putting the files in it. Small partitions probably enumerate faster than big ones, so that might work better. If not you might just need to buy a better, smaller card.

 

[notaz]

From my experience smaller partitions won't help, as it's card initialization that times out, not the partition read.

You'll need to find another card, usually smaller/older ones work.

 

[elw3]

The card was mounted via pandora itself into FAT32

You have a "lost+found" folder on that disk. Which means the card is not using Fat32. Something is fishy there...

 

[levi]

Good point. That said, I've successfully reflashed using an ext2 partition before now, and I think it supports ext3 and 4 these days.

 

[elw3]

These days... but how old is his firmware? The bootloader can only be updatet via SD and OP make it sound like he only ever did it via wifi.

 

[atari_afternoon]

I have to use an "old" 16 GB SD card to do a full non-Wifi reflash. With a "new" 128 one, "boot from SD1" doesn´t show up either.
This is IMO a standard issue and has been asked before and I believe it´s a "too new card" issue.
So if you try with the full reflash files on a smaller/older SD card inside slot 1, all should work fine and the option appears.
It just doesn´t appear when trying to full-reflash from larger cards (on my CC), this has never been different

 

[levi]

These days... but how old is his firmware? The bootloader can only be updatet via SD and OP make it sound like he only ever did it via wifi.

Good point again. But I've booted from an ext2 partition since I first updated my pandora. Ext2 still seems to be the default format using mkfs, but I don't know off the top of my head what tools like gparted default to, so I don't really know what format of linux filesystem a random sample is likely to be. djwillis's comprehensive seven year old blog post claims that FAT and ext2/3 cards should work.

 

[Sevaserg]

Hey everyone. Big thanks for your help. The problem (exactly as you told) was in usage of FAT32 on 8gb microSD card with class 4. I used a normal SD card, but with class 6 and ext2 partitioning, and somehow it started working! Thanks again

 

[notaz]

It just doesn´t appear when trying to full-reflash from larger cards (on my CC), this has never been different

That's even after a reflash with the latest, or have you simply not tried?

 

[atari_afternoon]

Yes, it is still like this. Tested it just now with the Qumox 128 GB (FAT32) on CC with latest firmware.
Appreciate your asking a lot but this doesn´t really matter - I just keep the 16 GB card (from Caanoo) handy in case the firmware should ever crash on me with no booting (which has happened only twice in 5 years).