MK908II LawlessPPC Flavour PureX KitKat V1 SD card Rom 4.4.2 - Android Stick & Console Computers General

MK908II LawlessPureX SD Card ROM
This ROM in theory should work on any RK3188 device with a AP6210 WiFi/Bluetooth chip equiped with an SD card slot
This image is used to boot your Android stick / box from an SD card leaving your onboard NAND untouched so in theory you can test the image without it making any changes to your device once the SD card is ejected
The reason this Rom SD card image exists is due to the CRAP Foresee NAND chips mounted in some MK908II Android sticks and possibly others!!!! Which fastly corrupt and cant be fully formatted leaving a useless stick!!!
(later MK908II sticks use Micron NAND chips and the packaging now states RK3188T CPU, I think this can be used to identify which sticks have Foresee or Micron NANDs without opening the stick or trying Maskrom mode)
This usually manifests as frequent reboots, stalling, stuttering and data or apps suddenly disappearing
I think its safe to say that if your Android stick / box wont enter Maskrom mode then your stuck with a Foresee NAND!!!
So if you wish to use your Android device successfully this is possibly your only option besides soldering a fresh NAND chip on the device
This Rom is basically Walter77's pureX KitKat V1 - New firmware for CX-921 and CX-919
I would say please dont pester Walter77 for support as I believe there would be little he could do due to the change of image format plus the small changes I have made to the ROM
This ROM runs at a full [email protected] + 24p no upscaling here *8O)
It also runs @1.4GHz (default) but the kernel does support 1.6GHz
It runs more than fast enough @1.4GHz due to Walter77's amazing work but ive included No Frills CPU
if you wish to run @1.6GHz
It has an app space of 3.94GB
It has an internal storage space of 2.49GB
To utilize this simply do the following
1. Download MK908IILawlessPureXSD.rar
2. Extract MK908IILawlessPureXSD.rar to a place of your choice
3. Download & install Win32DiskImager link provided
http://sourceforge.net/projects/win3...atest/download
4. Aquire, beg, steal or borrow a class 10 8GB SD card
(Im no saying other brands of SD card wont work but i only had success with Sandisk)
(other brands failed to boot, this would appear to be a card reader compatibilty issue)
(similar to the issue Raspberry Pi's suffer from)
5. Launch / run Win32DiskImager & click on the little folder icon then select the now extracted
MK908IILawlessPurexSD.img (use the file requester to find the img file)
6. Click the arrow under device to the right of the program to select your SD card
(eg:- [D:\] [E:\] [F:\] etc)
7. Click the write button
8. Once write process has completed remove SD card
(if via USB device make sure to safely remove to avoid errors)
9. Place SD card in SD card slot of MK908II and power up
(it should boot as fast if not faster than the onboard NAND but maybe not on the first boot)
10. Enjoy this fantastic ROM made by Walter77 (modified slightly by me *8O) )
If any apps fail to run simply uninstall them and reinstall them (Ive only notice this happen with spotify)
I would like to give all credit to those truly responsible for this ROM
Walter77 (original ROM creator)
D33 (kernel creator)
these are the true heroes in this story *8O
****Disclaimer****
I make no promises with this ROM but all should be fine I've been testing over an extended period
But if your device becomes useless, your house blows up or your wife leaves you I am not resposible
its your device and your choice to use this ROM
Hope fully this is the download link including readme
https://drive.google.com/folderview?...0U&usp=sharing
Laters
LawlessPPC

Any chance you still pay attention to this? I was trying to DL but link is no longer any good.

Link is here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/...d5cGlGM1FFZXRPODk3Qnpmc2lELTQ3ZERtM0xRRW5kZ0U

let's try this. I'm using a quite stable rom with an overclocked kernel, but I'd like to test some others without deleting the current one, so this option is perfect. Thank you!

Related

Any way to clone an SD card? (2 gig upgrade to 8 gig)

*I've spent a lot of time searching...all the answers I come up with involve copy and paste the folders...which is what I did...but windows doesn't show me my ext3 partition.*
I recently rooted my G1, formatted my 2 gig SD with a 32mb swap and 500mb ext3 and flashed cyanogen 4.0.1. I quickly realized that a 2 gig card was just not enough (now that I'm left with 1.1 gig...) so I purchased a class 6, 8 gig card
I plugged the phone in to my computer, copied all my files, put cyanogen recovery 1.4 on the 8 gig and booted to console, formatted the card to my 7200, 500 and 32mb partitions. Shut the phone down, stuck the card in my card reader and moved all the files that were on the 2 gig onto the 8 gig. Booted the phone...damn it...no apps!
Took a few minutes of head scratching before I remembered that cyanogen 4.0.1 does the apps to the ext3 partition! all my apps are on the 2 gig! *arg*
Is there a way to clone the 2 gig card to the 8 gig without messing up the partitions? or just copy everything from my ext3 to the new ext3?? I really don't want to go through and download all the apps I had again
I found some SD card clone software (sprite? IIRC) but that looks like its specifically for WM devices.
As I understand your SD are formatted to ext3. Best solution is download any live linux distribution (live = run from cd into ram without installing and changing anything) and copy files normally.
yeah all ubuntu iso's include a live os you can boot up in without it installing anything to your harddisk there you should be able to read ext3
Hadn't considered that...
Thanks for the help
unfortunately, even just sticking the 2gig card back in the phone none of the apps work the phone boots and I get a long list of "xxxxx encountered an error and must force close"
looks like its off to the market for me...
*sigh*
tsiah said:
unfortunately, even just sticking the 2gig card back in the phone none of the apps work the phone boots and I get a long list of "xxxxx encountered an error and must force close"
looks like its off to the market for me...
*sigh*
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just for future reference....how does one go about backing up the ext partition of the SD card so if your current card has an issue you can stick the backup card in and keep running without having to download all your apps again??? I mean...if removing the original card, then turning the phone on with a new card in there caused it to "forget" the location of all the apps when the original card was installed...how does a backup card do you any good??
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=4397141#post4397141
This thread appears to be the answer...If I ever have to get another card, I'll give this a try.
I use HDD Raw Copy, just use a partition manager to resize old partitions
http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-Raw-Copy-Tool/
Greetings
I've used GParted from Live USB Linux (I use PuppyLinux, but any other Live Linux with GParted would do) to copy partitions between sdcards / usb drives / hard disks. It's GUI based, very simple and does the job.
Just plug both the sdcards into your computer before opening GParted,
Once open, GParted would ask option to use only one device or all devices - make sure you select all devices.
After it loads all the devices, you can select the 2GB card, right click each partition, copy and select 8GB card and paste the partition there.
Please follow the partition order so that you don't change the order in the 8GB card.
Once all the partitions are done, you can resize the partition you want to make bigger on the 8GB to fill the card.
After configuring everything, click Apply and wait for GParted to do all the magic!

SD card problems.

I have several SD card issues that hopefully someone can help me with.
First, I have an 8gb card, but only 7.3 of it is accessable. I have a micro SD card reader, and Gparted. Re-formatted the card a couple of times, and it always comes up as 7.3gigs.
Second, when I rooted my phone, I used the Recovery image Ivanmmj has in the stock 1.5 to root thread here on this forum. Shortly after, I think when I flashed ClockworkMod Recovery, I lost the ability to get into recovery by holding volume up and power. Only volume down and power gets me into a recovery state.
Third, I went into ADB and entered some commands from other places to do stuff to the Sd card, but one command still lingers when I do backup or restores:
E:can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 No such device.
Either that command is blocking off a section of my SD card, or the card just has a bad sector... Any ideas guys?
Dr.Strange said:
I have several SD card issues that hopefully someone can help me with.
First, I have an 8gb card, but only 7.3 of it is accessable. I have a micro SD card reader, and Gparted. Re-formatted the card a couple of times, and it always comes up as 7.3gigs.
Second, when I rooted my phone, I used the Recovery image Ivanmmj has in the stock 1.5 to root thread here on this forum. Shortly after, I think when I flashed ClockworkMod Recovery, I lost the ability to get into recovery by holding volume up and power. Only volume down and power gets me into a recovery state.
Third, I went into ADB and entered some commands from other places to do stuff to the Sd card, but one command still lingers when I do backup or restores:
E:can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 No such device.
Either that command is blocking off a section of my SD card, or the card just has a bad sector... Any ideas guys?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
was gonna say card has bad sector, or clockworkmod has a signiture for that file space like a partition, I have read that clockworkmod does this to phones, this is one reason why they brick, and we are told not to use clockwork for this very reason. there are some very nice features in clockwork mod, but for recovery its best to stay with amonra and use the update.zip to change to clockwork if you need to i have included the update.zip
I have never seen an 8gb card with 8gb accessable. It doesn't sound like anything is wrong here as far as the capacity of your card. My 8gb card has only 7.3 accessable as well. It is standard for any storage medium wether it be an sd card or computer hard drive.
As far as the volume up issue, it has always been volume - for both my phone and my girlfriend's phone. I used the Eris Root For Dummies method for my phone and the One Click Universal Root Method for my girlfriend's. Volume + and end never worked for either phone. Don't know why, but I can get there reguardless.
Hope this helps some.
Dr.Strange said:
I have several SD card issues that hopefully someone can help me with.
First, I have an 8gb card, but only 7.3 of it is accessable. I have a micro SD card reader, and Gparted. Re-formatted the card a couple of times, and it always comes up as 7.3gigs.
Second, when I rooted my phone, I used the Recovery image Ivanmmj has in the stock 1.5 to root thread here on this forum. Shortly after, I think when I flashed ClockworkMod Recovery, I lost the ability to get into recovery by holding volume up and power. Only volume down and power gets me into a recovery state.
Third, I went into ADB and entered some commands from other places to do stuff to the Sd card, but one command still lingers when I do backup or restores:
E:can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 No such device.
Either that command is blocking off a section of my SD card, or the card just has a bad sector... Any ideas guys?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is nothing wrong with your SD card.
Hard drive, SD card, and USB thumbdrive manufacturers typically define megabytes, gigabytes, etc as incrementing by powers of 1000. (so 1GB = 1000MB)
Most operating systems & software define megabytes, gigabytes, etc as incrementing by powers of 1024. (so 1GB = 1024MB)
So according to the manufacturer, your SD card has a capacity of 8GB (8000MB)
According to any operating system (Android, Windows, OSX, Linux, etc), your card has a capacity of 7.8GB (8000MB / 1024)
When you format ANY storage medium (hard drive, SD card, etc), the stated capacity of the device and the available capacity will not be the same.
To make matters worse, some of that 8GB/7.8GB (depending on how you measure) has to be used by the file system to figure out exactly where all of your files are being stored on the card.
I don't know if you ever had to use a card catalog system in a library, but think of it this way.
Let's say you build a library capable of holding a thousand books. However, you're not going to arrange the books according to author's names, titles, or the Dewey Decimal System. You're just going to stick them on shelves in whatever order you get them in.
Whenever you need to find a particular book, you're going to need some way of figuring out exactly where it is in the library. So you'd need a card catalog of sorts. This card catalog is going to take up some of the room in your library, meaning you won't be able to store EXACTLY 1000 books anymore.
Okay, it might not be the best analogy in the world, but it's late here and I hope it gets the point across.
From wikipedia: "A general rule of thumb to quickly convert the manufacturer's hard disk capacity to the standard Microsoft Windows formatted capacity is 0.93*capacity of HDD from manufacturer for HDDs less than a terabyte."
So out of that 7.8GB of space, you're only going to be able to use about 7.3GB of it (7.8 * 0.93).
Oh, and as for
"E:can't mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 No such device. "
I'm not too certain about this, but i believe /dev/block/mmcblk0p2 is the mounting point for apps2sd partitions, assuming the ROM supports them, and if you're running a stock ROM, it won't.
Your recovery image does though, so every time you do a nandroid backup/restore, it checks for an existing partition for apps2sd. Since it doesn't exist, it shows that message. Nothing to worry about.
Hopefully someone who knows a bit more about it can explain it better, but I don't believe that's an actual error in this case.
I do know it doesn't have anything to do with your 8GB/7.3GB issue though.
Did you try partitioning it on your phone to 0? That worked when I had a similar problem.
i have phone xperia acro SO-02s..when i put SIM card+SD card,the SD card not detected,but when i take SIM card and put SD card..my SD card is working,,please help me.thanks

[Q] Keep burning out SDs - need advise ....

I am the following setup on my Charge
Voodoo based kernel; regular and over clock
Sd card read fix patch
EE4 fully stock up to date
CWR 4.x.x.04 - the one without voodoo options
This is my second incident with card going bad. The first time I used it for two weeks and card became unreadable. Tried reformat from the phone and on CWR level without any success.
On second ocasion phone worked also two weeks without any issues - till I suddenly got on power up "bad card" pop up. Tried to reformat - failed.
I booted into CWR and to my surprise I was able to browse the card. I deleted cache, Davlik, boot part, reapplied voodoo and ovclock kernels, reapplied card read error pathch - in all possible sequences without much susccess. I do not have voodoo controls under my version of CWR (too bad) and since I do not have memory card - I cannot download and install 3rd party voodo control to try to enable and disable and see if it makes a difference.
I am without access to my pc for a week so Odin or repartitioning lwith pit file and full stock reflash are not an option for me right now. I tried mount SD on a windows machine - without much success as it sees is un formatted. CWR sees it without issues and let's me reflash kernel and patch zips.
I am sure that I will get it working eventually - but would like to ask our opinion AFAYK what is going on? I hate having to lose my cards with pics and data with is not backed up regularly. This is my first device I lost an SD card.
I am assuming that it is related to the voodoo Linux based file system. do you think running a full stock on a voodoo has anything to do with it?
Thanks in advance
i was under the impression that the "Sd card read fix patch" wasn't needed any more.
You might have a bad device that keeps toasting your cards. Have you tried viewing your card in a Linux machine?
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
I have tried both ways - with and without the patch
You said you were able to mount your sd on a windows machine. Any reason you can't use that machine and odin off of it? Its just a quick download away.
I do not have access to a linux box. Factory reset, Odin and options under CWR are the only options that I usually use. Can I test my phone without a Linux box?
I was just thinking Linux might try to force read it since it ignores file permissions etc. Also, you can't format the SD card within CWM.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
It was not my computer - I just wanted to test if i can see sd card on a wintel box. In the long run I do not mind doing the pit file with full stock flash - I just do not want to find myself burning more cards
If you fix it and it does it again i would definitely go to a Verizon store and have it checked out.
Sent from my GT-P1000 using XDA App
Use a small sd card sufficient enough to do everything you want to. If it happens again take it to verizon fully stock and they should replace the phone and SD.
Just to add more to the puzzle
I have second Charge absolutely the same setup.
When I tried to load SD card that is unreadable on the original Charge on the phone level
- I get the same damaged card error.
CWR on both phones can read it.
Just out of curiosity, are these 32gb cards?
Android has a known issue with 32gb cards getting corrupted if they are not formatted with a 32kb allocation size.
The workaround is to re format the card with your windows PC to FAT32, 32kb allocation size. Do a full format, not the quick format.
The two cards that got damaged are leftover cards from my fascinates. 16GB. One of them was reformatted and the other one was not - just reused it the moving all files from root folder to a folder called "Old" ( while mounted on my pc)
I used to be on an non Voodoo kernel/rom on my fascinates, when I installed voodoo kernel on Charge - file system got converted (per female voice)
Apparently I am not the only one with this problem
I stumbled upon this
http://forums.androidcentral.com/verizon-droid-charge/111200-wiping-sd-card.html#post1179362
Looks like that reusing a 16 GB card from fascinate is the issue in both instances.
I am still eager to learn what is the issue?
@Racer
Is it related to a different block size that is used by Samsung to format SD s on Charge? do you have more details on it? Do you know if I can possibly salvage my cards?
garryo said:
@Racer
Is it related to a different block size that is used by Samsung to format SD s on Charge? do you have more details on it? Do you know if I can possibly salvage my cards?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is a problem with the interaction between android and some firmwares in the sdhc cards. It isn't really something that is Samsung specific.
I did some research on it and it solved my problem (similar to yours) that I had with my PNY 32gb class 10 card.
I would definitely try formatting your cards with a windows pc, full format, fat32, 32kb allocation size before I gave up on them.
here are some links:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1010228
http://www.patriotmemory.com/forums...-LX-Series-MicroSD-Problems-on-Android-phones

[Q] Strange automated system restore from gingerbread vimicro 7''

Hello All,
I have a tablet here that I haven't been able to fix (yet!)
It's a mid vimicro vortex vc0882, armv7, grh55 with android 2.3 November 2011 firmware (resistive 7'') 512mb ram, 4 gb sandisk class 4 internal memory.
Although since getting this one, I now have several other much faster ones to choose from, I really like this tablet with it's chunky yet smooth navigation and so far no pc, laptop, netbook or tablet has beaten me!
Some time around early December 2012 this device experienced a system crash (freeze) that left several apps and games crashing on next boot.
This had happened once before. At which time I performed a simple factory reset from settings\privacy menu and all was well. Not the case after this more recent crash!
The device is stuck with all data as of the crash date. It will install and uninstall apps cleanly within the session, it will write to the internal sd card, yet next time the machine is started, everything is back as it was. The external sd card seems fine and unaffected (moving apps to this doesn't improve the situation, as in still not writing current configuration correctly).
ADB will push basic requests incl installation of apps, but that's as far as it goes. Any clockwork mod based tools don't help. Recovery menu has been tried with every combination. Any recovery / update from zip has been rejected due to e signature error. Tried flash tools and nothing has got through. Once the machine restarts, all is back to crash date groundhog day!
The machine is rooted (has been for most of it's life) and this didn't seem to create any problems.
I have contacted the suppliers for any firmware / recovery that they have, no joy there yet.
Sorry about the long post!
As I have root access does anyone have ideas about a system file workaround / mod or a forced clockwork mod to enable update from zip that bypasses the e-signature verification?
Permissions have been checked and system cleaned on a regular basis.
This tablet is very close to the wopad one just different buttons/button locations, with power/menu/home and back buttons.
Thanks for any positive input!
Bob
Update... Anyone out there?
After removing the internal sd card and exploring the fat 32 partition via windows, I deleted a few non essential local files (one or two of them I had to change the permissions to do so). Refreshed the disk (sd card) and the files were back. So it appears that there is an error in the sd card. Based on this idea, I tried to copy the fat 32 + full linux partitions with contents from the original 4gb sandisk to a 4gb kingston card. All appeared correct via linux type explorer software on windows, but it doesn't work for the device. Attached are the details from the partitioning software and another program that questioned the partitioning setup.
Any tips on the best software for the job + which key (possibly hidden elements) need to be included?
Thanks
Bob
3rd time lucky....
In summary, is it realistic to copy an android's internal micro sd card (system) to another blank card including correct formatting of partitions and get it to operate when inserting the copied / cloned internal memory card into the device?
A while back I asked a question regarding a different tablet, which fell on deaf ears, after a bit I sorted it myself.
Considering the nature of this forum, if this one goes "unsuggested" I will be somewhat disappointed.
With a touch of faith?
Bob
bob_mac said:
Update... Anyone out there?
After removing the internal sd card and exploring the fat 32 partition via windows, I deleted a few non essential local files (one or two of them I had to change the permissions to do so). Refreshed the disk (sd card) and the files were back. So it appears that there is an error in the sd card. Based on this idea, I tried to copy the fat 32 + full linux partitions with contents from the original 4gb sandisk to a 4gb kingston card. All appeared correct via linux type explorer software on windows, but it doesn't work for the device. Attached are the details from the partitioning software and another program that questioned the partitioning setup.
Any tips on the best software for the job + which key (possibly hidden elements) need to be included?
Thanks
Bob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

[Q] Dual boot with microSD?

Is it possible on the surface pro? Im a developer/student. Windows 8 is great for in class stuff but when it comes to developing, linux takes the win. I'd love to be able to install linux on a microSD card and boot to that (yeah, I know it will be slow but it can be left in the surface without protruding too much). Anyway is this possible? I can't find anything on this beyond removing win 8 and loading linux on it.
Meh, kids these days... when I was in college, I tri-booted on a 60GB hard disk.
But, if the internal storage isn't good enough for you, yes of course you can install Linux to the microSD card. You'll need to disable Secure Boot as usual for installing Linux at all. Beyond that, it's the same as any other Linux install except instead of reformatting the system partition, you reformat the microSD card and install there. People have been installing Linux to removable storage for years; it's no different on the Surface Pro and a microSD card than on a desktop with an external HDD or a laptop with a flashdrive or ... you get the idea.
Great, Thanks. I was just unsure since no one has seemed to do it (or at least posted it on the internet).
And don't get me wrong, I remember installing linux/windows on my first laptop with 20GB. These days, however, files are larger than CD's and the remaing space on the pro just does not cut it anymore, unless I want to delete all my downloads after using them.
Thanks again!
YOu need to go into charms > settings > Change PC Settings > General > Advanced startup to be able to boot from a usb or sd
can I install MAC OS? if I can I will order right away
seesunmoon said:
can I install MAC OS? if I can I will order right away
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you asked the wrong question here.
Honestly, it does not matter if you can install MAC OS on the Pro.
The question you need answered is: Are there MAC OS Drivers for the Pro's Hardware? If not, then there is no point in seeing if the OS installs.
right, right, i guess apple will make something like surface pro, tablet with full max os
If history is any indication, they will do so 5-10 years after somebody else (typically Microsoft) has a similar OS/device, call it "revolutionary" and "innovative", and people will think they invented it...
Seriously though, I'm sure you could Hackintosh the Surface Pro, but hardware support may be lacking. The basic stuff (video, storage, sound, probably USB) and possibly some other things like WiFi and webcam will probably work. Touch and stylus are highly questionable. Normally I'd say that there's no chance of the covers working, but apparently they're fine under Linux so maybe they use an electrically standard interface through that funny docking connector.
There's something very weird about buying a (primarily) software company's hardware to put a (primarily) hardware company's software on it, though...
I have no doubt the Hackintosh guys will be all over this once a few of them get an S-Pro, I had an XE700 and there were people running it on them so I cant see the Pro taking much time for them to jump on to it.
Cool Dude
GoodDayToDie said:
Meh, kids these days... when I was in college, I tri-booted on a 60GB hard disk.
But, if the internal storage isn't good enough for you, yes of course you can install Linux to the microSD card. You'll need to disable Secure Boot as usual for installing Linux at all. Beyond that, it's the same as any other Linux install except instead of reformatting the system partition, you reformat the microSD card and install there. People have been installing Linux to removable storage for years; it's no different on the Surface Pro and a microSD card than on a desktop with an external HDD or a laptop with a flashdrive or ... you get the idea.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This does really answer the question at hand,
I haven't yet been able to boot from an MicroSD card I have used a USB drive to boot into Ubuntu 14 Trusty Thar, using instructions that are all over the web, however I haven't found any documentation of successfully boot from a MicroSD card. I will be trying this afternoon and will post what I find. Installing linux to the microSD card I'm sure will be straight forward, its the booting that will be an issue I'm sure.
Follow up coming soon
n4m4st3 said:
This does really answer the question at hand,
I haven't yet been able to boot from an MicroSD card I have used a USB drive to boot into Ubuntu 14 Trusty Thar, using instructions that are all over the web, however I haven't found any documentation of successfully boot from a MicroSD card. I will be trying this afternoon and will post what I find. Installing linux to the microSD card I'm sure will be straight forward, its the booting that will be an issue I'm sure.
Follow up coming soon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got this to work. You need to use:
rufus.akeo.ie
And then just choose USB boot from the menu advanced start up options menu. Which is funny because it doesn't actually show the micro sd as an option to boot, but it automatically finds it somehow.
Pretty sure the uSD slot is attached via USB, so it's basically just "boot from USB external storage".
Another way you could have done it is to install the Linux bootloader (GRUB stage 1) to the internal storage, and then have that chainload to the uSD card. That should work even if for some reason the firmware doesn't want to boot off uSD normally.
I just got a Surface Pro 2 and started playing with the idea of booting Linux off the SD card. I haven't done an actual installation yet, but I was just playing with the idea of making a bootable USB device preferably without having to change the internal SSD. (Especially since I have the 64GB base model and that's really barely enough for a comfortable use of Windows. I also wanted to leave the recovery partition intact as a good just-in-case.)
So first I made a bootable generic USB flash drive using UNetbootin and a stock Ubuntu 14.04 desktop installation image. Works as expected, can go into the "Advanced Startup" screen and boot from USB device. Nothing special, was able to launch the live session.
Then I used UNetbootin again, this time on an 8GB microSD I had laying around. The Surface would NOT boot off the microSD card through "Advanced Startup."
Then I tried it using the Rufus tool linked above -- this worked. You can go through "Advanced Startup" or hold volume down when powering on the Surface. Either way will launch the Live session. Very cool.
So then I went back and tried to figure out what was different. Same card, same base ISO... what I noticed was that Rufus was setting the "lba" flag on the SD card's FAT32 partition. So I formatted and recreated the card with UNetbootin again, verified it was unbootable, then used gparted to set the "lba" flag. After that, it booted. So this is something to note.
I'll have to actually try installing to the card and seeing if the Surface will boot from it or not. But this is something at least.
EDIT:
It seems like Surface will never boot the SD card if it isn't exactly a single FAT32 partition consuming the entire microSD card.
I'll just wrap up my last bit of contribution to this for now. I used a virtual machine with an EFI install of Windows 8 to stage this at first...
So the short end is, it seems the Surface Pro's firmware is strict about what it will boot from USB, and it seems to be a device that must be a single FAT32 partition with the "boot" and "lba" flags set, or else it won't work. If anyone knows of another combination, great, but this is what I determined through my limited experimentation.
Basically the most minimally invasive Ubuntu (or other Linux) install I could think to do that generally leaves the Surface a Surface and a Linux device second was this procedure (using Ubuntu 14.04):
Create an Ubuntu USB install device (use the aforementioned Rufus tool for best results or else be aware of the partitioning specifics.)
Use "Advanced Startup" or "Vol -" at power on to boot the USB key
When installing and prompted about disk installation, do "Something Else" (Careful! Very easy to obliterate the internal Windows or reduce space on less-equipped Surfaces to useless levels!)
Use "/dev/sda" as the place to install the boot loader (GRUB)
Resize the Surface's main Windows partition back by a small amount (e.g. 512MB)
Create an ext4 partition in this space and set this as the "/boot" mount point (exercise to the reader to look up making a /boot partition for GRUB and deciding on the amount they want to allocate)
Partition your SD Card in the Surface however you like, but you'll need some kind of ext4 partition for the Ubuntu installation, of course! (e.g. I split mine into NTFS, ext4, and swap space, but you can do whatever suits you)
Set your root mount point on the SD Card's ext4 partition.
And that's pretty much it -- the Ubuntu installer is smart enough to take care of the rest.
Major point here, regarding step 4 -- you CAN have the "/boot" on your SD card if you like, but what will happen is that you will be unable to properly boot from GRUB if you don't have that specific SD card inserted. If you never plan to remove your SD card, you can avoid changing the internal memory partitions at all.
Installing GRUB to the SD card through the Ubuntu installer will do no good since, again, the Surface seems adamant about only booting a device with a single FAT32 partition occupying the full space. Obviously the installer USB device you make IS a bootable Linux image on a FAT32 partition, so you CAN pull it off if you have all the know-how -- i.e. setting up GRUB and booting an ".img" file from the FAT32 partition -- pretty sure the Ubuntu installer doesn't support this in a straightforward manner.
In any case, I'm happy with GRUB and "/boot" being on /dev/sda. I can remove the card and simply be unable to boot Ubuntu, but still use Windows. If you follow this installation, I highly recommend setting GRUB to boot Windows by default just in case you do remove the SD card and don't have your touch cover connected. Further, I recommend setting up GRUB so that it always times out (on the default Windows selection) even if the previous boot failed (which, by Ubuntu default, GRUB will not timeout on a failed boot.) But of course this is all user preference and what kind of situations you expect yourself to be in.
Hopefully this is at least one adequate answer to the OP, even though it is over a year old.
Footnote: Haven't gotten the built-in WiFi / Bluetooth working, even with putting the firmware in place. (The mwiflex driver is complaining about a command timeout as soon as it loads and does not progress.) Tried a newer kernel, still doesn't work. I'm mostly interested in the WiFi, but as yet, still no good. But that's beyond what the OP was strictly asking.
UPDATE: Firmware update fixed WiFi. (Info from https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=64111) -- Basically clone git git://git.marvell.com/mwifiex-firmware.git and copy /mwifiex-firmware/mrvl/usb8797_uapsta.bin to /lib/firmware/mrvl and reboot. Not sure if newer kernel needed. Was running kernel 3.15.0-999-generic from Ubuntu's mainline.
why install grub? the only reason is if you want to default boot into windows
since you're installing a second os on the microsd, you can access it directly with power+vol down
anyways, i was brought here because i was thinking of getting an sd card with a fully independent os for my surface pro
if i burn a ubuntu iso onto the microsd, you wouldnt actually be installing the os onto the sd card right? every time you boot, it would be the live-cd ubuntu
is there a way to install the full os onto the microsd?
anonxlg said:
why install grub? the only reason is if you want to default boot into windows
since you're installing a second os on the microsd, you can access it directly with power+vol down
anyways, i was brought here because i was thinking of getting an sd card with a fully independent os for my surface pro
if i burn a ubuntu iso onto the microsd, you wouldnt actually be installing the os onto the sd card right? every time you boot, it would be the live-cd ubuntu
is there a way to install the full os onto the microsd?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just install ubuntu onto the microsd...
anonxlg said:
why install grub? the only reason is if you want to default boot into windows
since you're installing a second os on the microsd, you can access it directly with power+vol down
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With power+vol down, I was only able to boot a USB device or microSD that was partitioned exactly as a single FAT32 partition occupying the entire device, which is also what you get from making a bootable Ubuntu key using tools usually. Even if all I did was shortchange the FAT32 partition, the Surface would no longer try to boot from it. It would not boot an SD card I installed Ubuntu to, and I tried it as a non-EFI and EFI install. If you have different results, go ahead and post about it. It seems to me that the firmware was being extremely particular about what kind of drive it was booting from. I'm not sure why Microsoft would make it so particular except to perhaps limit was sort of "recovery" devices you might be trying to load. Logically speaking, it only needs to boot a FAT32 partitioned device since that's the only thing generated by the recovery software in Windows 8, so they have no reason to support anything else.
Thank you southbird! Works great on my Surface Pro 2, BUT ....
Partitioned my micro SD (using gparted) as your instructions: two partitions - first partition ext4 and the other NTFS. Added small partition on internal HDD for /boot. I installed kubuntu 14.01. Made Windows the default boot, and everything works except Windows 8.1 will not recognize the partition for data (the partition that is formatted NTFS). It "sees" it as a broken drive and wants to format the whole micro SD card and I know it will delete the ext4 part (where / resides) because it doesn't "see" the card as being partitioned. Your instructions sound like you got the data partition to work (it is "seen" and usable in kubuntu). Did you do something else to get Windows to "see" it as a separate data partition? :fingers-crossed::fingers-crossed:
southbird said:
I'll just wrap up my last bit of contribution to this for now. I used a virtual machine with an EFI install of Windows 8 to stage this at first...
So the short end is, it seems the Surface Pro's firmware is strict about what it will boot from USB, and it seems to be a device that must be a single FAT32 partition with the "boot" and "lba" flags set, or else it won't work. If anyone knows of another combination, great, but this is what I determined through my limited experimentation.
Basically the most minimally invasive Ubuntu (or other Linux) install I could think to do that generally leaves the Surface a Surface and a Linux device second was this procedure (using Ubuntu 14.04):
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello Guys!
I have another question to add here!
Next week i'll get my Surface Pro 2 with 256GB
The last days my mind played with some ideas to have a dualboot option in the surface.
Is it possible to install Android Lollipop (or Kitkat) x86 on the micro sd (64GB) and boot from it?
I have read the whole thread but its a lil bit complicated.
Would be nice if anyons can show this in a step by step process, or guide me to a tutorial.
thanks!!
Methisfaction said:
Hello Guys!
I have another question to add here!
Next week i'll get my Surface Pro 2 with 256GB
The last days my mind played with some ideas to have a dualboot option in the surface.
Is it possible to install Android Lollipop (or Kitkat) x86 on the micro sd (64GB) and boot from it?
I have read the whole thread but its a lil bit complicated.
Would be nice if anyons can show this in a step by step process, or guide me to a tutorial.
thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed you can, however:
1. The microSD will need to be formatted with GPT partition scheme, and the boot partition must be FAT32;
2. The January 2015 UEFI update removes ability to boot from microSD. Skip that and you're golden!

Categories

Resources