[Freedombox-discuss] How to create the proper boot partition on a USB or SD card?

[Nick Hardiman]

Hi Jack, 

Do you want 
* a pre-installed SD card, that boots Debian and works without upgrading the Dreamplug bootloader?

Or do you want 
* a method of upgrading the bootloader that does not involve the Internet, and 
* an SD card with all the FreedomBox development environment on it?





Many thanks, 
Nick
Nick Hardiman
nick at internetmachines.co.uk
@intmachines



On 30 Jan 2013, at 14:47, Jack Wilborn <jkwilborn at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello, I am new with the DreamPlug (which I have and am running in
> it's original state) and am not a Linux wizard.  I posed a couple of
> these questions to Nick D.   On his suggestion I am posting them here
> for assistance from users that have a working DP.
> 
> The basic problem here is that I don't have a good Internet connection
> and NO Internet to my Linux box.  I have a dual boot Windows 8/Debian
> Linux on a quad core 386 (i5-3450) with 32G of memory and a Atheros
> WiFi card that is not detected by Debian, and works under Windows.  So
> some of the parts of creating an image is not applicable to my venue
> and others as I've found out.
> 
> I have a couple of questions, first can you create the proper FS on a
> USB memory stick to install the current with the original bootloader?
> I understand this is probably a negative, so can I create the proper
> FS on the USB stick or SD (when I get the proper hardware) via the
> Dreamplug original software?  If all else fails, then does someone
> know the proper steps to create the bootloader on a USB stick to
> update the bootloader without turning my DP into a brick.
> 
> The following is the original note to Nick...
> 
> 
>> Nick, one of the problems I have now is that they want me to format
>> the SD card to a fat partition (with mkdosfs) and then to build a
>> partition with ext3 (I would change it to ext2 based on your
>> suggestion), but I have no way to interface with the SD on my Linux
>> box.
>> 
>> Can this be done under dos?  At least the initial format. Or better
>> yet, how about using the DP to format this properly, is the software
>> on the DP usable to build this file system? I do have it up, blinking
>> and talking via it's Linux.  I can find the SD card or the USB card
>> OK.
> 
> Any assistance would be of great value to me.  Also any information
> will be gathered for other in the same boat.
> 
> Thanks
> Jack
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Freedombox-discuss mailing list
> Freedombox-discuss at lists.alioth.debian.org
> http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss