redjr

Hello, I know this is an old post....I have a like-new Helios - complete package - I'm getting ready to list on ebay. I prefer to sell direct and avoid ebay fees. Mine will include everything that was included in the initial pre-order, plus 3 x 1TB 3.5 HDs, and 1 x 250GB M.2 drive. I will include all original docs, plus my notes and binder I put together. It was used very little, and looks new. It works and has a minimum Armbian system installed. PM if interested.

run armbian-config. You first have to enable it. It's under the system option. I'm not at my computer, so I can recall the name exactly.

If you're replying to my post, that was not my question. I was curious if the Firefly bootloader and OS Assistant would recognize(and support) unique bootable partitions on either an M.2, or SSD. I've got my M.2 working great with one partition.

Hello, I'm just finding some time to get back to working with the Stationpc P2 after being away for a couple months. Lots of new updates and a new Bootloader and OS Assistant make getting a new OS up and running more easily now. My question is; If either an M.2 or SSD are installed, will the OS Assistant recognize multiple partitions for installation of 2 OS'es on a single device and allow the selection of installation? And then subsequently, those 2 OS options show up in the Bootloader? I want to give a shout out to @balbes150 for his dedication and effort on getting new builds, with more improvements to Armbian (on several platforms) up and running. It doesn't go unnoticed. I will happily contribute to the cause. Rick

Sounds like what I went through too. I gave up for awhile and I’m back to see what’s changed. I don’t spend my day job buried in Linux stuff, but I like to play with these little SBC, especially now that there’s better support for nvmes, . I got my P2 running some version of Armbian late last Summer, but it didn’t support nvme. I set the P2 on my bench tonight, and see what status it’s in tomorrow. Also sounds like TwisterOS has been configured on a VIM3 branded SBC as well. Have a couple of those around too. I need a Linux buddy to help me out with this stuff. I’m getting older and more forgetful!

@balbes150, Do your images support an m.2 SSD? I can't seem to get Linux to recognize mine. Using lsblk it does not show up. Rick

Thank you so much for this. I now have my Station P2 up and running Armbian. I for one appreciate all the work you do with these new SBCs and variants of Linux/Armbian. Thanks again! Rick

Noted. I just thought I could perhaps find some useful, related information here that would make my quest a little easier. I believe the architecture of the P1 and P2 are similar but use different ARM Rock chipset. Perhaps Firefly will start to post more information on the Station P2, Perhaps even a useful forum on their own site.

I can't seem to get anything to boot from the SD card. Almost seems like it is disabled by the current Station OS installed on the P2. Can you explain? Thx.

Thanks for the update.

I've had some degree of success. I've been able to see the normal boot via a serial connection. Not sure what I'm looking at, but first things first! It's late here tonight, so will try again tomorrow and see if I can interrupt the boot process and get to U-Boot. Since it booted all the way tonight, I was left at $ console prompt. No Linux commands worked, so I'm not sure if I was sitting at the root of Station OS, or in U-Boot.

Thanks for these tips. At some point, I'm going to try using the serial terminal access and interrupting the normal boot process as you say - and see what I can do. This may require the assistance of my son.

Like you said, according to their documentation, it would seem there;s a way to build an SD card image and have it boot. However, I do find their docs rather vague, or just vague enough for someone like myself as to add to confusion rather than clarifying it. In my mind, the firmware on an SBC is something different than the OS. To upgrade the firmware you generally use a .bin file. To upgrade/replace the OS, you generally use a .img file. There is also another component used on SBCs called U-Boot. I've been reading a bit about u-boot, but it is not clear(to me), how you easily access it via the P2. Per the Firefly's vague instructions, I did use their SD Firmware Tool to burn a Ubuntu image to an SD card. I don't think this does anything more than simply using Balena Etcher to do the same thing. I then inserted the SD and it was not read. Station OS started to boot and initialize like normal. As was stated in an earlier post in this thread, it seems the P2 boot process is 'problematic'. Stating it should be CPU > SD > eMMC. If there's a way to clear the eMMC of Station OS(which I'm sure there is), then perhaps the SD card would be read and boot into Linux/Ubuntu 18.04. But in so doing are you also clearing out parts of the firmware, drivers, etc? I don't want to be too adventurous of fear of bricking this thing! They also show screen shots of a tool labeled, RKDevTool, but it is not shown on their site as an available download. They then go on to describe how to use it to upgrade a .img file. Sigh. WIth Station OS running you simply can't SSH into the system and get to the /root of Linux. And I don't see a way within Station OS, to drop down to the LInux level. All the other instructions in their 'user manual' assume you can get to Linux and run instructions. I can't see a way to do that yet, or have not yet discovered how to access and use u-boot.

Many thanks balbes. Hope Firefly with send you an P2 soon for you to work with.

Hi cry, I saw this earlier today when reviewing the Firefly docs on their wiki. (mo provided a link) I haven't delved into the contents yet, but some other links I found over the weekend, were even more cryptic on getting the SD to boot. One thing that puzzled me when playing with the P2, was that at a minimum, I thought that if I inserted an SD card without a correct boot image, that the board would just not recognize and basically not boot at all. Instead, it continued to boot into Station OS, so the user is left to infer that the SD wasn't even recognized! Interesting. Other Rock-based boards I have, simply don't boot when a non-recognized distro(or boot info) is inserted. That signals to me that at least the SD is being read on boot-up, just not recognized. I guess the P2 is different in it's design characteristics. I did however discover a lot of good information in the P2 user guide with respect to booting from various media. I still need to investigate further. I'll keep the thread updated as I learn new information. Good luck getting back to your home country.