GPT Invalid on USB created from iso

[kevinH]

Hi, I am returning to Armbian after quite a few years. I was trying to follow guidance from nexbox-a95x-armbian and after a search found the debian &  Ubunt images (https://www.armbian.com/uefi-arm64/) which I downloaded and wrote to a USB using Rufus (also balenaEtcher). I then tries to look at the FAT32 partition contents but the GPT was corrupt - tried many windows tools and Linux.I "repaired" the GPT using Linux tools but then the FAT32 filesystem was corrupt.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

any help much appreciated

[MaxT]

If I remember correctly, recently there was a similar thread on the forum re GPT corruption under windows. Not sure, but there might be some useful info.

Alternatively, flashing under Linux might be an option.

[SteeMan]

There are various recent reports of windows corrupting the partition table.   

[kevinH]

Well using Linux to write the USB appears to have fixed the problems. 

Damn Windows

 

Thank you for the pointers, much appreciated. 

[kevinH]

Although writing the USB using Linux produced a good GPT the efi partition (FAT32) is unmountable and hence I cannot change anything. I tried gparted to fix it but the checkdisk failed. Hence I cannot follow the original guidance I had found. 

 

Where am I going wrong?

 

thank again for any help

 

 

[ccs1664]

Flashing under Linux  you will have many options to do it and check some problems on partitions etc. Normally, I use the Balena Etcher and dd by console. 

[SteeMan]

4 hours ago, kevinH said:

cannot follow the original guidance

What guidance are you trying to follow?

[kevinH]

The guidance I found is on Github, nexbox-a95x-arm https://github.com/berci9ke101/nexbox-a95x-armbianbian. I think its similar to some guidance I looked at when I first looked at Armbian and how I got Coreelec to run on my A95X box

[SteeMan]

First off, I would recommend using the "psuedo official" instructions from this site:

https://forum.armbian.com/topic/33676-installation-instructions-for-tv-boxes-with-amlogic-cpus

 

And there you will find the following warning:

Note: If you have previously run other distributions on the box such as coreelec the below installation will not work.  You will need to restore the original android firmware before attempting the install.  coreelec changes the boot environment in ways that are incompatible with these Armbian builds.

 

 

[MaxT]

Disabling automount (drive letter assignment) in windows before flashing might help - probably it is mount time when windows is checking and changing partition table.