How to jumpstart an ARM9 board from its SD slot?

Your message gives me the impression that it doesn't only depend upon which processor is being used?  This is not a commercially available development board.  It is a no-name board being sold as an embedded Linux RDP 7.0 thin client.  The board manufacturer is not interested in helping out with installing the ThinLinc proprietary thin client program in place of RDP, as there is no proven market.  However, Cendio, is releasing their ARM compatible ThinLinc thin client this month, and it seems like it would be compatible with this hardware, if I can figure out how to load it.  I want to offer schools a really low price solution for connecting students to each other, a Linux server, and to the Internet.  If I could use the SD slot and boot the board, then I'm hoping I could install this better client than an RDP client.

But is my interpretation of your answer correct, that there is no "generic" boot SD which works for a particular ARM processor?

I'm going to go check out the CuBox i immediately.  If it supports keyboard, mouse, monitor, ethernet, microphone in and audio out then it has all I need.  I appreciate your time giving me this advice, thanks!

Your message gives me the impression that it doesn't only depend upon which processor is being used?  This is not a commercially available development board.  It is a no-name board being sold as an embedded Linux RDP 7.0 thin client.  The board manufacturer is not interested in helping out with installing the ThinLinc proprietary thin client program in place of RDP, as there is no proven market.  However, Cendio, is releasing their ARM compatible ThinLinc thin client this month, and it seems like it would be compatible with this hardware, if I can figure out how to load it.  I want to offer schools a really low price solution for connecting students to each other, a Linux server, and to the Internet.  If I could use the SD slot and boot the board, then I'm hoping I could install this better client than an RDP client.

But is my interpretation of your answer correct, that there is no "generic" boot SD which works for a particular ARM processor?

I'm going to go check out the CuBox i immediately.  If it supports keyboard, mouse, monitor, ethernet, microphone in and audio out then it has all I need.  I appreciate your time giving me this advice, thanks!

I just checked out the CuBox i from your link above.  When you add the power adapter, the lowest priced model they have is currently $63 ($55 + 8).  This seems to only have the cube with a single core, without all the interfaces to connect all necessary peripherals.  I bought 3 of the other boards and they really have all needed interfaces (and power adapter) included, plus a dual core.  But I have the problem of not knowing how to add the program I want to run to the embedded Flash memory...

Is there some link I'm missing, or did they raise their price since you posted that message?  In any event, they say the CuBox i is not yet shipping (until April 24th).  Any help will continue to be GREATLY appreciated!

I now understand your background and goal a bit better.

The reason I suggest those boards is not that you can't install a 'generic' Linux on a no-name board.

I've seen a Linux that is compiled for a CubieBoard work on an Olimex board.

But remember: Things on your board might not be configured in the linux-image you're trying to install.

The reason I wanted you to search for the board name, was to reduce the amount of work you will have to do.

If there was a board and a Linux you could use without doing much work, that would probably be #1.

If you already have the $47 boards, you should try and download the SD-card image for "Cubian", modify the settings to match your board and then finally try booting it. If you're lucky, it will boot with just changing the configuration.

If you're totally out of luck, you will probably have to learn building your own Linux; but it's reasonable to believe that the board you want to use is already compatible with an existing Linux distribution.

So since the board has no name, you should find out which processor it's using. We already know it's a Cortex-A9, but which company manufactured the microcontroller and what is the microcontroller's name ?

-Knowing those two things will probably allow us to find the Linux most suitable; eg. if there is a Linux compiled for Freescale i.MX6 and this is exactly the chip on your board, then there's a pretty good chance that it will run with only very little configuration.

But remember: The I/O pins used on your no-name board is most likely different from the pins used on other boards.

-You need to tell the board what I/O-pins to use for which features.

There is another thing that differs between processors. Although there's "Company A" manufacturing an ARM Cortex-A9 based chip, dual core, and "Company B" also manufacturing an ARM Cortex-A9 based chip, dual core; those two chips have different hardware. That means in some cases the configuration could probably solve any compatibility issues, but in other cases, you would need to compile the Linux yourself.

If you're not ready to build a Linux distribution on your own, grab a nerd from some school and tell him to do it for you; he'll probably be happy to do it, but you will need to supply him with Coca Cola for as long as it takes to build the distribution.

I downloaded ArchLinuxARM-2014.01-rpi.img and burned it to a MicroSD with dd.  When I look at the MicroSD from another version of Linux, I see what looks like a Linux installation file system.  However, when I put the card in the MicroSD slot of the board, and power up the board, the board ignores the MicroSD card and boots its embedded Linux from its Flash.  Is there some standard trick for booting a dev board from its MicroSD slot instead of the internal OS on the flash memory?

I thought this would be a low probability first attempt, but am I looking at 100s of potential pitfalls, or just a few?  What might be some of the reasons I could experiment with that could be causing the board to not boot from the SD?  I didn't see any jumpers on the board. Are keyboard key combinations used to tell dev boards where to try booting from first?  Or would the SD card usually be a default boot device if the OS on the card is valid for the hardware?

Thanks for any input you may have!

Bill

It's good to hear your progress; even though you haven't succeeded yet, I am sure you'll get there!

Normally, such devices boot from the SD-card/MicroSD-card by default.

You will need to familiarize yourself with the boot process and how to configure the particular Linux image you've downloaded.

I do not know much about it, but I can say that most of the ready-made images can be modified from a PC (preferrably running Linux already), by editing configuration files in /boot.

-But it's not just editing a text-file, because when the system boots, it often loads binary files only (some of the configuration files are kept as text).

So normally, you would have to ...

1. back up the files in /boot
2. run a tool from converting the current binary file to a text-file.
3. edit the text-file
4. run a tool to convert the text file to binary.
5. try your luck booting from the card.

On Cubian (debian variant), the binary file I had to work with was called /boot/script.bin

So first thing to do is to back it up...

cp /boot/script.bin /boot/script.bck

Then you need to convert it to a text-file...

bin2fex /boot/script.bin /boot/script.fex

Edit the file...

nano /boot/script.fex

-After saving the file, convert the new .fex file back to binary:

fex2bin /boot/script.fex /boot/script.bin

and then boot on the new conf.

I wish I could give you more details and better help. As I am not a Linux expert, I will recommend a specific ARM-Linux forum for better information, because from here on, I would only be "guessing and hoping".

I've learned a little more since I posted the last reply.

Some devices are shipped with Android (for instance, TV-boxes), and the vendor "locks" the device, so it can not be updated.

An often used "expression" for this is that the device is "bricked". Eg. a cell-phone would be worth the same as a brick, if you can't really do anything with it.

-To unlock or "unbrick" a device, some tools exists. I recommend searching the Web for tools. Also try searching for "Moborobo" and "TPSarky"; these might help unlocking the device if it's locked.

I don't believe the device is locked due to my interaction with the manufacturer.  They WANT to sell their boards.  Since my last post, I have recently received the files from the device manufacturer which are supposedly the correct ones to burn onto an SD card, to then use to boot the device from the card and not the soldered on Flash.  Unfortunately, I have been unsuccessful at booting the device from an SD card which I burned using 'dd' and the boot image file.  I also copied the included embedded linux operating system files to the SD card, but still I saw nothing which led me to believe I was booting off of the SD card. 

When I power up the device with the SD card in the slot, it boots up like it always does into the UI which allows networking configuration, and then launching an RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol) client.  If I were to attach the files they sent to me, do you think you or someone else might be able to give me some advice as to how I need to be burning them onto an SD card to successfully boot the device?  My main problem is communication with the company, as the technical people only speak Mandarin.  I think this forum may be my best hope for suggestions on what to do with the files they sent me to make a bootable SD card.

Any ideas?