Installing Gentoo on Odroid-M1S via UMS Mode

[Sensei Art]

Hi Community,

I own Odroid-M1S with NVMe SSD and I'd love to install Gentoo for general desktop use.

Here is the installation Guide according to Odroid's Wiki: https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-m1s/gett ... tion_guide

I turned the device to UMS mode and flashed ARM64 Minimal Installation CD to the eMMC: https://www.gentoo.org/downloads/#arm64-advanced

Then I tried to boot the device in order to run the installation, but it's not booting. The blue LED doesn't turn on at all. To my knowledge, it means that the boot loader starts failed.

I tried to reflash the installation image again on the eMMC, but it didn't help.

I also tried to short the MASK ROM on the board itself. Maybe it made anychange.

I afraid that I deleted the boot configurations on eMMC when I flashed the Gentoo installation on it. Maybe I should reconfig it.

Now I deal with other problem. When I connect the device to PC via USB, the UMS mode doesn't work well. Sometimes the PC recognize the Mass Storage Device and sometimes not. I have to plug and unplug it again and again to get any reaction from the PC. Sometimes it doesn't recognize the device at all and I don't know how to move on.

I am publishing this post both in Odroid and Gentoo communities hopefully finding a Gentoo enthisiasts that uses M1S. I'd like to connect with like minded people to support each other.

Link to discussion in Odroid forum: https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=216&t=48241

Thanks,
Vladi

[pingtoo]

Sensei Art,

First, just to clear I don't have Odroid-M1S, so what I said here is speculation. it is just based on my experience with other SBC.

You cannot take Gentoo stage3 image as boot image. it does not contain any necessary binary for booting a ARM (or ARM64) board.

My guess is that at this stage you have lost the u-boot un eMMC, therefor you are not able to boot without external help.

From what I saw on ORDOID wiki it seems to me their design would allow you boot from SD card when eMMC fail, so if you download the a working OS on to SD card and boot from there you can begin recover(reflash) eMMC.

In order to better working on the problem you should connect board UART to PC so you can see booting messages.

[NeddySeagoon]

Sensei Art,

I don't have Odroid either. SBCs typically have vendor specific boot mechanisms.
Propritary code that runs on the GPU, in the case of the Raspberry Pi.
Whatever loads u-boot on your Odroid-M1S.

The Gentoo ARM64 Minimal Installation CD expects be be supported by UEFI firmware. You don't have that, or you would not need the u-boot boot loader.

Its generally a bad idea to do things that you cannot easily undo.
You need to recover to where you can boot something, then use that something to install Gentoo, or alternatively, prepare a bootable SD card somewhere else an move it to the Odroid. The advantage with that approach is that the SD is easy to recover when it does not work as expected.

Its likely you will need the serial console to debug your Gentoo install too. Its always good to know that works before you need it in anger.

[Sensei Art]

Both of you are right. I have to recover ubuntu installation on eMMC to prepare Gentoo installation on microSD.
I'll keep you posted about my progress.

Thanks.

Sensei Art,

First, just to clear I don't have Odroid-M1S, so what I said here is speculation. it is just based on my experience with other SBC.

You cannot take Gentoo stage3 image as boot image. it does not contain any necessary binary for booting a ARM (or ARM64) board.

My guess is that at this stage you have lost the u-boot un eMMC, therefor you are not able to boot without external help.

From what I saw on ORDOID wiki it seems to me their design would allow you boot from SD card when eMMC fail, so if you download the a working OS on to SD card and boot from there you can begin recover(reflash) eMMC.

In order to better working on the problem you should connect board UART to PC so you can see booting messages.

Sensei Art,

I don't have Odroid either. SBCs typically have vendor specific boot mechanisms.
Propritary code that runs on the GPU, in the case of the Raspberry Pi.
Whatever loads u-boot on your Odroid-M1S.

The Gentoo ARM64 Minimal Installation CD expects be be supported by UEFI firmware. You don't have that, or you would not need the u-boot boot loader.

Its generally a bad idea to do things that you cannot easily undo.
You need to recover to where you can boot something, then use that something to install Gentoo, or alternatively, prepare a bootable SD card somewhere else an move it to the Odroid. The advantage with that approach is that the SD is easy to recover when it does not work as expected.

Its likely you will need the serial console to debug your Gentoo install too. Its always good to know that works before you need it in anger.

[NeddySeagoon]

Sensei Art,

You need a working boot loader somewhere. The SD card has a higher priority in the boot order than the eMMC.

It follows that if you have a bootable SD, you can use it to recover the eMMC.
Its likely easier to prepare a bootable SD away from the Odroid-M1S than it is to fix the eMMC.

A bit like this.

I can't test that page.

[Sensei Art]

Sensei Art,

You need a working boot loader somewhere. The SD card has a higher priority in the boot order than the eMMC.

It follows that if you have a bootable SD, you can use it to recover the eMMC.
Its likely easier to prepare a bootable SD away from the Odroid-M1S than it is to fix the eMMC.

A bit like this.

I can't test that page.

I am following this guide step by step: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Hardkernel_ODROID-M1S
I installed Ubuntu Server on microSD and now trying to figure out what to do next.
Looks like I should set partitions in NVMe SSD and eMMC.

[pingtoo]

I am following this guide step by step: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Hardkernel_ODROID-M1S
I installed Ubuntu Server on microSD and now trying to figure out what to do next.
Looks like I should set partitions in NVMe SSD and eMMC.

I think this board does not support booting from NVMe, so you only need to partition eMMC.

You can find partition table at Odroid Wiki Partition table page

[Sensei Art]

I am following this guide step by step: https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Hardkernel_ODROID-M1S
I installed Ubuntu Server on microSD and now trying to figure out what to do next.
Looks like I should set partitions in NVMe SSD and eMMC.

I think this board does not support booting from NVMe, so you only need to partition eMMC.

You can find partition table at Odroid Wiki Partition table page

Now I am working according this guide: https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/a ... 28Z.tar.xz
Which claims that it is possible to boot from NVMe SSD.
I am running a clone installation process both on eMMC and NVMe SSD.
I will keep updating you guys.
Thank you very much for the responses and the support.

[pingtoo]

Now I am working according this guide: https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/a ... 28Z.tar.xz
Which claims that it is possible to boot from NVMe SSD.

is the link a mistake? The link point to a stage3 tarball. I like to point out Gentoo stage 3 is NOT a boot-able media. A simple flash of the image will not result a successful boot.

I am running a clone installation process both on eMMC and NVMe SSD.

So may be you have already got you eMMC flashed with correct boot binary. and if you already tried with eMMC boot with success than please forgive me to butt in. Just ignore my stage 3 comment above.

[Sensei Art]

Now I am working according this guide: https://distfiles.gentoo.org/releases/a ... 28Z.tar.xz
Which claims that it is possible to boot from NVMe SSD.

is the link a mistake? The link point to a stage3 tarball. I like to point out Gentoo stage 3 is NOT a boot-able media. A simple flash of the image will not result a successful boot.

Yes, it was a mistake. Here is the correct one: https://www.famera.cz/blog/computers/ge ... -luks.html

I am running a clone installation process both on eMMC and NVMe SSD.

So may be you have already got you eMMC flashed with correct boot binary. and if you already tried with eMMC boot with success than please forgive me to butt in. Just ignore my stage 3 comment above.

It's okay buddy. Maybe you can help me with other issue that I am facing during the installation.

I chrooted Gentoo as described in the link above. It entered me into server. Then I ran "env-update" and got the following output:

Code: Select all

!!! Section 'gentoo' in repos.conf has location attribute set to nonexistent directory: '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's
!!! Invalid Repository Location (not a dir): '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's
>>>Regenerating/etc/ld.so.cache...

Something went wrong and I am not sure how to react.

[NeddySeagoon]

Sensei Art,

A stage3 is just a small corner of Gentoo user space.
There is no kernel and no bootloader. It cannot influence the possible bootable media. That has to be done before any boot loader can be loaded.
Is the boot loader that loads the kernel (which is not provided in the stage3)

Its perfectly possible to have root on NVMe even if NVMe is not bootable.

[pingtoo]

I chrooted Gentoo as described in the link above. It entered me into server. Then I ran "env-update" and got the following output:

Code: Select all

!!! Section 'gentoo' in repos.conf has location attribute set to nonexistent directory: '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's
!!! Invalid Repository Location (not a dir): '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's
>>>Regenerating/etc/ld.so.cache...

Something went wrong and I am not sure how to react.

The error message lead me to think the content in repos.conf have some error. May be you can share the file so we can review if there is any mistake in it.

[Sensei Art]

Sensei Art,

A stage3 is just a small corner of Gentoo user space.
There is no kernel and no bootloader. It cannot influence the possible bootable media. That has to be done before any boot loader can be loaded.
Is the boot loader that loads the kernel (which is not provided in the stage3)

Its perfectly possible to have root on NVMe even if NVMe is not bootable.

Sure, I already understood that it doesn't have any boot loader. I guess that I am going to configure the bootloader later.

I chrooted Gentoo as described in the link above. It entered me into server. Then I ran "env-update" and got the following output:

Code: Select all

!!! Section 'gentoo' in repos.conf has location attribute set to nonexistent directory: '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's
!!! Invalid Repository Location (not a dir): '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's
>>>Regenerating/etc/ld.so.cache...

Something went wrong and I am not sure how to react.

The error message lead me to think the content in repos.conf have some error. May be you can share the file so we can review if there is any mistake in it.

I am running the installation through Ubuntu Server on my Odroid-M1S and browse the forum with my tablet. It would be quite difficult to share files from the device.

[pingtoo]

Sensei Art,

OK, so you need to review the content of repos.conf.

I will share mine as example, my repos.conf is a directory and in there is a file name gentoo.conf and the file content is

Code: Select all

[DEFAULT]
main-repo = gentoo

[gentoo]

location = /var/db/repos/gentoo
sync-type = git
clone-depth = 1
sync-depth = 1
sync-uri = https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/gentoo
auto-sync = yes
sync-git-verify-commit-signature = true
#commit-hash = 35c0c279daace8053ac9cc0e58ecb96bfb777e17
#clone-date = 2021-04-11

So as you can see the "location = /var/db/repos/gentoo" and your's may be different?

[Sensei Art]

Sensei Art,

OK, so you need to review the content of repos.conf.

I will share mine as example, my repos.conf is a directory and in there is a file name gentoo.conf and the file content is

Code: Select all

[DEFAULT]
main-repo = gentoo

[gentoo]

location = /var/db/repos/gentoo
sync-type = git
clone-depth = 1
sync-depth = 1
sync-uri = https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/gentoo
auto-sync = yes
sync-git-verify-commit-signature = true
#commit-hash = 35c0c279daace8053ac9cc0e58ecb96bfb777e17
#clone-date = 2021-04-11

So as you can see the "location = /var/db/repos/gentoo" and your's may be different?

Which command should I run to review the content of the file?

[pingtoo]

Sensei Art,

OK, so you need to review the content of repos.conf.

I will share mine as example, my repos.conf is a directory and in there is a file name gentoo.conf and the file content is

Code: Select all

[DEFAULT]
main-repo = gentoo

[gentoo]

location = /var/db/repos/gentoo
sync-type = git
clone-depth = 1
sync-depth = 1
sync-uri = https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/gentoo
auto-sync = yes
sync-git-verify-commit-signature = true
#commit-hash = 35c0c279daace8053ac9cc0e58ecb96bfb777e17
#clone-date = 2021-04-11

So as you can see the "location = /var/db/repos/gentoo" and your's may be different?

Which command should I run to review the content of the file?

I am surprised by your question May be my wording "review" is wrong term, English is not my first language. I mean you can 'cat' the file and compare the output to see if the line begin with 'location' is different from mine.

[Sensei Art]

[Moderator note: this post, and the first 2 responses after it, were originally posted as a separate thread, but are more appropriate here, so I merged them in. -Hu]

Hello,

Following this thread: viewtopic-t-1167958.html

I found the right method to install Gentoo on NVMe SSD in Odroid-M1S. I am working according to these two pages:
1. https://wiki.odroid.com/odroid-m1s/gett ... tion_guide
2. https://www.famera.cz/blog/computers/ge ... -luks.html

Now I am facing another issue. I chrooted Gentoo as described in the second link above. It entered me into server. Then I ran "env-update" and got the following output:

Code: Select all

!!! Section 'gentoo' in repos.conf has location attribute set to nonexistent directory: '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's
!!! Invalid Repository Location (not a dir): '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's
>>>Regenerating/etc/ld.so.cache...

In the previous thread @pingtoo suggested that to review the content of repos.conf because maybe it has some error.

He shares the content of his file as example. His repos.conf is a directory and in there is a file name gentoo.conf and the file content is

Code: Select all

[DEFAULT]
main-repo = gentoo

[gentoo]

location = /var/db/repos/gentoo
sync-type = git
clone-depth = 1
sync-depth = 1
sync-uri = https://github.com/gentoo-mirror/gentoo
auto-sync = yes
sync-git-verify-commit-signature = true
#commit-hash = 35c0c279daace8053ac9cc0e58ecb96bfb777e17
#clone-date = 2021-04-11

I ran

Code: Select all

cat repos.conf

The output was

Code: Select all

cat: repos.conf: No such file or directory 

Please help me to pass this obstacle.

By the way, I opened a new thread because I can't post on the previous one for some reason. I get error in posting.

[pingtoo]

Sensei Art,

I am not 100% sure the current stage3 tarball structure. so please try

Code: Select all

cat /etc/portage/repos.conf

If above code give you error, try

Code: Select all

cat /etc/portage/repos.conf/gentoo.conf

if both give you error we will need to see some directory structure in order to understand your current condition. However since you are not able to copy/paste command output, this will put us in to difficult condition. will you able to use a second computer connect to the board with serial cable?

[Hu]

Code: Select all

!!! Section 'gentoo' in repos.conf has location attribute set to nonexistent directory: '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's
!!! Invalid Repository Location (not a dir): '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's

Is this a direct copy from the error output, or did you transcribe it? The capitalization of Gentoo seems unexpected here, as does the trailing s after the single-quoted string.

I ran

Code: Select all

cat repos.conf

The output was

Code: Select all

cat: repos.conf: No such file or directory 

Please help me to pass this obstacle.

Did you run that command in the correct directory? If you do not set a path, then the current working directory is implied. You do not indicate in what directory you ran the command.

By the way, I opened a new thread because I can't post on the previous one for some reason. I get error in posting.

This is likely because the title is near the length limit, and your reply would exceed the limit. This is a well known issue with multiple forum threads discussing it. As a workaround, set the subject of your reply to be empty. I will merge these threads for you.

[Sensei Art]

Sensei Art,

I am not 100% sure the current stage3 tarball structure. so please try

Code: Select all

cat /etc/portage/repos.conf

If above code give you error, try

Code: Select all

cat /etc/portage/repos.conf/gentoo.conf

if both give you error we will need to see some directory structure in order to understand your current condition. However since you are not able to copy/paste command output, this will put us in to difficult condition. will you able to use a second computer connect to the board with serial cable?

I tried both of them and got an output that there is not such file or directory.
Unfortunately, I don't have second computer or serial cable.
You can see my input and output in the following image: https://ibb.co/LCcNhQw

[Sensei Art]

Code: Select all

!!! Section 'gentoo' in repos.conf has location attribute set to nonexistent directory: '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's
!!! Invalid Repository Location (not a dir): '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's

Is this a direct copy from the error output, or did you transcribe it? The capitalization of Gentoo seems unexpected here, as does the trailing s after the single-quoted string.

I ran

Code: Select all

cat repos.conf

The output was

Code: Select all

cat: repos.conf: No such file or directory 

Please help me to pass this obstacle.

Did you run that command in the correct directory? If you do not set a path, then the current working directory is implied. You do not indicate in what directory you ran the command.

By the way, I opened a new thread because I can't post on the previous one for some reason. I get error in posting.

This is likely because the title is near the length limit, and your reply would exceed the limit. This is a well known issue with multiple forum threads discussing it. As a workaround, set the subject of your reply to be empty. I will merge these threads for you.

Thank you for merging the threads.

It was a transcript. The Android's auto-correct probably messed it up.

I didn't know what is the correct directory. Today I tried to ran the command in the directories that @pingtoo suggested, but it didn't make any change. Please check it up: https://ibb.co/LCcNhQw

[pingtoo]

Code: Select all

!!! Section 'gentoo' in repos.conf has location attribute set to nonexistent directory: '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's
!!! Invalid Repository Location (not a dir): '/var/db/repos/Gentoo's

Is this a direct copy from the error output, or did you transcribe it? The capitalization of Gentoo seems unexpected here, as does the trailing s after the single-quoted string.

I ran

Code: Select all

cat repos.conf

The output was

Code: Select all

cat: repos.conf: No such file or directory 

Please help me to pass this obstacle.

Did you run that command in the correct directory? If you do not set a path, then the current working directory is implied. You do not indicate in what directory you ran the command.

By the way, I opened a new thread because I can't post on the previous one for some reason. I get error in posting.

This is likely because the title is near the length limit, and your reply would exceed the limit. This is a well known issue with multiple forum threads discussing it. As a workaround, set the subject of your reply to be empty. I will merge these threads for you.

Thank you for merging the threads.

It was a transcript. The Android's auto-correct probably messed it up.

I didn't know what is the correct directory. Today I tried to ran the command in the directories that @pingtoo suggested, but it didn't make any change. Please check it up: https://ibb.co/LCcNhQw

I am not sure if there is another post from you after above post. But my browser given me error if I try to see next page, so I will use above post to continue this conversation.

It appear to me there are two issues, May be they are related or may be they are not.

1. the error about "Invalid Repository Location ...". I think it is due to the procedure you follow is a bit of misleading, the command "env-update" that cause this error was introduced too soon at this stage. I think the author of the procedure is either a very experienced Gentoo user or the article was written in early days Gentoo that have different directory structure or the etc-update command have different logic. Anyway I think you can possibly ignore this error OR proceed to next (get portage tree) first and come back to run etc-update and source /etc/profile.

2. The error about "No such file or directory" for reference to "repos.conf" is a bit of alarming. If the stage3 was decomposed correctly you should not get this error, the other possibility of getting this error is you executed in a wrong location (wrong current directory). Although I am not able to see how its possible but that is the only explain I can come up with.

I recommend you use Gentoo handbook's Configuring Portage as basis and review the link article you followed. The Gentoo handbook gave you verbose detail but better explained, whereas the link you follow give you quick step execution but lack of detail on why and howto handle when things works differently.

[Sensei Art]

I am not sure if there is another post from you after above post. But my browser given me error if I try to see next page, so I will use above post to continue this conversation.

Same here. I get error if I try to see the next page. I guess it's happened after the threads were merged. There are not other posts anyway.

It appear to me there are two issues, May be they are related or may be they are not.

1. the error about "Invalid Repository Location ...". I think it is due to the procedure you follow is a bit of misleading, the command "env-update" that cause this error was introduced too soon at this stage. I think the author of the procedure is either a very experienced Gentoo user or the article was written in early days Gentoo that have different directory structure or the etc-update command have different logic. Anyway I think you can possibly ignore this error OR proceed to next (get portage tree) first and come back to run etc-update and source /etc/profile.

2. The error about "No such file or directory" for reference to "repos.conf" is a bit of alarming. If the stage3 was decomposed correctly you should not get this error, the other possibility of getting this error is you executed in a wrong location (wrong current directory). Although I am not able to see how its possible but that is the only explain I can come up with.

I recommend you use Gentoo handbook's Configuring Portage as basis and review the link article you followed. The Gentoo handbook gave you verbose detail but better explained, whereas the link you follow give you quick step execution but lack of detail on why and howto handle when things works differently.

I understand. I will begin from scratch and follow the standard handbook.
I limit the working time on this little project for 4 hours each Friday. Therefore it is going to last forever

[Sensei Art]

Hi Community,

I made a progress and finished the installation according the provided manuals:
1. I still get the same message when I run "env-update".
2. When I try to run the following command:

Code: Select all

blkid |grep -E '(nvme0n1p2|root_lv)'
/dev/nvme0n1p2: UUID="aaaaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa" BLOCK_SIZE="1024" TYPE="ext2" PARTLABEL="primary" PARTUUID="aaaaaaaa-1111-1111-1111-111111111111"
/dev/mapper/vg_system-root_lv: UUID="bbbbbbbb-bbbb-bbbb-bbbb-bbbbbbbbbbbb" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="xfs"

I get few messages about non-existant directories.
The same happens when I run the following commands:

Code: Select all

blkid |grep -E '(nvme0n1p3|root_lv)'
/dev/nvme0n1p3: UUID="cccccccc-cccc-cccc-cccc-cccccccccccc" TYPE="crypto_LUKS" PARTLABEL="primary" PARTUUID="cccccccc-2222-2222-2222-222222222222"
/dev/mapper/vg_system-root_lv: UUID="bbbbbbbb-bbbb-bbbb-bbbb-bbbbbbbbbbbb" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="xfs"

Do you have any idea how to overcome these obstacles?

Update:
Eventually, I managed to run "env-update" and "source /etc/profile" properly, but I still face issues with running the "blkid" commad. Please check the following images to see the output:
1. https://pasteboard.co/QCWbL7pBjE9Y.jpg
2. https://pasteboard.co/k61aYNBUjTt5.jpg

Thanks

[pingtoo]

Sensei Art,

Please define what is blocking you continue. I do not see any command that produce a error that stop you from issue next command.

The messages you got is from 'grep', not from 'blkid', notice at beginning of the line it always have word 'grep: '?

please use 'man grep' for detail on how to use 'grep'.

The messages essentially telling you that the arguments for 'grep' does not exist, for example '/dev/nvme0n1p2:" does not exist, notice that ':' at the end of the string? the string "UUID="aaaaaaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaa-aaaaaaaaaaaa" is not a file nor a directory.

The command blkid |grep -E '(nvme0n1p2|root_lv)' is completed, you should not put additional arguments after that.