Arch Linux

Wesman26

Member

Registered: 2009-04-18

Posts: 70

Installing Arch on an SD card

I already looked at the beginner's guide etc... I've scoured the forums a bit, and I've probably missed something, I won't mind being corrected after saying I couldn't find anything of much use.  I'm putting arch on my netbook but I don't feel like playing with the harddrive which I'd prefer to keep as the default windows installation.  Unfortunately the harddrive has 4 partitions on it so in order to use it at all I'll have to get rid of something.  Fortunately I have an SD card slot which I can go ahead and use (currently planning on using my 8GB card).  From what I understand I should put the /var partition on the harddrive so as to not ruin the card any faster than I have to.  I'm not entirely sure what I should do here, it's been a long time since I've had to install Arch, and I've never been good at it.  Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks again,
--Wes

lagagnon

Member

From: an Island in the Pacific...

Registered: 2009-12-10

Posts: 1,087

Website

Re: Installing Arch on an SD card

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CF_ … rd_install and the Beginner's Guide at the Wiki.

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Ultraman

Member

Registered: 2009-12-24

Posts: 242

Re: Installing Arch on an SD card

I have done this, it's not that hard really.
It's like doing a regular install to a disk, where you keep /var (and swap) on a separate partition (in this case on your harddrive).
So partition the SD card like you would a regular disk, and make room for /var on the harddrive, and perhaps also put swap on the harddrive.

The above Wiki article contains valuable info on making sure the thing will boot properly.

For a filesystem, look around. Perhaps there is something cool you can use that works well with flash media. I heard of something called NILFS2, which is a log-structured filesystem, dont know if that works or if we support that. If you don't want to go there, simply use ext3 without a journal (or just specify ext2 ). It's lack of a journal is a pro in this case, as it will reduce writes to the card. And also make sure you add "noatime" to the mount options in fstab, that will further reduce writes.

What type of 8GB SD card are you going to use?
I did this on a Class 4  8GB SD card, so you get about 4MB/s sustained transfer. It is not speedy I can tell you, but it does work.

Last edited by Ultraman (2010-01-07 10:17:47)

Wesman26

Member

Registered: 2009-04-18

Posts: 70

Re: Installing Arch on an SD card

Thanks.  This seems like exactly what I needed and I can't believe I overlooked this.  Thank you both, I really appreciate it.

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,774

Re: Installing Arch on an SD card

Before you put too much effort into this, some thoughts:

The link provided by lagagnon addresses CF cards on an IDE to CF converter.  This causes it to appear as a harddrive on the IDE bus.  It does make allusions to SD, but did not detail that configuration.

This laptop (HP Pavilion DV4 1227) has a SD reader, but will not boot from that reader.  I cannot think of any laptop that does boot from internal SD readers.

This laptop will boot from USB, but not all USB drives are bootable.  Some of them only like to boot when formatted as FAT and then use LDLINUX to boot the linux kernel.

I also have an external USB based SD card reader.  To be honest, I have never tried to set it up to boot like that.  Maybe I'll play with that this weekend.

Anyway, (1) check that your system can boot from your reader, (2) check that your media will boot, and (3) that it will still boot using your file system of choice.

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hatten

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Sweden, Borlange

Registered: 2009-02-23

Posts: 736

Re: Installing Arch on an SD card

I cannot think of any laptop that does boot from internal SD readers.

Just a quick note, the Gecko edubook does. It doesn't even have an hdd by default.

keenerd

Package Maintainer (PM)

Registered: 2007-02-22

Posts: 647

Website

Re: Installing Arch on an SD card

The link provided by lagagnon addresses CF cards on an IDE to CF converter.

As the fellow who wrote the original draft of that link, I can assure that it holds equally valid for SD cards.  The only difference is that an SD card needs the mkinitcpio USB hook enabled.

I cannot think of any laptop that does boot from internal SD readers.

I can not think of any laptop that does not boot from internal SD.  I've only set it up on half a dozen or so, but my success rate as been 100%.  Nearly every laptop made in the last seven years can USB/SD boot.

This laptop (HP Pavilion DV4 1227) has a SD reader, but will not boot from that reader.

Always research large purchases to death.  Punch that laptop's name into google, and the third result is "Don't Buy the HP Pavilion...."

I'm not entirely sure what I should do here.

Don't worry about /var.  I've always had it write to the flash drive.  (I also replace my SD/CF cards every year and my hard drives every three.)  When you are installing Arch, enable USB booting.  That is the only critical step.  And follow those direction regarding mount flags, otherwise it will be dog slow.

Right now I am typing this from a computer running entirely from a class 6 micro SDHC card.  I can swap it with the µSD card in my MP3 player or camera and boot a completely different OS.  Once I start thinking about all the places you can hide a chunk of plastic the size of a fingernail, it is hard not to whistle the "Mission Impossible" theme while using a computer.

In short, running linux from SD cards is easy and fun.

Last edited by keenerd (2010-01-08 14:11:30)

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 19,774

Re: Installing Arch on an SD card

As the fellow who wrote the original draft of that link, I can assure that it holds equally valid for SD cards.

First off, Thank You.  I do appreciate those who but the wiki together.

I cannot think of any laptop that does boot from internal SD readers.
I can not think of any laptop that does not boot from internal SD.  I've only set it up on half a dozen or so, but my success rate as been 100%.  Nearly every laptop made in the last seven years can USB/SD boot.

I do use USB boot a lot.  I am clearly out-of-the-loop on SDs.  I'll defer to you. And I'll give it a shot.

Always research large purchases to death.  Punch that laptop's name into google, and the third result is "Don't Buy the HP Pavilion...."

Um, did you read that result?  It is marketing bot generated spam trying to vector you to an on-line retailer with questionable ethics.

Actually, this is one of the best supported laptops I have ever used on Linux.  Everything but the WinModem (and SD Card Boot) works fine.  The SD card reader is on a PCI-e bus rather than a USB bus.  It does not appear as IDE, SATA, or SCSI.  For ~US$600, I could not ask for more.

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Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature -- Michael Faraday
Sometimes it is the people no one can imagine anything of who do the things no one can imagine. -- Alan Turing
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