Multiboot&Universal Installer for Odroid C1, C2 and XU3/XU4

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 10:33 pm

I've prepared the new universal installer which can install android, linux, OpenELEC or any combination (multiboot) from SD Card and/or USB drive.

Last update: Jan 19. 2017.

The information in this post is still work in progress, more detailed instructions will be added soon

Download prepared images from: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id= ... sp=sharing
GitHub: https://github.com/loboris/Odroid_Multiboot

Multiboot installer contains several components:

Boot menu for selecting from available OS's
Backup tool for backup operating system(s) from multiboot card or original Odroid card
Universal installer which can install android, linux, OpenELEC or any combination (multiboot) from USB drive.
Linux shell with many usefull programs/utilities
Android update utility

Multiboot features

boot menu for selecting operating system or Multiboot tools
automaticaly detects installed operating systems on all inserted cards (EMMC and/or SD card)
mimimal changes to original OS images, only fstab is adjusted for multiboot
on Odroid C2 both EMMC and SDcard can be inserted and the OS can be booted from EMMC or SDcard
on Odroid XU3/XU4 any os on EMMC or SDCard can be booted, regardles of boot switch position

Installer features

interactive installer
user can set desired partition sizes and installation destination (SD or EMMC)
it is possible install to SD Card and to EMMC
uses standard Android update.zip (XU4) or daily___.tar.gz (C2), Linux image files and OpenElec upgrade tar files as sources
backup created with Backup tool can be used as source
installation sources must be placed on the USB drive partition
installation source partition can be formated as ext4, fat32, ntfs or btrfs
supports multi boot installation (Android, Linux, OpenELEC/LibreElec)
tested with latest Android, Linux and OpenELEC versions for XU3/XU4 & C2

Backup features

backup multiboot SDCard or EMMC (all installed operating systems) to USB drive
backup original Odroid SDCard or EMMC (Android or Linux) to USB drive
backup on USB drive can be used as source for Installer

Installer usage

use prepared multiboot installer images, in multiinstaller_C1|C2|XU.img.zip, unzip to some empty directory
run
Code: Select all
```
sudo dd if=multiinstaller_C1|C2|XU.img of=/dev/sdX bs=1MB oflag=direct
```
- or build the installer sdcard/image running
  Code: Select all
```
sudo ./prepare_selfinst <destination_card>|<destination_image_name> c1|c2|xu4
```
- if the image file is created, you can write the image to SDCard using dd command.
copy your installation sources (Android update image update.zip, Linux .img, OpenELEC .tar file) to the first partition of your USB drive
rename the Linux installation image to linux.img!
rename the OpenELEC installation tar to oelec.tar !
rename the Android installation archive to update.tar.gz or update.zip !
on Odroid UX4/XU3 set the boot switch to boot from SDCard
connect you USB drive to Odroid, insert SDCard and power on
select Install from menu
follow the instructions to select desired partition sizes and installation destination (SDCard or EMMC)

HINTS, problems, bugs

select desired Android resolution in multiboot/boot.ini.android, Hardkernel utility does not work
add #DESCRIPTION my_os_description line to multiboot/boot.ini.[android|linux|oelec] files to describe your OS in boot menu
There are some problems when installing from USB drive fat partition, it will be fixed.
Android update must be executed from the boot menu, not in Hardkernel's way
openElec/LibreElec update is not implemented, but it can be easily done manualy, it is just needed to copy SYSTEM, KERNEL, and meson64_odroidc2.dtb->meson64_odroidc2.dtb.oelec from openElec tar. openElec update will be added to boot menu later
openElec partition is always empty after installation, it is used by openElec to store configuration, plugins and user data
2nd Linux installation is possible only if openElec is not installed
userdata is the boot partition (where the multiboot directory and ini files are placed, and it is mounted in Android as sdcard and i Linux as /media/boot
reserved partition is the name for openelec partition when openelec is not installed and is left unformated during the install, but can be used later in Linux (for swap or data partition)
Partition structure of the multiboot card is fixed, all the partition are always created, if not used the size is set to 8Mb (but can be changed in menu)
Install multiboot Linux kernel option is used only on C2, if used, included kernel is used which can boot from btrfs partition and can also be used if the kernel from install img does not work
at the moment, installation card is always erased and partitioned when installing, later I will add the option to install to the existing multiboot partitions if detected, so that already installed OS's will be preserved

If you are interested in how it works, clone or download GitHub sources.
You can create bootable universal installer SDCard, or simply analize the install scripts to learn more about Odroid boot process, initramfs, etc.

If you find my work usefull, you can DONATE to
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?c ... E5RV6MVM2U

.

gripped · Post by **gripped** » Fri Sep 25, 2015 11:53 pm

How does the dual boot function ? I can see the value in dual boot for some people.

But for a single install of either android or Linux why is this preferable to just flashing the image ?

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:23 am

gripped wrote:How does the dual boot function ? I can see the value in dual boot for some people.

But for a single install of either android or Linux why is this preferable to just flashing the image ?

Dual boot functions the same as in http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=95&t=15403
Basically it presents the boot menu to select the OS to boot.

When installing single OS you have full freedom to select partition sizes, and you can install to emmc without removing it from the board.
Besides that, the CM-12.1 Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and CM-12.1 Android TV 5.1.1 Lollipop do not have the installation image.

And many more options can be added, backup and restore function will be added soon ...

rooted · Post by **rooted** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 12:34 am

gripped · Post by **gripped** » Sat Sep 26, 2015 1:12 am

loboris wrote:
gripped wrote:How does the dual boot function ? I can see the value in dual boot for some people.

But for a single install of either android or Linux why is this preferable to just flashing the image ?
Dual boot functions the same as in http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=95&t=15403
Basically it presents the boot menu to select the OS to boot.

When installing single OS you have full freedom to select partition sizes, and you can install to emmc without removing it from the board.
Besides that, the CM-12.1 Android 5.1.1 Lollipop and CM-12.1 Android TV 5.1.1 Lollipop do not have the installation image.

And many more options can be added, backup and restore function will be added soon ...

Ok. I had managed to miss that thread somehow.
I'm also going with a 'Nice'

TongYeng · Post by **TongYeng** » Mon Mar 14, 2016 11:21 pm

I have only a 8GB emmc card. Thats why I want to install ubuntu on emmc and android on sd card. Is that possible with the universal installer?

atomicODROID · Post by **atomicODROID** » Tue Sep 20, 2016 1:55 pm

Great work, I'm going to try this now and I will report back. I'm going to try the CM13 image and Ubuntu 16.04 on my XU4

I'm a tad confused as to whether I need to already have android installed or if I just rename my android image file to update.zip but no fear, I'm dedicating a few hours to this so I'll try everything out. I have preconfigured custom images already (by way of read command on win32diskimager) so if I can get both of my versions of android and ubuntu to work that would be the cats pajamas. I'm sure I'll have no issues but either way I have faith.

Great job, can't wait to put this Lexar 128GB 633x to some good use for a change!

In case anyone is wondering these Lexar 633x cards are awesome, zero lag or performance issues (most notable was on my PINE64 board running Remix OS, I have no clue how anyone runs that OS without having a fast SD card as regular cards were woefully laggy). I also have the Lexar 1800x 64GB on the way and that should be very interesting as from what I've seen they boats speeds close to 300MB/s and that is getting in to the eMMC territory (although eMMC is WAY less expensive).

rooted · Post by **rooted** » Thu Sep 22, 2016 3:13 am

You won't see anywhere near those speeds unfortunately.

atomicODROID · Post by **atomicODROID** » Sun Sep 25, 2016 10:25 pm

rooted wrote:You won't see anywhere near those speeds unfortunately.

Oh definitely not, as with anyone that fishes SD card companies claim their transfer speeds are "THIS BIG" lmao
But I have seen upwards and over 50MB/s on some of my cards using USB 3.0 which is pretty impressive. Although the temp of the card after flashing me causes me to only use USB 2.0 now because I could barely hold the card it was that hot.

I finally got the universal installer to get dual boot going but couldn't adjust the android userdata size, it wouldn't allow me to change it. Any tips? I'm using a 128GB card and wanted a solid 30GB for my Android install so any tips would be most appreciated. Thanks again all

EDIT: I did go thought all the source code for the universal installer and found multiple references and if/then statements regarding both userdata and 2048 but there are so many references I'm having trouble finding the main one that all the others point to. I assumed it would be like the other method where you could change the value in the prepare_multicard file. I couldn't use that method as no matter which system (my desktop using both kali and ubuntu, my netbook using kali and ubuntu as well) they would all return the ERROR formatting CACHE line during the first step prepping the card. So if anyone could help me solve either resizing the userdata using teh universal installer method or help me conquer the cache error on the original method I would really appreciate it

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:02 am

Can't you resize it with gparted afterwards? I haven't used this method - I used multiboot

atomicODROID · Post by **atomicODROID** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 7:59 am

I've got teh size issues sorted but still having a hell of a time with the bootloader. it seems that after the first boot I never again get the option to select which os to boot to. I've played with the boot.ini.sel file many different ways still to no avail. So it seems that if I select android on fist boot im stuck with android and same with linux. I'm not lacking in terms of SD cards so it isnt a big hassle to swap them out but I wish I could get this going because I have it in a cloudshell and the plan is to move the rootfs to my internal hard drive and then android can utilise the entire sd card. I have tried everything including installing with and without the hard drive attached as well as trying both this method and the other multi boot method. I

if anyone has any ideas please toss them my way!

-atom

atomicODROID · Post by **atomicODROID** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 9:05 am

wait a tick, perhaps ill have some luck with this

mv boot.ini.sel boot.ini

i seem to be booting to the os selection screen now at least!

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Mon Oct 03, 2016 3:18 pm

Mv is not the correct option. You should try cp, because boot.ini will be overwritten in order to boot the system.
I too ran into this issue, and it's because loboris' original methods patched older versions of linux/android and his patches no longer work on newer versions. Here's what I had to do to fix it: http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 58#p157672

yong02514 · Post by **yong02514** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 8:38 pm

is there anyway to do a dualboot with two linux os only?

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Thu Oct 06, 2016 9:09 pm

The universal installer tries to prepare your sdcard for linux and android. The previous project had also LibreElec support. Do you want to have two different kernels with your systems, or would a kernel suffice?

You could just use the boot.ini switcher this installer uses and make sure your linux systems restore the boot menu by overwriting boot.ini with boot.ini.sel on boot (in rc.local).

So yes, it can be done, but you'd need some manual tweaking.

yong02514 · Post by **yong02514** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 5:34 pm

mad_ady wrote:The universal installer tries to prepare your sdcard for linux and android. The previous project had also LibreElec support. Do you want to have two different kernels with your systems, or would a kernel suffice?

You could just use the boot.ini switcher this installer uses and make sure your linux systems restore the boot menu by overwriting boot.ini with boot.ini.sel on boot (in rc.local).

So yes, it can be done, but you'd need some manual tweaking.

may i ask how the uboot boot into bootmenu?
and can i do it without android os? like mmcblk0p1 as vfat(boot),mmcblk0p2 as ext4 (ubuntu), mmcblk0p3 as ext4 (difference linux kernel os).
how can i change the boot menu like change the android or linux word to others
what manual tweaking is needed beside the boot.ini?

Sorry for so many question. thank you

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Fri Oct 07, 2016 8:29 pm

Try with the tripleboot guide instead: http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=112&t=8740

The prepare script will partition your SD card and will also create partitions for android. But you can modify the partition layout afterwards and run the install_linux and install_libreelec scripts and it should work, but you'll need to edit some things by hand.
By default the board should boot to a boot.ini that is a copy of boot.ini.sel, which displays the menu. After you make your selection boot.ini is replaced with the correct one and uboot reloads it (somehow) and you boot to your selected OS. When the OS boots, as part of the boot scripts (for linux in /etc/rc.local) a command is added to replace boot.ini with boot.ini.sel so that when you reboot you get the selection screen again.

There are some things which I don't understand yet (such as what kernel boots initially with boot.ini.sel and handles user selection) and how the switch is done after the user selects, but after the selection is made the process is straightforward.

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Tue Oct 18, 2016 8:38 pm

Update

The scripts are updated, many problems with latest Android/Linux versions are fixed, CM12,13,14 builds are supported.
Installation of OpenELEC is now supported, dual or triple boot.

Please (re)read the 1st post.

I'll post instructions for multiple linux installation soon.

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Tue Oct 18, 2016 8:48 pm

Welcome back loboris

Do you plan to show the same love for the C2 as well?

Also, what exactly is needed to display the selection menu from uboot? Is it displayed from u-boot or do you boot a minimal kernel with display and keyboard support and then (somehow) revert back to uboot with the selection?

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Tue Oct 18, 2016 9:24 pm

@mad_ady

I'm working on C2 unversal installer, I don't have much free time, but I hope I'll finish it soon.

The boot selection menu has nothing to do with u-boot. The specially prepared initramfs (uInitrd.sel) is used to display the boot menu and change the boot.ini for selected boot.
You can look at init script in bootsel-initramfs/ramfst directory included now in GitHub repository to see how it works.
You can even make some changes if you want, use included pack script to repack uInitrd.sel once you make the changes.

You can analyze init and install.script scripts in initramfs/ramfst directory in GitHub repository to see how the installation process works.

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Tue Oct 18, 2016 9:59 pm

I see now... After the selection is made, you overwrite boot.ini (which had the contents of boot.ini.sel) and you simply reboot. I thought you somehow called uboot or used kexec to load the new kernel. Its simple and should work all the time (most of the time)

However, what kernel do you use to load this initramfs? The linux kernel? The android kernel? Any of them?

The initramfs solutions means that in theory you could use a bluetooth keyboard for input - as long as you add the necessary modules and bluez and whatever else is needed, right?

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Tue Oct 18, 2016 10:18 pm

standard Harkernel's Odroid XU4 kernel (zImage.sel) and dtb (exynos5422-odroidxu3_sel.dtb)

you can do anything you like with this approach, the installer works the same way.
For BT you shuld initialize the whole BT stack, so it is not the simple task.
Simple wireless keyboard works, of course.

warfeiner · Post by **warfeiner** » Thu Oct 27, 2016 2:59 am

Hi!

I was directed to this topic from http://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?f=112&t=8740

So, now I'm trying to make a dualbooting board with this guide, but no progress (I have U3)
With that first guide my board booted to andoird, but no linux. With this guide my board won't boot at all!

Can someone please help me, is it even possible to make a dualbooting U3-board ?

Thank you

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Thu Oct 27, 2016 3:35 am

U3 is not supported (I don't have one), only XU3/XU4 and C2 (will be ready in a couple of days). Sorry,

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Tue Dec 20, 2016 6:18 pm

The new Multiboot installer is finished, I'm just doing some final testing, will be published soon.

completely rewritten
works the same on Odroid C1, C2, XU3/XU4
new way to switch the operating system, switching is done in ini file/u-boot, almost no changes to original OS installation needed
supports Android, OpenElec and Linux
automatically detects all Android, Linux and OpenElec installations on SD card & eMMC Card
both SDCard & eMMC can be inserted, boot to any OS on any card is possible
automatically detects installation sources on multiple USB drive partitions
installation USB drive partition can be formated as FAT32, ntfs, ext4 or btrfs
included option to backup the original Android/Linux installation to USB and then use it as source for multiboot installation
included options for Backup & Restore Multiboot installation to/from USB drive
included mini Bash shell with many useful utilities, including nano editor, Midnight Commander file manager, ...
...

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Sat Dec 31, 2016 11:55 pm

@loboris: if you need a beta tester I can give it a try on C2. A friend wants to use both linux and android and keeps asking me when it will be ready

And happy new year to all, by the way!

uchihakyo · Post by **uchihakyo** » Sun Jan 01, 2017 4:20 am

@loboris I'm using your git. If you need any help on testing. I'll be more then welcome.

Right now I'm using an UHS micro SD but I found my system freezing quite a lot. I was wondering if it is possible to use multiboot with external rootfs (usb3) ?
I used to that changing the root=/dev/disk on boot.ini

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Tue Jan 03, 2017 5:41 pm

Sorry for the delay, I was very busy during the last month. I hope I'll finish it soon.

For now, if anyone wants to test, full sources can be downloaded from GitHub: https://github.com/loboris/Odroid_Multiboot
Prepared images are available on https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

@uchihakyo, It should be easy to add booting to usb drive (Linux), I'll try it.

uchihakyo · Post by **uchihakyo** » Thu Jan 05, 2017 12:18 am

loboris wrote:Sorry for the delay, I was very busy during the last month. I hope I'll finish it soon.

For now, if anyone wants to test, full sources can be downloaded from GitHub: https://github.com/loboris/Odroid_Multiboot
Prepared images are available on https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

@uchihakyo, It should be easy to add booting to usb drive (Linux), I'll try it.

Thanks man. I'll test the new release by the end of this week.

@loboris I was thinking about it. Boot linux from usb should quite easy but what about android ? Is it even possible ? could find anything related

locomot1f · Post by **locomot1f** » Sun Jan 08, 2017 6:21 am

greetings,

testing this out with the Odroid c2
i'm not having much luck.
This is what I've tried so far.

I can build the installer,
but when I put in the SD card
I get this:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0vQ1M ... 67-h600-no

should it say

Code: Select all

No Multiboot card detected

If I click on Prepare card for Multiboot,
It act like it wants to work, then on the screen it says:

Code: Select all

Not found... aborted

I've also tried with creating the multiinstaller_C2.img.zip
but I get the same results.

am I missing something?
let me know if you need more information. Using Samsung EVO microSD 16GB

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Sun Jan 08, 2017 7:03 am

Please check the (not complete) instructions on GitHub repository.

The card is not yet prepared for multiboot, so "No Multiboot card detected" is OK.
16 MB card is OK for installation of Android&Linux&LibreElec.
Full Mate desktop installation can take more than 15 minutes to install to SD card, be patient.

To prepare the multiboot card and install operating systems you must have at least one installation image/archive on usb drive (root directory).
For C2 you can use:
Android:
daily-odroidc2-eng-s905_****.tar.gz images from http://www.odroid.in/mirror/dn.odroid.c ... /ODROID-C2
rename the file to update.tar.gz
Linux:
latest Ubuntu Mate image from Hardkernels's site, unpack and rename to linux.img
LibreElec:
LibreElec tar archive (tested with LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.aarch64-7.1.0.Oct.On.Off.tar), rename to oelec.tar

Please report if you have more problems.

You can take the screeshot while waiting in any menu pressing s key.
If you later exit the main menu using R key (reboot), taken screenshot images will be saved on SD Card as picture in ppm format.

locomot1f · Post by **locomot1f** » Sun Jan 08, 2017 7:20 am

i guess that's where i'm not getting any success.

I have the LibreElec tar file on my usb drive, but it's not seeing it.
It seems to be working, because if I go to the backup screen, it shows up there.

but when I click on to install, it tells me it's not found.
maybe i'll try a different USB device tomorrow.

do I leave it in *.tar format, or do I unarchive it on the USB drive?

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Sun Jan 08, 2017 7:23 am

LibreElec cannot be installed alone, you must install Android and/or Linux to!

locomot1f · Post by **locomot1f** » Sun Jan 08, 2017 7:38 am

ah! not sure how i missed that part of the instructions!
now it's loading. sorry for the user error.

thanks for the great work!
i'll keep you posted if i run into any other problems.

wondering how hard it would be to make OpenPHT available for this.???

alcyon71 · Post by **alcyon71** » Wed Jan 11, 2017 6:16 am

OpenPHT is based on Libreelec.
I installed OpenPHT-Embedded-1.7.1.137-b604995c-Odroid_C2.aarch64.img.gz after zip the .img file and put on usb drive with android 6.
Installation ok, android boot ok, but openpht won't boot...
I haven't usb-UART for see u-boot console.
I try netconsole but no work for the moment...

Thanks for your job loboris!

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Wed Jan 11, 2017 6:46 am

OpenPHT is packaged differently than LibreElec, I'll try to include installation from OpenPHT *.img.
For now you could try to install LibreElec, and after the installation manually replace KERNEL and SYSTEM files and meson64_odroidc2.dtb -> meson64_odroidc2.dtb.oelec with ones from OpenPHT image. It should work.

alcyon71 · Post by **alcyon71** » Thu Jan 12, 2017 6:09 am

I tryed triple boot with :
ubuntu64-16.04-minimal-odroid-c2-20160815.img => linux.img
LibreELEC-Odroid_C2.aarch64-7.90.010.tar => oelec.tar
daily-odroidc2-eng-s905_6.0.1_master-15-v1.3.tar.gz => update.tar.gz

No error during install, but only android boot.
If I try to start linux and libreelec the blue led stays on.

I also tryed to install linux, same problem, no boot

I will make some test to see if my SD card is not damaged...

lir · Post by **lir** » Fri Jan 13, 2017 7:40 am

alcyon71 - exactly the same for me, only android boots, the rest blue led stays on. Multiboot SD card was prepared without problems. Odroid C2, I have tried with several LibreElecs, Debian Jessie (arm64), triple and also dual boot.

barturblits · Post by **barturblits** » Fri Jan 13, 2017 8:08 pm

I cloned the code, followed the procedures in the code and is looking very nice. Not sure why chainloading grub2 would not be easier but for now I presume nobody got it working yet.
Looking for some confirmation on the things I found out so far on the project:

- Multiboot can only install / boot a maximum of 4 OS's (1x android, 2x linux distro and 1x libreelec)
- When booted into an OS you have to clean reboot to get to the boot menu or else (for example if you cut the power) you will automatically boot into the last selected OS.

My goal is to boot Libreelec (main kodi video player), volumio (audio player with hifi shield 2), ubuntu/debian (desktop for debugging etc) and android (netflix) from one eMMC. Volumio is not supported yet in this project, hope I can it working myself. I only need android as backup solution for netflix. I dont have my odroid c2 yet, first wanted to be sure I can reach my goal, and it looks promising. I read running netflix on libreelec is not ideal, so if I cannot get it working properly, booting into android would be a nice backup solution.

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Fri Jan 13, 2017 8:57 pm

barturblits wrote: - Multiboot can only install / boot a maximum of 4 OS's (1x android, 2x linux distro and 1x libreelec)

As far as I've seen in the code there were also 4 custom Linux entries that could be anything.

- When booted into an OS you have to clean reboot to get to the boot menu or else (for example if you cut the power) you will automatically boot into the last selected OS.

It depends. You would need to restore the boot.ini.sel -> boot.ini file after booting your chosen OS completes. This is usually done at startup (in Android and Ubuntu) so if you unplug after this point you will get the selection menu. If you reboot before, you will always boot the chosen OS (until you restore the file).

barturblits · Post by **barturblits** » Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:41 pm

mad_ady wrote:
barturblits wrote: - Multiboot can only install / boot a maximum of 4 OS's (1x android, 2x linux distro and 1x libreelec)
As far as I've seen in the code there were also 4 custom Linux entries that could be anything.

Thanks, gonna look at it more thoroughly and finally order my odroid so I can see it in practice.

mad_ady wrote:
barturblits wrote: - When booted into an OS you have to clean reboot to get to the boot menu or else (for example if you cut the power) you will automatically boot into the last selected OS.
It depends. You would need to restore the boot.ini.sel -> boot.ini file after booting your chosen OS completes. This is usually done at startup (in Android and Ubuntu) so if you unplug after this point you will get the selection menu. If you reboot before, you will always boot the chosen OS (until you restore the file).

Ofcourse on boot, how elegant and smart. Had not thought about that.

barturblits · Post by **barturblits** » Fri Jan 13, 2017 10:41 pm

Can someone confirm that the boot menu is shown, accessible and can be operated from the '3.5inch Touchscreen Shield'?
I am thinking of adding this screen on top of the hifi shield 2 on the C2. Also I cannot find if this screen interferes with a hdmi connected tv. Does it work in some kind of clone mode (boot menu and ubuntu)? Or does only one screen work at a time? Or do you lose hdmi output altogether?

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Fri Jan 13, 2017 10:50 pm

I doubt the multiboot menu works with the 3.5" touchscreen as it is right now. The touchscreen needs to have some modules loaded in the kernel and uses a different X11 configuration (or can be used as a console). I'm guessing it wouldn't be impossible to expose and use it as a screen (not sure about the touch without X11), but it would be extra work for loboris.

Current deployments of the 3.5" touchscreen disable HDMI output and use it exclusively. In theory you could use it with the HDMI output (independent or dual independent screen), but I haven't seen a working config yet. I might look into it though because I'm curious about it.

You should open a new thread about this in the 3.5" touchscreen subforum.

barturblits · Post by **barturblits** » Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:36 pm

Thanks, i'll omit the touch screen for the time being, can always add it later. I wonder why this info is not present at the product page of the touch screen. It would have been nice to use it as boot menu screen and for volumio/dap functionality. Maybe I can program shortcut keys from an air mouse with keyboard to the boot options, but first get a multiboot media player running.

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:51 pm

I'd say it's not impossible to use it - just that nobody has so far. Also, loboris' multiboot project is not endorsed by HK officially, so they don't need to test all their devices for multiboot support... It's the community's job to do this

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Sat Jan 14, 2017 1:54 am

Related to latest multiboot install for C2:

I think there is some problem with Hardkernel's ubuntu64-16.04-minimal-odroid-c2 image and it does not boot with multiboot.
If you want to use minimal ubuntu image you can try my image https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1hyW ... TV2cElMaVk, it works.
Official Harkernel's Mate image works without problem.
There can be some problems with some LibreElec images, I'll test all available images next week and try to make them all work.

I'll also try to make some more dedailed instructions about the installation process and about what each type of image/archive must contain for booting with multiboot, so that you can eventually adapt it yourself.

I don't have odroid 3.5" touchscreen so I can't test it, but it should be possible to make it work. If you get kernel messages on screen during boot, than it is possible to use it for multiboot menu to.

ini files are not switched in OS after boot, but in ini file itself (when booting to some OS) or in boot menu script (when booting to boot select menu), so the system will always boot to boot menu (except if you manualy copy one of multiboot/boot.ini.android|linux|oelec to boot.ini).

Here are the images tested to work in C2 triple boot:
Android (rename to update.tar.gz):
http://www.odroid.in/mirror/dn.odroid.c ... 2.9.tar.gz
Linux (unpack and rename to linux.img):
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1hyW ... TV2cElMaVk
LibreElec (rename to oelec.tar):
https://mega.nz/#!ntMhUQQB!7yfX1eZl6iQz ... 8Xwkx3A8OE

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Sat Jan 14, 2017 3:39 am

Great news loboris, thanks! I didn't know the ini file was switched inside boot.ini. I'm curious how - I'll have to check.

What's your plan for supporting boot.ini upgrades (via the ubuntu boot.ini package)? Should the user handle it manually? If yes, please ention it in the instructions to avoid confusion.

alcyon71 · Post by **alcyon71** » Sat Jan 14, 2017 5:36 am

Thanks for your work Loboris!

I will try your libreelec file, switch kernel and system with openPHT for test.

I look forward to read your detailed instructions!

loboris · Post by **loboris** » Sat Jan 14, 2017 5:52 am

@alcyon71 I've tested openPHT and it does not boot, I'll investigete it next week.

barturblits · Post by **barturblits** » Sat Jan 14, 2017 12:09 pm

Good chance I will try the touch screen in the near future but first I wanna focus on getting the C2 up and running. Parts are ordered so now wait.

Am I correct that after the selection in the boot menu, the boot.ini is changed, reboot is initiated, selected OS is booted and during OS boot the ini is changed back to default (selection menu)?
Or do you have some magic to chainload another instance of uboot from uboot?

I am really curious about chainloading grub. Any idea where it fails or it is just a matter of nobody did it yet?
Also I noticed that (it seems) all odroid products/software, uses a MBR partition layout. I guess uboot needs legacy (MBR) boot? Any chance a hybrid MBR/GPT layout would work so we can have the benefits of GPT?