https://is-spi-on-pine64-devices-used-yet.site/
Did you notice that rather than on PC where you download a generic image which you can just live boot from USB, on ARM every distro needs to support every device individually? It's not just lacking mainline Linux support, it's also lacking a generic way to boot these devices like x86 has. #SPIflash can solve this perfectly by implementing UEFI on a dedicated chip but current new @PINE64 devices are lacking this. Let's get loud to make them add this again in new devices!
@bart @PINE64 This has nothing to do with SPI flash, but rather with having an area that is bootable and not overwritten during installation.
In the #Librem5, this function could be served by the eMMC storage, which contains extra "boot" partitions that are not normally visible from the OS, but the CPU can boot from them.
Placing u-boot there with some common interface like UEFI was always something I wanted to have.
@craftyguy @dcz @bart @PINE64 For the record, there's nothing that inherently prevents u-boot on L5 from accessing the SD card (which is a mass storage device connected over USB) to boot the kernel from it. All it needs is drivers and correct configuration, which simply hasn't been done yet. Angus has mentioned that it should be easier now on mainline u-boot, so there's a chance it may be there soon(ish).
