Last edited by lonewolf31 on 2020-11-9 14:01 Editor

Correctly Formatting micro-sd cards to boot Linux OS's

If using Linux on your PC
run 'sudo lsblk' or
sudo lsblk -o NAME,FSTYPE,SIZE,MOUNTPOINT,LABEL
for more detailed info on your drives, partitions.


Find your micro-sd card drive name.
It should be /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc, /dev/sdd or /dev/sde usually since your internal hard-drive is /dev/sda


Then run
'sudo wipefs /dev/sdb' (replacing /dev/sdb with your micro-sd card drive name)It will show your partition table.
Then run 'sudo wipefs /dev/sdb -a'
to wipe the partition tables so the micro-sd has no booting info.


Use an app like Etcher to write your Linux image to the micro-sd card.
Etcher will automatically use all the free space or reformat your micro-sd card and rewite all the partitions for the Linux image you are writing.
Etcher can't remove the partition tables on your drive, so that is why you need to run the above commands to do it manually.
https://www.balena.io/etcher/


For Windows you can try this
https://www.easeus.com/partition-master/remove-gpt-disk-partition.html


If the Linux OS is still not booting, you can remove the emmc storage.
Open the top of the Station P1 with the Allen wrench and remove the 2 screws holding the emmc chip.Insert the micro-cd card with your Linux OS and connect the power adaptor.Linux should now boot correctly.
Some Linux OS's can't boot if the micro-sd card contains a gpt partition table and normal formatting doesn't remove that.


The following Linux OS's were tested and booting correctly from micro-sd when the micro-sd card were formatted and the gpt partition removed as per above instructions and the emmc chip removed.


Manjaro
LibreELEC
Armbian