Clarity on MicroSD for Pine Phone

Lt. Dillinger · 29 Jul 2020, 21:51

So I have a somewhat clear understanding. I have the Pinephone and if I put a formatted MicroSD card in, is the phone going to try and boot off that card? If so, is there a way to prevent that as I want to use the card strictly for storage. The card is 128 gig if that matters.

rocket2nfinity · 29 Jul 2020, 22:00

@Lt-Dillinger As long as you don't add a boot file, it will boot from the emmc

Lt. Dillinger · 29 Jul 2020, 22:07

Thanks, what format do you recommend? I will be doing the Micro SD card formatting from a MacBook Pro.

rocket2nfinity · 29 Jul 2020, 22:18

@Lt-Dillinger ext2 or 4. I'd go with ext4. Keep in mind, some distros are having problems playing music files from sd

Lt. Dillinger · 29 Jul 2020, 22:22

@rocket2nfinity I'm not sure I understand. I was looking for fat32 or something like that. Can you clarify what ext2 or 4 is? Thanks

rocket2nfinity · 29 Jul 2020, 22:25

@Lt-Dillinger It will read fat32, but ext4 is the current Linux standard file format.

Lt. Dillinger · 29 Jul 2020, 23:43

@rocket2nfinity Thanks, I formatted it using my ThinkPad which is running Ubuntu. It's is in the phone now I just have to find the card. I looked under the file system and it's not showing up.

rocket2nfinity · 29 Jul 2020, 23:48

This post is deleted!

rocket2nfinity · 29 Jul 2020, 23:50

@Lt-Dillinger Remember, some OS file managers cannot yet read the SD card. I'm not sure if that includes UTouch, because I have other OS on mine

Lt. Dillinger · 29 Jul 2020, 23:53

@rocket2nfinity Thanks for the info. I'm sure if this is the case, in time these things will be worked out.

kugiigi · 30 Jul 2020, 03:51

Automatic mounting of sd cards is disabled in pinephone at the moment. You might need to do it manually although it might not work exactly the same as other UT devices.

AppLee · 30 Jul 2020, 07:42

@Lt-Dillinger @rocket2nfinity
Actually I think that FAT32 is recommended for UT.

With the PinePhone's current status there is no big difference, but I'll try to dig up the post where I saw this information.

Edit : Found something here

A Former User · 30 Jul 2020, 09:42

@Lt-Dillinger I know you are using the sd card to store your information, but if you want to boot from it, for beggining I would suggest a smaller capacity sd card. The reason would be erasing/formatting time (in case you need to write with "0"s the entire thing).

Lt. Dillinger · 30 Jul 2020, 15:14

@AppLee Thanks for the info. I give the fat32 format a try.