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====== Server Rootfs To Sata Drive ======

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//__About this Article__//
  * **Author**: benn --- benn@cubietech.com --- 2013/10/20 22:47
  * **Copyrights**: [[http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/|CC Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported]]
  * **Contributors**: [[http://cubieboard.org/|Cubieboard Community]] : ...
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===== Abstract =====
Allwinner's A20 SoC doesn't support booting from sata drive directly. But we can still install linux distro to sata drive on cubietruck, by putting bootloader/kernel onto nandflash, and rootfs to sata drive, making a really mini computer. This manual will tell you how to install lubuntu desktop/server on cubietruck.

===== How We Implement It ?=====
  * Add a bootsata boot parameter, and parse it at ramdisk
  * Write bootloader / kernel to nandflash
  * When there is no sata, system will use the rootfs on nand

===== What We Can Benefit From It? =====

====Much more storage space====

Easily up to 2TB storage

====Better performance with SSD drive====

Much more IO read/write throughput and IOPS, resulting in system more smoothly

===== Supported Firmwares =====

====Lubuntu Desktop====

Because we need to modify ramdisk and boot parameter, so not all the firmwares support sata drive installation.

  * [[http://dl.cubieboard.org/software/a20-cubietruck/lubuntu/obsolete/ct_lubuntu_desktop_12.10_20131018/ct_lubuntu_desktop-hdmi.img.gz|ct_lubuntu_desktop-hdmi.img.gz(20131018-build) - default HDMI output]]
  * [[http://dl.cubieboard.org/software/a20-cubietruck/lubuntu/obsolete/ct_lubuntu_desktop_12.10_20131018/ct_lubuntu_desktop-vga.img.gz|ct_lubuntu_desktop-vga.img.gz(20131018-build) - default VGA output]]

====Lubuntu Server====

  * [[http://dl.cubieboard.org/software/a20-cubietruck/lubuntu/obsolete/ct_lubuntu_server_13.06_20131018/ct-lubuntu-server-hdmi.img.gz|ct-lubuntu-server-hdmi.img.gz(20131018-build) - default HDMI output]]
  * [[http://dl.cubieboard.org/software/a20-cubietruck/lubuntu/obsolete/ct_lubuntu_server_13.06_20131018/ct-lubuntu-server-vga.img.gz|ct-lubuntu-server-vga.img.gz(20131018-build) - default VGA output]]
===== Installation Guide =====

We take this [[http://dl.cubieboard.org/software/a20-cubietruck/lubuntu/obsolete/ct_lubuntu_desktop_12.10_20131018/ct_lubuntu_desktop-hdmi.img.gz|ct_lubuntu_desktop-hdmi.img.gz(20131018-build) - default HDMI output]] image as example. The following steps demonstrates on installing lubuntu desktop to sata drive. 

==== Download Firmware ====

    $wget http://dl.cubieboard.org/software/a20-cubietruck/lubuntu/ct_lubuntu_desktop_20131018/ct_lubuntu_desktop-hdmi.img.gz
    $gzip -d ct_lubuntu_desktop-hdmi.img.gz

==== Flash the Image to Nandflash ====

Refer to this [[http://docs.cubieboard.org/tutorials/ct1/installation/cb3_lubuntu-12.10-desktop_nand_installation_20130910-build|Installation Guide]] to flash the image to nand with livesuit.

==== Write rootfs to SATA drive ====

After flashing the image to nandflash, your board can run lubuntu desktop already, next we just copy the rootfs to sata drive's 1st partition

  - Start up lubuntu desktop system on nand
  - Plug in sata drive
  - Create a new partition for your sata drive
  - Copy rootfs to the 1st partition

  #dd if=/dev/nandd of=/dev/sda1 bs=1M
  #sync
  #reboot



===== See Also =====


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