Dual boot on CM5 with eMMC

uConsole
1

Hi, can I switch between SD card and eMMC on CM5?

2

No, if you have a EMMC CM5 then you can’t use the SD slot.

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3

For CM4/CM5 modules with eMMC, you’re not going to be able to use the SD card. The boards are hardwired to use one or the other and not both and it’s not switchable.

For trying out different distros, you can setup USB boot (there are a couple ways to set it up). But I don’t think the RPI5’s boot menus work with the uConsole and DevTerm internal LCDs, so you’d have to attach an external monitor to the microHDMI port. And probably USB keyboard.

The CM5 lite might have been the better choice if your intent was to experiment with distros have have a large MicroSD attached.

I like my eMMC modules because it’s convenient, they read pretty fast, I’m never going to accidentally eject them while I’m using it, and they are supposed to be more reliable than consumer grade microSD cards.

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There are something like three types of distros for the uConsole:

  • the official image (which isn’t even worth trying)
  • Arch Linux
  • Debian Linux

The other images are spins of Debian, unless I missed something interesting. Either Arch or Debian probably have the same packages available; I use debtap to use Debian packages on Arch and I bet some enterprising scrap has made the same to go the opposite direction. Dual booting here just seems a bit dull; choose between Linux, Linux, or (ooooh!) Linux.

How hard is it to replace the onboard eMMC if it dies? I’ve experienced NAND wear on plenty of devices in the last 10 years.

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5

no USB boot on the uconsole, the mainboard doesn’t power the USB ports until the kernel has loades

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