MNT Reform

See reform(1).

See sl’s MNT reform page.

Latest release: check for *.reform.img.gz.torrent. This one boots from an SD card.

Making 9front boot from EMMC, without an SD card

NO REFUNDS

First, make sure to run the latest (dated 2023-01-15, at least) kernel.

The guide assumes you have NVME connected, in which case internal EMMC should be showing as /dev/sdO0, /dev/sdO1 and /dev/sdO2. The first one is “user” range, where by default the Linux recovery partition is situated. The other two are “boot” partitions, where U-Boot resides (/dev/sdO1 specifically).

If NVME is not present, sdO* becomes sdN*.

• install ext4srv
• mount EMMC linux partition: ext4srv && mount -c /srv/ext4 /n/emmc /dev/sdO0/linux
• copy plan9.ini, 9reform.u and 9front’s /sys/src/boot/reform/boot.scr to /n/emmc/
• unmount /n/emmc
• download U-Boot build with early screen enabled: hget https://ftrv.se/_/mntre-flash-20230115.bin > /tmp/flash.bin, md5sum /tmp/flash.bin, you should get 63025b864faf596dc74e3a1677ad3f59
• update U-Boot: dd -if /tmp/flash.bin -of /dev/sdO1/data -bs 1024 -oseek 33 -trunc 0 -conv sync
• the switch under the heatsink should be positioned to booting from EMMC, this is not the default when the laptop is purchased

Early boot may be interrupted with a key press. The current boot process is to try USB drives first, then an SD card, and finally boot from EMMC.

If something went terribly wrong and you think the device is bricked, fear not! Change the heatsink boot switch into SD card boot mode and go from there.