Cannot boot into Ubuntu Touch after install on X23

[wac]

Did you try your SD cards only in the phone?
Might be a good idea to use a PC, preferably a Linux PC, to reformat the SD card.

Some good news, formatting via my popOS allows UT to be installed on the 1TB SD card.

The issue is that the system jams on the Grey Screen Of Death. GSOD only dissapears when the SD card isn't in.

Basically we need to know how to delete the UUID storage of any or all SD cards as it isnt wiped when factory reset occurs.

[wac]

Did you try your SD cards only in the phone?
Might be a good idea to use a PC, preferably a Linux PC, to reformat the SD card.

I have done that but the problem remains with a new sd card. The issue is that somewhere the x23 is persisting sd card install data between factory resets. Where can it be removed and reset completely?

[franco_bez]

For me it is hard to imagine any SD related data on the phone would survive a factory reset.
To me it seems to be far more plausible that the offending fragments reside on the SD card itself.
On a linux machine I would try to remove all partitions from the SD and then write a new boot sector with a GPT partitiontable.

This is how it worked for me on my X23.

I had two different SD Cards, one of them did not work for this purpose. Data was not written correctly and the card got currupted during the installation attempt.

The other SD Card from an other manufacturer worked fine, dual boot is working now.

[gk2339]

I've had a chance do some more testing but, like most of you, I get only as far as the Grey Screen of Death. I've tried two cards, with the GPT boot partition created on linux, and the remaining partitions created on the X23.
Last night I submitted a _very_ detailed bug report to Volla. Haven't heard anything yet; I guess they took one look at it and allocated it to the guy who was not there (and therefore unable to refuse). The bug report also cross-references this thread.
I'll report back if we get anywhere with this.

It's a pity this is such a problem. The ability to run linux was the only reason I bought the phone.

[wac]

It's a pity this is such a problem. The ability to run linux was the only reason I bought the phone.

Yes, #metoo

I've had a chance do some more testing but, like most of you, I get only as far as the Grey Screen of Death. I've tried two cards, with the GPT boot partition created on linux, and the remaining partitions created on the X23.
Last night I submitted a _very_ detailed bug report to Volla. Haven't heard anything yet; I guess they took one look at it and allocated it to the guy who was not there (and therefore unable to refuse). The bug report also cross-references this thread.
I'll report back if we get anywhere with this.

Thanks

[GDen]

Hello.
Perhaps it will be useful to someone.
I have two cards - 64GB and 512GB.
On 64GB Ubuntu Touch installs and works without problems.
On 512GB - Gray Screen of Death.

Then I simply made a copy of 64GB using the dd into *.img (with a pre-installed Ubuntu touch of course).
And then I transferred this img file to 512GB.

As an example:
dd if=/dev/sdc of=sdimage.img bs=4M
dd if=sdimage.img of=/dev/sdc bs=4M

After this, the 512GB card worked without problems.

[gk2339]

@GDen: that's interesting, but I have tried a 16GB card without success, so I suspect that there is more to this problem than card capacity. Maybe.

[n8igall]

I have a Samsung 128GB card. Works.

Only in Volla there is now a notification that an unsupported SD ist there and the system tries to persuade me to use it. But since I know that there is UT on it, I suspect this will delete/format the card and I don't do it.

[AI32768]

Some notes from an intensive testing burn in period before abandoning my 10 year old Jolla for the lovely X23. Just scrambled to get Ubuntu working with Multiboot and so add the below if it helps.

Time to OS splash screen from selection of OS at boot on X23 -
Volla OS ~10 Seconds
Ubuntu OS ~30 Seconds

For me, patience was key after things started to go wrong. I somehow messed up first install on a 64MB card and ended up in a boot loop/grey screen. I suspect bad partition creation/choice - i.e. user error.

Pressing Power and Volume up buttons (Is that right? Trial and error on my part!) at power on to get to boot options, would just add more steps to loop of Volla/Ubuntu OS trying to start, then reboot.

Removing SD card and booting got me back into Volla OS. SD card was then impossible to access from phone as it would resume loop on boot.

Windows 10 useless as expected, Windows 7 Disk Management allowed clean deletion of all four volumes I'd created (the three required and one I'd left as spare space). I did not do anything but wipe SD card, left repartition to X23 Multiboot. Older Windows versions, Linux or low level disk tools are key.

Placed blanked SD back into Volla and started again.

1. When creating partitions on X23 Multiboot, SD page, I rebooted X23 after creation of each new volume (v overkill but years of writing guides for techs...) Could have commited changes from command line as it reports presumably but haven't read up/worked that out in Volla OS yet! Wondering if some failures come from creating the partitions on phone then going straight to install..
2. After last partitioning reboot, chose ROM page, then Ubuntu and accepted all default volumes and names.
3. Rebooted, chose Ubuntu and then rebooted before OS had time to start.
4. Tried again, gave phone time, Ubuntu started..

At 3. I was expecting failure, so didn't wait long enough before trying to 'fix'..

Am going to do more testing with larger SDs and differing partitions again, will add if anything learned. Already wishing for dual SD rather than dual SIM. Great progress from Volla though and good luck to those still trying to get MB working!