Installing Mobian (x86-based devices)
This guide covers installing Mobian on x86-64 devices, including PCs, Microsoft Surface Pro/Go lines and other x86-based tablets.
Obtain the Image
Pre-built images for your device will be packed in a file named mobian-<device>-phosh-YYYYMMDD.img.gz and can be downloaded from here:
Preparing the device
Before installing Mobian to your device, you should enter the BIOS/UEFI settings and ensure the following conditions are met:
- Secure Boot is disabled
- USB boot is enabled
On the Surface Pro 3, this can be accomplished by pressing and maintaining the //Volume Up// button on boot. The following configuration options should be changed:
Secure Boot Control: Disabled
Configure Alternate System Boot Order: USB -> SSD
Flashing the Image to a USB Drive
Once you have downloaded the image, you can copy it to a USB drive using one of the following methods.
This will create a bootable live system you can use on any UEFI-enabled machine. Depending on the UEFI settings you might need to manually select the USB drive on boot.
The Surface Pro 3 will automatically boot from USB if you set it up according the the instructions above.
Method 1a: bmaptool using an URL
bmaptool is a comfortable means to flash your image. It handles sparse files, so it can be considerably faster than plain dd. It also handles both .bmap and .gz files and can download them directly from an URL. Execute
sudo bmaptool copy https://images.mobian-project.org/amd64/CHANGEME $BLOCKDEVICE
with $BLOCKDEVICE the blockdevice to flash, e.g. /dev/mmcblkX, /dev/sdX [in the case of jumpdrive], or /dev/disk/by-id/XXXXXX).
Example:
sudo bmaptool copy https://images.mobian.org/amd64/weekly/mobian-amd64-phosh-20230625.img.gz /dev/disk/by-id/mmc-SU16G_0x1d6654fd
Method 1b: bmaptool with a local image file
You can also use bmaptool to flash a local image. As it handles sparse files, it can flash considerably faster than plain dd
- sudo bmaptool copy $IMAGE $BLOCKDEVICE
with $IMAGE, the path to the compressed or uncompressed image file and $BLOCKDEVICE the blockdevice (/dev/mmcblkX or /dev/sdX - if you are using jumpdrive - or /dev/disk/by-id/).
Example:
- sudo bmaptool copy mobian-amd64-phosh-20230625.img.gz /dev/disk/by-id/mmc-SU16G_0x1d6654fd
Method 3: dd
To use dd, you need to unzip the image using one of the following commands:
- gunzip mobian-amd64-phosh-YYYYMMDD.img.gz gzip -d mobian-amd64-phosh-YYYYMMDD.img.gz
Then flash with the following command:
- sudo dd bs=64k if=mobian-amd64-phosh-YYYYMMDD.img of=/dev/mmcblkX status=progress
(the status= option will display some progress while flashing, dd is awfully silent otherwise)ยง
Install Mobian to the Internal Storage
Currently, there is no installer available for x86 devices, and their internal storage isn't easily exposed through USB. You can either use the live USB as-is, or manually install Mobian to your internal storage from the running live system: in order to do so, simply download the image (or copy it to the USB drive) and identify your internal storage device (on the Surface Pro 3 it should start with /dev/disk/by-id/ata-). Then repeat the flashing procedure, only this time targeting the internal storage device.