Unable to install on Beelink AP34 (x64 UEFI w/ eMMC)

Troubleshooting
1

I’m trying to get DietPi to run on a newly bought Beelink AP34. The devices uses an Intel Apollo-Lake CPU and comes with Windows 10 installed on the eMMC storage.

I’ve already tried the two methods described for UEFI devices over at GitHub:
https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/issues/1171#issuecomment-336522021

Unfortunately, I just can’t get the system to boot neither the Debian netinstall nor the UEFI beta x86_64 image linked to under Downloads. The system just crashed to black screen with a non-blinking cursor.

The only Linux distro I’ve been able to boot on this machine is the Ubuntu version by Linuxium, which he specifically made for Apollo Lake devices like mine:
http://linuxiumcomau.blogspot.com/2018/03/ubuntu-16044-for-intel-atom-and-apollo.html

So this at least show that Linux should be able to run on the Beelink AP34… Any advice what might prevent DietPi from running?

2

I’d like to bring this issue back up.

The latest Debian Buster RC1-release is finally able to boot on my Apollo-Lake-based system. Looks like they updated GRUB to work with UEFI.

Could this change be incorporated into DietPi as well?

3

TOMillr
Yeah, the UEFI image is an ongoing issue. Nasty that one cannot simply create a ready to boot image, but it needs to be installed by wrapping CloneZilla (or comparable) around. And then the needs for different devices (especially non-default x86 like yours) are large.

However great news that Debian Buster can be installed on it. For now you can run the DietPi-PREP script to turn it into DietPi: https://github.com/MichaIng/DietPi/issues/1285#issue-280771944

  • But create a full drive backup first :wink:.