[mythtv-users] Installation report: ECS Liva doesn't boot after Debian Installation. What am I missing?

[A. F. Cano]

HI,

I recently got one of those ECS Liva boxes on sale at newegg. I put the
first CD of Debian 8 on a USB flash drive.  It was recognized and
I quickly got the install screen.  So, I did a standard installation
similar to many I had done on other machines.

I hope the following notes might be helpful to others trying to use this
machine with Linux.

Given that there are only 2 usb ports, I set it up like this:

The USB 3 port has a 4TB external drive connected to it.
The USB 2 port has a 4-port powered hub connected to it.  On this hub
are a USB keyboard, a USB mouse, the Debian 8 installation flash drive
and an open port that I used (unsuccessfully) later.
A monitor was connected to the VGA port.
The ethernet port was connected to the local network.

I'm installing a full distribution to see how it would work not only as
a myth frontend/backend but also as a home server.

The first problem I encountered was that the wifi needed non-free
firmware.  I was instructed to put the file rtl8168g-2.fw into
removable media and continue.  After downloading the realtek firmware
package (firmware-realtek_0.43_all.deb), extracting the fw file and
putting it into a flash drive, the installer didn't recognize it
after it said to insert the removable media.  I tried multiple times
without success so I skipped that for later.

In the partitioning phase the installer claimed that "there may be
existing operating systems already installed using "BIOS compatibility
mode", so I chose not to force UEFI installation here, in case I might
need access to that later.  This might have been a mistake and the cause
the system doesn't boot now.

I had no idea what the internal architecture of this thing was
until a later stage.  This is what the installer reported:

MMC/SD card #1 (mmcblk0) - 31.3 GB MMC 032GE4
/dev/mmclblk0boot0 - 4.2 MB Generic SD/MMC Storage Card
/dev/mmclblk0boot1 - 4.2 MB Generic SD/MMC Storage Card
SCSI 1 (0,0,0) (Sda) - 4.0 TB Seagate Expansion Desk
SCSI 2 (0,0,0) (Sdb) - 1.0 GB SandDisk U3 Cruzer Micro (the install media)

I selected manual partitioning as even guided partitioning with separate
/home, /tmp, and /var insisted on putting everything on the SSD.

The SSD is for the / partition (31.3 GB)

The 4 TB drive is partitioned as follows:

/tmp	10 G 
/var	100 G
swap	4.2G
/home	750G
/video	3100G

This way, the static OS files are in fast flash memory and everything
else is on the HD.

When selecting an internet mirror to download the rest of the packages,
I had to select a proxy for apt (a local machine running a privoxy port)
as the network configuration apparently tried to be too smart and
claimed it was all configured when in fact I have a static ip local
network.

The installation finished without errors and asked me to reboot the
system, and then it got stuck in the bios screen.  I had selected to
install the boot loader in the MBR of the root partition.

So I rebooted into rescue mode.  There is now a /dev/mmcblk0p1 partition
listed.  Obviously the root partition.

Reinstalling the grub boot loader on that, as well as

/dev/mmcblk0		the MBR, which is where I did put it originally,
			as well as
/dev/mmclblk0boot0
/dev/mmclblk0boot1

all failed.  Even after disabling secure boot in the bios, same thing.

So this is where I need help.  What do I need to set/unset in the bios?
What is the purpose of /dev/mmclblk0boot0 and /dev/mmclblk0boot1 ?
Obviously I don't understand this new-fangled UEFI booting process.  I
haven't changed any of the secure boot options in the bios.  I hope I
can just fix this boot issue without having to do a complete
re-installation.

Thanks for any help.

Augustine