Previous posts:

• Gizmo2: 3D Printable Enclosure - First Iteration
• Gizmo2: Adding external PWR and RST buttons

Introduction

Using a Live USB Stick, I failed to install Ubuntu (or Xubuntu, tried both) to the microSD card of the GIZMO 2. The installation would finish successfully, but afterwards it was impossible to boot from it. So I bought a 32GB mSATA SSD for testing ...

Live USB Stick

Creating the Live USB stick was the easy part.

First, I downloaded the Ubuntu Desktop version *.iso from their website: Download Ubuntu Desktop | Download | Ubuntu

Then, I "burned" the *.iso file on a USB stick, as if it were a CD. These are the steps I performed:

1) list the available disks to ensure the correct one is used

Fredericks-Air:Downloads fvan1$ sudo diskUtil list

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         250.1 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *249.8 GB   disk1
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2
                                 5642627E-CEC4-458D-AB8D-376EF3FB568C
                                 Unencrypted
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *8.0 GB     disk2
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 UNTITLED                8.0 GB     disk2s1

2) unmount the disk to be used

Fredericks-Air:Downloads fvan1$ sudo diskUtil unmountDisk /dev/disk2

Unmount of all volumes on disk2 was successful

3) write the *.iso file to the disk

Fredericks-Air:Downloads fvan1$ sudo dd if=ubuntu-14.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso of=/dev/disk2 bs=1

1028653056+0 records in
1028653056+0 records out
1028653056 bytes transferred in 2770.850314 secs (371241 bytes/sec)

Everything went well, and I now had a bootable Ubuntu USB stick.

mSATA SSD

Physical Installation

As mentioned in the introduction, I bought a 32GB for testing. No mounting screws were provided with the SSD or the Gizmo2, so I improvised a little

The SSD needs to be inserted at an angle and then pulled down to be mounted in parallel to the Gizmo2.

SSD Detection

By default, the Gizmo2 should boot from the SSD. Using "F12" at startup, you can then select another boot option.

But for some reason, mine booted directly off the USB stick. I didn't realise it at that moment, so I proceeded with the Ubuntu installation wizard. Only briefly though, as it was stating there was not enough space to install. For some reason, the SSD was not detected. Why?

I started going through the user guide again, thinking I might have to do something to switch between miniPCIe or mSATA mode and found the following:

Should I conclude my SSD is non-compliant ?

Modification

In an attempt to get my SSD detected, I decided to go ahead and remove resistor "R1". The resistor is clearly indicated on the board with a white arrow pointing to it.

The resistor is tiny! I've never worked with something so tiny before, so it was a bit scary to do. I heated up the soldering iron, put a little bit of extra solder to get everything hot, and the resistor came loose very easily. Pfiew!

Took some pictures to give you an idea of just how small the resistor is (the USB microscope I got for Christmas finally came in handy!):

Software Installation

With the resistor removed, I booted the Gizmo2 keeping my fingers crossed while pressing "F12". And there it was ... the SSD was detected!

Using the installation wizard, Ubuntu was installed successfully on the SSD and I was able to boot from it (unlike the microSD card). Hooray!

Conclusion

A little bit trickier than expected, but I finally got my SSD detected and managed to install a different operating system on it.

I would suggest following improvements though:

• to have a little jumper to enable/disable resistor "R1" instead of having to solder/desolder it
• include some mounting screws for miniPCIe/mSATA devices

On to the next adventure with the Gizmo2!