Berryboot v1.1 - Boot menu / OS installer

I've written a Berryboot 'addon' - an interactive command-line python script which downloads the berryboot .zsmime file and then downloads and verifies the berryboot distro images (for people who'd rather download big files on their 'regular' computer than on their RPi)
http://www.andrewscheller.co.uk/downloa ... _images.py

Works pretty well, even if I say so myself! Tested as working on both Windows and Linux.

That all looks very clever Andrew, but what do we actually have to do to 'run' or to implement it?

A 'noob' question I know, but I am sure that everyone won't know the answer!

That all looks very clever Andrew, but what do we actually have to do to 'run' or to implement it?
A 'noob' question I know, but I am sure that everyone won't know the answer!

For Linux: simply download it, make it executable with "chmod +x download_berryboot_images.py", and run it with "./download_berryboot_images.py"
For Windows: simply download it and run it in a command window with "download_berryboot_images.py"
(it obviously requires you to have python installed too)

If you want to save the distro images to a different location (e.g. a USB stick) simply edit the images_location setting as necessary.

And then what? What happens after the program is executing? Does your hard drive get reformatted?

And then what? What happens after the program is executing? Does your hard drive get reformatted?

Sorry, I guess I should have written a better description of the program
All it does is download the multi-megabyte squashfs images that berryboot needs to a local directory, and then verifies their SHA1 sums to check they downloaded okay.

Here's a screenshot:

berrydownload.png (46.02 KiB) Viewed 1370 times

Here I've chosen not to download debian, I've downloaded openelec, and I'm part-way through downloading puppy. After you've downloaded the images you want, you can use them with berryboot as described here: viewtopic.php?p=135459#p135459

If you run the program a second time, it'll re-verify the SHA1 hashes of each image you've already downloaded (and ask again if you want to download the images that you haven't yet). This is useful in case one of the berryboot images on the download server gets updated, without its filename changing.

Changelog version 20120731:

• windows now fit on the screen of a standard (analog video) TV
• support for Cherry and various other non-standard complaint keyboards fixed.
• support for booting from partitionless FAT SD cards added.

(no need to upgrade if Berryboot already installed fine on your system, so new version is only available on the site, and not offered as update through the system)

===

I've written a Berryboot 'addon' - an interactive command-line python script which downloads the berryboot .zsmime file and then downloads and verifies the berryboot distro images

Nice.

great bit of software but no good for me - I use mobile broadband and it refuses to even look on a memory stick if it can't connect via ethernet.

great bit of software but no good for me - I use mobile broadband and it refuses to even look on a memory stick if it can't connect via ethernet.

Do you get an error message when you try to do that, or have problems finding the option?
It's a bit hidden.

• boot Pi
• enter timezone and keyboard settings manually (it cannot detect your location without Internet)
• select the location where you want to store your files (the SD card itself or an external drive)
• in the "add OS" screen, click away the download error message and press "cancel" to get to the main menu.
• insert your USB stick with the downloaded image.
  
  
• In the main screen hold down mouse button over "add OS" until the drop down arrives and select "copy files from USB stick"

(if you accidently did not hold your mouse button down, but did a quick press you will indeed end up with the first option "download from internet" option)

I get an error message about being unable to find internet (because its not connected) and then the option shown in the instructions to download os from usb stick is missing and the other icons along the top are greyed out - maybe I need to long press?

I get an error message about being unable to find internet (because its not connected) and then the option shown in the instructions to download os from usb stick is missing and the other icons along the top are greyed out.

Press left mouse button over "add OS" and hold it down longer for the option to appear.

ok - will get back to you later - thanks for the support...

Hi

Just a little one, is it possible to add .elf boot, so that a single fully linked elf file can be the total system? And use the berryboot file access via a linked header file? Just wondering, as this could make bare bones code easier to develop. Some would say why not have a full kernel, but sometimes an empty one would be better, and the frame buffer has already been setup at this point, no?

Ok, so USB support and other things would not be available, unless kernel modules had been loaded. In this way berryboot could also become a very tiny BIOS for fully custom designs. I'm surprised no one has done a .apk loader too, as a full droid or not hard choice is just so .... poo.

Just a little one, is it possible to add .elf boot, so that a single fully linked elf file can be the total system? And use the berryboot file access via a linked header file? Just wondering, as this could make bare bones code easier to develop. Some would say why not have a full kernel, but sometimes an empty one would be better, and the frame buffer has already been setup at this point, no?

Be aware that the Berryboot menu runs under Linux, and is not a low level boot loader like grub.
It cannot easily boot non-Linux distributions, or bare metal stuff.

However you should be able to have a single executable Linux distribution though.
Try something like this:

• mkdir dev sys proc sbin
• cp my-elf-executable sbin/init
• mksquashfs . my-operating-system.img

Add my-operating-system.img to Berryboot.
Berryboot will automatically mount /dev (devtmpfs) /proc and /sys for you, and start your /sbin/init.

Ok, so USB support and other things would not be available, unless kernel modules had been loaded.

Standard USB HID and mass storage support is built into the kernel.
Additional modules are available under /lib/modules (a folder shared with all operating systems through aufs), but are not loaded automatically.

Thank you.
I wanted something like this as I a creating a closed box Pi and won't be able to swap the chip easily.
One question as I am about to start, can you specify X amt of memory that all installs share?
So on a 16gb chip with 4 2gb OS's the other 8gb could be shared for storage. An example would be that you create a song in your Audio OS and play it on your Media Player OS both systems write to the same location.

am not yet online with my rpi and so am using berryboot to install oses via usb stick but it doesnt like img fiels - where can I download the squashfs equivilants?

catch 22 - need linux computer to make a squash fs file - not enough sd cards to do this

am not yet online with my rpi and so am using berryboot to install oses via usb stick but it doesnt like img fiels - where can I download the squashfs equivilants?

The list the installer uses: http://dl.berryboot.com/distro.smime (search for url=<something>)
Or use AndrewS's Python utility to download them: http://www.andrewscheller.co.uk/downloa ... _images.py

thanks...

Hmmm - kernel panic

Hmmm - kernel panic

I suspect you'll need to give more details as to what you were doing / trying to do when the kernel panic appeared...

Hmmm - kernel panic

At what stage?
While copying files from USB stick?
During boot?
After selecting a specific operating system in the boot menu?

I had a kernel panic, too. I was so foolish to choose BTRFS and the kernelpanic mentioned a file which was somehow BTRFS-related.

The panic occured while downloading an image (in my case it was the raspbian image). I'm using a Sandisk 16gb microsd

Is it possible to overclock the cpu for certain systems and for some not? And how to change the overscan setting after the first boot?

During boot after selecting raspbian in the boot menu

Is it possible to overclock the cpu for certain systems and for some not?

Not in the current version.

And how to change the overscan setting after the first boot?

Code: Select all

sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot
edit /boot/config.txt with your favorite editor (e.g. sudo vi /boot/config.txt )
sudo umount /boot
sync


During boot after selecting raspbian in the boot menu

Strange.
Any more information about the kernel panic, or a photo?
Any extra usb devices connected other than a keyboard?
Did you choose a file system format other than the default (ext4 nodiscard) during installation?


Also try:

• During boot press enter within 3 seconds to get to the boot menu
• Press "tab" a few times until you get to "Cancel" and press "enter". This will launch a recovery shell.
• Type: sha1sum /mnt/images/*

After a while it should give:

Code: Select all

aa8ade3406be09c7c13104b243a19ed6aac8a497  /mnt/images/Debian_Wheezy_Raspbian.img192


If you get any other code, your downloaded file is corrupt.
When downloading through the installer the integrity is automatically checked, but when you copy files manually from usb no such check can be performed, and there are a number of ways your file can get corrupted. E.g. if you copied the file to usb stick in Windows and just unplugged the stick without selecting "safely remove usb stick" in Windows, it could be that Windows wasn't done writing to it.