Berryboot v1.1 - Boot menu / OS installer

[Max]

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.

If you start the OpenELEC media player, go to the file manager, select your SD card there so that it mounts it, and go to /data/name_of_other_operating_system/home/pi you can simply access your home directory at the other operating system.

(Linux allows a drive to have more than one mount point, so that the SD card is already mounted by Berryboot is not a problem)

[AndrewS]

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.

I suppose I could modify my image-downloader script to also write out e.g. Debian_Wheezy_Raspbian.sha1 (or Debian_Wheezy_Raspbian.img192.sha1 ?) and then Berryboot could be modified to look for this file and (if found) use it to verify the image?

[Max]

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.

I suppose I could modify my image-downloader script to also write out e.g. Debian_Wheezy_Raspbian.sha1 (or Debian_Wheezy_Raspbian.img192.sha1 ?) and then Berryboot could be modified to look for this file and (if found) use it to verify the image?

Could indeed add a check for a .sha1 file in the next version.

Although I'm not sure if that's waterproof either.
Haven't checked how Windows write caching works, if a user downloads the files to hard disk first, then copies them to usb stick, and removes the usb stick too soon.
Will the stick only have the first part of the .img and no .sha1? (if it copies them in alphabetical order)
Or will the stick have the first part of the .img and an empty .sha1? (if it forces file system meta data updates to disk before the data itself)

[ejsolutions]

..and removes the usb stick too soon.

There's just no helping some Windoze lusers

[Joe Schmoe]

..and removes the usb stick too soon.

There's just no helping some Windoze lusers

I surely hope that there is some way to use advanced cryptographic and holographic technology to deal with and apply data correction technology to the all-too-common problem of the dog peeing on the USB stick.

[Max]

I surely hope that there is some way to use advanced cryptographic and holographic technology to deal with and apply data correction technology to the all-too-common problem of the dog peeing on the USB stick.

Puppy Linux?

[Joe Schmoe]

heh heh!

[Mr.Dave]

Would it be possible to add XBian to the OS selection?
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 35&t=12893

Would be great to have XBian and normal Desktop distro running as dual boot

Thanks

[Max]

Would it be possible to add XBian to the OS selection?
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 35&t=12893

Would be great to have XBian and normal Desktop distro running as dual boot

Does it provides any clear advantages over OpenELEC which provides XBMC as well?

I am assuming the claimed higher performance is due to the overclocking used?
Berryboot doesn't currently support that as I am not convinced that is not going to cause stability issues. (elsewhere on the forum someone reported Openarena didn't work properly when overclocked)

[Mr.Dave]

Would it be possible to add XBian to the OS selection?
http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 35&t=12893

Would be great to have XBian and normal Desktop distro running as dual boot

Does it provides any clear advantages over OpenELEC which provides XBMC as well?

I am assuming the claimed higher performance is due to the overclocking used?
Berryboot doesn't currently support that as I am not convinced that is not going to cause stability issues. (elsewhere on the forum someone reported Openarena didn't work properly when overclocked)

It does seem noticeably smoother than the alternative xbmc builds, I have had no stability issues running the latest 0.3 XBian, the initial release was overclocked too high for most people and I had to manually drop the speeds, but 0.3 booted without issue and has been stable so far.

I can't vouch for Openarena, have not tried that yet, but XBian has recently included Airplay which caught peoples attention, and I believe CEC HDMI is also included in 0.3

Along with daily build updates, I have chosen it as my xbmc daily driver

Might be worth discussing with the dev if there could be a separate stock clock branch for your server to ensure maximum stability, anyone who wants to OC can do so after the install ?

[Max]

It does seem noticeably smoother than the alternative xbmc builds

If you remove the overclock settings, and compare it with OpenELEC, is it still smoother?

I can't vouch for Openarena, have not tried that yet, but XBian has recently included Airplay which caught peoples attention, and I believe CEC HDMI is also included in 0.3

The other distributions have those as well.


My current preference towards OpenELEC is based on:

• uses SquashFS file format already (you can take the SYSTEM file of an OpenELEC build and use it unmodified in Berryboot)
• known to leave the rest of the SD card alone. (autoupdate can be easily disabled without having to dig through source code)
• does not claim superiority over others.

I'm not opposed to adding additional flavors, but they do need to add something extra above vanilla XBMC.
If the next version of XBian comes with custom developed extra software, a custom designed skin or something else that sets it apart, I'm happy to add it.

[Mr.Dave]

It does seem noticeably smoother than the alternative xbmc builds

If you remove the overclock settings, and compare it with OpenELEC, is it still smoother?

I can't vouch for Openarena, have not tried that yet, but XBian has recently included Airplay which caught peoples attention, and I believe CEC HDMI is also included in 0.3

The other distributions have those as well.


My current preference towards OpenELEC is based on:

• uses SquashFS file format already (you can take the SYSTEM file of an OpenELEC build and use it unmodified in Berryboot)
• known to leave the rest of the SD card alone. (autoupdate can be easily disabled without having to dig through source code)
• does not claim superiority over others.

I'm not opposed to adding additional flavors, but they do need to add something extra above vanilla XBMC.
If the next version of XBian comes with custom developed extra software, a custom designed skin or something else that sets it apart, I'm happy to add it.

I haven't tried it without an overclock yet, but that sounds fair and less unnecessary work until there is something that makes it stand out from the crowd other than it being possibly down to the OC

Thanks for the reply

[DaRk_ViVi]

I have Raspbian Wheezy on my SD with some settings/software installed.
Is it possible to export it into an image (like using Win32DiskImages "Read" option) and the install this image from Berryboot using the Install From USB option?

[Mr.Dave]

It does seem noticeably smoother than the alternative xbmc builds

If you remove the overclock settings, and compare it with OpenELEC, is it still smoother?

I can't vouch for Openarena, have not tried that yet, but XBian has recently included Airplay which caught peoples attention, and I believe CEC HDMI is also included in 0.3

The other distributions have those as well.


My current preference towards OpenELEC is based on:

• uses SquashFS file format already (you can take the SYSTEM file of an OpenELEC build and use it unmodified in Berryboot)
• known to leave the rest of the SD card alone. (autoupdate can be easily disabled without having to dig through source code)
• does not claim superiority over others.

I'm not opposed to adding additional flavors, but they do need to add something extra above vanilla XBMC.
If the next version of XBian comes with custom developed extra software, a custom designed skin or something else that sets it apart, I'm happy to add it.

Well I have just installed OpenELEC via berryboot and the difference is very noticable (Note I can't seem to SSH into openELEC to OC it)

XBian 0.3 = nice smooth experience with 50% average CPU usage idle
openELEC = laggy and annoying with idle CPU usage maxed out constantly

The above is my personal experience and might not be the same for everyone, but the difference is really night and day between them for me.

(How can I SSH into openELEC? PuTTY just keeps saying connection refused, thanks)

[Max]

I have Raspbian Wheezy on my SD with some settings/software installed.
Is it possible to export it into an image (like using Win32DiskImages "Read" option) and the install this image from Berryboot using the Install From USB option?

There is currently not an "export" button.

But mksquashfs does support appending extra files to an existing squashfs file.
Something like this might work if done from another operating system than the one you want to image (not tested):

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# mount the raw disk as /mnt
sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mnt

# go to the folder where the image files are kept
cd /mnt/images

# lets copy the existing Squashfs file to a new file
sudo cp name_of_existing_image.img  new_image.img

# the changes the user made to the file system are in /data, lets append them to new_image.img
# exclude persistent rules in /etc/udev that are specific to a single Pi
sudo mksquashfs /mnt/data/name_of_existing_image.img new_image.img -e /etc/udev/rules.d

[pygmy_giant]

can you not just use the 'read' option of Win32 Disk Imager?

[Max]

can you not just use the 'read' option of Win32 Disk Imager?

Yes, but that will result in an image file the size of your SD card.
Which might not be preferable if it's say a larger 16 GB one.

[El_Presidente]

Mightily impressed with this - fantastic work!
I'm currently booting to the Raspbian Wheezy image as downloaded via Berryboot and I'd like to use Hexxeh's rpi-update.
Tried changing the ROOT_PATH and BOOT_PATH options when running rpi-update but it seems to get tied in knots.

Is this possible? If so, anyone got instructions or advice?

[Max]

I'm currently booting to the Raspbian Wheezy image as downloaded via Berryboot and I'd like to use Hexxeh's rpi-update.

Not possible.
Berryboot uses a modified kernel with AUFS patches ( http://aufs.sourceforge.net/ ), and an initramfs with the Berryboot startup script.
The standard rPi kernel will not work.


That is also the reason the kernel is named kernel_berryboot.img instead of kernel.img, and /boot is not mounted.
To prevent anyone from overwriting it with the standard kernel by accident.

[ejsolutions]

I'm having trouble enabling bluetooth in the Foundation Raspbian, that's been booted from Berryboot. Could it be that your cutdown kernel doesn't have a bluetooth module compiled in fully, or there's a /lib/module missing?
It's a fairly common chipset:

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# lsusb
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd Bluetooth Dongle (HCI mode)

# modprobe btusb
FATAL: Module btusb not found.

Regards,
EJ

[Max]

I'm having trouble enabling bluetooth in the Foundation Raspbian, that's been booted from Berryboot. Could it be that your cutdown kernel doesn't have a bluetooth module compiled in fully, or there's a /lib/module missing?

Could add the modules if there is demand.

But where do you plan to use Bluetooth for?
Be aware that native bluetooth keyboard and mouses (that do not emulate a normal USB hid keyboard/mouse) are unlikely to work in the Berryboot menu itself as we do not have anything in place to handle pairing.

[ejsolutions]

..But where do you plan to use Bluetooth for?

In my particular case it's actually for a wiimote (I use 'the other type' of wireless keypad/trackball) and the handling of the wiimote is done within the distro, as long as the device is detected (in theory).

[ejsolutions]

To upgrade a pre-existing SD card to the latest release of Berryboot, can you confirm which files should be overwritten? I was going to experiment but I don't fancy screwing up my quadruple boot card, if I can help it. TIA

Regards,
EJ

[Max]

To upgrade a pre-existing SD card to the latest release of Berryboot, can you confirm which files should be overwritten? I was going to experiment but I don't fancy screwing up my quadruple boot card, if I can help it.

If it is an older version (before the GUI, that has update capabilities):

• extract the contents of the berryboot.zip to the FAT partition.
• in cmdline.txt put "datadev=mmcblk0p2" so that it knows that the data is already on the SD card (without datadev it will start a new installation).
• extract the contents of shared.tgz (found inside berryboot.zip) to /shared on the ext4 partition. This are the modules shared between operating systems.

[ejsolutions]

Brilliant.

..If it is an older version (before the GUI, that has update capabilities)..

'Tis actually the version just prior to sorting out the SDTV dialogue box size.