STICKY: PINN - An enhanced version of NOOBS.

[DarkPlatinum]

I just decided to use the backup tool a couple of days ago. I am using PINN with a 1 TB seagate expansion HDD and a 32 GB sandisk ultra micro SD. I have added the "os" folder to a sandisk 64 Gb usb 3.0 thumbdrive (USB 2.0 write speeds on a pi). After clicking the backup button, it says "archiving" or something similar. I am perfectly fine with that. What I dont get is that I am getting 1.0mb/s which is awfully slow.

[procount]

Like I mentioned in my release post, compressing images is quite a processor intensive task, and it is also hampered by the slow USB connection.
Compressing images is always much slower than decompressing them and this is included in the overall write speed you are experiencing.
You can backup an OS much quicker on a PC, and there are instructions on my wiki how to do it by creating a custom OS. But this method makes it quite simple and straightforward to backup an OS or create a custom OS without needing another computer.

[DarkPlatinum]

Like I mentioned in my release post, compressing images is quite a processor intensive task, and it is also hampered by the slow USB connection.
Compressing images is always much slower than decompressing them and this is included in the overall write speed you are experiencing.
You can backup an OS much quicker on a PC, and there are instructions on my wiki how to do it by creating a custom OS. But this method makes it quite simple and straightforward to backup an OS or create a custom OS without needing another computer.

So it is best just to so it overnight? It says it will take around 4 hours to complete.

[procount]

Yes.
Raspbian itself can take just over an hour.

[procount]

PINN has been updated to v3.0.1

V3.0.1

• Backup/Download - Removed the need to reboot after a download or backup.
• Wallpapers - removed wallpapers folder & allowed JPEGs
• Default wallpaper - Changed default to wallpaper.jpg

Well, every major release requires a minor point release, doesn't it?
In this case it's just to save a little space and improve the workflow.

Previously, it was necessary to reboot PINN in order to take account of new OSes, after downloading an OS from the internet, or after backing-up an OS to a local USB drive. However, that is no longer necessary with this new release and they will immediately appear in the OS lists.

The /wallpapers folder has been removed from this version to avoid some bloat, but if you are upgrading, it may still exist from your previous installation. Feel free to delete it if you no longer want it as it can always be dlwonlaoded again from sourceforge.

The default wallpaper.png has been converted to wallpaper.jpg to save some space. It my be replaced by your own wallpaper.jpg or wallpaper.png image.

[Haris1977]

Thanks for your continuous work.

Procount any news about the renaming os option (in OS Boot Selector Menu)?

[procount]

@Haris1977 - soon (-ish), but I had to complete the fundamentals in the backup feature first.

[Haris1977]

Thanks

[DarkPlatinum]

So I tried the backup function overnight. I came back this morning and it says it has failed, read debug logs for errors.What should I do?

[procount]

@DarkPlatinum
open a github issue
Post the errors you read from the debug log
Tell me which model of Pi, which OSes you were backing up & which one it failed on.

[Patrick76]

Hello!
Where can a find changelog/ release notes since PINN 3.0.1 for PINN 3.0.2 & PINN 3.0.3?

[procount]

Minor bug fixes.
See https://sourceforge.net/projects/pinn/files/

[beta-tester]

hi,

when i boot my RPi 3 B+ where PINN 3.0.3 is installed, i get always the following message on screen just after the rainbow splash screen and just before the PINN wallpaper appears:

pinn.PNG (237.38 KiB) Viewed 5413 times

Code: Select all

[2.05...] raspberrypi-firmware soc:firmware: Get Throttled mailbox call failed
[3.33...] brcmfmac: brcmf_c_preinit_dcmds: CLM version = API: 12.2 beta: 7.11.15 Compiler: 1.21.2 ClmImport: 1.24.1 Creation: 2014-05-06 10:53:55 Inc Beta: 9.10.39 Inc Compiler: 1.29.4 Inc ClmImport: 1.36.3 Creation: 2017-10-23 03:47:11

any idea how i can get rid of that message?

[procount]

I know they are a bit annoying, but there's not much I can do. I think the first comes from the firmware and the second from the builtin wifi driver.

[beta-tester]

ok, thanks... i thought i only have to add a switch to cmdline.txt or config.txt to get rid of it...
but why i don't see those messages when booting raspbian without PINN or NOOBS? don't they use the same raspberry pi firmware?
and i can't remember that i saw those messages on an old version of PINN or was it because it was a RPi2B at that time?

[DarkPlatinum]

ok, thanks... i thought i only have to add a switch to cmdline.txt or config.txt to get rid of it...
but why i don't see those messages when booting raspbian without PINN or NOOBS? don't they use the same raspberry pi firmware?
and i can't remember that i saw those messages on an old version of PINN or was it because it was a RPi2B at that time?

Why does it matter if its their or not? Its just text, don't affect performance in anyway.

[procount]

Maybe you could restrict the log level. I haven't tried yet.
The wifi driver and firmware are newer than previous versions, hence the change.

[beta-tester]

ok, thanks... i thought i only have to add a switch to cmdline.txt or config.txt to get rid of it...
but why i don't see those messages when booting raspbian without PINN or NOOBS? don't they use the same raspberry pi firmware?
and i can't remember that i saw those messages on an old version of PINN or was it because it was a RPi2B at that time?

Why does it matter if its their or not? Its just text, don't affect performance in anyway.

when you use PINN to boot your tiny home entertainment system (retropie and LibreELEC) you don't want to see any annoying text on the screen if you don't need... it breaks the nice looking

[vinaypundith]

I once had 3 OSes installed with PINN. One day I tried to do a firmware update from within PINN, and it got interrupted due to loss of power. My Raspberry would then not boot at all, instead getting stuck at the rainbow screen. After doing some searching online, I replaced the PINN boot folder with a fresh one from the pinn-lite.zip file. At the next bootup, it automatically deleted all the partitions on the drive, erased all my OSes and the data saved with them, and came to OS installation screen!! Any idea why?

[DarkPlatinum]

I once had 3 OSes installed with PINN. One day I tried to do a firmware update from within PINN, and it got interrupted due to loss of power. My Raspberry would then not boot at all, instead getting stuck at the rainbow screen. After doing some searching online, I replaced the PINN boot folder with a fresh one from the pinn-lite.zip file. At the next bootup, it automatically DELETED ALL THE PARTITIONS FROM THE DRIVE, erased all my OSes and the data saved with them, and came to OS installation screen!!!!!! Any idea why?

Maybe because it formats the drive on start up?

[procount]

@vinaypundith - That is unfortunate.
If you install pinn-lite.zip afresh, then it overwrites recovery.cmdline with the default version that includes the `runinstaller`option. This causes PINN to wipe your fresh SD card to make it suitable for use with PINN. If you have any existing OSes installed, then this will unfortunately wipe them out.
Whenever your PINN self-updates, it does not change recovery.cmdline for this reason.
This is detailed in the documentation ->https://github.com/procount/pinn/blob/m ... ne-options and applies to NOOBS as well.

[procount]

@beta-tester - try adding `loglevel=0` to recovery.cmdline (without the quotes).

EDIT: Yep, that seems to solve it!

[beta-tester]

@beta-tester - try adding `loglevel=0` to recovery.cmdline (without the quotes).

EDIT: Yep, that seems to solve it!

no and yes... adding loglevel=0 to recovery.cmdline didn't removed the messages,
but with adding it to recovery.cmdline.new as well i got rid of the annoying messages.

now recovery.cmdline and recovery.cmdline.new have the following content:

Code: Select all

quiet loglevel=0 ramdisk_size=32768 root=/dev/ram0 init=/init vt.cur_default=1 elevator=deadline repo_list=http://raw.githubusercontent.com/procount/pinn-os/master/os/repo_list.json

thank you for your help!

PS.: and with adding a config.txt to the same partition (folder) with the following content i got rid of the rainbow boot splash screen, the borders around the wallpaper and the name raspberry at boot time on my TV:

Code: Select all

disable_splash=1
disable_overscan=1
cec_osd_name=PINN

[Haris1977]

now recovery.cmdline and recovery.cmdline.new have the following content:

Code: Select all

quiet loglevel=0 ramdisk_size=32768 root=/dev/ram0 init=/init vt.cur_default=1 elevator=deadline repo_list=http://raw.githubusercontent.com/procount/pinn-os/master/os/repo_list.json

thank you for your help!

So, maybe @procount should add the `loglevel=0` to recovery.cmdline and recovery.cmdline.new by default? Or other problems may occur?

[procount]

It will be considered.
Loglevel=2 is the highest value that can be used on a 3B+ to suppress these messages. Need to test other models too.