How to duplicate an RPI ?

[Gert]

Hi All,

Got my second RPI in the mail and wanted to fire it up using a backup image from my first RPI.
So far no luck. RPI#2 give solid red LED and nothing happens.
I got the RPI#2 from Amazon with new power supply and 8GB bank SD card
(following a recommended combo package on Amazon)

This is what I did.

1. Create backup from RPI#1 SD card following the usual instructions.
http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/blog/201 ... i-sd-card/
2. Write image on new SD card (same size 8GB)
3. Mount new SD card on linux box and check file system. Looks OK. Also edit static IP address.
4. unmount card assemble RPI#2 fire it up and nothing happens. Red LED solid.

Some debugs I've done so far.

1. Pull SD card from RPI#1 and insert into RPI#2. Red LED solid.
2. Run RPI#2 on power supply of RPI#1 and on network connector of RPI#1. Red LED solid.
3. Insert SD card #2 into RPI#1. Boots fine with new static IP address.

I run the RPI headless. No mouse no keyboard no TV. Is there a need to do some initialization (with keyboard,mouse.screen) the first time the RPI#2 is fired up? Even with the SD card imaged from #1?

Note RPI#1 is model B-256MB, RPI#2 is model B-512MB.

Cheers,
Gert

[itimpi]

How up-to-date was the OS on the card? The newest Pi's are using Micron memory which means they need the latest firmware (bootcode.bin) on the boot partition as included in recent distributions.

[Gert]

Hi itimpi

Here is the uname -a for you.

uname -a : Linux raspberrypi 3.2.27+ #160 PREEMPT Mon Sep 17 23:18:42 BST 2012 armv6l GNU/Linux

OK, I shall download a new distro and salvage the bootcode.bin from it.

Cheers,
Gert


PS : Brings up the question.
What is the cleanest way to report all the RPI / OS relevant data so that they can be reported here in a debug situation? Example: Which RPI linux distro is running? Is there a command to report that that works on all distros?

[drgeoff]

If the firmware files are originals from that distribution then it is so old that:

1. It won't work on RPis with Micron RAM which began shipping summer 2013.

2. It won't work on RPis with Hynix 512 Mbyte RAM which began shipping in the first month or two of 2013.

3. It may not even work on any 512 Mbyte RPis.

[Gert]

Hi itimpi

OK, works fine!

I grabbed all files from partition1 of new download 2013-07-26-wheezy-raspbian.img and stuck them into the partition1 of the SD card for RPI#2. Hope this wasn't overkill.

RPI#2 now boots and runs fine.

Thanks a lot!!
Gert

[AndrewS]

How up-to-date was the OS on the card? The newest Pi's are using Micron memory which means they need the latest firmware (bootcode.bin) on the boot partition as included in recent distributions.

...or you could simply grab bootcode.bin directly from https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware ... aster/boot