New Raspbian "Pisces" Image

[mpthompson]

Some users have found the Raspbian image created by Hexxeh to be a little too minimal. To help these user I went ahead and created a larger, less minimal image that can be found at the following page on the Wiki:

http://www.raspbian.org/PiscesImages

Please note, this image must be installed on a 4GB or larger SD card.

This image was created using the Debian installer discussed in another thread in this forum. Therefore, this image of Raspbian is what the Debian installer builds as a minimal system with the LXDE and compiler packages added to it. Users should find this image contains more of the common applications that most users might expect to find on a Linux system.

This is my first attempt at an image so please bear with me if there are some issues with it. Check back on the wiki page for any new notes added about the image as more people test it out and use it. If needed, I can fix significant problems and update the image on the server.

Good luck, and let me know how it goes.

I didn't have luck setting up a torrent. If someone can seed a torrent and send me a link, I'll post the link to the .torrrent URL in the wiki page.

Mike

[mpthompson]

First problem with the image -- dhcp may appear to not work or not be installed for network connectivity.

To fix this, delete the last line in the file '/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules' and reboot. DHCP should then be functional and your Raspberry Pi should be assigned an IP address from the DHCP server on your local LAN.

The problem is that ethernet address of the Raspberry Pi I created the image on differs from the ethernet address on your Raspberry Pi. The OS notices this and assigns the ethernet interface to device 'eth1' rather than 'eth0' which is configured to use DHCP in the '/etc/network/interfaces' file.

[ScoobyDoo]

Great image, up and working fine except just a quick point, I had to delete all the lines from the file to get my network working, just deleting the last line wouldn't work.

[ScoobyDoo]

Been playing with the image today and its very snappy compared to the standard debian image.

I installed midori and its far better and useable unlike with the debian image which is too sluggish.
Excellent work.

[dukla2000]

AWESOME

Noticed on the stock Debian install I started with browsing was slugged by the CPU. So my benchmark (using the trusty stopwatch on my phone) was to load a particular web page. On stock Debian timed it twice - 13.x and 15.5 seconds. On Raspbian 8.1 secs! Woo.

Literally just got Raspbian up but had to post. Now to tidy up! I have been in awe of the building thread - now I know what you are trying to do. It really is worthwhile.

Thank you mpthompson and the others who have become involved.

[mrgstiffler]

Got my RPi today and am using this image to take it for a spin. It seems that updating kills the LXPanel config.

[mpthompson]

mrgstiffler, could you provide some more details on what killed the LXPanel config for you? Was it 'apt-get upgrade'?

With Raspbian, the end of the initial build phase is now in sight. However, it's still pretty rough around the edges. Over the next week or so hopefully we'll be transitioning from keeping the daily builds going to starting to work over some of the rough edges.

Our initial goal will just be to reach parity with Debian Wheezy. As Debian doesn't have the prettiest or easy to use GUI experience, Raspbian for the time being will just be trying to achieve that low bar. However, it is my sincere hope that Raspbian will evolve past that and have a more pleasant and robust GUI experience over time. However, Raspbian will always have Debian at its core to keep the Debian purists satisfied.

[mrgstiffler]

I did the following:

apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
rpi-update
rebooted

[oztrailrider]

My Pi should be arriving in the next couple of days so I will be sure to try out this image on one of the SD cards I have bought for it. Looking forward to it, performance improvements sound promising.

[mpthompson]

I did the following:

apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade
rpi-update
rebooted

OK, were working on getting a Raspbian bug base up and running so we can keep track of these types of issues. Hopefully within a few days.

[marsman2020]

Pardon my n00b question but - how is it that we can use rpi-update with Raspbian, when it pulls down binary kernel images from the git/raspberrypi repository? Aren't those binary kernels compiled for softfp?

[plugwash]

The syscall ABI is the same, only the C abi is different.

[dukla2000]

OK, only 3 more comments about the Raspbian Pisces image:

1) Good move to put the swap partition second - makes resizing partition 3 even easier.

2) Love having a root user/password - coming from SuSE I am more used to su than sudo!

3) startx takes me in to openbox - a bit confused due to the LXDE references in the packaging. And one hell of a shock to be greeted by a blank screen! But I am a GUI type person and within 4 hours fell in love with openbox - stupendous simplicity and since I found all the applications in the file browser ("Windows" key + e) am seriously contemplating replacing KDE on my main system! No bullshit frills, whistles or any of the other garbage bloatware being added to all the other (Linux, Mac, Windows) desktops. Now running with 40Mb memory used rather than 70 with LXDE. Please keep it this way (or provide idiot instructions for reverting to it if you default something else in future!)

But seriously have to go find that tutorial to get the EXIT menu option to do something close to what it says! Pulling the power cable to get out of openbox seems harsh and I am sure there is an easier way!

[RussB]

Bit of feedback, as per Scooby had to delete all the lines to get Eth0 working, done all the apt-get update/upgrade and rpi-update etc.. Generally quite a nippy feel to the build when it comes to responsiveness/boot times.

But I'm getting about a 50-60% packet drop running LXDE, if I don't bother starting X networking is OK with speedy downloads and no packet drops, also Userdel fails with a segmentation fault. I'll do some more digging on both tomorrow and try and give some more info on both.

Oh and if you boot it up with no Ethernet cable connected it hangs for quite a while trying to obtain an IP address again I'll take a look at it and advise.

[marsman2020]

I think that LXDE is a bit...heavy...for the RPi. I've been playing with different window managers on my LMDE 12 laptop to see how much memory they take.

Puppy Linux uses JWM, which seems like it might be a good choice.

[mpthompson]

Bit of feedback, as per Scooby had to delete all the lines to get Eth0 working, done all the apt-get update/upgrade and rpi-update etc.. Generally quite a nippy feel to the build when it comes to responsiveness/boot times.

But I'm getting about a 50-60% packet drop running LXDE, if I don't bother starting X networking is OK with speedy downloads and no packet drops, also Userdel fails with a segmentation fault. I'll do some more digging on both tomorrow and try and give some more info on both.

Oh and if you boot it up with no Ethernet cable connected it hangs for quite a while trying to obtain an IP address again I'll take a look at it and advise.

Thank you for the very useful feedback. When I have an SSH session open from another computer, and I then start up X on the console, I'm seeing the SSH session slow down tremendously in terms of responsiveness. I presume this is because of the packet loss you describe. This happens whether the CPU is loaded or not -- X just needs to be started.

I have no idea why the X server or some other software related to the X server might cause this networking problem. Hopefully some searching with Google will turn up a similar problem on another platform along with a fix.

[marsman2020]

I've seen heavy packet loss on the official Debian Squeeze image whenever I run X (LXDE) as well. I have not had time to debug it. In the Troubleshooting forum it has been stated to be an power supply issue, but I'm not sure - I've seen it on several different supplies including my setup with an HP Touchpad charger (5.3V/2A) with 24AWG wire side USB cable. I suspect a software issue in the kernel USB/ethernet drivers.

On interesting thing was that when I use tightvnc to connect to an x server w/LXDE running remotely vs running it on a screen from the Pi, I *did not* see the same packet loss.

Check your dmesg output - are there messages stating 'kevent 4 dropped' or something to that effect from the ethernet driver?

Also, see here - http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... =28&t=6928 and here http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... =28&t=6042

Both of these posts may point to some issue with the USB multi-TT driver that is impacting networking.....

I don't see a bug for this on the raspberrypi firmware github - no one seems to have reproduced it in a way that rules out power to be able to file a good bug....

Some people are seeing an issue with high load on the USB and ethernet - https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/issues/9, but this seems like a somewhat different issue.

[dukla2000]

... no one seems to have reproduced it in a way that rules out power to be able to file a good bug....

I apologise I don't understand the rest of your post to try help reproduce. BUT - in terms of power I am running my Pi with 5V straight into pins 2 & 6 of the GPIO (based on some threads between Jan and May that suggested it was possible and bypasses the primary polyfuse. It works just fine - I get 4.9V across the test points which is what I am putting in from my PC power supply) which may be an idea to rule out power?

[marsman2020]

I have done some investigation of this issue as I have experienced it in the Debian Squeeze images. See http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 112#p88112 for my initial findings.

Based on the fact that I can peg my Pis CPU at 100% for 10+ minutes at the console using "stress" and Ethernet works just fine, only to drop out as soon as X/LXDE are started (with the same "stress" still running), I believe this is a software issue related to something X/LXDE are doing. I plan to do further testing with USB devices disconnected (to rule out that driver) and using X over tightvnc (to rule out the framebuffer driver).

I need to complete my testing in Squeeze so I can file a bug appropriately before I can test in Raspbian. Just wanted to update everyone. If anyone wants to follow my procedure and post their results I'd really appreciate it.

[mike632t]

Actually once the repository is populated it would be very useful to be able to start with a very minimal image (basically one that boots and can access the network) to keep the number of installed packages to a minimum (why install X on a headless system).

MikeT.

[paaland]

(why install X on a headless system)

I can see many reasons to run X no a headless system. I'm doing so myself. The Raspi is just plugged into my main network switch and is sitting beside it in the basement.

I do all my access via ssh and run X apps via remote X server (xming) or VNC depending on my needs.

[paaland]

I can't seem to find modprobe or depmod on the pisces image. And I cannot figure out which package they are supposed to be in. Anyone know?

[rurwin]

it would be very useful to be able to start with a very minimal image

I was about to say the same. An absolutely minimal system would be perfect as a basis for embedded projects. If it boots up and runs apt-get, that's enough. A list of the more likely packages might also be handy, but that could be provided by a list of recipes on a wiki.

[bob_binz]

I can't seem to find modprobe or depmod on the pisces image. And I cannot figure out which package they are supposed to be in. Anyone know?

Are you running as a user instead of root? Try sudo modprobe. I don't think /sbin is in a normal user's PATH.

[paaland]

I can't seem to find modprobe or depmod on the pisces image. And I cannot figure out which package they are supposed to be in. Anyone know?

Are you running as a user instead of root? Try sudo modprobe. I don't think /sbin is in a normal user's PATH.

*face palm* doh