ive got a question regarding this.
i have a PI in a datacenter, with a corrupted SD card.
ive got a backup of that image.
can i restore an image to another SD card, and update it on a another local pi, software and firmware.
when i take that restored image / SD card an plug in into the other PI wil it boot up? (because he is on a lower firmware revesion currently)
basicly can i swap SD cards with different firmware levels between multiple pi's?
i
Re: General Firmware Question
Yes and no.rubke wrote: basicly can i swap SD cards with different firmware levels between multiple pi's?
Some parts of the "firmware" relate to hardware differences between different RPis.
Before the B+ appeared the important "variable" was the RAM chip. Not the size of it but the manufacturer. As new suppliers of that chip were used the firmware was updated to support them. A new firmware would support all RAM chips that had ever been used but an old firmware might not support a RPi manufactured after that firmware had been released.
The B+ introduced a new "variable". The source of the clock signal for the LAN+USB changed. Again the newest firmware will support all RPis but firmwares older than about July 2014 will yield a B+ with apparently dead USB and LAN.
Re: General Firmware Question
ok thnx for the reply
what is the best practice restore the image to SD card, replace current corrupt SD card en then update software and firmware.
OR
restore image to SD card, put the restored SD card in another pi and update software and firmware, and then send it to the Datacenter?
what is the best practice restore the image to SD card, replace current corrupt SD card en then update software and firmware.
OR
restore image to SD card, put the restored SD card in another pi and update software and firmware, and then send it to the Datacenter?
Re: General Firmware Question
I cannot see that there is any difference in the end result. However, the first method has a higher chance of success because the image you are restoring has firmware which you know is compatible with that RPi. (The image you have is of firmware/software which worked on that RPi.)rubke wrote:ok thnx for the reply
what is the best practice restore the image to SD card, replace current corrupt SD card en then update software and firmware.
OR
restore image to SD card, put the restored SD card in another pi and update software and firmware, and then send it to the Datacenter?
In the second method, unless you know that the image will work on that "another pi" there is a risk that it will not boot.
The other thing to be aware of, and it applies to both methods, is that just like hard disks, not all SD cards of the same nominal size have the same actual size. Thus you may find that your image, if of a complete SD card, will not fit on another card. Resizing a backup image has been discussed here a few times eg http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt ... 82#p588482.
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pluggy
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Re: General Firmware Question
The Pi doesn't have any firmware. Its a misnomer. Its just files on the SD card, like the rest of the operating system. Its one of this forums fixations, that because the files on the FAT partition perform the duties of firmware on a traditional device, it should be called firmware. It isn't, its just plain old software. There is a small amount of code built into the GPU of the SOC on the Pi which loads the 'Firmware'. But its hard wired and can't be changed, so that isn't firmware either. The upside of course, is that the Pi is unbrickable, unlike anything that does use firmware in the traditional sense.
Don't judge Linux by the Pi.......
I must not tread on too many sacred cows......
I must not tread on too many sacred cows......
Re: Updating Pi's firmware
Mod Edit: Split Topic from necro'd thread to its own unique thread
Pluggy is 100% correct. And not to open this can-o-worms too much, but one of the fascinating hypocrisies of the "firmware" being located on the SD card and loaded into the cpu at run time is that the Pi is actually considered more closed source than if the firmware was completely locked down in some eeprom chip located on the board. So the Pi gives you more control over the "firmware's" configuration, but at the cost of being less "open sourced"
Oh I'm going to get PMs on that one.
Anyway flame baiting aside. I personally would write the backup image you made to a new SD card and update the OS / "firmware" from another pi and then move it into the datacenter. That way you can make sure it's still stable, and make a new image backup with minimal impact to your data center. Plus, while the original SD card is corrupted in the sense that it can't be booted from, you might be able to mount it and read the contents of the card all the same. In that case if it turned out you needed to copy a file from it to the SD card made from the image backup, you'd still have those files whole and intact.
Pluggy is 100% correct. And not to open this can-o-worms too much, but one of the fascinating hypocrisies of the "firmware" being located on the SD card and loaded into the cpu at run time is that the Pi is actually considered more closed source than if the firmware was completely locked down in some eeprom chip located on the board. So the Pi gives you more control over the "firmware's" configuration, but at the cost of being less "open sourced"
Oh I'm going to get PMs on that one.
Anyway flame baiting aside. I personally would write the backup image you made to a new SD card and update the OS / "firmware" from another pi and then move it into the datacenter. That way you can make sure it's still stable, and make a new image backup with minimal impact to your data center. Plus, while the original SD card is corrupted in the sense that it can't be booted from, you might be able to mount it and read the contents of the card all the same. In that case if it turned out you needed to copy a file from it to the SD card made from the image backup, you'd still have those files whole and intact.
Dear forum: Play nice 