Deploy Raspbian OS on numerous RPis

[jambajuice]

Hi there,

Looking closer at the RPi, I realise that it might fill my needs : however, I don't feel comfortable yet with the deployment capabilities of the Raspbian OS through numerous RPi.

I currently run Debian x86 on super lightweight computers (SD card drive) to hold a Java application + a tinyproxy server.
I did it so that all the configuration (packages, users, conf files...) is done on my laptop with a 'VirtualBoxed' Debian so I can easily deploy it to SD cards with a simple dd copy (with nfs server on the root directory).

Would it be possible to emulate Raspbian with VirtualBox (it appears that no) or LXC in order to easliy deploy the OS on many RPis ?
Or anyone have a better idea ?

Thanks

[itsmedoofer]

Hi,

You could quite easily develop on your Pi and then image the SD card, or if you google "qemu raspberry" you can look into the emulation side of things....

I have several "Base" sd card images that I use, just flash them to the card and away we go...

If you want a light weight distro you may want to look up http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt ... 51#p612251

[B.Goode]

Would Raspi-LTSP help?

[Joe Schmoe]

I currently run Debian x86 on super lightweight computers (SD card drive) to hold a Java application + a tinyproxy server.

Out of curiosity, which "super lightweight" X86 computer do you use?

[jambajuice]

You could quite easily develop on your Pi and then image the SD card

That's certainly an option. However, I wanted to avoid it if possible. I would prefer develop on my laptop without the need to setup the Pi and cables and all and, when ready, simply copy contents with a rsync.

or if you google "qemu raspberry" you can look into the emulation side of things....

OK thanks. I'll look into that. I've never used Qemu so there is a learning curve for me here.

Out of curiosity, which "super lightweight" X86 computer do you use?

These computers have been bought from http://www.norhtec.com/.
They are disk less computers with low specs. Perfect for the use we have, which is a small java app + tinyproxy.
I wanted to try out the RPi to low down our costs.

Would Raspi-LTSP help?

Woo ! That is definetly something interesting ! "Centralised master operating system" !!!.
That's sounds very powerfull. Thanks for the link. I will definitely research more on that.
However, our deployement would be in different locations for now. No centralised boot possible.

So LXC can not emulate ARM architecture ?

[Joe Schmoe]

These computers have been bought from http://www.norhtec.com/.

Interesting. I checked their web site. Do they still exist?
I ask because the "news" page gives news from 2011. It sorta looks like their site hasn't been updated since then, which doesn't portend well.

Which model of machine did you get from them? The "Gecko Surfboard" looks quite interesting.

Note: I am, in fact, seriously interested in getting a low-power/fanless/diskless x86 computer, so this is of direct interest to me. I had been looking at the "eBOX" (http://robosavvy.com/store/product_info ... ts_id/1839), but this actually looks better.

[jambajuice]

These computers have been bought from http://www.norhtec.com/.

Interesting. I checked their web site. Do they still exist?
I ask because the "news" page gives news from 2011. It sorta looks like their site hasn't been updated since then, which doesn't portend well.

Which model of machine did you get from them? The "Gecko Surfboard" looks quite interesting.

Note: I am, in fact, seriously interested in getting a low-power/fanless/diskless x86 computer, so this is of direct interest to me. I had been looking at the "eBOX" (http://robosavvy.com/store/product_info ... ts_id/1839), but this actually looks better.

Well support on these computers is very limited (online information is almost inexistant), and hardware was not fully compatible out of the box with Debian 7 or Ubuntu. But we've purchased the very low specs comps, maybe the higher range ones will be better. I don't remember which model we bought. I PM you the email of the man that we've been in contact with.