Live USB boot modes, LibreElec on x86_64. WiFi AP, DNS.

1st Official Post

    Don't know if my info (from previous LibreElec forum postings) is accurate:

    I would like to try out the live USB LibreElec on my PC, now that Kodi18 RC 5.2 would hopefully become 18-Real with lots of stable features.

    But what I read is that live USB boot gives you the standard 2 options- installtointernal and live.

    The problem is that the installtointernal option is dangerous- it could wipe out your hard drive easily (LE requires all the hard drive?).

    And there isn't much benefit to internal install anyway...who wants to run only LE on a PC, or first install LE after backing up data and then repartitioning to reinstall Windows?

    So...is it possible to only have the LIVE operation option as default (i.e. just boot from the USB and keep it persistent mode), and have the installtointernal option hidden? Those who still want internal install could activate the setting separately.

    Create USB stick, open syslinux.cfg on it and change DEFAULT installer to DEFAULT run. If you are booting with grub change grub.cfg.

    This will run everything from stick without installing.

    It's a long time since I've done a standard install on a pc, but I do remember it being pretty hard to do accidentally - there are plenty of prompts. You can always install to another usb stick / drive, which then gives you a 'safe' stick to plug in.

    Edit: or just do as vpeter suggests - I'd forgotten the install drive is visible in windows.

    vpeter

    This solves my problem !

    More thoughts:

    1. As per YUMI multiboot, how easy is it to configure such that the default option is "Boot from (Windows) HDD" and the 2nd option is, "Boot live LibreElec from USB"?

    This way I don't have to detach the USB stick from my PC, with default PC boot set to USB drive boot.

    2. In addition I am assuming that you could also use something like YUMI multiboot to have LibreElec as one of your OSes on the USB stick?

    YUMI, LiLi or Linux/Win LiveUSB Install | Linux on a stick! don't list LibreElec/CoreELEC though.

    trogggy

    New idea- install to another USB stick and be safe. Any details on how to?

    Edited 3 times, last by shippy (January 26, 2019 at 8:51 PM).

    Create the usb installer, boot from it, then choose, either another usb, or internal drive. to install too

    It will tell you to remove the installer usb,

    as long as you have the boot order set to boot from usb first, it will boot libre from that, all settings are made on the usb

    if you want to go back to whatever was on the internal drive, just remove the usb.

    I have been running LE from usb on my nuc for ages.

    I have used yumi, it gives you a list of various distros, LE isn't one of them, BUT I think you there is an option to install using sys? (something or other)

    Quote from bubblegum57

    Create the usb installer, boot from it, then choose, either another usb, or internal drive. to install too

    Didn't you read what I wrote? There is no need to install from one usb to another.

    No idea for YUMI (newer used it). Maybe it could work but because of 2 partitions requirements for LE it would mean some manual work to get it running.

    Quote from vpeter

    Didn't you read what I wrote? There is no need to install from one usb to another.

    No idea for YUMI (newer used it). Maybe it could work but because of 2 partitions requirements for LE it would mean some manual work to get it running.

    I was replying to the person, (shippy) who talked about his idea to install to a different usb.

    bubblegum57  vpeter

    Thanks guys, both useful inputs.

    So now that the original question is resolved, I gotta think about the multiboot thingy- maybe try that Linux/Windows live USB creator (doc is bad but looks interesting with all the features claimed.)

    One problem I had with YUMI few weeks ago was that at boot time, it didn't let me move the up/down arrows (freezing) so it always booted from the default hard drive. But sometimes it worked. Hopefully they'll fix the bug.

    I have Win7 32 bit installed on my old Acer D255E notebook running the 64bit N455 1.67 GHz CPU. The max 2GB ram means I likely can't run 64 bit Windows, but LibreElec from live USB boot shouldn't be a problem.

    bubblegum57

    Speaking of NUC, do you know if those $25-30 used mini Atom/Celeron PCs are still available from eBay?

    Looked like great buys last summer, if you wanted a cheapo DIY router with pfSense (still not ARM available except for a hefty price from the pfSense vendor, but don't know about OpenSense, supposedly better than pf.)

    The point here is that, given LibreElec allows WiFi to be in either station or AP mode, you could use a cheapo miniPC (or Amlogic TV box) to feed a couple of home devices from its AP, acting as router.

    That means you could also do adblock DNS to speed up your internet connection for home devices without extra expense. ( I thought about installing Pi-hole on LibreElec, but its Docker is bloated with the 120-150MB Debian base. Pi-hole initially built its Docker with the 5MB Alpine base but it had conflicts back in late 2017, given Alpine's use of the newer musl libc.)

    That AP configuration must allocate IPs via DHCP and do NATing and DNS as well. LibreElec runs Connman as Network Manager (which technically doesn't have DHCP/DNS) so some dnsmasq like package must be running too.

    shippy, just had a quick look on ebay usa, only one intel nuc DN2820FYKH0 not as cheap as you think. This box, has hdmi 1.4. 100M LAN, also needs RAM

    With Yumi, try a usb keyboard to change boot order,

    Quote from bubblegum57

    shippy, just had a quick look on ebay usa, only one intel nuc DN2820FYKH0 not as cheap as you think. This box, has hdmi 1.4. 100M LAN, also needs RAM

    With Yumi, try a usb keyboard to change boot order,

    Ok thanks.

    Do you know if Ali Express or those China sites might have some cheap miniPCs? Couldn't find any on Ali some months ago.

    Re: YUMI, neither the wireless USB keyboard nor the laptop keys worked...but they have a new 1/6/19 version out...

    I have emailed pendrivelinux re: LibreElec.tv support and the key freeze problem, but looks encouraging from the description and non- supported distro options:

    YUMI - Multiboot USB Creator | USB Pen Drive Linux

    • Official Post

    The hotspot feature in LE is intentionally basic and connman supports SSID/passphrase configuration only - nothing else. If you want wireless router features the best thing to use is .. a wireless router.

    Quote from chewitt

    The hotspot feature in LE is intentionally basic and connman supports SSID/passphrase configuration only - nothing else. If you want wireless router features the best thing to use is .. a wireless router.

    1. If that is true how are devices connected to this LibreElec WiFi AP without IP addresses, and how are these devices operating (connecting to the public Internet)?

    Edit. I found the answer, from one your own older posts. 😎

    Exactly what I wanted- connecting a couple home devices, not dozens as for a wifi router. No further hacks needed, if the fixes mentioned are still in place?

    Creating WiFi AP on LibreELEC on RPI2

    2. Now, can I configure my own DNS settings in LibreElec?

    Reason is that Adguard DNS and others take care of adblock now, way better than doing via apps. Likely saves 50-60% bandwidth, speeding up your connection as well for free !

    How to set up AdGuard DNS

    I am assuming that the home devices connecting will also go through this DNS.

    Edited 2 times, last by shippy (January 27, 2019 at 2:04 PM).

    Hi guys, sorry to necrobump, but i think some updates may be in order with this thread and also, I am here with the same question.

    As per vpeter's instructions above, I changed both the syslinux.cfg in the root and the one nested in the EFI folder, just to cover the bases as I was trying on multiple machines and sometimes EFI booting wasnt working. I got the boot: prompt (in EFI) and had to hit TAB to get the available options which were INSTALLER and LIVE. This is where i think the syslinux.cfg has changed between versions since January. Having said that, I am going to try changing the Default to LIVE rather than RUN.

    Also, how do we setup persistence for the USB? Of course I want to have addons and configs stay over the occasional late night reboot.

    Quick background, this is eventually going on an X5 Atom box for my older father. He is going to use VNC on his laptop to see what he is doing, and select what he wants to watch, close the VNC session, and reopen as necessary to choose new content when he is done.

    Many thanks mglae! I have booted successfully and all looks good. Having said that, are you saying that persistence is set up after initially booting live? As i have just made some changes and installed a few addons, and after a reboot, i need to type "live" again at the EFI boot screen, and my config is gone back to fresh.

    That doesnt seem to work. I get an error, and hitting Tab only gives me the option for Installer or Live. This is with a fresh write of the USB to make sure I was starting new.


    EDIT: I have appended the lines:

    "LABEL run

    KERNEL /KERNEL

    APPEND boot=UUID=0306-1729 run quiet tty vga=current"

    to syslinux.cfg, which seems to enable auto RUN to boot. This has fixed the need to type RUN at the EFI prompt, but i still do not have any form of persistence as the OpenElec Setup Wizard comes up every boot.

    Edited once, last by Cordyceps (November 8, 2019 at 9:36 PM).