Just bootfiles on sd?

  • Hallo All!!

    First post 4 me =)

    In the image tool that OSMC have, you have the possibillity to create the "bootfiles only on sd" install for the RPI.
    I would love to have it that way for Libre is there any plans for this?

    No worries as its rather easy to do yourself but a nice feature no doubt.

    thx
    Richard

    Edited once, last by Ztoner (September 1, 2016 at 2:31 PM).

  • Please explain in little more detailes what you want. Because from your description I don't understand anything.

    This tool only downloads and writes image to your USB stick or SD card.

  • Wow that was fast.

    ok try to explain, in my setups I always split up the image and wright only the bootfiles on the sd as rpi need the sd card to boot.
    Then all the system files goes to the usb.
    The OSMC image tool for their system does just that.

    So why? you might wonder? becouse you just pop in a new usb to start a fresh (test) install no need to wright anything as the boot is on the sd and all systemfiles will wright to the new test usb.

    // Richard

  • LibreELEC is not OSMC and the OS's work completely different.

    LibreELEC uses two partitions, the system partition needs to be on the SD card for the RPI, the storage partition can be on the SD card also or on a USB stick or anything else. You just need to make sure you adjust the cmdline.txt file in the system partition.


  • LibreELEC uses two partitions, the system partition needs to be on the SD card for the RPI, the storage partition can be on the SD card also or on a USB stick or anything else. You just need to make sure you adjust the cmdline.txt file in the system partition.

    I know all this

    Im running LibreElec now with system on SD-card and Strorage on the usb stick with a adjusted cmdline.txt file.

    My question was will this tool be able to wright such a setup from the downloaded image?

    // Richard


  • My question was will this tool be able to wright such a setup from the downloaded image?


    No, because it will always write whole image to your device. We don't support such configurations and users needs to do that manually.
    There is nothing wrong if whole image is on sd card.

    Edited once, last by vpeter (September 2, 2016 at 9:01 AM).


  • Wow that was fast.

    ok try to explain, in my setups I always split up the image and wright only the bootfiles on the sd as rpi need the sd card to boot.
    Then all the system files goes to the usb.
    The OSMC image tool for their system does just that.

    So why? you might wonder? becouse you just pop in a new usb to start a fresh (test) install no need to wright anything as the boot is on the sd and all systemfiles will wright to the new test usb.

    // Richard

    If you're doing that - which sounds like a good idea - why not just write to sd as normal, use it on the sd card and if you want to test something adjust cmdline.txt and pop a usb stick in?

  • ...
    Im running LibreElec now with system on SD-card and Strorage on the usb stick with a adjusted cmdline.txt file.
    ...


    Hello.
    Do you mind sharing some details on the modified cmdline.txt?
    I was just now looking on how to do this with LE.
    It's something I always setup on Raspbian, but LE sdcard seems different and I'm still looking for info.
    Unfortunately sdcards are awfully easy to brake... It's good to let them do the system boot only and then rely and a solid USB stick for the rest. [emoji6]

    Many thanks in advance.

    Edited once, last by dentex (September 13, 2016 at 4:49 PM).


  • Hello.
    Do you mind sharing some details on the modified cmdline.txt?
    I was just now looking on how to do this with LE.
    It's something I always setup on Raspbian, but LE sdcard seems different and I'm still looking for info.
    Unfortunately sdcards are awfully easy to brake... It's good to let them do the system boot only and then rely and a solid USB stick for the rest. [emoji6]

    Many thanks in advance.


    Change the "disk" value to something like

    Code
    disk=/dev/sda1


    or better

    Code
    disk=UUID=someuuid
  • Thanks I'll try again that. If I remember it's exactly what I tried, but probably I misplaced the correct files to push on the USB stick (other than SYSTEM). So I'll start with a complete copy on the USB.

    Edited once, last by dentex (September 14, 2016 at 6:36 AM).

  • Probably I'm missing something about how OE and LE work internally, but the tutorial seems to be on how to put the "storage" on the USB stick; in fact the guy says to leave the "SYSTEM" file on the sdcard. Maybe it's because it's read-only? So sdcard corruption is prevented anyway?

    Edited once, last by dentex (September 14, 2016 at 3:21 PM).


  • This is guide is for openelec but works with libre as well:
    How to install OpenELEC on USB stick for Raspberry Pi?

    It's really not that complicated.
    Quoting myself from an openelec forum thread:

    Quote


    It's really straightforward to do.
    Format a usb stick to ext4, give it a name / label.
    Use that label in cmdline.txt on the sd card.
    eg if you call the usb 'openelec'...

    boot=/dev/mmcblk0p1 disk=LABEL=openelec quiet

    I prefer not to use 'storage' as a label, because that's the default - but it doesn't matter what you call it as long as there's no other partition with the same name.
    I don't like using the uuid because if you copy to a different drive you have to change it.

    Edited once, last by trogggy (September 14, 2016 at 3:38 PM).


  • Fair enough. But what files do you have to move on the USB stick?

    (...me going to check the other forum...)


    If you want to move your current install you could stick the formatted usb in the running pi, copy all files from storage (on the sd card) to the usb, shut down, change cmdline.txt on your pc and re-start.
    Or use the built-in backup add-on to back up your current install, then poweroff, change cmdline.txt, boot with the usb inserted (which gives a fresh install) then restore from the backup.
    Either of the above works (and there are plenty of other ways). All you're doing is copying what's in 'storage' on your sd card to the usb stick.

  • Ok.
    Got it.
    From all the tests I did, there's nothing you actually have to copy on the USB to use one of its partition as "disk="...
    OE will only use it as destination for all configuration files.
    I tried moving the SYSTEM file to another partition on the USB and adding:

    Code
    root=LABEL=<MY-LABEL> rootfstype=ext4  rootwait rootdelay=5


    ...but that doesn't work (it works on Raspbian though).

    So now I have:

    • boot and system (mounted as flash/) on the SDCARD [I hope they are really read-only as I think];
    • disk (all system data...) on 1GB partition on USB
    • my user data (movies, mp3, whatever) on the rest on the USB, in their own partition.


    ... and my cmdline.txt looks like you guys suggested:

    Code
    boot=/dev/mmcblk0p1 disk=LABEL=<MY-LABEL> quiet

    It's working good like this.

    Thanks everyone for the kind comments and the help provided.

    Edited once, last by dentex (September 14, 2016 at 5:22 PM).

  • All I'd say is 1GB sounds a bit on the small side - might cause you some problems in the future (thumbnails folder could end up filling that on its own), and it'll almost certainly cause issues with updates and / or backups not having enough space at some point.
    I use small (eg 1GB) partitions for testing, but I'd want at least 4GB (my arbitrary limit) for a 'proper' install.

    There shouldn't be an issue with mixing your media (films / music) with libreelec data in 1 big usb partition - the partition even comes with folders for exactly that by default (made on first boot).