Running Standard RasbianOS on Slice CM1

1st Official Post

    HI All,

    I was one of the original kickstarter backers for Slice and I've been looking to repurpose it to a PiHole on my network (I have another Kodi these days).

    I've been trying to follow the old links for the builds - and it all looks pretty much dead end except on LibreElec. My latest attempt has been to use the LibreElec build to help in installing 32bit Raspbian on the CM1 flash - and copy the dt-blob.bin over release - which works fine, until the OS performs an update and bricks the unit again./shrug

    Any advice at all? Reading the pages it mentions patching the Kernel "upstream" at GitHub - FiveNinjas/documentation

    Its the perfect box to run as a PiHole and Webserver if I can get it going.

    Thanks

    Jim

    • Official Post

    You can build the Raspberry Pi OS kernel from sources and use the same kernel source and patches as LE does (look at our repo). Or run LE and install the Docker add-on and then a Pi-Hole container (bit of a long-route, but should work).

    Thanks - I've never tried building a kernel and patches, so I've been looking for a numptys guide to explain it to me.

    I've managed to get it to the point its stable - but it fails on doing a Raspberry OS kernel update - but I'm wondering if thats because the CM1 module only has 4GB and I'm asking too much of it.

    I did try and load in a Docker add-on to the LE build and put the pihole container on it - but the CPU maxed out and it got really hot and locked up.

    I guess my options could be -

    • install without desktop (save some space and hopefully get the kernel update?)
    • try and build kernel
    • update to CM3 (would that be a better option? Although prices look as much as getting another Pi4)
    • get another Pi

    I'd like to take advantage of the nice harddisk and enclosure before resorting to new.

    • Official Post

    CM3 is a great (and the only) upgrade for a Slice CM1 box but IMHO these days the $$ would be bettter invested in a 2GB RPi4. Compiling needs RAM and CM1 is 1GB (4GB is emmc) so I wouldn't attempt building kernels on the device unless I had no alternative option; cross-compiling on a laptop/desktop machine with 8GB (typically) will be massively faster.

    Heyho,

    I have a Slice with the CM3.

    I don't have any experience in building a kernel by myself.

    I installed the actual Raspberry OS with the PI-Imager. Unfortunately the USB and the Ethernet-Ports are not working.

    I copied the dt-blob.bin (which I made from here GitHub - FiveNinjas/slice-firmware: BCM270x firmware related stuff for Slice) to the boot-partition but the doesn't help.

    Is there a(n easy) way to get the Slice running?

    Maybe a instruction what parts I need to build my own kernel.

    Thanks

    Icey

    • Official Post

    Take the current Raspberry Pi OS and then copy the compiled device-tree bits from an LE 9.2 image. It's the same kernel version (4.19) and core sources so it should be compatible. I wouldn't use anything from the FiveNinjas repo now .. it's not been maintained for years.

    Thanks a lot.

    I copied the dt-blob.bin from the LibreElec into boot-folder and the slice.dtbo into the overlays-folder.

    With that I could use the keyboard and a Wifi-Stick.

    At the first start the OS wants to update and after that update the Slice won't start anymore (or at least the HDMI and Wifi is not working anymore). So for the next start I didn't do the update and I could work.

    I will try to figure out if there is a way what I can do to update the OS.