any chance to install LE to a partition instead of entire drive?

django013 · October 8, 2023 at 3:57 AM

Hi,

I wanted to install LE generic, but the installer recognizes only entire drives, not the partitions.

My problem is, that LE is the last one to install, not the first one.

Is there any chance to get LE installed to a partition?

I tried to convert usb-stick to runnable installation too, but after typing run system hangs on restart.

LybsterKodi · October 8, 2023 at 5:51 AM

Quote from django013

Is there any chance to get LE installed to a partition?

I also asked the question and the answer is no.

Post

RE: Install to partion not whole disk

Thanks for the suggestion. I have done something similar only in my case expanding the partition when moving from a 16GB -> 64GB microSD. Clone then expand partition so I know that works.

LybsterKodi

September 23, 2023 at 2:40 PM

django013 · October 8, 2023 at 9:25 AM

Thank you for your attention and the link.

I added a disk to that box and installed LE to that drive, but after installation, LE does not come up. So I looked at the partitions created, and only System partition is populated. Storage partition is empty.

Is this the intended behaviour of installer?

**CvH** · October 8, 2023 at 11:23 AM

you can install LE to just a partion but not via the installer, just have a look how multiboot works

nothing too problematic

LybsterKodi · October 10, 2023 at 6:21 AM

Quote from django013

Is this the intended behaviour of installer?

Depends on which OS you're using to view the disk. The system partition is FAT32 and the storage partition is EXT4. Windows will not see anything in an EXT4 partition even though its there. If you access the disk with it plugged in and running LE over samba you'll see the folders that have been created.

**chewitt** · October 10, 2023 at 8:38 AM

Installation to spare disk space (needing two partitions not one) is possible, but not using our installer, and we do not provide instructions or support on dual-boot setups. If you know what you're doing (and depending on which other OS's are involved) it's not particularly hard to configure. If you don't know what you're doing (and most users don't) then it's a fiddly multi-step process with lots of confusing terminology and a high risk of trashing the other OS installs. We're not interested in the support work of guiding someone through recovery, which is why we don't have the feature or support dual-boot setups.

django013 · October 10, 2023 at 4:34 PM

CvH multiboot is outdated and repos are not available any more

I read about ventoy, but I don't see how it will fit with LE or LE with ventoy ...

Quote

Depends on which OS you're using to view the disk.

Well, I use linux only. Debian for about 20 years. So I know my linux as a user, but I don't know system internals of linux like grub behaviour and the like ...

When I wrote, that the partition is empty, than its exactly that - no single file has been copied to the Storage partition.

Quote

If you know what you're doing (and depending on which other OS's are involved) it's not particularly hard to configure.

Well, as mentioned, I know my linux as a user, but not the system internals. Especially I don't know internals of LE. I looked at the partitions from usb-stick and the failed installation - LE looks quite different from what I know.

I used kubuntu for first installation, so disk has reserved space for bios, an uefi fat partition and several primary partitions using btrfs. My question is: does grub os-prober recognize LibreElecs system files, so that it creates a menu entry for LE or do I have to create menu entry manually?

May I ask for a helping hand creating the grub menu entry?

**CvH** · October 10, 2023 at 5:21 PM

Quote from django013

May I ask for a helping hand creating the grub menu entry?

https://web.archive.org/web/2020122419…x.php/Dual_Boot

I made it work in the past with that howto, no idea if it works today. Backup is welcome

**HiassofT** · October 10, 2023 at 6:47 PM

It's actually quite easy:

create 2 partitions, a 512MB (better 1GB) FAT partition (for "boot/flash") and another one, some 5-10GB (or larger, depending on your needs) ext4 one (for "disk/storage")

Then copy everything from the FAT partition of the LE USB thumbdrive to the FAT partition on your harddisk / ssd.

Now run "blkid" (as root) and note the UUID values of your boot/flash and disk/storage partitions.

Then edit /etc/grub.d/40_custom and add a block like this - replace the UUIDs of the "--set=root ..." and "boot=UUID=..." entries with the one from your boot/flash FAT partition and the "disk=UUID=..." one with the one of your ext4 storage partition

Code

menuentry "LibreELEC" {
    insmod part_gpt
    insmod fat
    search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 2DBA-D3CB
    linux /KERNEL boot=UUID=2DBA-D3CB disk=UUID=191250c6-b51d-4205-8832-c40a18ca24da quiet
}

now run "update-grub" and enjoy.

so long,

Hias

django013 · October 11, 2023 at 4:09 AM

HiassofT thank you. Not only does this seem doable, but it's also much easier than I thought. Thanks a lot for that.

django013 · October 14, 2023 at 8:36 AM

I followed the instructions, but was not successful.

I got a menuentry "LibreELEC", but when I select it, an error occurs:

Code

failed to initialize ptp_kvm

After that the message from nightly build appears together with LE logo - and that's all.

I waited about 10-15 minutes, but nothing changed.

I read in different thread here, that the error message can be ignored, but no matter how long I wait, nothing more happens.

Is there a way to enable boot messages to arrive to screen?

**HiassofT** · October 14, 2023 at 7:21 PM

Drop "quiet" at the end of the "linux" line and add "ssh" instead. Then you'll be able to see messages, ssh in and run "pastekodi" to upload logs.

The "ptp_kvm" message is indeed harmless, very likely there's a problem with the graphics driver.

Which graphics card (ior AMD/Intel integrated GPU) are you using?

so long,

Hias

django013 · October 15, 2023 at 5:09 AM

Hi,

thank you for your attention and support!

I use a nvidia quadro P400 with 3 mini-Displayports - and that's a big source of trouble.

I want to use different ports for video and audio output, as audio spltters are far from reliable. I tried several different types. All work fine at the beginning, but after few weeks all are broken and nothing works any more.

Therefore I'm looking for a way to connect video and audio to different ports so that they don't depend on flaky hardware ...

django013 · October 15, 2023 at 5:52 AM

OK, I started LE with ssh option, but apparently network is not up.

boot log messages states successfully started sshd, but box does not respond to ping requests ...

... and ssh request is waiting for LEs response.

Therefore I took a snapshot of boot messages with digicam:

**chewitt** · October 15, 2023 at 5:52 AM

Are you using the Generic Legacy image? The default (GBM) Generic image no longer contains nVidia drivers due to their lack of support for modern Linux graphics standards.

django013 · October 15, 2023 at 6:42 AM

Generic yes, legacy no - I used LE 12 nightly

... I can do an update to most recent generic image.

**chewitt** · October 15, 2023 at 6:49 AM

https://test.libreelec.tv/12.0/Generic/Generic-legacy/ <= Update

django013 · October 15, 2023 at 7:06 AM

Quote from chewitt

The default (GBM) Generic image no longer contains nVidia drivers due to their lack of support for modern Linux graphics standards.

Does this mean, that nvidia graphic card is no longer a good choice?

OK, this time box came up with networking enable, so ssh connect was successful.

Then this happened:

Code

pastekodi

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error'

  what():  failed to find DRM cards
Aborted (core dumped)
http://ix.io/4J2p

... but the cited file exists - so I hope it helps!