Posts by spschneer

jernej & chewitt

You won't believe what the problem was....I had to use Balena Etcher to write the LibreElec to the MicroSD card. I'm not sure what was happening with the partitioning and/or writing with the other methods, but the first time with Balena Etcher, and all defaults, it worked like it was supposed to...I was even able to enable SSH and connected and ran install2emmc successfully...

Now all I have to do is reenter all the configuration for Kodi to talk to my media server to get access to the videos, music and photo libraries.....

YAY....

jernej I give up...shoot me an e-mail as I want to ask you something off-line.

Response to lsblk is

sh: lsblk: not found

#

This is without typing "exit" in response to:

### Starting debugging shell for boot step: mount_storage----type: exit to quit ###

And how do I check for ext4 partition? and where? (on the sd card is only the two created by the LE - SD creator (512MB bootable partition and 32MB Swap partition. The balance of the SD card is blank/unformatted per the LE - SD Creator.

jernej With the OPi3 not booting properly, it won't allow ssh (I've tried adding ssh to the parms on extlinux.conf and it ignores it). I've tried to ssh to the box via IP and name shown in DHCP leases, and it doesn't accept it.

I really think the improper booting is the problem but cannot figure what's wrong. Does the 11.0 version work properly on your end?

My boot goes as follows: Power on, LE logo shows for 15-30 seconds. Left edge of screen shows a scroll of messages starting at about 15.xxx sec to 18.xxx sec or so...then blanks for maybe 45sec to a minute. then the screen clears and the message shows :

*** Error in mount_storage: mount_common: Could not mount UUID=2d187d5b-a18a-45e5-a167-2dc64c4a2c42 ***

### Starting debugging shell for boot step: mount_storage... tyoe exit to quit ###,

Alternatively, I've changed the extlinux.conf to be:

LABEL LibreELEC

LINUX /KERNEL

FDT /sun50i-h6-orangepi-3-lts.dtb

APPEND boot=LABEL=LIBREELEC disk=LABEL=STORAGE console=ttyS0 115200 console=tty1 ssh

and it does basically the same thing,

If I type "exit" in response to the prompt, it begins scrolling a bunch of linux boot-up messages with some warnings, some errors and mostly status messages. After several screens worth of scrolling messages it finally quits with the messages and sits there (no prompt, no responses to commands, nothing)... it will respond to CTL-ALT-DEL with rebooting (back to the error in mount_storage message) but doesn't respond properly to many linux commands except the basics like ls -al.

This is all with the MicroSD card created directly from the LE-SD tool without ANY modifications, other than the above contents of the extlinux.conf file.

Can you a:) see anything Wrong I'm doing? and /or

b:) write a step by step how to get the OPi3 to boot properly and install LibreELEC onto the emmc so it will reboot properly.

Thanks VERY much for your help on this...

Okaaaay....I've got a question...

Do I have to do anything "special" to get the LE 11.0 imaged MicroSD card to install its LE code and Kodi onto the EMMC of the OPi3-LTS?

The reason I ask, I removed the SD card from the OPI3 and let it boot itself, and it came up with a GUI that looked suspiciously like Android/Linux...It appeared to be a stand-alone micro-PC that just waited for me to move a mouse or keyboard to get it to do something...

I'm coming from a framework of the Cubox world where the SD card is the environment that is being run compared to the OPI3 which is apparently running from the EMMC. In the Cubox world, I don't do anything between starting up the box with the MicroSD card in the slot, and getting a Kodi initial interface to define my storage locations and let it rip.

It seems there's something missing here between the download of the LE image, and the Kodi prompt. I thought the LE SD tool took care of that but maybe I'm missing something?????????

Help...

Well... I finally had some free time and decided to try working on my OPi3-LTS again...Found that the release of LE 11.0 had gone live for the Allwinner chips so I downloaded the version for the OPi3-LTS. I used the LE SDCreator to write it to a brand new SanDisk Ultra MicroSD card(with no problems or errors), and then inserted that into my OPi3... Connected the cables and powered on...

and it failed with the same error as my first message to this thread...

*** Error in mount_storage: mount_common: Could not mount UUID=XXXXXXX(didn't bother copying)XXXXXXX ***

### Starting debugging shell for boot step: mount_storage... tyoe exit to quit ###

(Added keyboard and typed "exit")

Response:

mount: mounting /storage on /sysroot/storage failed: Invalid argument

LibreELEC (official): 11.0.0

(Followed by:)

[FAILED} Failed to start storage-log.service.

[DEPEND] Dependency failed for var-log.mount.

[DEPEND] Dependency failed for systemd-update-utmp-runlevel.service.

...

[FAILED] Failed to start pulseaudio.service.

These were the same messages I got originally and was able to eliminate with jernej late-beta download. (see above messages).

I did make sure that the 3 partitions on the micro-SD card are all read/writable 9formatted fat or fat32 and the sizes are

512MB, 32MB, 14.3(+-) GB (total size is 16GB)

S

Well, I thought I knew what was going on..... I tried to re-create the build process of the MicroSD card with a brand new one ... Sandisk Ultra 32GB just purchased along with a brand new Anker SD - USB Reader/Writer.

I attempted to re-create the steps for setting up ... Format SD, ( petediscrete 0 yes I did use both regular format and SD Format...no change).

Ran the SD-LE tool to partition the SD, pointing to the LE version that @jernj setup that I got to work properly.

Now when I run the install, I get a

"Write Error 1.0"

An error occurred when attempting to write data to handle. Error 5: Access is denied.

(This happens at 93% completion of the writing of the Librelec code to the Librelec Partition on disk(SD)).

I tried a bunch of different combinations of all the tools and all the pieces and still cannot get it to work...

I do still have the one that worked a day or two ago, but wanted to have a backup, as well as prepare the one for the LR setup....(it's not using the entire partition - 366MB of 512MB so it isn't running out of room writing the files)...

ARRRRRGHHH....

jernej

As you might remember, we had a discussion about the quality of MicroSD cards etc... Well, I was going to create a backup MicroSD card of the 11Beta 2 you sent me on a BRAND NEW, Sandisk Ultra 32G via a BRAND NEW Anker USB C SD/MicroSD adapter/writer. The results were as follows:

First time, normal execution of the LE SD fomat/loader program all the way thru and it finished normally. Created 2 partitions 512MB Libreelec and a 32MB (swap?). Attempted to boot, it failed with the original error message about not being able to mount the "drive".

Next I reformatted the partitions (leaving them sized as is...and tried to use the Win32Disk Imager that was recommended and had worked before...It failed also...same message.

Tried to re-run the LE SD format/loader program again (just in case) and it failed again to write the disk with a "Write Error" at 93%. I had erased the partition but left it sized from before by the LE-SD Format Loader...

I did try re-installing the original (successful) MicroSD card into the OPi3 and it worked....

I just don't get it...any ideas what's going on???? and what could be causing this? I have chkdsk'd the MicroSD card and it passes normally. No errors found.

S....

There's a Blue LED??? I've only seen the one "power" (Orange/Red) that comes on and stays on whenever the power is on (e.g. it's not OFF or Standby). I would be fine with it being on whenever the power is on, IF I could script the standby function and assign it to a keystroke that I could assign with Harmony remote...

Actually, a command for "Standby" would satisfy most of my wishes in that it would turn the LED off when not in use, and the power too, assuming I could link it to a remote "keystroke"... The Harmony doesn't like the native HTPC because it can't associate it with a key equivalent table.... gotta stop for now..my head is spinning with trying to think thru this ...

chewitt

Gotcha...I have been able to put it into "suspend" mode (main screen, icon at bottom left, 3rd choice) by choosing each of those manually. I haven't found the "command" for that (if there is one) to get a single press of a remote control to get it to suspend...Also, I did get it to wake up from there (once) but haven't been able to recreate the wake-up...maybe jernej will have some magic...

Mostly trying to get the BRIGHT power-on light off when not using the OPi as my HTPC.

Thanks again for all your (and jernej's) help on this...

I'm trying to document my entire experience thru this adventure since I wasn't able to find much in the way of how-to's since the OrangePi 3 LTS is rather new and not as well documented as the RPi...

Found out how to deal with the FLIRC...the downloaded app allows you to choose a "profile" application you will be using on the SBC that the FLIRC IR USB device is mounted. In my case, Kodi is the app I'm running so I chose that.

Then it presents a "keyboard" of actions that the remote will send the IR codes to the IR Receiver to "remember" (via the Flirc App). The "actions" are the remote control activities that the user wants to have the OPi to repspond to (e.g.: up,down,right,left cursor movements, "menu", Back, etc). After going thru all the available selections on the "keyboard" of the remote, you can save the codes to disk (just in case)...

Final step is to take the Flirc IR-USB from the computer you did the encoding and install into the OPi that is the destination machine. Turning that on allows the FLIRC iR-USB to become the receiver for the IR and it presents the "codes" thru the USB into the Kodi program via the magic of LibrElec... Whew....

I do have one question for the experts who did this long (?) before I got into this: Is there a way to power on/off the OPi3 from the remote? If so, how (in simple terms please)...That's the one thing I couldn't figure out ....

S

BTW...I'm using a Harmony 650 Remote...

chewitt

you said: "If you install the config app on a PC it should take no more than 2 mins to map all the core Kodi functions to remote buttons."

That sounds great since I'm planning to migrating to OPi3-LTS....however, the "how-to" is sadly lacking...I installed the FLIRC config app and it comes up but it "feels" like it is made to configure the FLIRC for use on my Laptop, not on another machine. There's no instructions (that I could find (without a major search effort) on how to configure, what, and where, to get my remote to control the Opi3-LTS...

Can you point me toward a (hopefully) simple how-to that addresses that...

Thanks, yet again...

Okay, time for step 2 of what seems like a 1,000 mile trek

How do I get my brand new FLIRC IR-USB to control Kodi on the Orange-Pi3-LTS with a Harmony 650.

OR

Can I use the "built-in" IR receiver (that I saw a reference to somewhere) to control the OPi3-LTS instead of the additional FLIRC IR-USB?

I was using the Cubox device definition in the Harmony configuration for HTPC setup, but there were some missing keys etc. I changed to the FLIRC IR-USB definition and now nothing works on the remote/orange-pi connection... Plus, I don't have a native FLIRC IR-USB remote controller to use to "train" the Harmony???Is there one? Should I have bought that too?

Definitely something very strange going on with my (micro)SD cards...I got the one SanDisk Ultra to work (see above) just fine. I decided I wanted a backup just in case...Tried a standard SanDisk (not ultra) as well as a Patriot and both had problems...The LE USB-SD creator would get to 97% and then stop with an error writing to disk. I tried the Win32 Disk Image tool and it had the same issue. I ran several utilities (disk manager, file manager - both Windows 10 Pro) to re-format and/or re-partition/reformat(regular not quick) and they worked fine without finding any disk problems on either SD card but then trying to run Win32 DI it failed with a disk write error at 97%.....Seems kind of strange that only some of the tools see a problem while others seem to find them just fine.....

Also, I began configuring Kodi and couldn't get it to see my network server (which contains the media). Also, had problems with setting the userid/password for Kodi to talk to the network server...Is there a new "strong password" requirement in Kodi? I tried my userid/password from my windows machine to my server (in ssh) and it worked just fine...when I tried to use that in configuring Kodi (to access the media storage), it told me it was too "weak" . This appeared to be within Kodi since I had not yet fully entered the file-server's path to get to the videos/music/photo storage locations.....

Well, Using a combination of the LE SD USB tool to format/define the partitions and overwriting the contents of the 512 MB partition with the Win32 Disk Image tool, IT WORKED...I now have LE installed onto the OPi3-LTS....YEAH ... HOORAY...

Now I've got to remember all the configuration of LE to get it all working but I've got the LE desktop ....

THANKS

The SD card I'm using is a 16GB SanDisk UltraPlus (and it appears to format/load properly under Windows 10 Pro)... When I get a few minutes, I'll load another SD card and see if that makes a difference...

As best as I can tell, the LE USB SD creator does the following:

Partitions the SD card properly (512 MB FAT (Active partition), 32 MB Fat (swap space), 14.2 GB Unallocated.

Writes the contents of the "OS" onto the Active partition

Do you do anything else when you prepare a SD?

I think that might be it...Maybe check with chewitt to see if there's anything else/wrong...I use it as a "standard build tool" for anything to do with LibreElec since it pretty much works seamlessly and without problems (until now).

As I mentioned in another thread, I've been using Cubox (only) and they work perfectly; BUT they're not available/supported/current so I'm looking at something different. I really wanted a Rpi but couldn't find one for less than an arm & Leg so looking at alternative threads, I saw the nice words you said about the Orange Pi 3 LTS (as well as some other folks), and went ahead and got one (after a minor detour to a Chinese mini-pc that had a few things wrong)....

Is there any "easy" way to set up the serial adapter to do the debugging? I'm not sure what you mean ... I do have a spare keyboard, mouse and VGA monitor that I can hook up to the OPi as a "stand-alone" PC...would that help?

S

Tried a different SD and got the same results and same message...Could not mount UUID

jernej

Both with and without quiet, errors as above with unable to mount (message is same, UUID is different from above)...

jernej Just to verify, I'm downloading the img.gz file, running the LE USB SD creator pointing at that downloaded file with the SD card as the destination. and then removing the sd card from my windows machine and inserting into the OPi3 and turning that on. Basically no other prep or manipulation to the img.gz than what gets done by the LE USB/SD creator...correct?

BTW....Thanks VERY much for all your help on this...

S

Tried the editing of the extlinux.conf file on the SD (TF?) card with the results of:

*** Error in mount_storage: mount_common: Could not mount LABEL=STORAGE ***

### Starting debugging shell for boot step: mount_storage... tyoe exit to quit ###

#

corresponding extlinux.conf

LABEL LibreELEC

LINUX /KERNEL

FDT /sun50i-h6-orangepi-3-lts.dtb

APPEND boot=LABEL=LIBREELEC disk=LABEL=STORAGE quiet console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty1,ssh

@jernel

Don't know how to generate dmesg... Instructions..? Also, is it connected to the network at this point? I don't see it in the list of leases on my DHCP server...thus I don't think I can ssh to it...I have to transcribe the screen manually...