Forum

What is the appeal of making the linux installer graphical and why does it require qt5?

I'm using debian wheezy on my notebook and I can't run the default installer because qt5 doesn't exist in the repositories. I tried to run the installer on CentOS 7, which also didn't work. A simple bash script that doesn't require dependencies to make a window turn on would seems more user friendly because it would be universally compatible across linux distributions.

I believe I read that the installation image could be written via dd to a microsd card, which doesn't work for me when using the raspberry pi 2. When I attempt to boot a dd'ed image, xbian gets stuck at the xbian splash screen when the init message comes up. The bar just keeps running across the screen for about 30 mins until I pull the power cord.

I had a raspberry pi B+, from memory, I believe I used dd to write the xbian image to the microsd card and had no issues with that model.

Sounds like you used too large of a blocksize, try bs=1024K or smaller.

(28th Feb, 2015 02:56 PM)cship Wrote: [ -> ]What is the appeal of making the linux installer graphical and why does it require qt5?

The reason why is very simple and obvious.
Lately we can see so many users crossing borders from windoze and entering linux waters. We also recognized that not all of this users have a strong linux knowledge.
So for this reason we would like to bring this simple "click" tool, which is similar to windoze environment, to make life easier for those users who are still not fully confident.
Also most of these linux newcomers pick well known and used distributions like Ubuntu. And that is, where this installer is tested and made to work.

For linux skilled people there is no need to use such tool as they can simply use other ways to install as they know how to.
No matter what distribution they use, they can deal with things on the go or they know where to look or what to ask.

Hope this help you understand the reason behind and where we aiming

Yes dd can be super dangerous, if you accidentally dd'd sda instead of sdb or mmc you would wipe out your hard drive.

@rikardo While I appreciate the intent being shepherding the inexperienced, if the intent was to build a recent Ubuntu or Fedora installer, then why not call it that instead of directing all linux users to the gui installer?

I don't see how a shell script would be any more dangerous or difficult to use than the gui installer, it would be easier to use and more compatible because there are no dependencies beyond what is included in the base system of any linux distribution. Either way, GUI or shell script, the user has to ultimately select the target drive/microsd card.

If the XBian image can simply be dd'ed to a microsd card, why are there no instructions for this in the installation faq? I see that it says "If you are using a different operating system [than linux, windows, or OSX] you will have to download a XBian image and restore it to your SD card." here http://www.xbian.org/getxbian/ but I wasn't sure if XBian would resize the partitions or not post dd.

I'm not trying to beat anyone up or be rude because I am grateful for the work that has gone into providing me with XBian, I just honestly find it very strange that chasing down dependencies is viewed as an easier solution to running a simple bash script. Also, if dd is the perfered method of installation for people who are nix savvy, why not just say so in the getting started area? I was honestly confused

@f1vefour I had used dc3dd to write the image the first time with the default dc3dd settings, which I assume are bs=512.

In response to your suggestion, I zeroed the microsd card with dc3dd wipe=/dev/sdb. This time I decided to use dcfldd because couldn't find the man page for dc3dd to confirm that the default bs is 512, dc3dd's man page doesn't come with dc3dd.

I downloaded XBian_2015.02.21_rpi2.img.gz which was uploaded to sourceforge on 2015-02-21 and is 304.9 MB.

root@laptop /home/USERNAME/Downloads/raspberry # lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 149.1G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 2M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 17.7G 0 part /
├─sda3 8:3 0 131.1G 0 part /home
└─sda4 8:4 0 310M 0 part [SWAP]
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
sdb 8:16 1 7.5G 0 disk

root@laptop /home/USERNAME/Downloads/raspberry # dcfldd bs=512 if=XBian_2015.02.21_rpi2.img of=/dev/sdb
1135360 blocks (554Mb) written.
1135488+0 records in
1135488+0 records out

root@laptop /home/USERNAME/Downloads/raspberry # sync

I plugged the MicroSD card into the raspberry pi 2 with the power off. Then I connected the power cable and after about 20 seconds of the bar moving beneith the XBian splash screen, the bar froze during init. I waited about 10 minutes with the bar frozen and then I pulled the power cable.

I plugged the power cable back in and the bar ran across the screen with the message "creating" for a long time. Keeping the horrifically slow IO on the raspberry pi 2 in mind, I allowed the XBian bar to run across the screen for probably 15 mins and left it alone. I really wish I could see the system boot text, which is useful instead of the splash screen that offers no useful information other than the bar moving across the screen to indicate that something is happening or the bar freezing to indicate that nothing is happening. Eventually the bar stopped moving and after waiting about five minutes I figured that this means that I should unplug and re-plugin the raspberry pi 2.

I plugged the power cable in a third time and Kodi turned on within 20 seconds. I ran a system update immediately via kodi's menu and several significant packages were updated including Kodi. Once the update was completed, I pressed "s" and rebooted XBian.

When the raspberry pi 2 rebooted, the XBian splash screen said "init process..." with the big X that gives no meaningful output and the bar moved across the screen for a long time. With the raspberry pi 2's horrifically slow IO in mind, I decided to leave XBian alone to do its thing for about 30 mins. The system never got past the "init process" splash screen and I can't see any output, or login via SSH, so I have no idea what the problem is.

I unplugged the power and plugged it back in because this seemed to work the first three times. The bar just runs across the screen forever and Kodi never starts.

It has to be a local issue (I dd'd the latest Pi2 image yesterday), start with the simple. What are you using as a power supply, how many amps?

Do you have anything plugged into USB, how large is your SD? Do you have a SD reader you can use instead of USB, I had an issue with dd'ing to a USB microsd adapter previously.

definitely local issue. I have experienced the same on my Ubuntu machine and I was trying to blame XBian and it was my local problem.
when I used XBian installer all was just fine, flashed on first attempt and booted straight. no problems at all

@cship
this is an opensource project, so feel free to contribute. Every help is more than welcome
I am sure you know the way to our github

(28th Feb, 2015 10:44 PM)f1vefour Wrote: [ -> ]It has to be a local issue (I dd'd the latest Pi2 image yesterday), start with the simple. What are you using as a power supply, how many amps?

Do you have anything plugged into USB, how large is your SD? Do you have a SD reader you can use instead of USB, I had an issue with dd'ing to a USB microsd adapter previously.

I'm using this 2.5 amp UL listed power supply from canakit.
http://www.canakit.com/raspberry-pi-adapter-power-supply-2-5a.html

The only thing I have plugged into a USB port is a logitech unifying receiver for a k400r keyboard. I'm not sure what the power draw is but it can't be much.
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Wireless-Keyboard-Touchpad-Transceiver/dp/B008QS7TRK

I'm using this 8 gb samsung class 6 sd card because a moderator over at the raspberry pi forums recommended it.
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Class-Adapter-MB-MS08DA-AM/dp/B00IVPU6GO

I used the built in sd card reader on my laptop to zero and dd the XBian image without a SD to USB adapter.

I had only ever run XBian on my B+ and everything worked great. I was able to get a pi 2 the day they went on sale from a local store. While XBian was getting the image together for the pi 2, I unfortunately had to use other htpc distros. OSMC installed and ran for a few days but it was buggy and started crashing after a few updates, it's alpha so I didn't expect much. I really didn't like their new default skin either. Openelec installs without any issues and runs smooth for weeks with the exact same sd card and logitech unifying receiver. However, I can't install any other applications without compiling and gathering all of the dependencies myself. Also all of the htpc processes seem to be run by root, which I don't like

XBian did boot and ran but seemed to break after I updated it and hit reboot.

(28th Feb, 2015 10:57 PM)rikardo1979 Wrote: [ -> ]definitely local issue. I have experienced the same on my Ubuntu machine and I was trying to blame XBian and it was my local problem.
when I used XBian installer all was just fine, flashed on first attempt and booted straight. no problems at all

@cship
this is an opensource project, so feel free to contribute. Every help is more than welcome
I am sure you know the way to our github

Well, maybe the issue is that I'm not using the official ubuntu installer. I'll wipe the sd card and use the official installer. The thing is, XBian did boot and ran kodi. Only when I updated it and hit reboot did I get stuck in the never ending init loop.

The dreaded put up or shut up Time permitting, I'll write a shell script installer instead of just bitching about the lack of a shell script installer.

I've NEVER had a problem with the installer or dd on ubuntu 14.10

I use dd bs=1M ......

However, I have 2 identical micro SD readers one is suspect the other works all the time.

Hardware breaks all the time, especially if from the far east or the UK

Please remember that someone out of the goodness of their heart spend time creating the linux/OSX installer, they were not given a condo in Miami nor a Rolls Royce, so even if it's wrong, it's better than nothing.

I'm curious, what unofficial ubuntu installer are you using? If using unetbootin then there is your problem.

(1st Mar, 2015 03:31 AM)IriDium Wrote: [ -> ]I've NEVER had a problem with the installer or dd on ubuntu 14.10

I use dd bs=1M ......

However, I have 2 identical micro SD readers one is suspect the other works all the time.

Hardware breaks all the time, especially if from the far east or the UK

Please remember that someone out of the goodness of their heart spend time creating the linux/OSX installer, they were not given a condo in Miami nor a Rolls Royce, so even if it's wrong, it's better than nothing.

I'm curious, what unofficial ubuntu installer are you using? If using unetbootin then there is your problem.

I'm not using ubuntu, I'm using debian wheezy amd64, before that I was using CentOS. I'm really wondering if the installation works if I use the gui installer because that is what has been most tested, I'll try it and report back.

I followed the dd instructions you recommended exactly and the installation process was very strange because I had to unplug and re-plugin the raspberry pi 2 three times before kodi would launch. The first boot hung at init but the bar stopped moving. On the second boot, "create" ran until the bar stopped moving. Then on the third boot kodi launched successfully. In the opening menu where the device is setup, I used the option to install any updates. Numerous updates were applied. When I told the system to reboot, it got stuck in at init with the bar moving across the screen forever. Unplugging and re-plugging just brought me back to the same init screen with the bar running forever.

I'm not sure why the hardware is believed to be the problem because the exact same hardware reliably runs a dd'ed openelec image without any issues whatsoever. I was also able to run OSMC for a week or so but it's alpha software and was very buggy.

The intent of my post wasn't to bash the person who took the time to create the gui install package. I know how these projects work, it's a labor of love, same thing with being a moderator. My point is that all linux users are directed to use the gui installer on the downloads page and the "linux installer" is intended to be used on bleeding edge distributions like recent ubuntu derivatives, fedora, arch, or gentoo. The linux installer is broken for any distribution that does not have the qt5 dependency. If the preferred installation method for people that are not using a bleeding edge linux distribution or are using BSD is to dd the XBian image, I feel the dd option should be clearly noted on the downloads or the installation instructions page.

(1st Mar, 2015 11:41 AM)cship Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not sure why the hardware is believed to be the problem because the exact same hardware reliably runs a dd'ed openelec image without any issues whatsoever. I was also able to run OSMC for a week or so but it's alpha software and was very buggy.

The thing is this is how it is for XBian with us, we flash it and it works perfectly. We need to find out what is your issue but it's difficult since we can't reproduce it.

(1st Mar, 2015 11:41 AM)cship Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not using ubuntu, I'm using debian wheezy amd64, before that I was using CentOS. I'm really wondering if the installation works if I use the gui installer because that is what has been most tested, I'll try it and report back.

Your quote: "Well, maybe the issue is that I'm not using the official ubuntu installer"

In response to the suggestions that this may be a hardware issue on my end, I switched to a smaller unbranded 2gb microsd card that I found in an old cell phone. I used both the ubuntu installer and dd'ed the latest xbian pi 2 image that was uploaded 2015-02-28 and is 299.1 MB. Both installation methods worked fine. As soon as the raspberry pi 2 booted up, it went through the installation sequence without any issue.

When I wrote the same image to the new 8gb samsung class 6 microsd that I purchased from amazon, which was recommended by a mod on the raspberry pi forums, the boot up hung at init and the bar ran across the screen for a long time. The first boot installation sequence never activated.

I'm wondering if there might be an issue with the first run script and the large 8gb microsd card because the exact same card runs openelec without any issues whatsoever. Do 8gb+ sd cards work for the staff?

Perhaps the brand new microsd card is broken. I'm not sure how to verify an issue with the microsd so I wrote the newest raspbian image to it to test to see if it runs well and doesn't break. Maybe I got a bogus microsd card from Amazon directly.

Seems like there is no reason to write a shell script to install an image under nix because dding works just fine. Maybe just putting a blurb about that in the installation area would be helpful.

I have a Class 4 16G SanDisk in my Pi 2

Samsung 16gb UHS-1 card here, no probs too
maybe a firmware +kernel constellation together with your card?
just guessing as it would not be the first time