Forum - Boot XBian from USB

root=/dev/spa1

is

root=/dev/SDA1 (lowercase of course) .

for /boot mounting auto, remove "noauto" from last line in fstab file.

Thank you! Turns out it works when no typos are made.

hello, i just got my hands on the new beta2... it runs great from SD, but when i try to move it over to USB with this method http://wiki.xbian.org/USB_Installation i get an error at the 2nd step...
heres what i tried and the errors,

root@xbian:~# mkfs.btrfs -L xbian-usb /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1 appears to contain an existing filesystem (vfat).
Error: Use the -f option to force overwrite.

root@xbian:~# mkfs.btrfs -Lf xbian-usb /dev/sda1
Error: error checking xbian-usb status: No such file or directory

root@xbian:~# mkfs.btrfs -f xbian-usb /dev/sda1
Error: error checking xbian-usb status: No such file or directory

if i ignore the errors and proceed through the how-to, the RPi freezes during the rsync process... :/
XBian still boots afterwards, but have to reformat the USB...

any help is always appreciated...

I figured it out... i had the -Lf option backwards... it should be -fL, (i.e. sudo mkfs.btrfs -fL xbian-usb /dev/sda1) "To-may-to, to-mah-to" hehe... also the /mnt/etc/fstab file is different in the beta2, it should look like this afterwards

Code:

#

#

#

/dev/mmcblk0p1        /boot                   xbian   rw                              0       1

/dev/sda1             /home                   xbian   subvol=home/@,noatime           0       0

/dev/sda1             /lib/modules            xbian   subvol=modules/@,noatime        0       0

none            /run/lock                       tmpfs                   noauto                  0       0

none            /run/shm                        tmpfs                   noauto                  0       0

none            /run/user                       tmpfs                   noauto                  0       0

none            /sys/kernel/debug               debugfs                 noauto                  0       0

none            /sys/kernel/security            securityfs              noauto                  0       0

and the /boot/cmdline.txt file should look like this

Code:

sdhci-bcm2708.sync_after_dma=0 dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=tty1 root=/dev/sda1 rootflags=autodefrag,compress=lzo rootfstype=btrfs rootwait smsc95xx.turbo_mode=Y elevator=cfq logo.nologo quiet noswap loglevel=0 mod_scsi.scan=sync partswap startevent=mountall splash nohdparm --startup-event mountall

i'm not for sure if this is the best options for both files, as i'm not pro... but if there are improvements, i'll be glad to try and use them... Smile

since i was using a class 4 sd card, XBian is really cruising on USB now... Smile

(18th Nov, 2013 10:57 PM)Wrechid Wrote: [ -> ]I figured it out... i had the -Lf option backwards... it should be -fL, (i.e. sudo mkfs.btrfs -fL xbian-usb /dev/sda1) "To-may-to, to-mah-to" hehe... also the /mnt/etc/fstab file is different in the beta2, it should look like this afterwards

Code:

# # # /dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot xbian rw 0 1 /dev/sda1 /home xbian subvol=home/@,noatime 0 0 /dev/sda1 /lib/modules xbian subvol=modules/@,noatime 0 0 none /run/lock tmpfs noauto 0 0 none /run/shm tmpfs noauto 0 0 none /run/user tmpfs noauto 0 0 none /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0 none /sys/kernel/security securityfs noauto 0 0

and the /boot/cmdline.txt file should look like this

Code:

sdhci-bcm2708.sync_after_dma=0 dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=tty1 root=/dev/sda1 rootflags=autodefrag,compress=lzo rootfstype=btrfs rootwait smsc95xx.turbo_mode=Y elevator=cfq logo.nologo quiet noswap loglevel=0 mod_scsi.scan=sync partswap startevent=mountall splash nohdparm --startup-event mountall

i'm not for sure if this is the best options for both files, as i'm not pro... but if there are improvements, i'll be glad to try and use them...
since i was using a class 4 sd card, XBian is really cruising on USB now...

Well i'm not sure i did it well but it works. Used Xbian-copier from xbian-config menu and move / directory to /dev/sda1, then i change cmdline.txt to /dev/sda1 and i have:

Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs 3.2G 441M 2.6G 15% /
udev 256K 4.0K 252K 2% /dev
tmpfs 25M 192K 25M 1% /run
/dev/sda1 3.2G 441M 2.6G 15% /
/dev/mmcblk0p1 34M 14M 21M 40% /boot
/dev/sda1 3.2G 441M 2.6G 15% /home
/dev/sda1 3.2G 441M 2.6G 15% /lib/modules
/dev/sda1 3.2G 441M 2.6G 15% /xbmc-backup

My fstab file :

#
#
/dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot xbian rw 0 1
/dev/root /home xbian subvol=home/@,noatime 0 0
/dev/root /lib/modules xbian subvol=modules/@,noatime 0 0

none /run/lock tmpfs noauto 0 0
none /run/shm tmpfs noauto 0 0
none /run/user tmpfs noauto 0 0
none /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
none /sys/kernel/security securityfs noauto 0 0

and cmdline.txt

sdhci-bcm2708.sync_after_dma=0 dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=tty1 root=/dev/sda1 rootflags=subvol=root/@,autodefrag,compress=lzo rootfstype=btrfs rootwait smsc95xx.turbo_mode=Y elevator=cfq logo.nologo quiet noswap loglevel=0 mod_scsi.scan=sync partswap startevent=mountall splash nohdparm --startup-event mountall

Still have "subvol=root/@" but like i said its works so im not sure to remove this.

My question is how disable swap on sd card ? I have swap on usb partition and how to move this zram thingy from sd to usb, or create new one on usb ?

Quote:My question is how disable swap on sd card ? I have swap on usb partition and how to move this zram thingy from sd to usb, or create new one on usb ?

the swap partition on the SD card is no longer used afterwards... i have even deleted it from the SD card and the mmcblk0p2 partition from the SD card to just make sure everything is working from only the USB device except for during boot when it uses the mmcblk0p1 partition...

@pit79

your settings look good, the fstab file is a lil different than what i have, but it should still work... when the fstab file didn't work for me, was when my modules wouldn't work... took me a sec to figure out why my keyboard wouldn't work, lol... Smile

I just tried that XBian Copier method, and that is awesome... i still had to edit the fstab file but the cmdline.txt file was already setup...
it gives the users a chance to switch to other devices at will, and i like the idea of doing it from the ssh prompt...

keep up the good work guys, once again yall have amazed me... Smile

have a lot of extra old sd cards laying around, and i had an idea i wanted to share... Smile

i just got a new class 4, 8gb sd card, then i moved the system files over to USB for a better performance... my issue was, what a waist of 8gb when only using 40mb of it for booting...

so after i moved system files to USB and got eveything working fine, i went to ssh prompt and typed in

Code:

dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p1 of=/home/boot.img

this made a copy of the boot partition from the sd card and saved it to the home directory... then i moved it to my computer and wrote the new boot.img to an antique 64mb sd card... Smile

then just replaced the 8gb card with this one...

@Wrechid

indeed a good way how to use 32mb/64mb cards.

(21st Nov, 2013 02:46 PM)mk01 Wrote: [ -> ]@Wrechid

indeed a good way how to use 32mb/64mb cards.

I did find a small problem with this though... I'm now getting a script fail error
for the xbian-config addon... I'll post the error log for it tomorrow... I haven't had a chance to look into it more... It's something about updating... If I remember right it was line 105 in the system.py, and line 15 in the update.py...

It's not to important, just keeping you updated... Smile

I can't seem to get Xbian to boot from USB with beta 2
Whenever I try to use xbian copier it hangs somewhere in the proces.
Tried sda1 sda2 and usb in both ports, about all i can think of but it doesn't seem to want to work.

it always hangs here:

receiving subvol @.ro uuid=(long string), stransid=

@Rubman I seem to be having similar problems with the copier. Mine is with creating a .img file.

It get's so far and either hangs - kills the terminal session or other stange things.

Have you upgraded to the latest packages? As I think this might be the issue.

I'd wait for a bit as I think something has gone wrong. This WAS working at release.

Just happened again:

XBian 1.0Beta2
│ Delete subvolume '/tmp/btrfs-dest/home/@.ro' │
│ Create subvolume '/tmp/btrfs-dest/modules' │
│ DEBUG: v = modules, s = orig_name │
│ Create a readonly snapshot of '/tmp/btrfs-source/modules/@' in '/tmp/btrfs │
│ At subvol /tmp/btrfs-source/modules/@.ro │
│ At subvol @.ro │
│ receiving subvol @.ro uuid=9a892a96-6bf6-1a48-a3c1-3258555bfd3a, stransid= │
│ BTRFS_IOC_SEND returned 0 │
│ joining genl thread │
│ BTRFS_IOC_SET_RECEIVED_SUBVOL uuid=9a892a96-6bf6-1a48-a3c1-3258555bfd3a, s │
│ Delete subvolume '/tmp/btrfs-source/modules/@.ro' │
│ Create a snapshot of '/tmp/btrfs-dest/modules/@.ro' in '/tmp/btrfs-dest/mo │
│ Delete subvolume '/tmp/btrfs-dest/modules/@.ro' │
│ Create subvolume '/tmp/btrfs-dest/root' │
│ DEBUG: v = root, s = orig_name │
│ Create a readonly snapshot of '/tmp/btrfs-source/root/@' in '/tmp/btrfs-so │
│ At subvol /tmp/btrfs-source/root/@.ro │
│ At subvol @.ro │
│ receiving subvol @.ro uuid=a4ea9fdb-6d88-7a48-8ecc-7c32766c2497, stransid= │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

I finally got it to work, first it just wouldn't boot (got into sort of ssh screen) but after editing fstab file it started up right.

I only have no idea if it is really running from USB, is there any way tho check this?

If you edited cmdline.txt correctly and it booted - you are certainly running off of the USB.

There should be no need to edit fstab - maybe that is where the problem is.

Can you post the output of fstab to assist in debugging. Tnx

If df -h shows / as your USB drive then it has booted off of the USB

(22nd Nov, 2013 03:29 AM)IriDium Wrote: [ -> ]If you edited cmdline.txt correctly and it booted - you are certainly running off of the USB.

There should be no need to edit fstab - maybe that is where the problem is.

Can you post the output of fstab to assist in debugging. Tnx

If df -h shows / as your USB drive then it has booted off of the USB

You mean ssh into Pi and the just running DF -h?

Oh and the fstab files change is already found some page back (2 lines changed from /root to /sda1)

Just tried to ssh into Pi and it went black on tv an reboot just failed back to ssh screen on tv, sigh..
I'l just leave USB booting for now untill it really works.