[IDEA] Boot XBian from USB

[IriDium]

(22nd Nov, 2013 03:38 AM)Rubman Wrote:  

(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.

It works - just not on your system, if you don't want to cooperate then that is your prerogative.

[Rubman]

Oh it's not that I dont wan't to cooperate, but whatever I try (and I have been for 2 days now) it doesn't seem to work.
(And I also have a nagging girlfriend that I promised a working media center)
What do you need to know to help,'and also make it work on my system?

[Wrechid]

(22nd Nov, 2013 03:57 AM)Rubman Wrote:  Oh it's not that I dont wan't to cooperate, but whatever I try (and I have been for 2 days now) it doesn't seem to work.
(And I also have a nagging girlfriend that I promised a working media center)
What do you need to know to help,'and also make it work on my system?

Hello Rubman,
I have done this many times, I'll try to help... First thing to look at, is the sdcard... If you see random errors or problems try a different sdcard...
When you do the xbian copier mothed, the source and destination I use is /dev/root /dev/sda1... The copy process can take a few minutes, just be patient... Then edit the cmdline.txt file, you want root to point to the USB... root=/dev/sda1
Do a reboot, then check "df - h"... In my case it was still running from sdcard... So I then edited the fstab file, both lines with /dev/root, I changed to /dev/sda1... I rebooted and everything was working... I even removed the system and swap partitions from the sdcard to verify... Let me know if you get it...

[Wrechid]

(21st Nov, 2013 02:46 PM)mk01 Wrote:  @Wrechid

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

Hello mk01,
here is that error i mentioned

Code:

19:36:15 T:2940896320   ERROR: EXCEPTION Thrown (PythonToCppException) : -->Python callback/script returned the following error<--
                                             - NOTE: IGNORING THIS CAN LEAD TO MEMORY LEAKS!
                                            Error Type: <type 'exceptions.IndexError'>
                                            Error Contents: list index out of range
                                            Traceback (most recent call last):
                                              File "/home/xbian/.xbmc/addons/plugin.xbianconfig/services.py", line 17, in <module>
                                                upgrade_thread.onStart()
                                              File "/home/xbian/.xbmc/addons/plugin.xbianconfig/services/upgrade.py", line 105, in onStart
                                                if xbianConfig('updates','progress')[0] != '1':
                                            IndexError: list index out of range
                                            -->End of Python script error report<--

everything seems to be working... its only when i copy the boot partition and write it to a different sdcard...

[Rubman]

(22nd Nov, 2013 06:24 AM)Wrechid Wrote:  

(22nd Nov, 2013 03:57 AM)Rubman Wrote:  Oh it's not that I dont wan't to cooperate, but whatever I try (and I have been for 2 days now) it doesn't seem to work.
(And I also have a nagging girlfriend that I promised a working media center)
What do you need to know to help,'and also make it work on my system?

Hello Rubman,
I have done this many times, I'll try to help... First thing to look at, is the sdcard... If you see random errors or problems try a different sdcard...
When you do the xbian copier mothed, the source and destination I use is /dev/root /dev/sda1... The copy process can take a few minutes, just be patient... Then edit the cmdline.txt file, you want root to point to the USB... root=/dev/sda1
Do a reboot, then check "df - h"... In my case it was still running from sdcard... So I then edited the fstab file, both lines with /dev/root, I changed to /dev/sda1... I rebooted and everything was working... I even removed the system and swap partitions from the sdcard to verify... Let me know if you get it...

That's what I did except for the df -h because when I changed the cmdline.txt to sda1 it wouldn't even start completely. it just hangs in a kind of ssh screen on the tv. (away now so can't reaaly test and say what kind of error occured)
When I edited the fstab file via ssh (cmdline was normal booting from sd) and then edited the cmdline to usb boot it started initially but after a while it just crashed (or whenever I tried to ssh into the Pi)

[Wrechid]

Hello Rubman,
It really sounds like a sdcard failing on ya... I had 2 cards fail on me recently... It was horrible trying to figure out which one was bad... :/ another thing could be the power supply... You mentioned that after a while, it would mess up... With power supplies, if they get warn, they tend to produce less power...
Just for trial and error, try removing the overclock settings from config.txt... That will reduce power needed, also less strain on sdcard...

[Rubman]

Power source is a HTC cable that had proved usefull thus far, can be the sd card since there just chiped of a small piece of the side.

[IriDium]

SD cards are very fragile - the plastic separators can become damaged which can cause issues.

Which is why I use a micro and leave the SD apaptor in the RPi.

Also high speed SD cards can also cause issues. A class 4 6 or 10 is all you really need.

Try another card - if you have one

[Rubman]

Yeah luckily it's only the adaptor, and with a new one it works like normal. Now to get usb boot working again. Time for another try.

[IriDium]

@Rubman Hopefully it will work for you now. However, if you are on the latest Beta 2, I would give it a while, as there is a current issue with xbian-config which may not work - a stuck copy

[Rubman]

(25th Nov, 2013 06:31 AM)IriDium Wrote:  @Rubman Hopefully it will work for you now. However, if you are on the latest Beta 2, I would give it a while, as there is a current issue with xbian-config which may not work - a stuck copy

After swapping the adapter for my microsd the Pi went from dodgy to stable.

Formatted the USB (just to be sure to erase all remnants of dodgy transfers) and restarted the copy via Xbian config. Took a while (anout 5-10 minutes) but after that is was just editing cmdline.txt and fstab (it still refused to start from USB without editing fstab)

Seems to be working propperly now and a lot faster, even ssh into the pi didn't cause it to completely fail again.
my fstab file now looks like the one from Wrechid, and it seems to be running from USB.
however if I look into df- h it says boot from mmscp(something)01 40% used. That's normal right?

[IriDium]

(25th Nov, 2013 07:42 PM)Rubman Wrote:  however if I look into df- h it says boot from mmscp(something)01 40% used. That's normal right?

Remember you only COPIED the filesystem, so the original is still on the SD card.

[Rubman]

(26th Nov, 2013 05:32 AM)IriDium Wrote:  

(25th Nov, 2013 07:42 PM)Rubman Wrote:  however if I look into df- h it says boot from mmscp(something)01 40% used. That's normal right?

Remember you only COPIED the filesystem, so the original is still on the SD card.

I get that, but when I see Home etc Running from USB it's good right?

It still needs to boot from SD and the rest is running from USB.

[Smultie]

Just finally (no idea why it took me so long) switched from SD to USB, and switched to the "High" overclock.
Should have done this way sooner! Boots and reacts much quicker, CPU idle is down to 12%.

[edvahass]

So my /mnt/etc/fstab file looks nothing like the ones mentioned earlier in this thread. There is no "LABEL=xbian-root-btrfs" and no "subvol=root/@". I'm following the guide from the wiki.

Here are the contents of the file:

Code:

#
#
#
/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
/dev/root             /                       xbian   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

What do I do?

EDIT: Also I'm running the newest version (XBian beta 2)