[PROBLEM] upgrade to Krypton returns 16.1 after reboot

[jakenl]

I run through the Xbian GUI menu the normal update procedure (stable). Reading the update text scrolling by I don't see anything misbehaving. Installation is successfully. After reboot, I am back at version 16.1 again. I first thought that maybe some plugins are in the way, so I deleted a bunch of them that I don't use anyway by 'uninstalling' them the official way. After a reboot all those plugins were back...

Maybe it somehow loaded an old snapshot, and through the Wiki I was able to delete all existing snapshots. After another reboot, all those snapshots are back....

Alltogether it seems like my SD-card is in read-only mode but how in the world can that happen? Kodi still runs fine, so that is not a problem, but I can't update a single thing anymore.

[jakenl]

Since I knew that last Friday Krypton would be around, I had powered down the RPI the week before and wrote an image of the SD-card to my pc hdd. I therefore can go back to the status of Feb.23, but that doesn't help. I see that I have a non-existing path in my Xbian - Backup - Image location, but it is as with all other settings today: I can change it to an existing location on a USB-stick, but it will be back to the old path after a reboot.

Somehow, after trying multiple things and upgrading multiple times, the screen went black for 5 seconds and all of a sudden I was in the new skin of Krypton. I there uninstalled the addin 'Pulsar' again and everything was fine. However, after a reboot, I was back at 16.1 again. Really, really weird altoghether.

[Nachteule]

(28th Feb, 2017 06:38 AM)jakenl Wrote:  I run through the Xbian GUI menu the normal update procedure (stable). Reading the update text scrolling by I don't see anything misbehaving. Installation is successfully. After reboot, I am back at version 16.1 again. I first thought that maybe some plugins are in the way, so I deleted a bunch of them that I don't use anyway by 'uninstalling' them the official way. After a reboot all those plugins were back...

Maybe it somehow loaded an old snapshot, and through the Wiki I was able to delete all existing snapshots. After another reboot, all those snapshots are back....

Alltogether it seems like my SD-card is in read-only mode but how in the world can that happen? Kodi still runs fine, so that is not a problem, but I can't update a single thing anymore.

That's true. Do you have Samsung SD-cards? I have same issue here with samsung cards, took me hours to figure out what the problem was. Having two of them, both are read only, but you can write to them without any error.

That's extremely weird and absolutely annoying

Now using Sandisk's, will see if they are better

[jakenl]

It indeed is a Samsung EVO card. Very fast and never had any trouble with it. Can I still use my image and flash it on another brand card with the same size?

[Nachteule]

Yes, you can. And agree, Samsung seems to be fast, faster than Sandisk

[jakenl]

(28th Feb, 2017 09:58 AM)Nachteule Wrote:  Yes, you can. And agree, Samsung seems to be fast, faster than Sandisk

Thanks. However, I was one of those 'lucky ones' that chose from a set of 2 16gb micro SD-cards the biggest one to begin with. Trying to write the image of the original Samsung card to another one didn't succeed since the size of the card was a few Mb's smaller.

After skipping a bunch of Linux based solutions, I came across the advice to use a Windows tool, HDDRawCopy. It did generate an error after writing 99%, but nevertheless the 2nd card booted fine and writing to the card works as well, the same for Xbian updating to Krypton.

None of the suggested 'remove write-lock' tricks for micro SD-cards worked, so I have called for a RMA. Although with low prices nowadays it is almost a waste of spending a post stamp on returning the card.

[Nachteule]

(2nd Mar, 2017 06:08 AM)jakenl Wrote:  Thanks. However, I was one of those 'lucky ones' that chose from a set of 2 16gb micro SD-cards the biggest one to begin with. Trying to write the image of the original Samsung card to another one didn't succeed since the size of the card was a few Mb's smaller.

After skipping a bunch of Linux based solutions, I came across the advice to use a Windows tool, HDDRawCopy. It did generate an error after writing 99%, but nevertheless the 2nd card booted fine and writing to the card works as well, the same for Xbian updating to Krypton.

That could be dangerous, because last partition (usually the swap partition) may not fit completely to the sd-card. Probably would be good idea to delete swap partition and create a new one

Quote:None of the suggested 'remove write-lock' tricks for micro SD-cards worked, so I have called for a RMA. Although with low prices nowadays it is almost a waste of spending a post stamp on returning the card.

Fully agree

[jakenl]

Do you mind sharing how I can do the delete create swap process?

[Nachteule]

Sure

1. Check if initramfs is used, it is required for auto-creatiion of swap partition

File /boot/config.txt must look like this:

Terminal

cat /boot/config.txt
initramfs initramfs.gz 0x1500000
kernel kernel.img
...
...

If initramfs.gz 0x1500000 is commented out, you have to enable initramfs (can be done in xbian-config GUI)

2. Disable swap and delete existing swap partition

Open ssh commection

Terminal

xbian@kmxbilr2 ~ $ sudo swapoff -a
[sudo] password for xbian:
xbian@kmxbilr2 ~ $ sudo fdisk /dev/mmcblk0

Welcome to fdisk (util-linux 2.25.2).
Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.
Be careful before using the write command.


Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 14,7 GiB, 15720251392 bytes, 30703616 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x48fa040d

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1 * 2048 141311 139264 68M b W95 FAT32
/dev/mmcblk0p2 141312 30201855 30060544 14,3G 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p3 30201856 30703615 501760 245M 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-3, default 3): 3

Partition 3 has been deleted.

Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered.
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Re-reading the partition table failed.: Das Gerät oder die Ressource ist belegt

The kernel still uses the old table. The new table will be used at the next reboot or after you run partprobe(8) or kpartx(8).

3. Reboot

Terminal

sudo reboot

4. Check if swap partition has been created again

Terminal

xbian@kmxbilr2 ~ $ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for xbian:

...

Device Boot Start End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1 * 2048 141311 139264 68M b W95 FAT32
/dev/mmcblk0p2 141312 30201855 30060544 14,3G 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p3 30201856 30703615 501760 245M 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/zram0: 64 MiB, 67108864 bytes, 16384 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
xbian@kmxbilr2 ~ $

[jakenl]

The initramfs is indeed commented out. I only don't understand how to enable initramfs through the xbian-config gui. I don't see a service with that name. In the package folder I see that initramfs-tools is installed.

[Nachteule]

This is part of advanced feature, you have to enable it in Preferences category:



And after enabled advanced mode, you find it in System category



Make sure that this setting is set to Always

Finally, you have to reboot your device

[jakenl]

Thanks, I now was able to follow the complete tutorial and everything is fine.

Even after checking Wikipedia, I don't fully understand the use of initramfs. Does it matter whether I leave it on 'always' or put in back to 'required'?

[Nachteule]

Under normal condition, initramfs is not needed. All modules required for booting are compiled into kernel.

Required means, if there is a special condition like root filesystem is ZFS or F2FS (not sure if this still works), initramfs is required because those modules are not built into kernel.

Always is the safest method and is needed for root filesystem resize and creating swap partition after initial boot and might be useful in case of root filesystem issues.

So, you do not need to changed back setting to required

[jakenl]