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Author Topic: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi  (Read 16256 times)

Weaver

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Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« on: June 13, 2019, 03:05:53 AM »

Revisiting this topic again. :-(

I’m wondering if I might have the energy and concentration required to get a (local, on LAN) Raspberry Pi B+ going. The new model, with faster WLAN NIC and somewhat faster (wired) Ethernet which now approaches a miserable 300Mbps.

I asked about this before, but didn’t get very far. But now I’m thinking once more about finding someone to help me. Being in bed, I can’t get say the ‘Starter Kit’ from Pi Hut going as it requires a monitor and keyboard and obviously I can’t do that stuff. So to recap, what I would need is someone to help get me started by getting an o/s set up so that it will permit login, with say ssh or telnet, over the LAN, immediately from boot, with no keyboard mouse or display.

I would really want a 64-bit o/s an AAarch64 build of some sort, because I want to learn AArch64 asm, not the horrible old 32-bit instruction set. I don’t know if this is possible.

I need to get an SD card for it somehow and the Pi Hut starter kit comes with a card that must work although it is rather disappointingly piddly at 16MB, but I suppose that will have to do.

Ideally if I could find the right dealer they would install an o/s properly for me so it would just work, but I wouldn’t know where to begin. Pi Hut doesn’t seem to have any kind of cuddly customer service, they ship boxes, as far as I can see. Does anyone have any ideas?

Failing that, if I do find some volunteer to help me, I need to ship the machine to them and then get it shipped back.

One further problem occurs to me: what about assigning IP addresses to the Pi?

If I can find a helper what IP addresses will the Pi have on their network, and what will then happen when it is relocated to my LAN? For IPv6, I want the machine to do zeroconfig and just pick up a prefix from the router. For IPv4 I want the machine to either be a DHCP client or set IPv4 addresses for the NICs statically at my choice of fixed, routable (global) IPv4 addresses, which is going to be extremely awkward for my helper unless perhaps they set everything up and then changed it at the last minute. But that seems like way too much trouble, and being a DHCP client for IPv4 has to be the sane choice and also the safe one, less chance of it simply breaking when it arrives here.

Any thoughts?
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burakkucat

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #1 on: June 13, 2019, 05:31:35 PM »

Revisiting this topic again. :-(

<snip

I would really want a 64-bit o/s an AAarch64 build of some sort, because I want to learn AArch64 asm, not the horrible old 32-bit instruction set. I don’t know if this is possible.

For aarch64 I would suggest that you consider the The Alternative Architecture SIG (Special Interest Group) of the CentOS Project, in particular that of aarch64 (obviously). I would recommend that you make contact with Jim Perrin, explain your personal circumstances and desire for a 64-bit R-Pi.
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displaced

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #2 on: June 14, 2019, 12:13:01 AM »

[edit: I shouldn’t post so late. Totally missed the aarch64 stuff. Please feel free to ignore!]

I set up a Pi Zero W the other day totally headless.

I downloaded a Raspbian image and wrote it to the SD Card. Then, you’ll see a volume named ‘boot’ on the card.

Create an empty file named simply ‘ssh’ in the root of ‘boot’ to enable ssh.

Then, create another file named ‘wpa_supplicant.conf’ in the same location. That’s where you can set your WiFi connection up.

Then, pop the SD card in the Pi and it’ll start up, connect to your WLAN with DHCP and you’ll be able to ssh into it.  Defaults are:

Hostname: raspberrypi
User: pi
Pass: raspberry

Here’s a link to an example wpa_supplicant.conf file and further instructions:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/wireless/headless.md

Once ssh’d in, run raspi-config to do the usual first-time setup.

You’ve then got a Debian-style Linux system at your disposal!
« Last Edit: June 14, 2019, 12:16:08 AM by displaced »
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Weaver

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #3 on: June 14, 2019, 10:28:24 PM »

Thanks to displaced. That’s right I remember that it’s really simple. Of course I physically cannot do any of it as I can’t sit upright for that long and don’t have a display or keyboard (although those latter points could be remedied, the first can not). And the last time I tried this, with a helpful neighbour who has several pis volunteering, I got the wrong kind of SD card (too large? I don’t remember what). And I have no idea what makes a card qualify so Im think one way is that should really buy a card from a pi dealer as then it would be guaranteed to work. But it’s a shame that say the pi Hut offering is so tichy - rather limits future possibilities.
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burakkucat

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #4 on: June 14, 2019, 10:48:54 PM »

If I was going to use a R-Pi for regular, everyday, work I would connect a disk drive, via USB, for all my user files. Just have the OS on the SD card . . . Hence a 4GB SD card would be ample.

Many years ago, when developing certain chunks of code for Bald_Eagle1 to incorporate into HG612_stats, I used a 4GB USB memory stick for all the user files and the log files.
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Weaver

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #5 on: June 14, 2019, 11:11:09 PM »

Yes, I was thinking about that - that would be a usb SSD? Or a mechanical magnetic one?

Yes you’re right 16GB is fine then in that case. Thank you.

So it’s the kit with 16GB card for me. Is Pi `Hut the best place or are there better places? Best would be one with customer service to set it up for me.

Or otherwise recommendations about where I should go to look for a volunteer.
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burakkucat

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #6 on: June 14, 2019, 11:34:52 PM »

Yes, I was thinking about that - that would be a usb SSD? Or a mechanical magnetic one?

I used a standard USB SSD with 4GB capacity, if I am remembering correctly. Obviously USB memory sticks/SSDs will degrade with usage but not as rapidly as SD cards.

Quote
So it’s the kit with 16GB card for me. Is Pi `Hut the best place or are there better places? Best would be one with customer service to set it up for me.

I really cannot say. When I purchased my R-Pi (a model 1B) when they were first released, it was with a pre-loaded SD card and PSU from RS Components. I subsequently purchased a set of three heat sinks, a USB to ttl serial console lead (that connects to the relevant GPIO pins) and a case from ModMyPi.

If you are still interested in a 64-bit, aarch64, version then further research is necessary.
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Weaver

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RP
« Reply #7 on: June 15, 2019, 02:43:00 AM »

If one can find the sources and build an o/s, can one do an in-place self-overwrite install, like Windows?
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burakkucat

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #8 on: June 15, 2019, 02:17:49 PM »

All things are possible but I suspect that what you have suggested would be fraught with problems should not be undertaken lightly.  :-\
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Weaver

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #9 on: June 15, 2019, 10:15:14 PM »

Duly warned off. Thanks for the guidance.
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IanG

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #10 on: June 20, 2019, 01:02:54 AM »

If you have not yet acquired a pi, the 3B may be the best option. As the 3A does not have an Ethernet port, connecting to a headless version can be a challenge.

For headless access, I recommend the free ssh client from Bitvise, which makes it very easy to transfer files and issue commands.

https://www.bitvise.com/ssh-client

SD cards of 16 or 32 GB are not expensive these days. It's straightforward to download the Raspbian operating system from the raspberry pi site. To load it onto the card from a Windows PC, use Etcher.

https://www.balena.io/etcher/

As 'displaced' says, you must follow his procedure to enable ssh, otherwise enabling it needs a keyboard and screen.

For the IP address (which you asked about), the modem will tell you what it is initially. I find it simplest to allocate a new number from the modem, and then reboot the pi from the Bitvise command window, as headless connections are simpler if the IP number never changes. Alternatively, the raspberry pi forum gives details of how to fix it in the pi. As a conceit, I currently have a pi sitting at address x.y.3.142.
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Weaver

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #11 on: June 20, 2019, 10:22:52 AM »

Hi Ian, I need to explain. I’m in bed all day every day all the time and can’t sit upright at a desk for more than a few minutes or so most of the time. Pain strange sensations, terrible itching and dizziness, tiredness and lack of concentration are my main symptoms.
Chronic pain and ME/chronic fatigue syndrome is my diagnosis but I have a lot of other problem symptoms besides, caused by the medication. I can get to the bathroom right next door so it’s effectively en-suite (~10m) although I sometimes need a little help steadying myself.

 I don’t have a windows box. I do everything from a huge iPad (the biggest one, iPad Pro v1). I have a programmer’s powerful text editor, Textastic, and several SSH and telnet clients. For file transfer to/from the Pi I just use the integrated file-xfer-over-SSH facilities of Textastic. The showstopper for me has always been that I cannot do the initial setup of the pi when a keyboard mouse and display is required.

If someone were willing to get me past the point in the Pi setup where SSH-login from boot time would be enabled by default, then I would be self-sufficient, if that’s the word ?

I’m using Ubuntu on my hosted pi now. Ideally an AAarch64 build would be my dream, if such a thing even exists, as I could then do some modern ARM asm. But that’s just a dream and otherwise the o/s version doesn’t matter because I am new to these things, never used *nix until recently and extremely ignorant despite having been a professional asm and C programmer for 14 years.
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johnson

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #12 on: June 20, 2019, 11:11:05 AM »

The showstopper for me has always been that I cannot do the initial setup of the pi when a keyboard mouse and display is required.

If someone were willing to get me past the point in the Pi setup where SSH-login from boot time would be enabled by default, then I would be self-sufficient, if that’s the word ?

As @displaced was saying there are now mechanisms in place so you can set up a pi completely headless (there may have been for a while now, but I only encountered them recently setting up a pi zero w for TV). You just need to place a certain file on the boot partition and edit the wireless config on the sd card. I guess that means its not really headless as you have to use something with a screen and sd card slot, but no TV or keyboard need to be attached to the pi. This would get you a raspbian system up and running.

Of course a friendly member could post you an sd card with this configured, but if you wanted to play with different distributions, or just recover from a (bad) command fumble it would be better if you could write your own base images to sd cards. Lightning to SD card readers seem available and cheap (~£7), but the question is is there anyway to write an .img file to the sd card from within iOS... a bit of googling and I am none the wiser, but shall keep looking.
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IanG

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #13 on: June 20, 2019, 11:17:24 AM »

Thanks for the explanation, and sorry to hear you are unwell.

I can certainly send you a working SD card with the standard Raspbian, but that is a 32-bit OS. My linux skills are very limited, and definitely not up to recompiling kernels, but I might have a try at installing 64-bit Ubuntu Mate on an SD card, if you think it might suit you.

https://ubuntu-mate.org/raspberry-pi/

It is not clear if that installation can operate headless without serious tweaking. The text on the page leads to an alternative:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ARM/RaspberryPi

You will obviously also need a good debugging environment, particularly if writing assembler. From a Windows PC one can run something like X410 (https://token2shell.com/x410/) but have no idea if there is a way of connectting to the pi from an X Window client on the iPad. By the way, the ARM documentation on low level instructions and architecture details is foul compared to Intel's, with many documents being restricted to trusted partners.

As my knowledge has completely run out at this point, advice from others would be welcome.
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Weaver

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Re: Once more thinking about setting up a RPi
« Reply #14 on: June 20, 2019, 11:17:52 AM »

>You just need to place a certain file on the boot partition

And that’s the bit that I physically cannot do in bed, lacking the kit, and the pain and required concentration is too much.

> friendly member could post you an sd card
 :no: :blush: :help:

« Last Edit: June 20, 2019, 11:21:24 AM by Weaver »
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