[arm-allstar] Boot from Raspberry Pi 3B+ USB Stick

[David Ranch]

Hell Jeff,

There is an easy way to see if your Raspberry Pi is having under-volt 
issues.  If your Raspberry Pi's OS has the very useful vcgencmd command 
installed (comes included with Raspbian, Raspberry PI OS, and others), 
then run:

vcgencmd get_throttled

Unless it come back with a value of "0x0", something is up.  I wrote a 
script ( 
http://www.trinityos.com/HAM/CentosDigitalModes/RPi/usr/local/bin/review-rpi-cpu.sh 
) that makes this more readable (and shows a LOT more details if you're 
curious) but how to decode this get_throttled bitmask is covered here:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=147781&p=972822#p972790

--David
KI6ZHD





On 01/01/2021 03:16 PM, "Jeff Hochberg via ARM-allstar" wrote:
> Hi David,
>
> Thanks for your reply. That's a valid point about the power supply. We
> currently have a RPi 3B at our primary repeater site running Raspberry Pi
> OS and svxlink - as our EchoLink server.
>
> It's been horribly unstable and I've questioned if it was the SD card or
> the power supply. We've replaced the SD card 3 times, yet we still continue
> to have stability issues. I applied updates to the Pi yesterday, rebooted
> it, and it will not come back online. We have an APC remote
> manageable power strip at the site, so I can power cycle the Pi remotely.
> I've tried power cycling it several times to no avail.
>
> Right before you replied, I decided to abandon the USB stick boot effort
> and went back to using a SanDisk Ultra SD card.
>
> Sorry to go sideways on the thread.... I'm new to AllStar and under the gun
> to get things going.
>
> At this point, I've decided to build a new RPi (3B+) running the Hamvoip
> image, then enabling the EchoLink module. We do have an AllStar Node ID but
> have never used it before.
>
> For what it's worth - we have a USB audio card from Repeater Builder - IRRC
> (C-Media chipset) that's connected to the svxlink box, then that goes to
> our RLC controller.
>
> I have a USB sound card here (also with a C-Media chipset - I believe the
> exact same chipset), so I'm going through the setup process hoping that
> when I remove the USB sound card I'm using temporarily and replace it with
> the production USB sound card, that all will work well.
>
> Does this sound like an OK approach? Are others using the Hamvoip image to
> connect into a controller as opposed to directly to a radio?
>
> At this point, we're mostly concerned with getting EchoLink back online but
> would love to start offering AllStar as well, hence the switch from svxlink.
>
> Thanks so much for responding on New Years Day!!!
>
> Best Regards,
>
> -JeffH
>
>
> ***************************************************
> Georgia Digital: http://dmr.georgiadigital.net/ipsc
> GeorgiaDMR.net on Groups.io: https://groups.io/g/GeorgiaDMR
> Appalachian Trail Golden Packet: https://atgp.groups.io/g/main
> ***************************************************
>
> Jeff Hochberg
> W4JEW
> Atlanta, GA
> 404-304-4575
> jeff at w4jew.com
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 1, 2021 at 5:52 PM David McGough <kb4fxc at inttek.net> wrote:
>
>> Jeff,
>>
>> I don't recommend trying to use a USB storage device for booting and daily
>> operations for a RPi3B+.  If you're having SD card reliability issues and
>> you're using high quality SD cards, you've got a weak power supply
>> problem.
>>
>> I've got a whole fleet of RPi systems installed, all with Sandisk SD
>> cards, and zero issues. Many of these systems have been installed for
>> years.  Here are uptimes right this minute for 2 RPi3B+ boards sitting
>> 1700 feet up a tall TV tower; both using Sandisk 16GB SD cards:
>>
>> [root at repeater-146820 ~]# uptime
>>   17:47:22 up 337 days,  1:51,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
>>
>> [root at repeater-444850 ~]# uptime
>>   17:47:51 up 337 days,  1:45,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.00
>>
>> Here are the cards I'm using:
>>
>> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MR6K8PD/
>>
>>
>> 73, David KB4FXC
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, 1 Jan 2021, "Jeff Hochberg via ARM-allstar" wrote:
>>
>>> I'd much rather run the Pi off USB storage as I've found it to be much
>> more
>>> reliable than running off an SD card.
>>>
>>> Has anyone been able to install the RPI image then boot from a USB stick
>>> instead of SD card?
>>>
>>> I installed the 1.6 image (via dd) to both an SD card and a USB stick.
>>>
>>> I also installed Raspberry Pi OS to a DIFFERENT SD card and DIFFERENT USB
>>> stick. I was able to confirm that the Pi 3B+ will boot from the USB stick
>>> running Raspberry Pi OS.
>>>
>>> I found some articles that cover making a couple of changes to
>> cmdline.txt
>>> (change root to root=/devsda2) and /etc/fstab (change boot to /dev/sda1),
>>> but the Pi simply won't boot.
>>>
>>> I do see a flurry of disk activity on the USB stick at first, then the
>>> green LED on the Pi flashes 2 or 3 times in rapid succession, followed
>> by a
>>> delay, followed by flashing 2 or 3 times in rapid succession (and so on).
>>>
>>> Any thoughts?
>>>
>>> ***************************************************
>>> Georgia Digital: http://dmr.georgiadigital.net/ipsc
>>> GeorgiaDMR.net on Groups.io: https://groups.io/g/GeorgiaDMR
>>> Appalachian Trail Golden Packet: https://atgp.groups.io/g/main
>>> ***************************************************
>>>
>>> Jeff Hochberg
>>> W4JEW
>>> Atlanta, GA
>>> 404-304-4575
>>> jeff at w4jew.com
>>> _______________________________________________
>>>
>>> ARM-allstar mailing list
>>> ARM-allstar at hamvoip.org
>>> http://lists.hamvoip.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/arm-allstar
>>>
>>> Visit the BBB and RPi2/3/4 web page - http://hamvoip.org
>>>
>>
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