pc-tecky Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Hey y'all, It's been a very very very long time since I've poked my head in here. The last time I checked in, I was truly about to ask for help from our late friend Bruno before noticing the unforunate post of his passing. And sadly, I haven't had much time to check in more frequently for a long while now since then. -- ....5 minutes passes... hmm, alrighty, time to move past this awkward silence-- So, I got a Rasberry Pi for Christmas. Yeah!! Only to be bummed out with the lack luster of information. How does it hold up to a Pentium II/III? So, after extensive Googling, I finally found and know how the boot process works - for a single Linux distro on a single SD card. While I like both for their strengths, I like NOOBS a bit more because, from what I've gathered, it can use any distro with little modification. I like BerryBoot for it's built-in networking and ability to use an external USB HDD. What I want: a Raspberry Pi to network, multiboot, and partition like a PC does with multiple distros and retain data with a local shared storage area using an external HDD. I suppose network storage (NAS ) would also be an option. Swapping SD cards could wear out the mechcanism or damage the SD slot. So I've used LILO and GRUB (GRUB is a bit easier to edit and modify, imo) on the PC, thus this post. Currently I'm looking for and wanting a better educational discussion and explanation of the underlying concepts and softwares used that enable NOOBS and BerryBoot to work as they do. What I think I understand: BerryBoot has it's own kernel (think of it as a kind of DOS, you know prior to Windows 98... err, oh wait, Windows ME/98/95/3.11 were all built on top of DOS). Well you get the picture. BerryBoot has it's own "local" library set that the other distros then need to use. But the distros made available and presented with BerryBoot are a bit hacked themselves and subsequently squashed (no, really, they use SquashFS). For explorating OSs, it's great up until you hit a wall. Is it even a real problem?? I don't know, but I want more space for local system files - a distro for each configuration because I can't afford multiple Rasberry Pis (at the moment). Maybe I don't understand the SquashFS and how it works. But it seems to me that it's a fixed size partition that's hard to update and hard to grow. It seems to me that NOOBS incorporates a modified version of GRUB that then directs the CPU to boot a given distro on a given partition. I just wish that partition was on an external USB HDD (but so far it doesn't support external USB HDD devices). Distros based on NOOBS can expand the image to use the remaining portion of the SD card. I want more room, even if it's just 250MB to 500MB more than the stock image, but I don't want it to take up the entire 16GB or 32GB SD card. That process to expand an image is not very clear and to my knowledge will not work with BerryBoot. I guess that's what I have for now for my questions. But I'm sure I'll have more. Oh yeah, I did post this question in similar form (or so I thought) at the raspberrypi.org forums (which somehow got turn around into me hating both methods of multibooting). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 As far as the processor, it is an ARM processor and that line of processors is known to be very power efficient so most mobile devices use them (cellphones, tablets, etc). The Raspberry Pi is made to be very lightweight and uses very little power. Because of that fact, they are widely used in various projects. https://hackaday.io/...ag/raspberry pi As far as the speeds and how they compare to other processors, the Raspberry Pi comes clocked at 700mhz by default but can easily be overclocked to 1ghz using the /boot/config.txt file or the raspbian graphical tool. (Note the expand image option like you mentioned. You just hit enter on the selection and it does it automatically) They are single core processors are but packed with features: Low Power ARM1176JZ-F Applications Processor Dual Core VideoCore IV® Multimedia Co-Processor 1080p30 Full HD HP H.264 Video Encode/Decode Advanced Image Sensor Pipeline (ISP) for up to 20-megapixel cameras operating at up to 220 megapixels per second Low power, high performance OpenGL-ES® 1.1/2.0 VideoCore GPU. 1 Gigapixel per second fill rate. High performance display outputs. Simultaneous high resolution LCD and HDMI with HDCP at 1080p60 They were originally made to teach children about programming and educational computing but have since become a popular hackers device as there are so many projects out there using a low power device. Plus the price has stayed the same with 4 different series at a very cheap $35. Actually every version of Linux uses the same kernel but maybe different versions. The kernel is called Linux and is the underlying operating system. So Noobs and BerryBoot both have the linux kernel, just different graphical or console setups. You need to follow the installation guides but it will basically make a small fat32 partition for a boot partition and then you use the rest of the sdcard and partition it however you like. I personally just make the small fat32 partition and use the rest of the space for the OS. The setup is very easy and can be done from any OS: http://www.raspberry...mages/README.md I used to use the Raspbian image which is a version of Debian made for the raspberry pi and is very easy to use with tons of graphical appications to configure and use. Now I use the Archlinux ARM which is a bit more complicated without a graphical setup. I now have two raspberry pi's as I just got the new model for christmas (I have one of the original B models with 256mb ram and one of the new B+ models with more ports and 512mb ram). I hope that helps some Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Also, as long as your careful, you will not mess up the sdcard slot so do not worry about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 I am sure you have the latest B+ 512mb model. BTW I have this being delivered today for my Pi B+ model: EDIMAX EW-7811Un N150 USB 2.0 Wireless nano Adapter Its a popular wifi adapter for the raspberry pi due to its size and price. I currently have a 4 port usb hub connected to my Pi along with a 15" dell crt and a keyboard connected. I access the Pi via Synergy which is a server/client kvm that is available for all three OSs (Windows, Linux, Mac) I also have a usb nes controller and a usb snes controller for playing Nintendo and Super Nintendo roms on my Pi. There are a lot more projects I have in mind but it mostly depends on what I can afford to buy the parts. When I can afford a decent flatscreen with a hdmi port, I plan on making a media server/internet tv instead of using whatever it came with. I could stream my own content and also from various online streaming sites. Do not get me wrong, I have 4 monitors connected to my main rig and a bunch of other computers but I do not have any extra monitors and such for my pi and I do not watch tv except online so I havent bought a flatscreen tv yet. Anyone have an old flatscreen they wanna donate? I'll pay for shipping... Hehe just kidding unless you have one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Noobs uses up a lot of storage on your sd card. I tried it and there is not a lot to recommend it if you have some linux experience.I have several sd cards and just put one os on each as it is no hassle to swap cards. Mind you I just found this, Using any system and BerryBoot If your Raspberry Pi is connected to the Internet, you can use the BerryBoot installer to let it download and install the operating system. This requires that you first use a normal Windows/Mac/Linux computer to download a small .zip file with the Berryboot system files and extract it to an empty SD card. Then you put the SD card in your Raspberry Pi, and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the installation. An additional advantage is that Berryboot allows you to install more than one operating system on a single SD card. Also, it is not necessary to install any additional software on your normal Windows/Mac/Linux computer. http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup#Using_NOOBS Hmm looks like it is time for me to start baking again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted January 31, 2015 Share Posted January 31, 2015 I just do not see the appeal with using multiple distros on one memory card. The problem is that most memory cards only go up to 64gb and that is about what you need to get work done on a normal distro so basically you are just playing with distros without any actual work or projects getting done. I could understand if you used it with various projects. Like sometimes, it is a media server and other times, it is a retro-gaming system but to switch distros to get the same things done seems redundant to me as you you can run/install the same things on most every single distro available. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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