Multiboot for 7020 - public beta

[noggie]

Going by the number of people who have had some success in running miniroot7020, I think this new version can be called "beta". There are probably still bugs, but I'm also feeling pretty confident that for most people, for most of the time, it will get the job done.

I have no objections to this version being spread around on other boards, provided that the uploader has personal experience installing and running it. Basically I want it to be "I tried it, and it works for me". That should be enough to stop it from spreading in case I goofed up in any last-minute change or in the packaging itself.

If I did do any last-minute goof-ups, please let me know here on SI. Installations instructions inside zip archive, more documentation online in WEB interface. The C source code hasn't changed since it was posted last time, although I do know of a bug in a Makefile that hasn't been fixed yet.

Hopefully, this version should fix the CF bug reported by friehmaen (thanks, friehmaen!). I also stumbled across some typos when installing images on CIFS. My sincere apologies for those typos to any tester who tried to install on CIFS and failed. I think it should work better now

A big round of applause to the brave testers!

Update for 0.14:
- Change to "fsck" options in WEB interface
- Hopefully fixes bugs when installing 7000 images.

Update for 0.15:
- Additional image patch to mount HDD if image is also stored on HDD
- More bug fixes for installing 7000 images. Maybe it finally works...
- More user feedback when doing pre-root-mount fsck
- More robust code (I hope...) to handle unexpected errors in installation

There were a few small changes to the C source code, so here's the latest tar-ball.

Update for 0.16:
- Fixed backup/restore regression
- Status change to "release candidate 1"

Update for 0.17:
- Fixes bug in "module load" functionality in /linuxrc.
- Adds a "backup configuration files" function.
- Fixes a few bugs that were insignificant on the 7020, but would prove more serious on the 7000.
- A few changes (hopefully improvements) to the HTML pages.
- German translation of README file for 7020 (thanks to zoppa).
- First release to be built from common (7020/7000) build environment.
- "Release candidate 2". With a little bit of luck, this will go unchanged to release status.

WARNING! For some hardware, it seems that the partitioning/formatting function in WEB mode makes incorrect file systems. The new version 0.18 fixes that bug (I hope), but it will also have the effect that some devices can't be automatically formatted and partitioned. It is now recommened that partitioning and formatting is done by hand, from the command line using "telnet".

Update for 0.18:
- Important update: Attempts to fix partitioning/formatting bug. Still, it is now recommended that the user performs the partitioning/formatting by hand. (thanks and my sincere apologies to those who got into trouble)
- Fixes message on TV when fsck fails during image mount.
- Fixes bug in naming partitioning schemes, with and without swap on USB and CF (thanks to grandi).
- German translation of README file for 7000 (thanks to zoppa).
- French translation of README file for 7020 (thanks to mimi74).
- Changes to /etc/httpd.conf (thanks to SADER).

Same conditions apply: Please don't upload this to other places until you have personally tested it on a 7020. I don't have a 7020, so there is always a possibilty that I have goofed up in packaging or in last-minute changes, and there is no need to let non-functioning versions spread.

[zoppa]

Big Thanks, noggie!

Just posted it on
IHAD.
Allready positive feedback.

[ampervolt]

Does not work with 7000 images on 7020, none of the available images worked.

7020 images works.
Thanks noggie.

[noggie]

Originally Posted by ampervolt

Does not work with 7000 images on 7020, none of the available images worked.

7020 images works.
Thanks noggie.

Could you please provide a little more info? Which media did you try to install on (USB, HDDD, Network, what?) Did your testing include an official 109 image? How far did it come? Did the images install? Could you please post the output when trying to install the images?

[b_charal]

Hello, thanks to you great job, fantastic, but don't works too with 7000s img, you can find (our french) a little description with pictures here :
==>Mini-boot

Image off 1.09 last cvs in flash
mini-boot 0.13 ok
stick usb (256mo)

==> on mini-boot :
Phoenix 1.09 7020 = ok but download cp and plugins don't work
Trillenium 7020 = same

Phoenix 1.09 7000 = install ok but don't boot
Gemini 1.06 7000 = same

Regards, we hope a new beta soon, thanks a lot

NB : The sunshine hides the txt i think an other pictures it's better.

[zoppa]

Hi noggie,

when installing an image on hdd I had the same(?) problem like I did before. Installation is fine, but when booting, miniroot fsck finds errors on hdd, miniroot stops booting and enables maintanance mode. In mm I did a fsck manually and two errors got fixed. After that booting was ok.
Next time I'll do a fsck in webif before booting thre hdd image.

Another issue is that when running a hdd image, the image will be mounted as / . So /mnt/hdd/movie is not existent. When I mount /mnt/hdd then movie is there, of course, and I can access my recordings in file mode->(red button)->harddisk->movie. But when I open the recorded movies list (green button in file mode), it will be empty .

[Micromind]

Originally Posted by ampervolt

Does not work with 7000 images on 7020, none of the available images worked.

7020 images works.
Thanks noggie.

I've got the same result.
I've tested both on a 256Mb CF card both on a 256Mb USB Stick, I've tried some 7000 108.2 images and some 7000 109 based images (hydra poseidon, phoenix, ru, dbbrothers and kangaroo), images installed but don't start up.
With 7020 images no problems.

Thanks anyway for this great tool!

[noggie]

Originally Posted by b_charal

Hello, thanks to you great job, fantastic, but don't works too with 7000s img, you can find (our french) a little description with pictures here :
==>Mini-boot

Image off 1.09 last cvs in flash
mini-boot 0.13 ok
stick usb (256mo)

==> on mini-boot :
Phoenix 1.09 7020 = ok but download cp and plugins don't work
Trillenium 7020 = same

Phoenix 1.09 7000 = install ok but don't boot
Gemini 1.06 7000 = same

Regards, we hope a new beta soon, thanks a lot

NB : The sunshine hides the txt i think an other pictures it's better.

What an impressive installation guide... I'm unfortunately not able to understand the French, but it certainly looks good.

To get download to work, make sure your name server is set up correctly. Miniroot doesn't need the name server, so I made no interface for it. However, the automatic downloads will need it to work correctly, so please check that first. Hint: if you have a DHCP server, and you don't intend to install on CIFS or NFS, don't setup the IP address at all. Then DHCP should handle it all.

I've found bugs in 7000 image installation, a new update is coming. Hopefully that should clear the issues.

Any suggestions for background picture? I'd like it to be already installed on the 7020 (no need to fill up the flash with fancy pictures) and provide a better contrast than the current one. If anybody wants to try: leave the box in "WEB" mode, telnet in to it, and load background pictures using the "showiframe" DMM utility. The one that is showing is run by "showiframe /usr/share/tuxbox/enigma/pictures/scan.mvi".

[noggie]

Originally Posted by zoppa

Hi noggie,

when installing an image on hdd I had the same(?) problem like I did before. Installation is fine, but when booting, miniroot fsck finds errors on hdd, miniroot stops booting and enables maintanance mode. In mm I did a fsck manually and two errors got fixed. After that booting was ok.
Next time I'll do a fsck in webif before booting thre hdd image.

Another issue is that when running a hdd image, the image will be mounted as / . So /mnt/hdd/movie is not existent. When I mount /mnt/hdd then movie is there, of course, and I can access my recordings in file mode->(red button)->harddisk->movie. But when I open the recorded movies list (green button in file mode), it will be empty .

I was "lucky" enough to have some small problems on one of my USB sticks, so I have finally seen this with my own eyes. My current improvement is to use the "-y" flag in the fsck that's run from the WEB interface. This seems to clear more errors than the "-p" flag does. One component is still missing: If fsck fails during image boot, there is no visual feedback that the user should do the fsck by hand (or from WEB mode) by telnetting in to the box, or indeed that the WEB mode has been started at all. This takes a little bit more work, and will come later.

I'm reluctant to run fsck with the "-y" flag automatically when booting the image. The user should be given a chance to mount the file system read-only and attempt to copy out whatever is stored there before fixing more serious problems.

Accessing recordings from a different/previous installation is, I think, an issue in Enigma. I think it's got something to do with the clean copy of the config files that is installed when booting an image for the first time. The "correct" solution to this would be to share config files (only have one copy) between the different enigmas. But then there might be cases where the user don't want to share config files, or where the user want to start off with a copy and let the different enigma versions go their separate way from there, or whatever. Altogether, I feel this issue should be handled outside "miniroot". It's a typical example of why a multiboot solution shouldn't be used just to run different enigmas, instead the different enigmas should be installed on the same image, and have built-in logic to share config files with other versions of enigma.

[noggie]

Please note that the file attached to the first message in this thread has been updated to version 0.14.