• Pi boot from SSD or HDD

    From Chris Elvidge@3:770/3 to All on Fri Jan 18 17:15:02 2019
    Hi all.

    Has anyone managed to get their Pi to boot directly from USB attached
    SSD or HDD with (importantly) two (or more) devices attached?

    I still use an SD card for the /boot partition to differentiate between
    USB attached devices.

    --

    Chris Elvidge, England

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From NoReply@3:770/3 to Chris Elvidge on Sat Jan 19 02:54:42 2019
    On 18/01/2019 20:15, Chris Elvidge wrote:
    Has anyone managed to get their Pi to boot directly from USB attached
    SSD or HDD with (importantly) two (or more) devices attached?

    I don't have an answer for you, but this sounds interesting, can you
    please explain why you want this feature, what's the advantage?

    TIA,
    NoReply


    --
    Don't be afraid of the deep... __BBS__
    --= bbs.bottomlessabyss.net|https|telnet=2023|ssh=2222

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  • From Newdo@3:770/3 to All on Fri Jan 18 23:44:05 2019
    Am 18.01.2019 um 14:54 schrieb NoReply:

    I don't have an answer for you, but this sounds interesting, can you
    please explain why you want this feature, what's the advantage?

    Probably the aim for a defined boot sequence in case of multiple
    (bootable?) SSDs/HDDs ?

    - Udo

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Vince Coen@2:250/1 to Chris Elvidge on Fri Jan 18 23:44:43 2019
    Hello Chris!

    Friday January 18 2019 12:15, you wrote to All:

    Hi all.

    Has anyone managed to get their Pi to boot directly from USB attached
    SSD or HDD with (importantly) two (or more) devices attached?

    I still use an SD card for the /boot partition to differentiate
    between USB attached devices.

    I have but boot port is lowest #.

    Had to do so when adding for a short while a 2nd drive so I can copy over directories.
    The drive was on another USB port.

    Then disconnected and rebooted.

    The 2nd drive does not have a valid boot but assuming thaat has nothing to do with it.



    Vince

    --- Mageia Linux v6 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.11/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.501-b20150715
    * Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)
  • From Chris Elvidge@3:770/3 to NoReply on Sat Jan 19 04:15:12 2019
    On 18/01/2019 13:54, NoReply wrote:
    On 18/01/2019 20:15, Chris Elvidge wrote:
    Has anyone managed to get their Pi to boot directly from USB attached
    SSD or HDD with (importantly) two (or more) devices attached?

    I don't have an answer for you, but this sounds interesting, can you
    please explain why you want this feature, what's the advantage?

    TIA,
    NoReply



    120GB SSD for System and Music (boot on SD card); I do a lot of
    temporary files.
    5TB HDD for media (TV/Radio downloads, TV/Radio recording) files, with a
    50GB partition for backup.


    --

    Chris Elvidge, England

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Martin Gregorie@3:770/3 to Chris Elvidge on Sat Jan 19 05:19:45 2019
    On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 23:15:12 +0000, Chris Elvidge wrote:

    On 18/01/2019 13:54, NoReply wrote:
    On 18/01/2019 20:15, Chris Elvidge wrote:
    Has anyone managed to get their Pi to boot directly from USB attached
    SSD or HDD with (importantly) two (or more) devices attached?

    I don't have an answer for you, but this sounds interesting, can you
    please explain why you want this feature, what's the advantage?

    TIA,
    NoReply



    120GB SSD for System and Music (boot on SD card); I do a lot of
    temporary files.
    5TB HDD for media (TV/Radio downloads, TV/Radio recording) files, with a
    50GB partition for backup.

    Thats a smaller backup partition that I'd expect. What are you backing
    up: just /home, and how many backup copies?

    You do realise, of course, that a permanently online backup scheme like
    that is fairly unsafe because lots of scenarios can kill it along with
    the rest of the system. A better plot would be to backup over an ethernet connection to removable storage on a separate system, keeping the backup offline when not actually being accessed, and preferably having at least
    tow generations of backup devices.

    I've just bought a pair of 1TB WD Essentials USB drives. Yes, I know, I
    should have bought them separately so they come from separate production batches. So far they're looking good - quite a bit faster than the 320GB
    2.5" WD Blue drives they replace and that will be too small fairly soon.
    I make offline weekly backups of four systems (3 x 64 bit Fedora, 1 x RPi
    model B) using rsync to put all four backups on the same disk. Both
    backup disks are in a fire safe when not being used, so there is always
    one backup copy in the fire safe.

    Paranoid? You bet, when backups are involved.


    --
    Martin | martin at
    Gregorie | gregorie dot org

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Chris Elvidge@3:770/3 to Martin Gregorie on Sat Jan 19 15:23:23 2019
    On 19/01/2019 00:19, Martin Gregorie wrote:
    On Fri, 18 Jan 2019 23:15:12 +0000, Chris Elvidge wrote:

    On 18/01/2019 13:54, NoReply wrote:
    On 18/01/2019 20:15, Chris Elvidge wrote:
    Has anyone managed to get their Pi to boot directly from USB attached
    SSD or HDD with (importantly) two (or more) devices attached?

    I don't have an answer for you, but this sounds interesting, can you
    please explain why you want this feature, what's the advantage?

    TIA,
    NoReply



    120GB SSD for System and Music (boot on SD card); I do a lot of
    temporary files.
    5TB HDD for media (TV/Radio downloads, TV/Radio recording) files, with a
    50GB partition for backup.

    Thats a smaller backup partition that I'd expect. What are you backing
    up: just /home, and how many backup copies?

    You do realise, of course, that a permanently online backup scheme like
    that is fairly unsafe because lots of scenarios can kill it along with
    the rest of the system. A better plot would be to backup over an ethernet connection to removable storage on a separate system, keeping the backup offline when not actually being accessed, and preferably having at least
    tow generations of backup devices.

    I do, but didn't think it was relevant to the question "NoReply" asked.


    I've just bought a pair of 1TB WD Essentials USB drives. Yes, I know, I should have bought them separately so they come from separate production batches. So far they're looking good - quite a bit faster than the 320GB
    2.5" WD Blue drives they replace and that will be too small fairly soon.
    I make offline weekly backups of four systems (3 x 64 bit Fedora, 1 x RPi model B) using rsync to put all four backups on the same disk. Both
    backup disks are in a fire safe when not being used, so there is always
    one backup copy in the fire safe.

    Paranoid? You bet, when backups are involved.





    --

    Chris Elvidge, England

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Big Bad Bob@3:770/3 to Chris Elvidge on Wed Feb 6 16:39:04 2019
    On 01/18/19 15:15, Chris Elvidge wrote:
    120GB SSD for System and Music (boot on SD card); I do a lot of
    temporary files.
    5TB HDD for media (TV/Radio downloads, TV/Radio recording) files, with a
    50GB partition for backup.

    out of curiosity, what OS is on your /boot SD card?

    (please don't say windows, please don't say windows...)

    Assuming Linux, you could simply use the 2nd hard drive as a mount point
    and access it like part of the normal file system, whenever it's
    present. You don't need to boot FROM it in order to use it. Just set
    things up so whenever you hotplug it, the thing mounts to the correct
    place, and all of your applications know where that is.


    If you want to go against "what THEY say are the defaults" you might
    have to shut off auto-mounting, and then write a daemon to look for the
    drive being attached. when it's attached, using the gpt ID to match
    against your list, then issue a 'mount' command. pretty simple, 5
    second polling would probably do it.

    But if it's being auto-mounted you'd have to shut that off, yeah. I
    shut off auto-mount anyway. I can type the 'sudo mount' command myself...

    and if you put an entry into /etc/fstab you can just specify the mount
    point, like 'mount /media/my-mount-point' or whatever. A few caveats,
    but basically make sure the device name matches whenever you plug
    something into a USB port. Typically it will. Or, you can just 'mount /dev/whatever /media/my-mount-point' with your daemon script. Simple.

    Then whenever you plug the removable media in, it will mount. You could
    also force a dismount with a separate script. Your first script would
    have to recognize that it mounted the device, and not try to re-mount it
    after you unmount it. A little tricky, not too hard. Just wait until
    it's unplugged before trying to re-mount.

    Anyway, it'd be a fun little test project, wouldn't it?


    --
    (aka 'Bombastic Bob' in case you wondered)

    'Feeling with my fingers, and thinking with my brain' - me

    'your story is so touching, but it sounds just like a lie'
    "Straighten up and fly right"

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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  • From Chris Elvidge@3:770/3 to Big Bad Bob on Thu Feb 7 17:58:42 2019
    On 06/02/2019 19:39, Big Bad Bob wrote:
    On 01/18/19 15:15, Chris Elvidge wrote:
    120GB SSD for System and Music (boot on SD card); I do a lot of
    temporary files.
    5TB HDD for media (TV/Radio downloads, TV/Radio recording) files, with
    a 50GB partition for backup.

    out of curiosity, what OS is on your /boot SD card?

    (please don't say windows, please don't say windows...)

    Assuming Linux, you could simply use the 2nd hard drive as a mount point
    and access it like part of the normal file system, whenever it's
    present. You don't need to boot FROM it in order to use it. Just set
    things up so whenever you hotplug it, the thing mounts to the correct
    place, and all of your applications know where that is.


    I just use LABELs to make sure thing are mounted (automatically) where I
    want them (except on mmcblk0p1). Then bind mount to various other
    directories. Also sshfs mount to "other" computers.


    If you want to go against "what THEY say are the defaults" you might
    have to shut off auto-mounting, and then write a daemon to look for the
    drive being attached. when it's attached, using the gpt ID to match
    against your list, then issue a 'mount' command. pretty simple, 5
    second polling would probably do it.

    But if it's being auto-mounted you'd have to shut that off, yeah. I
    shut off auto-mount anyway. I can type the 'sudo mount' command myself...

    and if you put an entry into /etc/fstab you can just specify the mount
    point, like 'mount /media/my-mount-point' or whatever. A few caveats,
    but basically make sure the device name matches whenever you plug
    something into a USB port. Typically it will. Or, you can just 'mount /dev/whatever /media/my-mount-point' with your daemon script. Simple.

    Then whenever you plug the removable media in, it will mount. You could
    also force a dismount with a separate script. Your first script would
    have to recognize that it mounted the device, and not try to re-mount it after you unmount it. A little tricky, not too hard. Just wait until
    it's unplugged before trying to re-mount.

    Anyway, it'd be a fun little test project, wouldn't it?





    --

    Chris Elvidge, England

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)