PI 3+ Image Update

Echoshard · April 1, 2018, 12:08am

Hi,

I was wondering if you had any plans to update the Image to work with the Pi 3+ And or/ Stretch Images. I have been trying to update the current images but it has not exactly been working.

jeremy · April 2, 2018, 11:40pm

@Echoshard – we haven’t gotten our hands on an RPI 3+ quite yet. We’ve had a lot of trouble burning up SD cards and power supplies on the RPI as well as implementing our administrative functions for managing content, so, for the time being, have put development there on hold. If you get it updated, we’d be thrilled to host that update though.

Thank you!

Echoshard · April 4, 2018, 1:29pm

You got it I shall try updates this weekend. I have not had mine burn up any cards but I was going to see if I could direct it to a flash drive instead of SD card. Not that they are much cheaper but easier to swap out. Is that something you would be interested in?

jeremy · April 4, 2018, 8:15pm

Sure, you can definitely set the OS to just boot from the microSD and the content to get stored on a USB flash drive. It won’t really change performance much, but as you note, they are cheaper an easier to swap out (a good and bad thing depending on your deployment scenario).

It’d be a nice solution for the forums, but it adds a small layer of complexity to building the machines that we wouldn’t want to encourage for our non technical volunteers and additional fault point in deployment.

Echoshard · April 10, 2018, 6:49pm

I have sent the past 4 days trying to get this image updated I keep hitting roadblocks. I will admit my knowledge of Linux appears not to be up for this task. I got pretty far altering the setup script. However I cannot load modules or get the ethernet pass through working. I had to disable a lot of things and they appear to be causing all sorts of problems.

Do you have any interest in what I have done so far?

jeremy · April 10, 2018, 9:28pm

Yes, let us know where you’re at! It might be a quick fix, or someone on the forums here may be working to accomplish the same thing.

Echoshard · April 12, 2018, 9:04pm

Ok,

ok I started with a fresh raspbian lite (stretch)

Before you do anything ensure you set your WIFI country the wlan0 is disabled until then.

So I was unable to get the hotspot working using the installer script following the documentation below it also allows a ethernet pass through the ones in the installer script kept erroring badly.

github.com

SurferTim/documentation/blob/6bc583965254fa292a470990c40b145f553f6b34/configuration/wireless/access-point.md

## Setting up a Raspberry Pi as an access point in a standalone network

The Raspberry Pi can be used as a wireless access point, running a standalone network. This can be done using the inbuilt wireless features of the Raspberry Pi 3 or Raspberry Pi Zero W, or by using a suitable USB wireless dongle that supports access points. 

Note that this documentation was tested on a Raspberry Pi 3, and it is possible that some USB dongles may need slight changes to their settings. If you are having trouble with a USB wireless dongle, please check the forums.

To add a Raspberry Pi-based access point to an existing network, see [this section](#internet-sharing).

In order to work as an access point, the Raspberry Pi will need to have access point software installed, along with DHCP server software to provide connecting devices with a network address. Ensure that your Raspberry Pi is using an up-to-date version of Raspbian (dated 2017 or later).

Use the following to update your Raspbian installation:
```
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
```
Install all the required software in one go with this command: 
```
sudo apt-get install dnsmasq hostapd
```
Since the configuration files are not ready yet, turn the new software off as follows:

This file has been truncated. show original

It uses a static IP address of 192.168.4.1 instead of 10.10.10.10 I was unable to figure out how to change that quickly.

With the script I modifed below I upped the installs and got them ready for php 7.0 as well as the new file folder structures.

I was able to reach the rachel landing page it even would see modules however. Kiwix did not configure properly as ZIM’s failed to load. Additionally I could not log into the admin area at all.

Here is the modified python script.

I put quite a few notes in the script good I will keep plugging away at it but I am getting close to the end of my rope.

jeremy · April 12, 2018, 9:36pm

This should give you a better idea of how to get moving: https://github.com/rachelproject/rachelpiOS/blob/master/installer.py

Echoshard · April 13, 2018, 3:17pm

Yea that’s the python script I have been modifying and put notes on it’s the dropbox zip file.

giakonda · May 2, 2018, 9:22pm

Hi Ive been trying to get the Pi3+ to go but without any luck. Do you think it might have something to do with the change from mysql to mariadb?

jeremy · May 2, 2018, 10:20pm

That seems unlikely, I don’t think we actually use mysql in these any longer.

edv · August 12, 2018, 3:54am

Just so I understand, are you saying that the current Image will not work on the Raspberry PI 3 B+?

I have been building a few new units and I thought I had bad hardware.

jeremy · August 12, 2018, 4:56pm

@edv – you are correct. our current image will NOT work on the Raspberry Pi 3 B+

jamesk · August 12, 2018, 7:39pm

Hi guys. I will be posting an installation script and package that should work with every model in the next day or so. It’s pretty much a complete rewrite that I’ve been working on a lot over the past month or two. It currently works with the latest Raspbian stretch lite. I have tested on a pi3B with a USB flash drive and it seems to work great. The 3B+ shouldn’t have any issues. I also plugged this into a pi0w with an OTG USB cable and it worked the same. I haven’t had a chance to test extensively as I’ve just been working on the bugs, but I can’t think of any issues it will have.

I have fixed some bugs on the admin end. There are two remaining major bugs I want to fix before posting. One is the shutdown/reboot php exec in the admin interface seems to be getting caught by apache, preventing shutdown and reboot. The other is the ka-lite automatic setup which is proving to be a little more work than I thought. I’m working on these now and will hopefully figure it out soon.

I have also added some command line arguments like setting the SSID and channel of the hotspot. I would love feedback when it’s up and I’d be happy to implement any features you want. The plan was to make this a bit more flexible.

giakonda · September 20, 2018, 11:22am

Hello Is there any progress on the Pi3+ image please?

Cornelius · October 5, 2018, 8:43am

Hello all,

I recently found this project and I am very enthousiastic about it for our project in rural Uganda.

I have a question:
In the first week of December I have a trip to our project and would like to take a demo for pilot purposes on a Pi with me. I just found out that a 3+ is not supported yet. It would be great if it will be available by then. I hope there is progress on the 3+ image.

Thank you very much.

(edit: a second question in this post was answered by browsing the forum)

jeremy · October 7, 2018, 4:56pm

@jamesk is working on the Pi 3B+ image, we will test and make any further changes once it is released by him: Raspbian Stretch Install Script