[WIP] Multiboot pi + recovery or update partition #146

mariyachanniwala · 2018-07-25T23:06:17Z

patrickelectric · 2018-08-06T16:33:13Z

br-webui/server1.js

@@ -0,0 +1,191 @@
+/*Recovery Server for Companion*/


server1.js is not a good name, can be more explicit ? Like recovery-webserver, or webpage.

How this file is being executed ? There is no modification in the screen script.

right now i havent added any modification in companion.rc. this file is executed simply by typing node server1.js. I havent added any explicit name because its just a trial version of the server. I will change the name.

patrickelectric · 2018-08-06T16:34:41Z

br-webui/server1.js

+app.get('/', function(req, res) {
+	res.render('index', {});
+});
+/*app.get('/socket.io-file-client.js', (req, res, next) => {


Is this necessary ? Is this a debug function ? Can add a comment why is this here.

no this is rendering the frontend liquid file.

patrickelectric · 2018-08-06T16:36:52Z

br-webui/server1.js

+	res.send('Complete!');
+});
+
+/*var io = require('socket.io')(server);


Same thing about commented code here.

the commented code is another way to implement the server that we can revert to. its just there for trial purposes. and will be removed in the future commits.

patrickelectric · 2018-08-06T16:37:50Z

scripts/rebootrecovery.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+sudo -H -u root bash -c "sed -i -e 's/\-03/\-02/' /boot/cmdline.txt"


Can you add a comment about what is happening here ?

yeah sure. its basically just changing the partition id from 3 to 2 so that we can boot into the recovery partition

patrickelectric · 2018-08-06T17:05:30Z

br-webui/server1.js

+
+	storage: multer.diskStorage({
+		destination: function(req,file,next) {
+			next(null, '/mnt/mainfs/home/pi/new_files');


are you going to store the files in the mainfs (not recovery) ? How are you going to read the .img file if this partition will be formatted ?

the recovery partition does not have enough space to save a 1.4 gb file. thats why im storing it on the other partition where the update is supposed to happen. and once its saved we can just extract the image over existing partition using dd. so there will be no issues with accessing it.

The "other partition" is the mainfs where webui runs or is a 3rd one that is used to store this files ?
if it's in mainfs, how dd will read the .img file while rewriting the mainfs ?

mariyachanniwala · 2018-08-28T19:35:35Z

Multiboot / Recovery partition update:
Current branch works on the idea that the SD card has 4 partitions:
boot(~40 MB), Recovery(~4GB Running Companion for now), Imagefile(~4GB Empty), Companion(~7GB Running Companion)
Sizes are approximate. You can change them if you would like.

Steps to configure the partition fstabs and boot/cmdline.txt: (I did it how Patrick suggested in the beginning.)

Take a blank SD card and flash a fresh companion Image on it using Etcher.
Then go to gparted and make a new partition on the sd card of about 4GB in size.
After that make another partition on the same SD card and assign it the remaining ~7GB of space.
Now you should see four partitions on the SD card where the first one is boot. Label the next three partitions in this order, Recovery, Imagefile, Companion.
From the terminal, type "sudo blkid" and note your device id: /dev/sdX ('X'). Also make a note of the Part UUIDs of all the partitions.
Close gparted and from the terminal, unmount all the partitions on /dev/sdX (Your device)
Go to terminal and copy the image from partition 2 to partition 4 using sudo dd if=/dev/sda2 of=/dev/sda4
Now, In the boot partition, edit the cmdline.txt file, and change Part UUID to the UUID of companion.
Change /etc/fstab file in both recovery and companion partitions to change the rootfs Part UUID to their own UUIDs respectively. in this case 02 and 04. 03 is for the imagefile partition.
Go to /etc/fstab in Recovery partition and add mount points for Imagefile and Companion Partition as follows;
PARTUUID=Imagefile UUID /mnt/Imagefile ext4 defaults,noatime 0 2
PARTUUID=Companion UUID /mnt/Companion ext4 defaults,noatime 0 3
boot into companion and update to this branch. Then go to the webserver. You will see an option to boot into 'Recovery' partition.
Once booted into the recovery partition update to this branch and run the recovery server at 192.168.2.2:3000. Before doing this, check in the /mnt directory to see if both the mount points are mounted.
When you upload a file, make sure the size is less than 2GB. Apparently there is a limitation to how much socket.io-file can send. Even if on the website it says it can send without any size limit. You will see the update progress, final output file name and where it is stored.
This file will be copied to the Imagefile partition.

I have successfully tested and verified the functionality until this point.

Current Stage: Now I am working on 'dd' command for writing the companion image to the companion partition from recovery partition but I have been facing some issues where dd is corrupting my sd card. I am working on it and hopefully should be done soon.

Commits:

Step 1: Added an option to boot into the recovery partition to companion web interface. Only use this button once you have followed the configuration steps above.

Step 2: Added the companion recovery server at 192.168.2.2:3000 which looks like this:

jaxxzer · 2018-08-30T20:42:42Z

use fdisk and mkfs instead of gparted
use echo instead of nano
add labels to partitions after all dding is done (dd will copy label and uuid)
server does not start (fix expand_fs bug)
The recovery server and companion server should use the same port
Recovery server does not start after update
Take out updating to recovery server step
Recovery server cannot access partitions (fix permissions)
Create an image creation script
Upload a complete ready to go image to be dd'd onto a card

other goals:

make standalone recovery server program and image that is not dependent on companion (it should be far less than 3gb in size)
ship only boot and recovery
recovery image should take care of partitioning the rest of the disk
upload companion partition only to s3

patrickelectric · 2018-08-30T22:50:32Z

Example of how to script the image:
https://github.com/patrickelectric/Raspberry-Pi-ArchLinux/blob/master/createSDCard

mariyachanniwala · 2018-08-30T23:42:32Z

I think these links are useful:
https://ltekieli.com/buildroot-with-raspberry-pi-u-boot/
http://bugcy013.blogspot.com/2011/07/mkimage-tool-to-create-u-boot-images.html

jaxxzer · 2020-03-04T21:12:09Z

We are looking at some alternative solutions like mender.io and swupdate.

patrickelectric requested changes Aug 6, 2018

View reviewed changes

mariyachanniwala force-pushed the issue124 branch 3 times, most recently from ec175e6 to 1a755f3 Compare August 10, 2018 20:30

Added option to boot into recovery partition

37c9649

mariyachanniwala force-pushed the issue124 branch 2 times, most recently from 1c56396 to 6b03e78 Compare August 14, 2018 00:11

Added Companion Recovery Server

384c5d2

mariyachanniwala force-pushed the issue124 branch from 6b03e78 to 384c5d2 Compare August 28, 2018 17:48

jaxxzer closed this Mar 4, 2020

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[WIP] Multiboot pi + recovery or update partition #146

[WIP] Multiboot pi + recovery or update partition #146

mariyachanniwala commented Jul 25, 2018

patrickelectric Aug 6, 2018

patrickelectric Aug 6, 2018

mariyachanniwala Aug 6, 2018

patrickelectric Aug 6, 2018

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patrickelectric Aug 6, 2018

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mariyachanniwala commented Aug 28, 2018 •

edited

jaxxzer commented Aug 30, 2018

patrickelectric commented Aug 30, 2018

mariyachanniwala commented Aug 30, 2018

jaxxzer commented Mar 4, 2020

		@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
		#!/bin/bash

		sudo -H -u root bash -c "sed -i -e 's/\-03/\-02/' /boot/cmdline.txt"

[WIP] Multiboot pi + recovery or update partition #146

[WIP] Multiboot pi + recovery or update partition #146

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mariyachanniwala commented Jul 25, 2018

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mariyachanniwala commented Aug 28, 2018 • edited

jaxxzer commented Aug 30, 2018

patrickelectric commented Aug 30, 2018

mariyachanniwala commented Aug 30, 2018

jaxxzer commented Mar 4, 2020

mariyachanniwala commented Aug 28, 2018 •

edited