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Even if the NOOBS GUI is launched, the busybox shell can still be accessed by pressing CTRL-ALT-F2. Use CTL-ALT-F1 to get back to the gui.
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You can now also SSH into the NOOBS basic busybox shell. To enable this feature, add
sshto the argument list in the recovery.cmdline. SSH is also accessible from the rescueshell, but allow 5 seconds after boot to allow the network to establish. NOOBS SSH does not store any keys so it takes a while to connect at first after each boot as it generates new keys for that session.
Use the username of 'root' and password 'raspberry' to login to the shell via the console or SSH.
Due to the increasing size of OSes, it is becoming increasingly difficult to store their compressed installation files on the NOOBS SD card. So NOOBS-full now only includes one default Raspbian installation and the remainder are downloadable using a network connection. To counter this, NOOBS supports storing the compressed OSes on a USB stick aswell. This has the following advantages:
- The OSes are available to install when a network is not available.
- They do not take up any valuable space on the SD card.
The OSes should be stored on the USB stick in the same format as they would be on a NOOBS SD card:
- Each OS should be stored in its own folder beneath the /os/ folder.
- They should contain compressed images of their partitions in .tar.xz format
- All supporting json files etc. shall also be included. The USB stick should be inserted into the RPi before NOOBS is booted. Ideally it should be connected to the RPi and not via a usb hub as this may introduce a delay preventing the USB stick from being recognised.
If the same OS is available on the SD card, the USB stick and the network, only the most recent version is displayed.
An alternative source of OSes to be downloaded from the internet can be specified by adding alt_image_source=http://newurl.com/os_list.json to the argument list in recovery.cmdline, where newurl.com is the name of the alternative server and os_list.json is the list of information about the alternative OSes. This list of OSes will be added to the default download list. This can be useful for storing the default repository on a local LAN server, or for adding your own list of OSes to those available in NOOBS.
To suppress the default URL and only use the alternative image source for downloading OS images, add no_default_source. Using this option without alt_image_source will prevent all internet downloads and just allow local OSes on the SD card to be listed.
The VGA666 adaptor connects to the GPIO pins and allows a VGA display to be attached to the RPi. The normal VGA666 installation instructions should be followed to allow it to work with NOOBS.
Create a config.txt file with the following lines in it:
add dtoverlay=VGA666
enable_dpi_lcd=1
display_default_lcd=1
dpi_group= (e.g. dpi_group=1, or dpi_group=2)
dpi_mode= (e.g. dpi_mode=28 - see tvservice for a list of possible modes)
NOOBS can be used as a recovery program, so if your OS gets corrupted, messed up or otherwise goes wrong, you can reinstall a clean version of the OS and start again. On the other hand, starting again from scratch can be painful, especially if you can't remember how you set up your perfect OS environment.
NOOBS now includes support for noobsconfig (see http://github.com/procount/noobsconfig), so it can customise an OS installation by copying additional files over the top of the OS before it is booted for the first time. These files can typically be used to setup wifi, install course material, or inject run-once scripts that execute on boot to perform more complciated installations or customisations.
By keeping these customizations separate from the OS, it avoids having to rebuild a custom OS each time a new version of the OS is released.
During the installation of the operating systems, NOOBS will write the percentage completed to a text file called /tmp/progress. The format of this file is an integer (0-100) followed by a space, a '%' symbol and a line feed. It is updated only when the progress changes by at least 1%. Sometimes NOOBS will not know the maximum size, so in this case it shows the amount data written in MBs. This feature mimics the progress dialog on the display and is useful in headless installations.
To make use of this feature a background shell script can be used. If a /background.sh script exists, it will be executed in the background whilst NOOBS runs. This can be used to read the /tmp/progress file and display the progress on the serial port, or a GPIO display etc.
Arch linux distros use extended file attributes that are not stored in a standard TAR archive. Therefore they use BSDTAR to create their distro archives which are not compatible with NOOBS. NOOBS adds BSDTAR support to install these files, allowing ARCH linux to be installed by NOOBS. The partition_setup.sh file has been modified to allow ARCH linux distros to be installed directly from their website without converting into NOOBS's XZ format.
To install Arch it is necessary to add another repository to NOOBS.
Edit recovery.cmdline and add alt-image-source=https://kent.dl.sourceforge.net/project/pinn/os/os_list_v3.json
In addition, the recovery.cmdline should have disablesafemode added as a parameter since without it, the VGA666 will force NOOBS into safe mode due to its connections to the GPIO header.
- Noobsconfig filenames - All configuration filenames based on
<osname>_<partition>(with a .txt, .tar or .tar.xz extension) now have all spaces converted to underscores. This was omitted in the previous version compared with the noobsconfig scripts.
- Multiple OS selection - Information about multiply installed OSes was not stored properly, so only the first installed OS would be selectable.
- DHCP - NOOBS Issue #336 & PR #337 have been implemented to allow DHCP to work with Microsoft hardened servers.
If an HDMI and a DSI screeen (such as the Raspberry Pi Touch Screen) are both connected to the Raspberry Pi, the selection of which screen is to be used as the default needs to be selected in the config.txt file, which means constantly having to change config.txt to match whichever screen is required. This is because the DSI screen can only be selected at boot time, although without any configuration the GPU will select the DSI screen in preference to the HDMI. PINN provides some limited ability to reverse this prioriy.
This use case assumes that the DSI screen is always connected, and is normally used. But if an HDMI screen is connected, then the display will automatically switch to it.
- Create a
config.txtfile in the PINN root partition. Ensure it has the lineignore_lcd=1to disable the DSI screen and select the HDMI screen.
- Edit
recovery.cmdlineand add thedsikeyword. - In the boot partition of any installed OS, create a
config.dsifile to configure the DSI screen, and aconfig.hdmifile to configure the hdmi screen. (This can mostly be setup using a custom flavour with the noobsconfig feature so it can be installed automatically.)
When PINN boots, the HDMI screen will be selected, so to use any PINN feature, an HDMI screen must be connected.
PINN will automatically boot the last selected OS after it times out. If a HDMI screen is attached, PINN will copy the config.hdmi file to config.txt on the selected OS and reboot into it.
If an HDMI screen was not detected, PINN will copy the config.dsi file to config.txt on the selected OS and reboot into it.
If you have changed your login password for an OS and forget what it is, PINN will allow you to set it back to its default or set it to a new value.
- On the PINN screen, select the new
Advancedmenu.
- Select the installed OS that you want to reset the password in.
- Selecting the change password button will display a dialog box to enter the new password details.
- Enter the username you want to change the password of.
- Enter the new password (twice). Both copies must match. The second will be displayed red if it is different.
- The password strength meter is a useful indication of how good a password you have created.
- The
Use Dafaultbutton will enter the default username and password for the selected OS. - Tick the
show passwordbox to display the passwords on the screen.
- Fixed the ability to use https protocol (which was preventing Arch from installing sometimes).
- A user supplied wpa_supplicant.conf file is now ALWAYS copied to /settings and then renamed to wpa_supplicant.conf.bak so that it does not continually overwrite any manual changes made through the GUI.
Raspbian has recently added an SD Card Copier tool called piclone, which is great. For anyone concerned about it cloning a live system, it is now ported into PINN so that it can clone the SD card offline, whilst the OS is not running. Simply insert a second SD card into the Pi using a USB card reader and clone your entire SD card onto it. All partitions will be copied onto the second card whilst the last partition will be sized fit the remainder of the SD card. In this way your existing data can be migrated to a smaller or larger SD card.
Note that if you have installed multiple OSes using PINN, only the last partition on the SD card will be resized.
Entering rescueshell in the recovery.cmdline file will cause the shell to be entered as soon as PINN is booted. On typing exit,
the PINN recovery program will now continue, instead of exiting into another shell. See NOOBS issue #271.
Adding vncshare to recovery.cmdline is similar to vncinstall except the display is output both to the selected display AND to a
remote VNC client simultaneously. This avoids having to keep editing recovery.cmdline to switch from one to the other as they are both
always available.
- Removed the "Please wait while PINN initialises" dialog box under some rare network circumstances.
The following network drivers have been added to support a wider range of wifi and network adapters:
- zd1211rw
- rtl8192cu
- rt2500usb
- rt73usb
- rt2800usb
- mt7601u
- rtl8150
- r8152
- asix
- ax88179_178a
- dm9601
- smsc95xx
- The rtl8188cus driver has been updated to work with the cfg80211 interface.
- The ACT LED will now work properly on the RPi 3B
If PINN is connected to the internet, it will check for the latest version available for download. If a newer version is available, a dialog box will pop-up showing the latest version number and the recent cahnges made. You then have the option to cancel the update, download it, or ignore this version. If you cancel, the dialog box will keep popping up to remind you each time PINN starts. If you select ignore, this version will be ignored and no dialogs will popup again until another later version is released. If you choose to download this update, the zip file will be downloaded and will overwrite your current version of PINN. PINN will then reboot the RPi and restart PINN.
rtl8188eu wifi driver with cfg80211 interface added (for e.g. HubPiWi) Linux Kernel and rpi-firmware updated to match NOOBS v2.0
Updated to match NOOBS v2.1 Now supports the IoTpHAT wifi.
PINN can be controlled with a TV remote if the HDMI TV has CEC support. The CEC remote keys are mapped as follows: To simulate a mouse the following keys are used:
- Cursor Up/Down/Left/Right - moves the mouse cursor in each direction
- Select - mouse click
For quicker selection the following keys may be easier:
- Channel Up - previous list item
- Channel Down - next list item
- PLAY key - Enter Key
- Exit Key - Escape
- 9 key - Toggles the advanced menu
- 1-8 keys - select the menu buttons numbered from left to right
Any of the above remote keys can be used instead of the keyboard shift key on startup to access the main menu.
NOTE: CEC implementations vary between TV manufacturers. The above key mappings work on Samsung TVs supporting their Anynet+. Other TV brands may not work as well, but the mouse simulation is designed to work on most TVs. If your TV does not work as above and are willing to help, please let me know so I can identify the differences and include support for your brand of TV.
Default Boot - A default OS can be set in a multi-boot setup for quicker boots. Bootmenutimout - The timeout of the boot selection dialog can be changed. SHIFT key - The PINN interface can be reached using the Left mouse button or a CEC enabled TV remote key as well as the SHIFT key.
If only one OS is installed then the boot selector will not be displayed and the OS will be automatically booted.
After multiple OSes have been installed, you can select which OS to boot through this selection window that is automatically displayed. PINN will remember your choice and boot this OS by default unless a different option has been selected within 10 seconds. It is possible to change this menu timeout by adding 'bootmenutimeout=X' in the recovery.cmdline file, where X is the desired timeout in seconds. A Boot button has been added for easier selection with limited CEC TV remotes.
Each OS entry now has a checkbox next to it to select it as a sticky default OS. If an OS is checked, then PINN will operate as if that was the only OS installed, so it will boot it automatically without showing the boot selection dialog. To change or remove the sticky checkbox, the boot selection dialog can be shown again by pressing the Shift key on boot up.
The build dependencies introduced in v2.1.1 have been fixed.
Added many translations from the community.
- IP address - Shown in window title
- CEC key mapping - Replaced 0 button with PLAY button for greater applicability
- BOOT - Added BOOT button to boot selection dialog for use with limited TV remotes
- **Tarball names - Allow local tarballs to have a different name to the partition labell
- SD Card - Recommend 8GB card minimum
- SD Card - Update SD card requirements
- Network - Do not continue polling for connectivity during installation
- Update - Bump kernel and firmware versions
- PiZeroW - Update firmware/kernel for PiZero Wifi version
- PiZeroW - Further update to match NOOBS 2.3. Added regDB for channel 13 & missing DTBs
- Update - Rebase onto NOOBS 2.4
- repo - Support "repo=" from NOOBS
- USB support - Supports USB BOOT and USB ROOTFS
- btrfs - Added support for btrfs file systems
- repo_list - Added repo_list cmdline argument
- Win10IoT - Fixed annoying warning messages on installation
- RTAndrod - re-included missing cpio to allow installation
- Translations - udpate to Portugese + other translations
- Password - A new password will not expire
- Slideshow - Slides during installation are now scaled to be the same size.
- >1TB MSDs - Installing OSes to a USB Mass Storage Device > 1TB would fail. 2TB is the maximum size.
A major change to the User Interface in preparation for some new features.
- 3 Toolbars - Main Menu, Archival and Maintenance.
- OS Groups - OS lists are grouped into General, Minimal, Educational, Media and Gaming.
- Download OS - Download an OS to USB for local installation.
- Fsck - Check and fix your filesystems in case of error.
- Wipe Disk - delete all OSes and restore drive to full capacity.
- Info button - Go directly to the webpage of each OS.
Finally, PINN can now re-install any installed OS WITHOUT affecting the other OSes, eliminating one of my NOOBS bugbears.
- Re-install - Re-install an OS without affecting others
- no_update - disable PINN self-update (manual refesh of PINN available)
- update PINN - A manual PINN update check can now be done (for when no_update is used)
- Edit PINN - The recovery.cmdline and config.txt fiels of PINN can now be edited.
- no_cursor - The no_cursor option now only affects the bootselection dialog
- Wipe - The Wipe Disk command has been temporarily removed
- Max OSes - The number of OSes has been restricted so that boot partitions numbers are <63
- self-update - Fixed broken self-update
This is a small maintenance release for some cosmetic changes and bugfixes mainly.
- background - Specify the background colour as background=r,g,b
- style - Change the style with style=motif/windows/platinum
- configpath - (partially) allow remote flavours to customise an OS
- dsi - Allows the HDMI/DSI switching option to work with OSes installed to USB
- remotetimeout - Enable network for remote boot alteration.
This new option allows PINN to be used more easily in a remote headless environment.
- rtl8812 wifi - added wifi driver for rtl8812 5GHz dongles
- firmware - New firmware for Rpi 3B+
- Kernel - Update to kernel 4.9.80
- OS firmware - Latest firmware is slip streamed onto old OSes
- wifi drivers - Some wifi drivers temporarily removed until they can be upgraded
- Arora - Prevented multiple instances of Arora browser running
- OS firmware - A better method of deploying new firmware is applied
- BUG: Cmdline - Note that the recovery.cmdline is incorrect in this version
Unfortunately, an incorrect recovery.cmdline slipped into this release and none of the additional PINN OSes are available. There is a simple workaround of copying recovery.cmdline.new to recovery.cmdline on the PINN partition
Fixes the incorrect recovery.cmdline bug in v2.5.2. (There's a reason why I didn't make this v2.7 yet!)
- Switch firmware - Enable firmware switching for 3B+ and other models.
- Countdown - Re-enabled the boot selection dialog countdown timer.
- Self-Update - A small fix to the self-update ignore feature
- Firmware - Update firmware
- Kernel - bump kernel to 4.14
- Kernel - Bump kernel to suppress missing mailbox commands in old firmware
- pinn_init.sh - Add initialisation script to run before PINN
- pinn_init.sh - Improve calling of script to run before PINN
- config.txt - deleted
- Fix menu - Replaced Fsck with Fix menu option to include a wider range of tools
- Store meta - Additional meta files stored on installation for fix up tools
- Partuuid - Store partuuid references for better USB support
- Tab fix - Fixed synchronisation of OS tab display
- Programmable CEC - Program your TV remote for use with PINN
- Reinstall - bugfix to Reinstall option following partuuid change on USBs
- Programmable CEC - Fixed bugs
- networktimeout - Added timeout to detect network presence
- Replace OSes - Allows the replacement of one OS with another
- Project Spaces - Added Project Spaces
- Reserve disk space - Reserve some space on PINN's partition before formatting
- mkimage - Added mkimage from uboot
- xz - Allow XZ Compression
- Update Dialog - This now cancels any timeout setting