NOOBS v1.3 Beta testers feedback

[rdb]

does/can NOOBIE updates/upgrades itself automatically?

No. The prime directive of NOOBS is that we never write to the recovery partition!

[AlexHansson]

Hey, i installed Raspbmc and OpenElec and this error popped up:

Code: Select all

[b]Error[/b]

Error downloading or extracting tarball 
wget: unable to resolve host adress 'downloads.raspberrypi.org' 
tar: short read

I clicked close and it rebooted into OpenELEC. Is there something wrong or just a connection issue?

[meltwater]

More sweetshop stuff:
Is there a way to provide a patch to distro? For instance NOOBS installs the default image and then picks up the patch file to automatically patch the system?
This could be a very nice way to quickly customise a system while still allowing a clean install with an up to date image.

For example: Such a patch file may include your /etc/network/interfaces and /etc/wpa.conf files which can override the defaults, place all your useful scripts in user/home/bin etc.

Failing this...is there provision to simply be able to specify a script which automatically executes following an install (then it would be easy to customise any install as desired).

[AndrewS]

@AlexHansson - sounds like a connection issue I'm afraid.

@meltwater - it's subverting its intended purpose, but I guess you could hack something into the OS's partition_setup.sh script
For a way to do it 'properly', look at how the "Boot to Scratch" flavour of Raspbian works - I haven't looked into it in detail, but from what I saw of the startup text whizzing past, it looks like one of the OS's init scripts reads some json file (a json file which gets written by NOOBS during install) to determine which 'flavour' is being run, and then takes the appropriate action based on that.

[rdb]

Failing this...is there provision to simply be able to specify a script which automatically executes following an install (then it would be easy to customise any install as desired).

Yes. This is exactly what the concept of adding OS flavours is meant to provide.

You would need to add your own flavour to the flavour.json file for the OS that you want to customise and include the files needed for installation of that OS locally in the /os directory.

Once the OS is installed, the flavour name is stored to an os_config.json file that is written to the FAT partition of the installed OS. You can then install a program to run at init and make changes to the rootfs based on this value.

For further reference, please see how Raspbian handles the Boot to Scratch flavour.

[rdb]

@AlexHanson: Are you repeatedly seeing this issue? Could you try using wget to pull the index from downloads.raspberrypi.org and see if there are any HTTP errors?

[AndrewS]

For further reference, please see how Raspbian handles the Boot to Raspbian flavour.

LOL, think you might have made a typo there

[beta-tester]

does/can NOOBS updates/upgrades itself automatically?

No. The prime directive of NOOBS is that we never write to the recovery partition!

that means, every time a new version of NOOBS is available, i have to start from scratch? (format SD card, install and setup all OS)... uuuh that not good.

does/can NOOBS updates/upgrades itself automatically?

No. The prime directive of NOOBS is that we never write to the recovery partition!

I think he meant the OS that NOOBS loads. Answer still no, the OS must do that. Alternatively, a simple update script for Raspbian that runs once week or so is easily made but depends on a network connection. More importantly, most users probably don't want or need automatic updates.

No, i meant really NOOBS itself, not the installed OS...
"automatically" was the wrong word i took, i meant more a button or a command i can press/execute to look for new updates and install them, if i wish.

[rdb]

that means, every time a new version of NOOBS is available, i have to start from scratch? (format SD card, install and setup all OS)... uuuh that not good.

Hence the reason that this is a BETA release so that we only publish a final v1.3 release once it's been proved to be robust and stable.

[meltwater]

@rdb & AndrewS Ah...that sounds perfect. I shall have to do some digging to understand how it functions (and download the full NOOBS instead).
Thanks.

[beta-tester]

that means, every time a new version of NOOBS is available, i have to start from scratch? (format SD card, install and setup all OS)... uuuh that not good.

Hence the reason that this is a BETA release so that we only publish a final v1.3 release once it's been proved to be robust and stable.

ya ya, ok ok ok... i understand it is a BETA.
but i look forwards - even from stable 1.0 to 1.2, and 1.2 to 1.3 and so on
(i guess 1.3 will not be the last stable release)

[AndrewS]

No. The prime directive of NOOBS is that we never write to the recovery partition!

that means, every time a new version of NOOBS is available, i have to start from scratch? (format SD card, install and setup all OS)... uuuh that not good.

The "prime directive" is what makes NOOBS so reliable... it means that no matter what else happens, NOOBS should always remain bootable, i.e. still able to rewrite a new OS installation if the OS's partition suffers from the dreaded SD card corruption.

There is an unofficial way to 'upgrade' NOOBS without reformatting your whole card. Simply put the SD card into your Windows PC, make sure it's the RECOVERY partition (/dev/mmcblk0p1 for Linux-heads) that gets mounted (i.e. the one containing recovery.cmdline), delete everything in this partition, unzip the 'upgraded NOOBS' into this folder, make sure to edit recovery.cmdline and take out the "runinstaller" word, and make sure to 'safely remove' the card. Popping the card back into your Pi should then work as normal, and your existing NOOBS-installed OSes should continue to boot. This will probably only work for 'minor' NOOBS upgrades (e.g. 1.3 -> 1.3.1) and won't work for major NOOBS upgrades (e.g. 1.2.1 -> 1.3). See https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/issues/89 and https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/issues/19

[paraguaypi]

can i get some help on how exactly to download the NOOBSv1.3? also will it work on an SDHC card?

[rdb]

See http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4863 for download links. NOOBS supports SDHC.

[AndrewS]

@rdb & AndrewS Ah...that sounds perfect. I shall have to do some digging to understand how it functions (and download the full NOOBS instead).
Thanks.

I guess your request kinda ties in with https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/issues/56 too

[paraguaypi]

See http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4863 for download links. NOOBS supports SDHC.

thank you, but what i dont understand is how to download it from that page.

[Oakham]

See http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4863 for download links. NOOBS supports SDHC.

thank you, but what i dont understand is how to download it from that page.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4863 towards the bottom is a section called "How to Download the NOOBS v1.3 Beta"

https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/blob/dev/README.md

[ric96]

Not Working
tried the 20mb network only
got the "bloated pixel" screen then, BLANK!!!
no led other than power!!!

[AndrewS]

Not Working
tried the 20mb network only
got the "bloated pixel" screen then, BLANK!!!
no led other than power!!!

Did you remember to extract the files to the root of the card, and not to a subfolder within the card?
Some more info would probably be helpful, e.g. what model Pi, what you've got plugged into it, what kind of PSU you're using, what kind of TV/monitor you've got it plugged into, etc. etc.
Did you try pressing the 1 2 3 or 4 buttons on the keyboard as instructed to try the different display modes?

The purpose of beta-testing it to try and get detailed feedback

[AndrewS]

See http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4863 for download links. NOOBS supports SDHC.

thank you, but what i dont understand is how to download it from that page.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/4863 towards the bottom is a section called "How to Download the NOOBS v1.3 Beta"

https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/blob/dev/README.md

Ignore the README for now, the bit you specifically want from the URL that @rdb gave you is the bit where it says "Download Link: ".
I guess it shows you can never make anything too easy!

[ric96]

Not Working
tried the 20mb network only
got the "bloated pixel" screen then, BLANK!!!
no led other than power!!!

Did you remember to extract the files to the root of the card, and not to a subfolder within the card?
Some more info would probably be helpful, e.g. what model Pi, what you've got plugged into it, what kind of PSU you're using, what kind of TV/monitor you've got it plugged into, etc. etc.
Did you try pressing the 1 2 3 or 4 buttons on the keyboard as instructed to try the different display modes?

The purpose of beta-testing it to try and get detailed feedback

1. model b rev.2
2. apple iphone 5 charger 5v 1A worked well for the past few moths shount be an issue
3. class 2 sandisk 4gb
3. hdmi
4. no keyboard
5. lan=yes

[AndrewS]

If you have no keyboard, see https://github.com/raspberrypi/noobs/bl ... -partition for instructions on changing the display mode.

[rdb]

@ric96: Does NOOBS v1.2.1 work correctly with that setup?

[Oakham]

Ignore the README for now, the bit you specifically want from the URL that @rdb gave you is the bit where it says "Download Link: ".
I guess it shows you can never make anything too easy!

You mean where it says download link you can actually download something, now that is a novel idea

[AndrewS]

Ignore the README for now, the bit you specifically want from the URL that @rdb gave you is the bit where it says "Download Link: ".
I guess it shows you can never make anything too easy!

You mean where it says download link you can actually download something, now that is a novel idea

Maybe you should patent it