OK to pull out memory card once the system boots up?

[Rich]

Hi ashfame

... Unmount all partitions and they will finish the writes to physical disk and only then return. Brilliant! So one only needs to care about all partitions being unmounted & it can be ejected. Thanks again!

I highlighted that in bold because that is only true if that filesystem is not in use. For instance, if you don't have a  copy2fs.flg  file, then
your extensions will be  loop  mounted in  /tmp/tcloop/.  That means the filesystem on  /mnt/mmcblk0p2  is in use because that's where
your  tce/optional  directory is located and the  .tcz  files are mounted in  /tmp/tcloop/. Under those circumstances the  umount
command will return right away with an error message regardless of whether any writes are pending or not.

The point I'm trying to make is be certain that the  umount  command succeeded when it returns prior to pulling the card. Commands
return a status code to indicate whether they succeed or fail. Zero indicates success.

You can test and act on the status like this:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~$ ls abc && echo passed || echo failed
ls: cannot access 'abc': No such file or directory
failed
tc@E310:~$ ls X && echo passed || echo failed
X
passed
tc@E310:~$
Replace the  ls  command with your  umount  command and replace the  echo  commands with the action you want to take for each case.

Or you can test the status separately instead of a one liner:

Code: [Select]

#!/bin/sh
# Script to unmount a partition.  $1  is the partition name passed to this script.

sudo umount /mnt/$1

# The status of the most recent command is contained in  $?  which automatically gets cleared once read.
case "$?" in
0) echo "umount succeeded."
   echo "Congratulations."
   echo "$1 unmounted." ;;
*) echo "umount failed."
   echo "Better luck next time."
   echo "$1 is still mounted." ;;Just replace the echo commands with the actions you want to take. Although this script does not test if you passed it a value, it
will still indicate that  umount  failed.

[ashfame]

Hi ashfame
I highlighted that in bold because that is only true if that filesystem is not in use. For instance, if you don't have a  copy2fs.flg  file, then
your extensions will be  loop  mounted in  /tmp/tcloop/.  That means the filesystem on  /mnt/mmcblk0p2  is in use because that's where
your  tce/optional  directory is located and the  .tcz  files are mounted in  /tmp/tcloop/. Under those circumstances the  umount
command will return right away with an error message regardless of whether any writes are pending or not.

The point I'm trying to make is be certain that the  umount  command succeeded when it returns prior to pulling the card. Commands
return a status code to indicate whether they succeed or fail. Zero indicates success.

Oh understood, rely on the exit code of the command, gotcha, Thanks again for clearing my misunderstanding!

[ashfame]

Hi ashfame

... As I understand the bootable media is essentially unmounted after boot up. ...

Partition #1 which contains the boot files gets unmounted. Partition #2 contains your  tce  directory which contains your extensions. It
does not get unmounted. For that, you need to:

1. You need to have a  copy2fs.flg  file in your tce directory.
2. You need to unmount it yourself.

Hi Rich, wanted to confirm the exact location of copy2fs.flg Is it right under tce directory or tce/optional directory? And is there a way to verify the flag file is indeed forcing the copy to memory behaviour as intended?

[Rich]

Hi ashfame
The  copy2fs.flg  file goes right under the  tce  directory.
I don't recall off the top of my head how to verify it. Files under  /usr  probably won't be links back to  /tmp/tcloop.

[ashfame]

Hi ashfame
The  copy2fs.flg  file goes right under the  tce  directory.
I don't recall off the top of my head how to verify it. Files under  /usr  probably won't be links back to  /tmp/tcloop.

I tried copy2fs.flg under both directories - directly under tce and tce/optional, but in both cases, if I unmount the partition2 after booting up before trying to load Xorg by (tce-load -i Xorg), it doesn't work. So, its clearly not copying over the extensions to file system in memory.

[Greg Erskine]

IIRC, the copy2fs.flg means instead of loop mounting extensions it loads the files into RAM.

This happens when the extension is installed, so if you unmount partition before you load the extension it won't find the extension.

I think you are thinking that ALL the extensions are copied into RAM during the boot process regardless of them being installed.

[ashfame]

IIRC, the copy2fs.flg means instead of loop mounting extensions it loads the files into RAM.

This happens when the extension is installed, so if you unmount partition before you load the extension it won't find the extension.

I think you are thinking that ALL the extensions are copied into RAM during the boot process regardless of them being installed.

Hi Greg,

That's exactly what I was thinking. So how do I install an extension while modifying the image file, prior to writing files to the SD card? And when an extension is installed, does it still reside on the second partition (tce/optional)?

I need an automated way of preparing the disk image that's ready to boot for my use-case. Thank you!

[Juanito]

I don't recall off the top of my head how to verify it. Files under  /usr  probably won't be links back to  /tmp/tcloop.

If you use copy2fs, the extension symlinks will not appear in /tmp/tcloop, but loaded extensions will be shown by "tce-status -i".

[Rich]

Hi ashfame

... I need an automated way of preparing the disk image that's ready to boot for my use-case. Thank you!

The first thing you need to do is expand the second partition in the image file to make room for more extensions. I'm using a copy of
piCore-9.0.3.img  to demonstrate the steps required. Adjust sizes for your own needs. You will need the following extensions for this:

parted.tcz
util-linux.tcz

These are the characteristics of the original image:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ fdisk -l piCore-9.0.3.img
Disk piCore-9.0.3.img: 49 MiB, 51380224 bytes, 100352 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0009bf4f

Device            Boot Start    End Sectors Size Id Type
piCore-9.0.3.img1       8192  77823   69632  34M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
piCore-9.0.3.img2      77824 100351   22528  11M 83 Linux
tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$It is 49M in size. 4M + 34M + 11M = 49M. The 4M comes from partition 1 being offset 4M from the beginning of the image.

First we create a destination for a new image about 60M in size:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ dd if=/dev/zero of=1.img bs=1K count=60176
60176+0 records in
60176+0 records out
61620224 bytes (62 MB, 59 MiB) copied, 0.690125 s, 89.3 MB/s
tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$
Next we loop mount the file as a device:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ sudo losetup --show --find --partscan 1.img
/dev/loop332
tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$
Then copy the original image to the larger file:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ dd if=piCore-9.0.3.img of=/dev/loop332
100352+0 records in
100352+0 records out
51380224 bytes (51 MB, 49 MiB) copied, 1.58843 s, 32.3 MB/s
tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$
This is the result. The new image has the same characteristics as the original except it's in a larger file.

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ fdisk -l /dev/loop332
Disk /dev/loop332: 58.8 MiB, 61620224 bytes, 120352 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0009bf4f

Device         Boot Start    End Sectors Size Id Type
/dev/loop332p1       8192  77823   69632  34M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/loop332p2      77824 100351   22528  11M 83 Linux
tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$
Expand partition 2 to the end of the file:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ sudo parted -s /dev/loop332 resizepart 2 100%
This needs to be done before expanding the filesystem to inform the kernel the MBR changed:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ e2fsck -f /dev/loop332p2
e2fsck 1.44.4 (18-Aug-2018)
Pass 1: Checking inodes, blocks, and sizes
Pass 2: Checking directory structure
Pass 3: Checking directory connectivity
Pass 4: Checking reference counts
Pass 5: Checking group summary information
/dev/loop332p2: 55/2816 files (1.8% non-contiguous), 9660/11264 blocks
tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$
Finally, we expand the filesystem:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ resize2fs -p /dev/loop332p2
resize2fs 1.44.4 (18-Aug-2018)
Resizing the filesystem on /dev/loop332p2 to 21264 (1k) blocks.
The filesystem on /dev/loop332p2 is now 21264 (1k) blocks long.

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$
Checking the new image you'll see partition 2 has been expanded from 11M to 20.8M:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ fdisk -l 1.img
Disk 1.img: 58.8 MiB, 61620224 bytes, 120352 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x0009bf4f

Device     Boot Start    End Sectors  Size Id Type
1.img1           8192  77823   69632   34M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
1.img2          77824 120351   42528 20.8M 83 Linux
tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$

...  So how do I install an extension while modifying the image file, prior to writing files to the SD card? And when an extension is installed, does it still reside on the second partition (tce/optional)?

Mount the second partition:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ mkdir p2
tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ sudo mount /dev/loop332p2 p2
tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$
Now you can add extensions to  p2/tce/optional  and update  p2/tce/onboot.lst.

When you are done, unmount partition 2 and release the loop device:

Code: [Select]

tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ sudo umount p2
tc@E310:~/PiCore/TC9$ sudo losetup -d /dev/loop332
    [EDIT]: Added required extensions list to instructions.  Rich
    [EDIT]: Added missing  sudo  prefix to the  losetup  commands.  Rich

[Rich]

Hi ashfame
I should have mentioned you need the following extensions for the above operations:
parted.tcz
util-linux.tcz

I will add that information to my previous post. Hope that didn't cause you any problems.

You do not have to perform these operations on a Pi. You can do this using an x86 machine running Tinycore while using the  Fetch.sh
script to retrieve PiCore extensions.

[ashfame]

Hi ashfame
I should have mentioned you need the following extensions for the above operations:
parted.tcz
util-linux.tcz

I will add that information to my previous post. Hope that didn't cause you any problems.

You do not have to perform these operations on a Pi. You can do this using an x86 machine running Tinycore while using the  Fetch.sh
script to retrieve PiCore extensions.

Hi Rich, thanks for explaining that, you are the best!

I have just sat down to work on the OS build, after working on the actual project that will run on it, during the day.

I understand your well written instructions very clearly and they will be helpful when I start running out of space, but since I am using piCore11, they seem to have larger partitions with much more empty space than piCore9.

For now, I am able to put up extensions as-is, but when the time comes to including my custom extension for the primary application that's supposed to run on the air-gapped OS build, I will definitely have to do it.

This cleared my another misunderstanding regarding "installation" of extensions. Its more like loading the extensions into memory for use. So, it simply becomes a matter of providing the tcz files and then specifying them in boot.lst so that they are loaded during the boot. And copy2fs.flg dictates they are copied to memory based file system, rather than just being mounted, hence the possibility of un-mounting 2nd partition after boot.

The 2 packages you mentioned - parted.tcz & util-linux.tcz, its my understanding that I will need them if I want to do this expansion while running piCore only. Otherwise, I can just get by doing this on a x86 box, right?

[Rich]

Hi ashfame

... The 2 packages you mentioned - parted.tcz & util-linux.tcz, its my understanding that I will need them if I want to do this expansion while running piCore only. Otherwise, I can just get by doing this on a x86 box, right?

Yes, you can do this all on an x86 box. You only need those extensions on the machine you use to expand and alter the image file on.
parted.tcz  is needed for expanding the partition.
util-linux.tcz  is needed for the  losetup  program it provides. The  losetup  program makes it possible to treat the  .img  file like a
real device.

[ashfame]

Hi ashfame

... The 2 packages you mentioned - parted.tcz & util-linux.tcz, its my understanding that I will need them if I want to do this expansion while running piCore only. Otherwise, I can just get by doing this on a x86 box, right?

Yes, you can do this all on an x86 box. You only need those extensions on the machine you use to expand and alter the image file on.
parted.tcz  is needed for expanding the partition.
util-linux.tcz  is needed for the  losetup  program it provides. The  losetup  program makes it possible to treat the  .img  file like a
real device.

Sorry, I am confused. If I am doing this on x86, why do I need tcz extensions for that? which essentially only runs in TinyCore?

[Rich]

Hi ashfame
Those are x86 extensions that get installed on the x86 box because they are needed to make alterations to the image file. They are not
added to the image file or needed on the Pi.

[ashfame]

Hi ashfame
Those are x86 extensions that get installed on the x86 box because they are needed to make alterations to the image file. They are not
added to the image file or needed on the Pi.

Hi Rich, I think its the tcz extension that confuses me. TCZ files are TinyCore extensions, right?

I understand I will need the required packages to run on x86, which in this case is parted and utils for ubuntu, if I am right. but you said parted.tcz & util-linux.tcz so I got confused.