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Feb 28 2022

is NOOBS still a thing?

Posted by kll · In RPI · 393 Reads · Print

well, i experiment about USB boot ( and generally RPI drive speed ) and failed ( lost money ?)
about a 250GB M.2 SSD in a sweet USB 3.1gen2 external drive box
what is supposed to do 10Gbps expecting a Score about 9000 but still, without a good cable, ended at 2500 .. 3200.

update: got a USB3 type a male to type c female adapter for 6 euro and so can use the original cable to connect to RPI4 USB3 ports,
and got a score near 7600

now what to do with that BIG drive on a RPI
sure a media-server would make sense
but i have a other idea, use it at a RPI3B+ and install several OS's on it?

? why ?
** actual there is the change from Buster to Bullseye
( not lucky like with the RPI camera ) so the "Legacy" category with the Buster was created )
** the 64bit is now official ( unsure whats not working and what it must be used for )
( just a teaser list would be good, what i can install there ( but not on 32 ))
but the 32bit will live on for older RPI...

so here the question?
is NOOBS ( or PINN ) still a thing?

at the download page it vanished years ago, but after some search i found:
NOOBS_lite_v3_8.zip so today only a month old!

actually i have a good setup on the 250GB drive but, as it is a copy
( by SD CARD COPY tool )
of the RPI4 USB3 120GB SSD ( Score 6300 see here)
no problem to overwrite it.

ok, still using the drive with a ( USB2 (white)) usb a to usb c ( charge/sync cable )
i try to setup with that NOOBS
-a- how to prepare that drive? ( as it already contains a RSPOS )
* it is seen from win10 ( /boot/ ) as a small drive,
* the "SD Card Formatter" ( 5.0.1 Tuxera ) does not see it
** try ( from win10 to delete the linux 230GB and
** format the /boot/ 256MB
** unzip NOOBS to it

prepare ( OMG i am used to working headless (that's why i not used NOOBS for years ))
** RPI3
** 3A charger
** Ethernet cable
** WiFi keyboard mouse
** HDMI cable
** 250GB USB3 drive in USB2 port

boot NOOBS

install 32bit and 64bit and small data partition

boot to RASPIOS 32bit, do the initial setup
( the OS online download / unzip / writing works at 14MB/s )
and enable SSH and VNC
so i can even work headless again ( default NOOBS boot after timeout )
( remember to set the headless resolution for using VNC )


bug with the updated RPIOS32bit / CHROME start problems..
so i install Firefox in 32 and 64 bit version and let it come up default empty..
( a RPI3 has only 1GB RAM )

RPI3 boot NOOBS RPIOS64pi@RPI64:~/projects $ dh
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/root ext4 114G 3.8G 105G 4% /
devtmpfs devtmpfs 326M 0 326M 0% /dev
tmpfs tmpfs 455M 0 455M 0% /dev/shm
tmpfs tmpfs 182M 2.6M 180M 2% /run
tmpfs tmpfs 5.0M 4.0K 5.0M 1% /run/lock
/dev/sda8 vfat 253M 30M 223M 12% /boot
tmpfs tmpfs 91M 32K 91M 1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sda7 ext4 115G 4.1G 105G 4% /media/pi/root
/dev/sda6 vfat 253M 49M 204M 20% /media/pi/boot
/dev/sda10 ext4 488M 468K 452M 1% /media/pi/data
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 232.9G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 63M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 32M 0 part
├─sda6 8:6 0 256M 0 part /media/pi/boot
├─sda7 8:7 0 115.9G 0 part /media/pi/root
├─sda8 8:8 0 256M 0 part /boot
├─sda9 8:9 0 115.8G 0 part /
└─sda10 8:10 0 512M 0 part /media/pi/data
pi@RPI64:~/projects $


so each OS /root/ got 115GB drive-space
as i booted in the second install ( the RPIOS64 ) i work here in sda9.

now that old question again: can i headless change the NOOBS OS it boots to ( last used ) ?

also got
pinn-382.zip
berryboot-20210701-pi4.zip

so i try PINN ( not ( but much more as ) NOOBS ) after so long time,
just play it on a USB3 stick on RPI4
more info here
it allows 'vncshare' and 'ssh' option for its shell


can not say if better or not,
but try like a 8GB uSD card with PINN
and install OS's on USB drive
lsblkpi@RPI4:~ $ lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 232.9G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 63M 0 part
├─sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part
├─sda5 8:5 0 32M 0 part
├─sda6 8:6 0 61G 0 part /media/pi/twister
├─sda7 8:7 0 57G 0 part /
├─sda8 8:8 0 56.9G 0 part /media/pi/root0
├─sda9 8:9 0 56.3G 0 part /media/pi/root1
└─sda10 8:10 0 512M 0 part /media/pi/data
mmcblk0 179:0 0 7.4G 0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1 0 63M 0 part
├─mmcblk0p2 179:2 0 1K 0 part
├─mmcblk0p5 179:5 0 32M 0 part
├─mmcblk0p6 179:6 0 253M 0 part /media/pi/boot
├─mmcblk0p7 179:7 0 256M 0 part /boot
├─mmcblk0p8 179:8 0 256M 0 part /media/pi/boot1
└─mmcblk0p9 179:9 0 253M 0 part /media/pi/boot2


so here the big question? where PINN remembers the last booted OS?
i think its in ( confirmed forum 'procount' )
/dev/mmcblk0p5/noobs.conf
( /dev/sda5/noobs.conf to ignore )

so i mounted it, overwrite the number in
default_partition_to_boot=7
and reboot
and make a bash script code
keep this file ( after make executable )
pinn_wheel
in a shared data partition ( pi owned )
and have a alias ( in .bash_aliases )pointing to it
alias pinnwheel='bash /media/pi/data/share/pinn_wheel'

as i took out the uSD card and the USB3 cable to M2-SSD
to play other things
it did not start again..
i try many times, until there was a reaction, but then the PinnWheel / boot around
failed...
i blamed Pinn ( and its auto update ) for a change, so i tried a new setup to study it
but this time no SD / USB combo, just a 32GB USB3-stick

+ burn pinn-lite.img.zip
+ boot into Pinn
+ + select 2 OS and a data partition
+ + get:

sda6 rpios 32 boot
sda7 rpios 32 root
sda8 rpios 64 boot
sda9 rpios 64 root
sda10 data ( and here in /share/ all i need for setup and the PinnWheel from old system)

so i now can type
6 or 8
for select ( boot into ) 32bit / 64 bit OS
and all worked fine.

the changed file for reboot is
sda5:noobs.conf[General]
default_partition_to_boot=8
display_mode=0
keyboard_layout=us
language=us