Eniko (moved ➡ gamedev.place)Dec 23, 2024

hey linux nerds would it be possible to run a headless version of linux off a usb drive? i have a tiny x86 pc that i wanna use for octoprint for my 3d printer but i dont wanna set up a whole thing with peripherals

it already has win11 but last time i tried to run windows headless it did not work out

we used to use a raspberry pi but i can't deal with constant sd card corruptions anymore

Show threadCassandrichDec 23, 2024
@eniko Re: rpi and sd corruption, in theory this goes away if you use a distro that can run from a readonly mount, and put the data on a separate USB flash drive. Or you can even just boot your normal pi os from sd but with the rootfs on usb.
Show threadKevin Karhan Dec 23, 2024

@dalias @eniko I wIshed there was a good way to boot external media on #Pi0 & #Pi0w2...

#Pi3B+ and up support #USB-#Boot out of the box...

Show threadCassandrichDec 23, 2024
@kkarhan @eniko I dropped rpi and have been using Libre Computer Le Potato, but I might get stuck going back to rpi5 at some point for performance reasons... The Le Potato has never given me SD corruption or any such troubles tho.
Show threadCassandrichDec 23, 2024
@kkarhan @eniko Given how universal "rpi corrupted my sd card!!" is, I think there must be either something electrically bogus with its sd card slot, or bugs in the driver. If nothing else, I don't think it handles power failure right (voltage to the sd slot probably starts dropping while cpu is still running; i.e. basically cheaping out on a single cap).
Show threadGantuaDec 23, 2024
@dalias @kkarhan @eniko I see many kind of sd corruptions across multiple kind of SBCs, even if the sd card is only lightly used (e.g. /home on sdcard, rootfs is elsewhere)

This is really a case of non-industrial sdcard being unreliable for anything else than storing pictures from time to time.
Show threadStryder NotaviDec 24, 2024
@gantua @dalias @kkarhan @eniko I suppose SBCs are the only real use case for SD cards that isn't just infrequently writing photos or files, so it could just be an inappropriate workload problem.
Show threadCassandrich
@StryderNotavi @gantua @kkarhan @eniko Again, mine haven't failed this way under fairly heavy use on non-rpi sbcs, softcore systems on fpgas, etc. All the catastrophic sd corruption I've hit has been on rpi ≤3b. I strongly suspect they have some electrical problem like voltage drop to the card under high load such that only some of the writes actually take.
Dec 24, 2024 at 4:22amWeb
Show threadKevin Karhan Dec 24, 2024

@dalias @StryderNotavi @gantua given that early versions of the #RaspberryPi could be crashed / kernel panic'd with a xenon flash, I'd not be surprised of that possibility.

  • And given the early versions up to & including #Pi3B are supposed to run off #MicroUSB, sometimes with as little as 500mA ( #Pi0v1.2 ) and maxing out at 2,4A ( #Pi3Bplus ) I'm shure they are at the lower end of tolerance re: SPI bus voltages for #SD / #microSD cards...

Add to that a card that just barely keep up with it and we get those too tight tolerances between the two, so yeah, it all comes together.

  • OFC this is a hardware flaw and not really fixable except with a new board version / swapping certain components.
Raspberry Pi - Wikipedia

Show threadKevin Karhan Dec 24, 2024

@dalias @StryderNotavi @gantua But this also potentially explains why a #DigitalSignage #Display at a #BurgerKing I've seen is doing #KernelPanic each #boot:

  • A failed update / write destroyed the flashed system!