Odroid XU4 Beta image posted

[MW0MWZ]

4.1.4 build on the Odroid XU posted, please try it out: https://pistar.uk/beta/

[ZL2TWS]

Hello Andy.

Hope this message finds you well and pleased to see on going support for Pi-Star continues.
Happy New Year from Wellington, New Zealand.

I have been using Odroid XU4 at V4.1.8 this month with excellent reliable results.
I purchased a handful of XU4's as an alternative during a shortage of RPi boards and find them very fast.
Thank you for providing the image. I did use the previous V3 Beta when it first come out to get me started.
For WiFi connectivity I plugged in a mini WiFi adapter and used 2.4G via my local router.
The XU4 doesn't need to be used on an Ethernet connection except for setup.
My RF device used is a USB connected DVAP Dongle on UHF.
So yesterday I tried V4.2.0 and found two essential parts that not longer work.
The kernel is the same between V4.1.8 and v4.2.0 at 4.14.212-odroidxu4

1) WiFi AP is no longer available once AP is selected (default) and reboot.
2) DVAP USB can be selected but does not work.

So I downloaded the config file from my V4.1.8 and restored it to the V4.2.0 image to find that all settings and dashboard preferences were restored however WiFi AP and DVAP still did not work.

I'm very happy to stay with V4.1.8 but think the latest XU4 image might need to be removed if DstarRepeater has been disabled or removed from that image and I can't work out why the WiFi AP window is missing or possibly no longer available.

Sorry for giving bad news but it would be great to resolve and save others any frustration as I know the V4.1.8 is an excellent all round image that is ready to go. I have to try it on my ZUM Radio USB device that is currently on a RPi version and also works via WiFi AP.

Thanks for checking this for me and happy to beta test if a fix is available for V4.2.0.

73 and good DV. John ZL2TWS

[MW0MWZ]

Hello Andy.

Hope this message finds you well and pleased to see on going support for Pi-Star continues.
Happy New Year from Wellington, New Zealand.

I have been using Odroid XU4 at V4.1.8 this month with excellent reliable results.
I purchased a handful of XU4's as an alternative during a shortage of RPi boards and find them very fast.
Thank you for providing the image. I did use the previous V3 Beta when it first come out to get me started.
For WiFi connectivity I plugged in a mini WiFi adapter and used 2.4G via my local router.
The XU4 doesn't need to be used on an Ethernet connection except for setup.
My RF device used is a USB connected DVAP Dongle on UHF.
So yesterday I tried V4.2.0 and found two essential parts that not longer work.
The kernel is the same between V4.1.8 and v4.2.0 at 4.14.212-odroidxu4

1) WiFi AP is no longer available once AP is selected (default) and reboot.
2) DVAP USB can be selected but does not work.

So I downloaded the config file from my V4.1.8 and restored it to the V4.2.0 image to find that all settings and dashboard preferences were restored however WiFi AP and DVAP still did not work.

I'm very happy to stay with V4.1.8 but think the latest XU4 image might need to be removed if DstarRepeater has been disabled or removed from that image and I can't work out why the WiFi AP window is missing or possibly no longer available.

Sorry for giving bad news but it would be great to resolve and save others any frustration as I know the V4.1.8 is an excellent all round image that is ready to go. I have to try it on my ZUM Radio USB device that is currently on a RPi version and also works via WiFi AP.

Thanks for checking this for me and happy to beta test if a fix is available for V4.2.0.

73 and good DV. John ZL2TWS

Great feedback thank you, I have posted updated images as we have found fixed them - can you try the current one in the beta location and see if you still have issues with it, and if you do please let me know.

[ZL2TWS]

Hi Andy

Thanks for the new image. 27th Jan-2024
Unfortunately it will not build when first run on the XU4.
I downloaded the image three times with Windows and Ubuntu 22 using respective unzip programs and Pi Imager software to write the uSD cards.
Connected an HDMi monitor to view what was going wrong.
a "Give up writing the root file system device" message followed by a few possibility but one in particular seems to be missing.
/dev/mmcblk1p2 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!!

Modules are missing from /dev

Please extract the image and try on your XU4 to find the same.
I used an 8GB and 16GB uSD for the test. The same uSD cards that worked for the previous beta.

Sorry to big this bad news. 73, John

[MW0MWZ]

Hi Andy

Thanks for the new image. 27th Jan-2024
Unfortunately it will not build when first run on the XU4.
I downloaded the image three times with Windows and Ubuntu 22 using respective unzip programs and Pi Imager software to write the uSD cards.
Connected an HDMi monitor to view what was going wrong.
a "Give up writing the root file system device" message followed by a few possibility but one in particular seems to be missing.
/dev/mmcblk1p2 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!!

Modules are missing from /dev

Please extract the image and try on your XU4 to find the same.
I used an 8GB and 16GB uSD for the test. The same uSD cards that worked for the previous beta.

Sorry to big this bad news. 73, John

Confirmed I see the same, I probably broke it while trying to swap out the kernel for a newer one.
Pulled the Beta image since it's broken, I'm building a replacement at the moment, should be up in a few hours (or less)

EDIT: New version posted, with a fixed pistar-clone, so now you can boot from the uSD card, and if you have eMMC, run:

Code: Select all

sudo pistar-clone mmcblk0

That will copy the whole lot to the eMMC, just shutdown, pull the SD card, flip the switch and power back up and you should be running on the eMMC. I have tested that, but would still like your feedback.

[ZL2TWS]

Hello Andy

100% fix.
Both DVAP USB and ZUM Radio USB work perfectly after selection of either DStarRepeater or MMDVM.
Clone to eMMC works perfectly and I'm really pleased to run on that chip instead of the slightly slower uSD.

I have a few items to discuss that would be a useful changes to some users but not sure if I should ask here?
You might be very busy with everyone else asking questions so let me know if you like to hear more from me as your time permits.
Using the XU4 now via XLX299J (xlx299.nz) and runs very well along with a lower CPU temperature than before so the eMMC must be helping.

Thanks again, 73, John ZL2TWS

[MW0MWZ]

Ask away, either here, or mail me or something, don't mind how you get in contact.

[ZL2TWS]

OK Andy, here goes and since I'm doing the work using the XU4 I'll ask here.

Request 1) I wanted an ability to not run the auto update crontab as I'm an experienced user and like to manage host files and updates myself.
So I edited crontab and changed:
# SHELL=/bin/sh Now crontab still exists but does not run anything. I can manually update / upgrade and then revisit my custom host files after that. I have some gateways I like to connect to that require host files to be unique. So the ability to choose an update / upgrade without host file updates would be nice to have for experienced users. I totally understand why the cron job is being used as 90% of users have no idea what goes on in the back ground or have any ability to manage host files and know that a reboot every 24 hours will prevent lockups or RAM issues.
It certainly saves you from receiving hundreds of emails regarding issues that are simply fixed after crontab runs.

Request 2) This relates to MMDVM mode: I have a few stations wanting to connect to my Pi-Star but I notice that on the dashboard, bottom lower left, that D-Star Network will only show one call sign at any time. If an already connected out going call sign is displayed then that gets replaced by the incoming call sign. If an incoming call sign is displayed and an out going is linked then it replaces the incoming call sign. The only way to view the the status of incoming and outgoing is to login to Admin. It would be nice to see the D-Star link information displayed on the dashboard page as seen on the Admin page. I can see that there is no room to display more than one link on the bottom left in the D-Star network box. It is referred to as "D-Star Network" on the dashboard and "D-Star Link Information" on the Admin page. If you want me to experiment then we can modify the XU4 image and do beta testing and if it's accepted as a useful change then push to the Pi version. I note that the DStarRepeater dashboard version does display "D-Star Link Information" as also seen on the Admin page so I'm asking that the same be seen with the MMDVM dashboard version.

Thanks for your time with this and think myself the above might be useful but accept that you might prefer to leave things untouched for good reasons I have not thought of yet. 73 and good DV. John ZL2TWS

[ZL2TWS]

Hi Andy.

One thing was missing from last message.
I changed # SHELL=/bin/sh to be SHELL=/bin/false

No updates since doing that and my custom host files are not over written.

Regards, John

[M1DNS]

If ur looking to add additional connections, rptrs or non-listed reflectors etc. You can add their details to the custom host files found in /root.

Sent via smoke signals using my SM-G935F