Berryboot can't save any Settings

Ganja

I have Install over Berryboot. But i can't save any Settings of batocera. Have the Image from here http://berryboot.alexgoldcheidt.com/images/

nadenislamarre

i don't do the berryboot images. Probably the image is wrong. In batocera, when there is a problem with the data partition (mainly to find it), it switches to a ramdisk data partition which is lost when you shutdown.

nadenislamarre

question : why don't you use the official batocera image ?

Ganja

The official Image is just convert to squashfs.
I use that for Dualboot with libreelec

Ganja

here the method http://www.berryterminal.com/doku.php/berryboot/adding_custom_distributions to convert the image

nadenislamarre

note that batocera is already a squashfs ;-)

Ganja

I think a many Users are interesting for use batocera in Berryboot. Can you look for a Solution?

nadenislamarre

heu. i don't even know what berryboot is for. i guess that somebody worked on adding batocera on berryboot. i didn't. My recommandation to install batocera is to use the official image directly.

alexxgg

Hi @nadenislamarre Berryboot is a multiboot system for Raspberry Pi (http://www.berryterminal.com/doku.php/berryboot), I've converted Batocera Linux for Berryboot since a few months ago, I run the website (http://berryboot.alexgoldcheidt.com/images) that @Ganja talk about.

I'm willing to work with you to make Batocera Linux fully-working under Berryboot, I think most issues happens because in the converting process files on the boot partition are exclude, with that in mind, please let me know if Batocera Linux require some files and/or some lines in files located at the boot partition.

nadenislamarre

alexxgg

batocera img is composed of 1 partition named RECALBOX
which contains the files necessary to boot, mainly 3 files :
- linux : the kernel (without the modules)
- initrd.gz : the init filesystem to mount the squashfs image
- recalbox : the root file system (in squashfs format)

when batocera boots, it looks for a partition RECALBOX, then looks the next partition (with parted) :
- if there is free space, it create a new partition called share that fits all the free space
- if a partiton is found (or if it has just been created), it uses it as a data partition (and mount it as /recalbox/share)

note that batocera and recalbox doesn't work as the same at all.
on recalbox, there is no squashfs image, it is a real partition (thus, there are 3 partitions, BOOT, RECALBOX and SHARE) while on batocera, all the system is on the BOOT partition (the squashfs file partition is on the BOOT partition), and data are on SHARE partition.
note that on boot, there is an other important file : recalbox-boot.ini, which contains SHARE=INTERNAL or SHARE=something else in case your shared data are on an external usb key or a nas, but this monting is handle by batocera starting scripts

interesting links :
- initial ram disk : https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera.linux/blob/master/package/batocera/recalbox-initramfs/init
- external mounting : https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera.linux/blob/master/board/recalbox/fsoverlay/etc/init.d/S11share

important rpi config.txt :
https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera.linux/blob/master/board/recalbox/rpi/config.txt#L41
kernel=boot/linux
initramfs boot/initrd.gz

can you list me what is not working correctly ?

with config.txt having :
kernel=boot/linux
initramfs boot/initrd.gz

files boot/linux and boot/initrd.gz and boot/recalbox present, batocera is supposed to start.
if the shared partition is not found, check what is partition RECALBOX+1
if it starts, df /recalbox/share => if the partition type is tmpfs, it's because the share was not mounting correctly.

alexxgg

Hi @nadenislamarre thanks for looking into this. Under Berryboot, the most common issue on Batocera Linux is that custom settings are not saved and some users reports that these settings and roms are deleted with every reboot. So... I'm not the developer of Berryboot but I'll do all tests to resolve all these issues that obviously are on the Berryboot's end.

First, I'll like to show you the content of the config.txt file (https://pastebin.com/TsLFCwxw), as you can see the boot partition of Berryboot comes with custom files and you must know that partition will be the boot partition to all images under Berryboot. If you want to check all files on Berryboot's boot partition, you can download them from here: https://alexgoldcheidt.com/go/berrytesting-server

Also, the official documentation describe a method to generate custom images (http://www.berryterminal.com/doku.php/berryboot/adding_custom_distributions). Based on that, I've made a -basic- custom bash script to make the Batocera Linux images, you can see it from here: https://pastebin.com/bBCtXvKK

As you can see on my custom bash script, I copy all the files (except the root file system in squashfs format) to the boot directory on the root file system (I unsquashfs and squashfs again) since an issue with dietpi (https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/issues/671).

So, is there a way to make Batocera Linux to work with the custom files on Berryboot's boot partition? I don't know so much about bash script but I'll take a look and test, just let me know where to start.

mgtheo

alexxgg Hello, have you find a solution to batocera on berryboot ? Because i’m actually search a version of this img in squashfs, but i have tested converter manually and with script, i have test with only batocera file in folder “boot” but it does not work. I’m lost in this distribution for berryboot.

nadenislamarre

it looks complicated just to install the software but why not.

the problem you tell occurs probably because this script fails :
https://github.com/batocera-linux/batocera.linux/blob/master/board/recalbox/fsoverlay/etc/init.d/S11share
something between line 53 and 76.
then line 260 go into the fallback : a temporary user data mounting point in ram lost when you shutdown the rpi.

can you run :
$ /recalbox/scripts/recalbox-part.sh "share_internal"
$ INTERNALDEVICE=$(/recalbox/scripts/recalbox-part.sh "share_internal")
$ /recalbox/scripts/recalbox-part.sh previous "${INTERNALDEVICE}"
INTERNALPREVIOUSDEVICE=$(/recalbox/scripts/recalbox-part.sh previous "${INTERNALDEVICE}")
PARTPREFIX=$(/recalbox/scripts/recalbox-part.sh prefix "${INTERNALDEVICE}")
parted -s "${PARTPREFIX}" -m unit b print free | tail -1 | grep -E 'free;$' | cut -d: -f 2

and you should get information about why it's not working.