boot from usb

Fransis

boot from usb
hi, i wanted to ask if anyone has managed to install batocera and boot it from a usb hard drive.
I currently have the eeprom of the rpi4, updated. booting by usb, my hard disk and my external box, allow booting well, since doing tests, retropie boots without problems from the hard disk without the need to have a microsd card inserted.
but in batocera I always stay on a black screen, when the batocera loading screen should come out.
Has anyone successfully performed this type of testing?
Thank you

beastieboy

Hi,

also tried it but haven’t managed to go past RPI boot screen with error messages about missing files in /boot dir.
How did you manage to accomplish that?

beastieboy

Just download the most recent RPI OS distribution, take all the .elf and .dat files from /boot volume and copy them to Batocera /boot volume. That’s all, my USB drive boots Batocera flawlessly!!!

maddin1502

That’s not working for me.

When I use the files from the latest RPI OS image it tells me (message on boot screen) that it requires newer software and won’t boot.

When I use the latest files from github it passes the first boot screen, then the screen goes black (hdmi signal is active) and it “freezes”. I don’t know if “freez” is the correct word for it. The screen keeps black. Both status LEDs, green and red, light up continuously, no blinking. My USB flash drive signals activity (LED is blinking). But nothing happens after minutes of waiting.

I flashed my eeprom today with the latest stable version. I tried Batocera 5.26 and the latest beta 5.27… same issue on both versions.

Any ideas what’s wrong?

JaviLP

On cmdline.txt change dev=/dev/mmcblk0p1to dev=/dev/sda1

paparansen

JaviLP

can you please explain that a little more?
where is this file?
thank you :)

loucouilou

Yes it run but i haven’t the share partition ? it’s normal?

mixmac

loucouilou I have the same issue and don’t donwload update because userdata is small…

Johan_Padan

Hi everyone.
There are a few different ways to go about it: I’ve done it this way that seems quick and simple to me, and it works.
I have a Raspberry Pi 400 and used a 64Gb pendrive for testing (but it is the same with an HD) and I state that I have always used Linux only, so I have no idea how to do with Windows (although I imagine it is similar)

1) Download from here:

     https://www.batocera.org/download

the image of Batocera for Raspberry Pi 400.

2) Once done, connect the pendrive to the PC with a working linux distro (I tried with Linux Mint) and after installing Balena Etcher:

    https://www.balena.io/etcher

copy the Batocera image on the Pendrive.
Note: if it gives you an error, unzip the downloaded Batocera image first and try again

3) On the pendrive there are two partitions now. Go to the “boot” partition and edit the “cmdline.txt” file with a text editor as follows:

     dev = /dev/mmcblk0p1      to       dev = /dev/sda1

(as correctly indicated above by JaviLP)

4) Insert the pendrive in the Raspberry Pi 400, disconnect the MicroSD and turn it on. If you have updated the Raspberry Pi bios to the latest version, not finding the microSD it will boot from the USB and the system starts. When the system is loaded and you get to the Batocera main screen, shutdown the system.

5) Remove the pendrive from the Raspberry Pi and put it back in the Linux PC. At this point, launch the “gparted” program (if not present in your distro install it), “unmount” the “share” partition you find in the pendrive now, then “check” and repair the partition. Now the whole “share” partition is available.

6) Close Gparted, extract the pendrive and then reinsert it in the PC with Linux, copy the bios you need into the “Bios” folder and the games you want in the “Rom” folder and it is ready (Note: under Linux it must be done as root).

Insert it in the Raspberry Pi and… have fun ;-)