Installation on SD-card
Installed Arch Linux on my raspberry pi. I didn’t want any gui schmui and this image seemed like a pretty clean option to me.
Downloaded the image, checked the sha1sum and dd’ed the file onto an sd card. (Determined the /dev/yoursddevice name by doing an fdisk -l)
sudo dd bs=4M if=/path/to/your/image/arch-linux.img of=/dev/yoursddevice |
sudo dd bs=4M if=/path/to/your/image/arch-linux.img of=/dev/yoursddevice
Waiting a few minutes, drinking some beer. Done.
Expanding the root partition
My card was 4GB and the downloaded img is only 2GB. This would result in some unused space and I wanted to use it. Add another partition or resize the current. Now is a good time as the device is not in use.
sudo fdisk -uc /dev/mmcblk0
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 3904 MB, 3904897024 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 3724 cylinders, total 7626752 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004f23a
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 * 2048 186367 92160 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 186368 3667967 1740800 83 Linux
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 2
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
# !!! Make sure next value is the same as the start of the deleted partition !!!
First sector (186368-7626751, default 186368): 186368 <-- That value! Same in this case, but can be different.
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (186368-7626751, default 7626751):
Using default value 7626751
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks. |
sudo fdisk -uc /dev/mmcblk0
Command (m for help): p
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 3904 MB, 3904897024 bytes
64 heads, 32 sectors/track, 3724 cylinders, total 7626752 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0004f23a
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 * 2048 186367 92160 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 186368 3667967 1740800 83 Linux
Command (m for help): d
Partition number (1-4): 2
Command (m for help): n
Command action
e extended
p primary partition (1-4)
p
Partition number (1-4): 2
# !!! Make sure next value is the same as the start of the deleted partition !!!
First sector (186368-7626751, default 186368): 186368 <-- That value! Same in this case, but can be different.
Last sector, +sectors or +size{K,M,G} (186368-7626751, default 7626751):
Using default value 7626751
Command (m for help): w
The partition table has been altered!
Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
Syncing disks.
Wanted to run resize2fs but it prompted me to run e2fsck first.
sudo e2fsck -f /dev/mmcblk0p2 |
sudo e2fsck -f /dev/mmcblk0p2
Resize the partition. (-p shows progress bar)
sudo resize2fs -p /dev/mmcblk0p2 |
sudo resize2fs -p /dev/mmcblk0p2
Awesome, full SD-card will be available now. Unmount and put it in the rpi.
(I used a microSDHC (4GB, class 4) card from kingston with adapter which didn’t work. So I bought a set of regular 4GB class 4 SDHC cards from kingston)
Wireless
In my first installations I just used the HDMI interface and an ethernet cable. Later I decided that it would be nice to have wifi as well. So I picked up an Edimax EW-7811Un Wireless USB Adapter.
You can set up your wireless interface in advance by mounting the new partition after writing the downloaded image with dd. Paths mentioned after this are of course relative to /mnt/sdcard
sudo mkdir /mnt/sdcard
sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mnt/sdcard |
sudo mkdir /mnt/sdcard
sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p2 /mnt/sdcard
To use it with the rpi I edited the /etc/conf.d/netcfg file and added ‘wireless-wlan0‘ to the networks array. I also added a DHCP_TIMEOUT=30 to allow for a bit more time for the wireless interface to get an IP-address.
# Enable these netcfg profiles at boot time.
# - prefix an entry with a '@' to background its startup
# - set to 'last' to restore the profiles running at the last shutdown
# - set to 'menu' to present a menu (requires the dialog package)
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
NETWORKS=(ethernet-eth0 wireless-wlan0)
# Specify the name of your wired interface for net-auto-wired
WIRED_INTERFACE="eth0"
# Specify the name of your wireless interface for net-auto-wireless
WIRELESS_INTERFACE="wlan0"
# Array of profiles that may be started by net-auto-wireless.
# When not specified, all wireless profiles are considered.
#AUTO_PROFILES=("profile1" "profile2")
DHCP_TIMEOUT=30 |
# Enable these netcfg profiles at boot time.
# - prefix an entry with a '@' to background its startup
# - set to 'last' to restore the profiles running at the last shutdown
# - set to 'menu' to present a menu (requires the dialog package)
# Network profiles are found in /etc/network.d
NETWORKS=(ethernet-eth0 wireless-wlan0)
# Specify the name of your wired interface for net-auto-wired
WIRED_INTERFACE="eth0"
# Specify the name of your wireless interface for net-auto-wireless
WIRELESS_INTERFACE="wlan0"
# Array of profiles that may be started by net-auto-wireless.
# When not specified, all wireless profiles are considered.
#AUTO_PROFILES=("profile1" "profile2")
DHCP_TIMEOUT=30
I then copied an example config:
cp /etc/network.d/examples/wireless-wpa /etc/network.d/wireless-wlan0 |
cp /etc/network.d/examples/wireless-wpa /etc/network.d/wireless-wlan0
Originally it looks like this:
CONNECTION='wireless'
DESCRIPTION='A simple WPA encrypted wireless connection'
INTERFACE='wlan0'
SECURITY='wpa'
ESSID='MyNetwork'
## Uncomment if the supplied ESSID is hexadecimal
#ESSID_TYPE='hex'
KEY='WirelessKey'
IP='dhcp'
# Uncomment this if your ssid is hidden
#HIDDEN=yes |
CONNECTION='wireless'
DESCRIPTION='A simple WPA encrypted wireless connection'
INTERFACE='wlan0'
SECURITY='wpa'
ESSID='MyNetwork'
## Uncomment if the supplied ESSID is hexadecimal
#ESSID_TYPE='hex'
KEY='WirelessKey'
IP='dhcp'
# Uncomment this if your ssid is hidden
#HIDDEN=yes
I only changed the ESSID and KEY values to match my wireless network settings. This is probably the most basic setup. For more advanced setups check out the netcfg and wireless sections in the arch wiki.
Reducing write cycles
I am not running any production-critical apps on my raspberry nor do I use any programs that require atime/relatime to be running. So I enabled the noatime option for the root partition and mounted /var/log as tmpfs as I don’t have any interest in these logs. (/tmp was already mounted as tmpfs)
My new /etc/fstab now looks like this:
#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot vfat defaults 0 0
/dev/mmcblk0p2 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 0
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=0755,size=5% 0 0 |
#
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
/dev/mmcblk0p1 /boot vfat defaults 0 0
/dev/mmcblk0p2 / ext4 defaults,noatime 0 0
tmpfs /var/log tmpfs defaults,noatime,mode=0755,size=5% 0 0
Further installation
Inserting the sd-card into the Raspberry Pi. It booted okay. (If it is not check this list to see if your SD-card is compatible) Hostname was alarmpi at that moment so I just ssh-ed into it. You can scan with nmap if you don’t now which address your machine got. (Or check your router). Do this only when you have permission to scan the network. The command you could use looks something like this:
nmap -p 22 --open -sV 192.168.1.0/24 | less
# My raspberry was listed as:
# 22/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 6.1 (protocol 2.0)
# MAC Address: B8:27:EB:XX:XX:XX (Unknown) |
nmap -p 22 --open -sV 192.168.1.0/24 | less
# My raspberry was listed as:
# 22/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 6.1 (protocol 2.0)
# MAC Address: B8:27:EB:XX:XX:XX (Unknown)
ssh root@alarmpi
#password = root, so you probably want to change that asap. :)
passwd
#and then create a new user so you don't have to login with root
useradd -m yourUserName
passwd yourUserName |
ssh root@alarmpi
#password = root, so you probably want to change that asap. :)
passwd
#and then create a new user so you don't have to login with root
useradd -m yourUserName
passwd yourUserName
I then ran a system update to prevent unfound packages later on:
I then installed vim. As my favorite editor.
pacman -S vim
ln -s $(which vim) /usr/local/bin/vi
ln -s $(which vim) /usr/local/bin/view |
pacman -S vim
ln -s $(which vim) /usr/local/bin/vi
ln -s $(which vim) /usr/local/bin/view
Changed the hostname to something else. (jukepi in my case, I want to use this one as a jukebox)
vi /etc/hostname
#alarmpi -> yourHostName |
vi /etc/hostname
#alarmpi -> yourHostName
I then disabled root login with SSH. (After testing my new account worked)
Uncommented PermitRootLogin and changed to ‘no’
Save and restart sshd
Changed my timezone with tzselect
tzselect
# Get the options |
tzselect
# Get the options
I modified /etc/timezone and added the outcome to the generic profile in /etc/profile
...
# Set our default path
PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
export PATH
# Set timezone
TZ="Europe/Amsterdam"
export TZ
# Load profiles from /etc/profile.d
... |
...
# Set our default path
PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/sbin:/sbin"
export PATH
# Set timezone
TZ="Europe/Amsterdam"
export TZ
# Load profiles from /etc/profile.d
...
Reloaded the profile
Modified the /etc/ntpd.conf by adding a few ntp server to sync with.
server 0.nl.pool.ntp.org
server 1.nl.pool.ntp.org
server 2.nl.pool.ntp.org
server 3.nl.pool.ntp.org |
server 0.nl.pool.ntp.org
server 1.nl.pool.ntp.org
server 2.nl.pool.ntp.org
server 3.nl.pool.ntp.org
And restarted the ntpd daemon
systemctl restart openntpd |
systemctl restart openntpd
And checked if date was correct by running date.
date
#Mon Nov 26 22:46:14 CET 2012 |
date
#Mon Nov 26 22:46:14 CET 2012
Installed alsa-utils and mpg123 for sound
pacman -S alsa-utils mpg123 |
pacman -S alsa-utils mpg123
Make sound module to auto-load. (It isn’t by default)
vi /etc/modules-load.d/snd_bcm2835.conf
# Load Sound
snd_bcm2835 |
vi /etc/modules-load.d/snd_bcm2835.conf
# Load Sound
snd_bcm2835
To play sound through jackplug: (Found this info here)
Or to play sound through HDMI:
Add your user to the audio group to have it play sounds.
usermod -G audio -a yourUserName |
usermod -G audio -a yourUserName
And test it if you like:
wget http://www.freespecialeffects.co.uk/soundfx/sirens/police_s.wav
aplay police_s.wav |
wget http://www.freespecialeffects.co.uk/soundfx/sirens/police_s.wav
aplay police_s.wav
If you get this error:
ALSA lib confmisc.c:768:(parse_card) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4246:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:392:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:4246:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1251:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:4246:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4725:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
aplay: main:696: audio open error: No such file or directory |
ALSA lib confmisc.c:768:(parse_card) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:4246:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:392:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:4246:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1251:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:4246:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib conf.c:4725:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such file or directory
ALSA lib pcm.c:2217:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default
aplay: main:696: audio open error: No such file or directory
Then you need to add your user to the audio group. 🙂
usermod -G audio -a yourUserName
# to apply the group directly, you can start a new login shell
# su -l yourUserName |
usermod -G audio -a yourUserName
# to apply the group directly, you can start a new login shell
# su -l yourUserName
VLC (As a service)
Because I couldn’t play every audio stream I decided to install vlc. (Which conveniently comes with a web interface)
I got some 404 messages while installing for several packages so I looked them up on google and downloaded/installed them by hand. (Presumably because my install was not up-to-date atm. Run pacman -Syu to upgrade to latest version)
wget ftp://blablabla/missing-packagename-version.pkg.tar.armv6h.pkg.tar.gz
pacman -U missing-packagename-version.pkg.tar.armv6h.pkg.tar.gz
pacman -S vlc |
wget ftp://blablabla/missing-packagename-version.pkg.tar.armv6h.pkg.tar.gz
pacman -U missing-packagename-version.pkg.tar.armv6h.pkg.tar.gz
pacman -S vlc
After running cvlc I got some pulseaudio messages. Stating that it was missing. 🙂
pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa
# libao to make mpg123 work with pulse
pacman -S libao
# change /etc/libao.conf 'alsa' => 'pulse' to make it work with pulse |
pacman -S pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa
# libao to make mpg123 work with pulse
pacman -S libao
# change /etc/libao.conf 'alsa' => 'pulse' to make it work with pulse
After that I rebooted to make sure everything was loaded/working ok. (And it did, used paplay police_s.wav to test)
I edited the vlc http .hosts file to allow access from my network:
vi /usr/share/vlc/lua/http/.hosts
# And added
192.168.1.0/24 |
vi /usr/share/vlc/lua/http/.hosts
# And added
192.168.1.0/24
To run vlc headless with http interface:
cvlc --intf http --http-host <yourIpHere> --http-port 8080 <fileName|streamUrl> |
cvlc --intf http --http-host <yourIpHere> --http-port 8080 <fileName|streamUrl>
Running VLC + PulseAudio is lot heavier than just mpg123 (~40% for VLC + ~10% for Pulse vs ~10% mpg123) but I like the flexibility it gives me.
I want to create some kind of jukebox so the next thing to do is to create a systemd service to run vlc.
We will first create the script which we will place in /etc/rc.d
sudo vi /etc/rc.d/vlc
#!/bin/sh
case "$1" in
start)
echo "Starting VLC"
su -l -c "/usr/bin/cvlc --intf http --http-port 8080 <fileName|streamUrl> &" <yourUsername>
;;
stop)
echo "Stopping VLC"
killall vlc
;;
restart)
$0 stop
sleep 1
$0 start
;;
*)
echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
esac
exit 0 |
sudo vi /etc/rc.d/vlc
#!/bin/sh
case "$1" in
start)
echo "Starting VLC"
su -l -c "/usr/bin/cvlc --intf http --http-port 8080 <fileName|streamUrl> &" <yourUsername>
;;
stop)
echo "Stopping VLC"
killall vlc
;;
restart)
$0 stop
sleep 1
$0 start
;;
*)
echo "usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}"
esac
exit 0
Now we will create a systemd service file.
vi /usr/lib/systemd/system/vlc.service
[Unit]
Description=VLC Daemon
Wants=iptables.service
After=iptables.service
[Service]
ExecStart=/etc/rc.d/vlc start
ExecReload=/etc/rc.d/vlc restart
ExecStop=/etc/rc.d/vlc stop
KillMode=process
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target |
vi /usr/lib/systemd/system/vlc.service
[Unit]
Description=VLC Daemon
Wants=iptables.service
After=iptables.service
[Service]
ExecStart=/etc/rc.d/vlc start
ExecReload=/etc/rc.d/vlc restart
ExecStop=/etc/rc.d/vlc stop
KillMode=process
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
The last step is enabling the service.
systemctl enable vlc.service |
systemctl enable vlc.service
Google Go
The next one to install is Google Go. I wanted to be able to spend the rest of the cpu power as effectively as possible.
At the moment there is no (official) package available for Google Go so we will have to build it from source.
I used Dave Cheney’s excellent tutorial to install it but then for Arch Linux. (No need to install libc6-dev btw) I made symbolic links in /usr/bin to the compiled binaries go, godoc and gofmt.
Backup
After completing your setup it might be a good idea to create a backup which you can tuck away for a rainy day. My previous SD-card was unrecoverable after some ungrateful and ungraceful shutdowns. To be able to get the system up and running asap we will create a gzipped image. Shutdown your rpi gracefully and let’s create an image of the sd-card.
dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=sync,noerror bs=1M | gzip -c > /mnt/yourbackuplocation/rpi.img.gz |
dd if=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=sync,noerror bs=1M | gzip -c > /mnt/yourbackuplocation/rpi.img.gz
Restoring the file:
gunzip -c /mnt/yourbackuplocation/rpi.img.gz | dd of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=sync,noerror bs=1M |
gunzip -c /mnt/yourbackuplocation/rpi.img.gz | dd of=/dev/mmcblk0 conv=sync,noerror bs=1M
