This is an old revision of the document!
The following is an email from the IRLP Yahoogroups where the steps to build a PiRLP image were listed.
First thing, back up your existing install using the “backup_for_reinstall” script. It will create an irlp_backup.tgz file on a USB stick - More on this later.
Second thing - This is experimental and not supported. If it breaks something, I apologize, but I can not forsee all possible issues. I will try to help where I can, but can not promise it will all work.
Hardware required:
- IRLP Ver 3.0 board
- Raspberry Pi Model B (any Revision SHOULD work, tested on a Rev 2)
- DB-25 to IDC 26 parallel cable (or similar)
- USB sound card (most all should work, I am using the one listed below)
- 2G (min) SD card (larger is better, but not required)
- USB keyboard (for initial boot only)
USB sound card I use is a Syba SD-CM-UAUD, based on Cmedia CM119.
Some other pics of the sound card: http://www.steila.com/USB4IO/Syba/Syba.html
Where you can get it from ($8.99 free shipping to US): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186035
Be warned, there is a similar looking sound card on the market that is made by Syba that will NOT work. It is the Syba SD-AUD20066. The difference is the translucency of the case.
Modifications required: - Please prepare the IRLP board/parallel cable as shown at: http://www.irlp.net/R_Pi/
Software Required: - The official Raspbian release from the Raspberry Pi Foundation: http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads (no support will be offered for this, besides what buttons to press) Follow the directions on the RPi site for creating the card.
SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THE PI - Do not “hotplug” USB devices, as the unit tends to reset without warning when USB devices are plugged in. So if you are going to run an irlp-reinstall, I would suggest plugging your USB key with the backup file in before you boot the PC.
Boot your Pi, and perform the following steps in the config:
- expand_rootfs Expand root partition to fill SD card
- change_pass Change password for 'pi' user
- change_locale Set locale (as required)
- change_timezone Set timezone
- memory_split Change memory split (set to 16)
- ssh Enable ssh server
- boot_behaviour DO NOT BOOT INTO DESKTOP
Then click Finish.
On initial boot, log in using user pi, and the password set above. The pi user is essentially a root user, and we want to create a root password, and carry on. That makes this more like other IRLP nodes…
At the prompt, type:
sudo su - passwd root (set a password)
Now in the future, you can log in as root, or you can also choose to remove the pi user (optional):
userdel -r pi
Now we download the IRLP “get-irlp-files” script, which will carry us through the rest of the install.
- chmod +x get-irlp-files
- ./get-irlp-files
(This process will take several minutes (up to 20), as it basically strips the default install of about 200 unneeded packages, and configures your Pi for the packages it needs for IRLP to run). Lets be honest - the Pi is not the fastest beast on the block…. so this process takes time.
Then progress with your install as usual. All of the commands are the same as a normal node, and the installer automatically picks up the special binary files for the ARM processor.
Your node should work at this point.
The last step we will do is update the firmware on your Pi. This will help keep everyone on a “level” playing field, and will help instructions work for all users. As part of the install, the rpi-update program is installed by default.
Follow the directions at: https://github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/
Start at the step “Updating”, as the program and the timezone have already been set correctly. The command is:
rpi-update
This process will also take several minutes. Then reboot, and enjoy your new PiRLP node.
If there are questions, please email directly. I will do what I can to help.
Dave Cameron VE7LTD