Hello, HC4 owner here

Prasath · Post by **Prasath** » Thu May 20, 2021 10:47 pm

Just received my HC4, love the build quality.
Thanks to lockdown in my country all the other orders got cancelled, so I was wondering if it is possible to run an OS on the HC4 from a USB flash drive. I don't have the HDD,SSD or the microSD I ordered.
My plan was to make an HDD NAS with an SSD for cache and a microSD for the OS.
I also got a weather board 2 to add-on and create a weather monitoring station (Using the I2C meant for the OLED).

mad_ady · Post by **mad_ady** » Thu May 20, 2021 10:53 pm

Yes you can install to usb. Boot with a keyboard/hdmi monitor and ethernet attached, choose exit in petitboot and run pbdiscover or netboot (if I remember correctly). Then reenter the petitboot menu and you should have options to install an os to usb.

tobetter · Post by **tobetter** » Thu May 20, 2021 11:44 pm

mad_ady wrote: ↑
Thu May 20, 2021 10:53 pm
Yes you can install to usb. Boot with a keyboard/hdmi monitor and ethernet attached, choose exit in petitboot and run pbdiscover or netboot (if I remember correctly). Then reenter the petitboot menu and you should have options to install an os to usb.

small correction, run netboot_default in the command line of the Petitboot.

Prasath · Post by **Prasath** » Fri May 21, 2021 2:32 am

Thank you both. Is there a truly headless image you would recommend for this case? Won't the OS require me to connect a keyboard and setup some things before it can be accessed through SSH. Otherwise I'll have to start looking through some old boxes for usb hubs and hope they still work.

tobetter · Post by **tobetter** » Fri May 21, 2021 3:49 am

Prasath wrote: ↑
Fri May 21, 2021 2:32 am
Thank you both. Is there a truly headless image you would recommend for this case? Won't the OS require me to connect a keyboard and setup some things before it can be accessed through SSH. Otherwise I'll have to start looking through some old boxes for usb hubs and hope they still work.

You can use the images of Debian or Ubuntu, download the latest image that contains odroidc4 or odroidhc4 in their file name.
http://ppa.linuxfactory.or.kr/images/raw/arm64/

Flash an image to your USB flash drive using balaneEtcher and plug it in to USB 2.0 host port of ODROID-HC4, then it will boot from it.

Prasath · Post by **Prasath** » Fri May 21, 2021 4:57 pm

After entering netboot_default I am presented a list of Operating Systems. Which 1 should I choose? Also is it possible to complete the process without a USB hub.

tobetter · Post by **tobetter** » Fri May 21, 2021 5:04 pm

Prasath wrote: ↑
Fri May 21, 2021 4:57 pm
After entering netboot_default I am presented a list of Operating Systems. Which 1 should I choose? Also is it possible to complete the process without a USB hub.

You have options to install OS from the list and the menus in the list is installer, so you cannot install OS if you do not have USB keyboard.
You need to install / flash OS image from the link I presented in the previous post.

Prasath · Post by **Prasath** » Fri May 21, 2021 6:41 pm

I flashed 2 images to 2 drives but both boot into petitboot (The images aren't listed either). I think if I run the netboot command it might show up, no way to check since I cannot connect the keyboard while the drive is plugged in. I tried changing the boot order and enabling autoboot but no success. Is there anyway to get ssh or some kind of network terminal for petitboot?

tobetter · Post by **tobetter** » Fri May 21, 2021 6:53 pm

Prasath wrote: ↑
Fri May 21, 2021 6:41 pm
I flashed 2 images to 2 drives but both boot into petitboot (The images aren't listed either). I think if I run the netboot command it might show up, no way to check since I cannot connect the keyboard while the drive is plugged in. I tried changing the boot order and enabling autoboot but no success. Is there anyway to get ssh or some kind of network terminal for petitboot?

Which image did you flash and how did you flash?

Prasath · Post by **Prasath** » Fri May 21, 2021 6:58 pm

debian-buster-server-odroidhc4-20210301.img.xz
ubuntu-21.04-server-odroidc4-20210502.img.xz
These 2 using balenaEtcher to one 8gb drive and one 16gb drive.

tobetter · Post by **tobetter** » Fri May 21, 2021 7:04 pm

Prasath wrote: ↑
Fri May 21, 2021 6:58 pm
debian-buster-server-odroidhc4-20210301.img.xz
ubuntu-21.04-server-odroidc4-20210502.img.xz
These 2 using balenaEtcher to one 8gb drive and one 16gb drive.

If you have flashed them, they should come to the Petitboot screen since they are tested with. Do you see the two partitions from the drives when you attached to your Linux PC and have boot.scr in the first paritition?

Prasath · Post by **Prasath** » Fri May 21, 2021 7:36 pm

I do not have a linux pc to confirm that, but etcher usually works fine for me on this system. I'll install the Linux subsystem for windows and confirm.

Prasath · Post by **Prasath** » Fri May 21, 2021 7:37 pm

I just have to flash and plug it into the HC4, it should show up in the options, right ? Do I have to run netboot_default ?

tobetter · Post by **tobetter** » Fri May 21, 2021 7:39 pm

Prasath wrote: ↑
Fri May 21, 2021 7:37 pm
I just have to flash and plug it into the HC4, it should show up in the options, right ? Do I have to run netboot_default ?

It should and it should boot for your case since you only have one USB storage with OS installed. netboot_default command is to load Netboot Installer to install Debian or Ubuntu in interactive mode, so this is not the one for you as of now.

Prasath · Post by **Prasath** » Fri May 21, 2021 7:49 pm

The product page for the HC4 only lists HDD,SSD and micro-sd as default boot devices. Are you sure USB is also supported. Thank you so much for the time. I'll wait till lockdown lifts and reorder the micro-sd, hopefully I'll have better luck with that.

tobetter · Post by **tobetter** » Fri May 21, 2021 8:09 pm

Prasath wrote: ↑
Fri May 21, 2021 7:49 pm
The product page for the HC4 only lists HDD,SSD and micro-sd as default boot devices. Are you sure USB is also supported. Thank you so much for the time. I'll wait till lockdown lifts and reorder the micro-sd, hopefully I'll have better luck with that.

All storages recognized by the Petitboot can boot from...For sure, what's the version of the Petitboot you have? The version number is at the top-left corner of Petitboot screen.
Also what's your USB storage?

Prasath · Post by **Prasath** » Fri May 21, 2021 9:23 pm

Petitboot dev.20201005
The flash drives are Kingston DT50 and Sandisk CruzerBlade (The cheapest one)

Prasath · Post by **Prasath** » Fri May 21, 2021 9:49 pm

Now updated to 20201222

Prasath · Post by **Prasath** » Fri May 21, 2021 10:42 pm

The board was having trouble with the 2 USB drives. A Transcend drive worked fine after updating Petitboot. Thank you for the help and sorry for the trouble.

ODROID

Hello, HC4 owner here

Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Re: Hello, HC4 owner here

Who is online