Testers wanted: Squashfs

[Substring]

REMINDER

make sure you read and understand what we expect from testers

So what now?

branch: https://review-subs-test-d1jlnb-archive-review-prod.recalbox.com
Goal: make recalbox like a firmware, make updates much faster, make recalbox more robust
Archs: Pi3 only for now. x86_64 should come shortly

A squashfs file is like a read only image file that can be mounted like any device. Part of it is in memory.

Steps to update and test - Pi3 only for now

1. Update to the mentionned branch (i mean do update, not juste change the update type)
2. Once the update is done:

mount -o remount, rw /boot
echo "boot=squashfs" >> /boot/recalbox-boot.conf
/recalbox/scripts/upgrade/recalbox-upgrade.sh upgrade && reboot

From here, Recalbox will download a squashfs, copy it on first reboot with the usual upgrade progress bar, and transparently finish the update on the following reboot.

To make sure everything happened as expected :

• dmesg | grep irfs should be quite self explanatory
• mount | grep overlay should return a single line

Expected test cases

There are many cases that need to be tested, here are a few independant scenarios :

• your Recalbox still boots with NOOBS
• you have a USB key/hard drive
• you upgraded from a 4.0.x version to 4.1 (or later)
• you installed Recalbox with the .img

Please report your environment as I need to make sure all cases are covered, and mostly that the update doesn't break anything.

[OyyoDams]

@substring Ok so here is my result.

1. Starting from 17.11.02 stable. Download of update from branch: OK
2. Auto upgrade after reboot: OK
3. recalbox-boot.conf trick and command-line download of update: OK
4. Auto upgrade after reboot with "upgrading the squashfs" message: OK
5. Final reboot: OK, Recalbox works as expected.

BUT...

# dmesg | grep irfs
[    1.605723] (RECALBOX-irfs) Starting new boot log
[    1.619000] (RECALBOX-irfs) Mounted: /dev/mmcblk0p2 as root source, booting to  default
[    1.621327] (RECALBOX-irfs) UPGRADE: found /new_root/defaultroot/recalbox.squashfs.upgrade
[    1.622274] (RECALBOX-irfs) Checking kernels ...
[    1.623184] (RECALBOX-irfs) Couldn't find a squashfs file, or squashfs boot is not set, defaulting to SD
[    1.624108] (RECALBOX-irfs) Kernels OK (zImage and zImage.sd) ! Continuing ...
[    1.624185] (RECALBOX-irfs) Trying to use root from: 
[    1.625080] (RECALBOX-irfs) Couldn't mount a squashfs
[    1.625144] (RECALBOX-irfs) Remounting to the default root device

So there is an issue somewhere.

For information, here is my /boot/recalbox-boot.conf:

# more /boot/recalbox-boot.conf
sharedevice=NETWORK
 
sharenetwork_smb1=ROMS@192.168.1.94:Jeux/Recalbox/roms:username=recalbox,password=@@@@@@
sharenetwork_smb2=SAVES@192.168.1.94:Jeux/Recalbox/saves:username=recalbox,password=@@@@@@
boot=squashfs

[Substring]

@oyyodams can you get /boot/boot.log please ?

[OyyoDams]

@substring I have no boot.log file.

For information:

# df
Filesystem           1K-blocks      Used Available Use% Mounted on
none                    242132         0    242132   0% /dev
/dev/mmcblk0p2         1874516   1240820    535137  70% /
tmpfs                   246692         0    246692   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                   246692        20    246672   0% /tmp
tmpfs                   246692      2992    243700   1% /var
tmpfs                   246692        92    246600   0% /run
/dev/mmcblk0p1           64511     11817     52694  18% /boot
/dev/mmcblk0p3        13257232    913612  11647148   7% /recalbox/share

[nwildner]

Out of curiosity: Does this squashfs feature will work somehow like a switch firmware in the future, having 2 "base images" and booting the newest one or the backup if the user wants to change it? Example:

SWDEP_02# show bootvar
Image  Filename   Version     Date                    Status
-----  ---------  ---------   ---------------------   -----------
1      image-1    2.0.0.66    09-Mar-2017  13:23:09   Active*
2      image-2    2.0.0.42    01-Sep-2010  15:26:19   Not active
 
"*" designates that the image was selected for the next boot