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cm-pi-burn

WARNING: This program is designed for a Raspberry Pi and must not be executed on your laptop

Setup a Master Raspberry Pi

We recommend that you install first on one Raspberry pi the full operating system. Please consult with the manuals on how to burn your SD card.

Download the latest Raspbian Desktop image from https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/ and unzip it to get a .img file. Insert a SD card into your computer and burn it with this image using a program like Etcher.

Once you have achieved that and configured the OS (dont forget to use a strong password) you need to update it after the customary reboot.

Make sure your time is set up properly, which you can do with

$ sudo date -s "Dec 2, 2019 14:03 EST"

and put in the appropriate time string corresponding to your date and time and time zone.

Now, open a terminal and execute

    $sudo apt-get update
    $sudo apt-get full-upgrade

Now you have to create an ssh key with the command

    ssh-keygen

Keep the default location and use a strong passphrase. Using no passphrase is not recommended. You can use ssh-add in a terminal so you do not have to all the time type in your passphrase. Please consult with the manual on ssh-keygen and ssh-add.

Activate python 3

Next configure python 3 with the help of a virtual env

    $python3 -m venv ~/ENV3
    $source ~/ENV3/bin/activate

Place at the end of your .bashrc file the line

source ~/ENV3/bin/activate

Now open a new terminal and see if it has the (ENV3) as a prefix to your command prompt.

If this is the case close all the other windows and use the terminal you just started.

Installation

First you must install cm-pi-burn. In a future version this will be done with

$ pip install cloudmesh-cmburn

However in the meanwhile you do it as follows:

$ mkdir cm
$ cd cm
$ git clone https://github.com/cloudmesh/cloudmesh_pi_burn.git
$ cd cloudmesh_pi_burn
$ pip install -e .

In future we will remove the -e

$ pip install .

Information about the SD Cards and Card Writer

You will need at least one SD Card writer. However, cm-pi-burn is supposed to work also with an USB hub in which you can plug in multiple SD Cards and burn one card at a time. Once done you can add a new batch and you can continue writing. This is done for all specified hosts so that you can minimize the interaction with the SD cards.

To find out more about the Card writers and the SD Cards, you can use the command

$ cm-pi-burn detect

It will first ask you to not plug in the SDCard writer to probe the system in empty status. Then you need to plug in the SD Card writer and with the cards in it. After you have said yes once you plugged them in, you will see an output similar to:

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Detecting USB Card Reader
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Make sure the USB Reader is removed ...
Is the reader removed? (Y/n) 
Now plug in the Reader ...
Is the reader pluged in? (Y/n) 

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Detected Card Writer
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bus 002 Device 020: ID 045b:0210 Hitachi, Ltd 
Bus 002 Device 024: ID 05e3:0749 Genesys Logic, Inc. 
Bus 001 Device 014: ID 045b:0209 Hitachi, Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 015: ID 045b:0209 Hitachi, Ltd 
Bus 001 Device 016: ID 05e3:0749 Genesys Logic, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 023: ID 05e3:0749 Genesys Logic, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 019: ID 045b:0210 Hitachi, Ltd 
Bus 002 Device 021: ID 05e3:0749 Genesys Logic, Inc. 
Bus 002 Device 022: ID 05e3:0749 Genesys Logic, Inc.

Note that in this case we will see two devices, one for the USB hub in which the card is plugged in, and one for the SD Card itself.

Next we like to show you a bit more useful information while probing the operating system when the SD Card Writers are plugged in. Please call the command:

$ cm-pi-burn info

You will see an output similar to

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# Operating System
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 29.7 GiB, 31914983424 bytes, 62333952 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
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x5e3da3da

Device         Boot  Start      End  Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1        8192   532479   524288  256M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2      532480 62333951 61801472 29.5G 83 Linux

# ----------------------------------------------------------------------
# SD Cards Found
# ----------------------------------------------------------------------

+------+----------+--------+----------+-------+-------------------+-----------+-----------+
| Name | Device   | Reader | Formated | Empty | Size              | Removable | Protected |
+------+----------+--------+----------+-------+-------------------+-----------+-----------+
| sde  | /dev/sde | True   | True     | True  |  31.9 GB/29.7 GiB | True      | False     |
| sdd  | /dev/sdd | True   | True     | False |  31.9 GB/29.7 GiB | True      | False     |
| sdc  | /dev/sdc | True   | True     | True  |  31.9 GB/29.7 GiB | True      | False     |
| sdb  | /dev/sdb | True   | True     | False |  31.9 GB/29.7 GiB | True      | False     |
| sda  | /dev/sda | True   | True     | False |  31.9 GB/29.7 GiB | True      | False     |
+------+----------+--------+----------+-------+-------------------+-----------+-----------+

Under Operating system you will see the block device you will see information about your operating system. This it the card plugged into the back of your PI.

Under SDCards found you will see the list of SD Cards and some information about the cards that are plugged into the writers.

Make sure that you only include cards that you truly want to overwrite. We have give an example where this is not the case while indicating it in the Empty column. We recommend that you only use formatted cards so you are sure you do not by accident delete infprmation.

ROOT

For the burn process you need to use root priviledges. To achieve this you need to execute the following commands. The source command activates the python virtual env that you have created where you installed the cm-pi-burn command

$ sudo su
# source /home/pi/ENV3/bin/activate

Please note that for our notation a # indicates this command is executed in root.

Finding Image Versions

First you have to find the raspbian image you like to install. For this purpose we have developed a command that lists you the available images in the Raspberry Pi repository. To see the versions, please use the command

# cm-pi-burn image versions

Once in a while they come out with new versions. You can refersh the list with

# cm-pi-burn image versions --refresh

Downloading an Image

To download the newest image, use the command

# cm-pi-burn image get latest

The image is downloaded into the folder

  • ~/.cloudmesh/cmburn/images

To list the downloaded images you can use the command

# cm-pi-burn image ls

In case you like to use the latest download, you can use the command. You can also specify the exact URL with

# cm-pi-burn image get https://downloads.raspberrypi.org/raspbian_lite/images/raspbian_lite-2019-09-30/2019-09-26-raspbian-buster-lite.zip

Creating Cluster SD-Cards

Next we describe how we create a number of SD-Cards to create a cluster. Each card will have a unique hostname, an ipaddress and you public key. To locate your device you can use:

$sudo fdisk -l

or the more convinient option would be to use the

$cm-pi-burn info

You can look at the names of your devices under the device column. Eg /dev/sda,/dev/sdb,etc

Burning SD-Cards

To burn one card, we will use cm-pi-burn create with several important options:

  • --image specifies the name of the image to burn
  • --device is the path to the SD card. If this option is ommitted, then cm-pi-burn will use the devices listed under cm-pi-burn info
  • --hostname is the name for the pi
  • --sshkey is the path to your SSH PUBLIC key
  • --blocksize specified to 4M for our purposes

If you want to specify a password for desktop login (for debugging purposes), you can use the option

  • --passwd=PASSWD

to set a password. In the future, you should not use this option as we do not want to login through the terminal. We only want to SSH from the master Pi

Auto Format to FAT32

The --format is an option that can be used to automatically format your SD card to FAT32. The current implementation is quite unstable as it makes several assumptions. If this option is used, it will most likely work.

Do not worry if you see the message No partition is defined yet!

Note on using a static IP address

You can use the --ipaddr=IP option to set a static IP address for your Pis. To make sure this works, ensure that your master Pi is connected to the network as cm-pi-burn will pull information from the network to configure static IP usage.

For more information on options, see /cmburn/pi/cmpiburn.py

# cm-pi-burn create \
    --image=2020-02-05-raspbian-buster-lite \
    --device=/dev/sda \
    --hostname=red2 \
    --sshkey=/home/pi/.ssh/id_rsa.pub \
    --blocksize=4M \
    --ipaddr=169.254.10.30 \
    --format

Here we are assuming that your device name is sda but its very important to verify it once before executing the above command. Note that if we omit the --device option, then cm-pi-burn will refer to the devices listed using cm-pi-burn info

If your Pis are going to use ethernet connection, then the command is as simple as:

# cm-pi-burn create \
    --image=2020-02-05-raspbian-buster-lite \
    --device=/dev/sda \
    --hostname=red2 \
    --sshkey=/home/pi/.ssh/id_rsa.pub \
    --blocksize=4M \
    --ipaddr=169.254.10.32 \
    --format

To burn many cards you can specify them conveniently in parameter notation in the --hostname and --ipaddr arguments:

# cm-pi-burn create \
    --image=2020-02-05-raspbian-buster-lite \
    --device=/dev/sd[a-f]
    --hostname=red[2-7] \
    --sshkey=/home/pi/.ssh/id_rsa.pub 
    --blocksize=4M
    --ipaddr=169.254.10.[32-37] \
    --format

Note the ranges are inclusive. Alternatively, we can ommit the --device option and allow cm-pi-burn to detect the devices from cm-pi-burn info:

# cm-pi-burn create \
    --image=2020-02-05-raspbian-buster-lite \
    --hostname=red[2-7] \
    --sshkey=/home/pi/.ssh/id_rsa.pub \
    --blocksize=4M \
    --ipaddr=169.254.10.[32-37] \
    --format

You may see the program output some unmount errors during the burn process - this is normal.

After the process is completed, a message will appear on your terminal stating the number of cards you have burnt.

You can verify if the burn process is completed or not by plugging in one of the SD cards to a raspberry pi and starting it. Raspberry Pi terminal appears asking your login and password. After the sucessfull authentication, now you can use your raspberry pi just like any other.

Here is an alternative version to the command above with a different --device option.

# cm-pi-burn create \
    --image=2020-02-05-raspbian-buster-lite \
    --device=/dev/sda \
    --hostname=red[2-7] \
    --sshkey=/home/pi/.ssh/id_rsa.pub \
    --blocksize=4M \
    --ipaddr=169.254.10.[32-37] \
    --format

Notice here how we have only listed one port in the --device option. This would be in the case that we only have one SD card writer, but we don't want to rerun the command each time. That would be quite tedious. Instead, the command will burn to /dev/sda with hostname red2, then a prompt will come up asking the user if we want to reuse /dev/sda.

Slot /dev/sda needs to be reused. Do you wish to continue? [y/n] 
# y
Insert next card and press enter...
# [enter]
Burning next card...

In this way, we avoid having to rerun the command while providing enough safeguards so we don't accidentally overwrite the last SD card. This prompt will also appear if the number of hosts (in this example there are 4 hosts) exceeds the number of available devices (1 in this example).

If the only device listed uner cm-pi-burn info is /dev/sda, then the above command is equivalent to:


# cm-pi-burn create \
    --image=2020-02-05-raspbian-buster-lite \
    --hostname=red[2-7] \
    --sshkey=/home/pi/.ssh/id_rsa.pub \
    --blocksize=4M \
    --ipaddr=169.254.10.[32-37] \
    --format

From the raspberry FAQ

Quote: There is no on/off switch! To switch on, just plug it in. To switch off, if you are in the graphical environment, you can either log out from the main menu, exit to the Bash prompt, or open the terminal. From the Bash prompt or terminal you can shut down the Raspberry Pi by entering sudo halt -h. Wait until all the LEDs except the power LED are off, then wait an additional second to make sure the SD card can finish its wear-levelling tasks and write actions. You can now safely unplug the Raspberry Pi. Failure to shut the Raspberry Pi down properly may corrupt your SD card, which would mean you would have to re-image it.