Run magic mirror from a USB drive?

BlackTalon · Apr 15, 2018, 2:55 PM

Has anyone had any running a magic mirror from a usb drive? I have had sd crashes every month or so for a year. I have to find a more option.

Alvinger · Apr 15, 2018, 3:04 PM

I am running both my mirrors from usb.
The trick is to have a SD Card with only bootcode.bin on it. That is the boot loader which will try to load firmware from attached devices.

Download raspbian or whatever image you want and write it to the usb drive with etcher or similar.

You need to make sure that cmdlint.txt anf /etc/fstab point to the usb drive but that should alteady be the case.

BlackTalon · Apr 15, 2018, 3:13 PM

In your experience are the usb drives more reliable?

Alvinger · Apr 15, 2018, 3:38 PM

Yes, especially if you put the /var lib on a tmpfs which resides in ram.

bbm674 · Apr 15, 2018, 5:44 PM

yes and it work fine

carltonb · Apr 15, 2018, 8:28 PM

Is there a guide on how to do this.

justjim1220 · Apr 15, 2018, 11:26 PM

I would very much be interested in the USB drive installation instructions!

Newbie here, so please be specific!!!

Thanks in advance!

Alvinger · Apr 16, 2018, 5:20 AM

Which Raspberry Pi do you have? The Raspberry Pi 3 can boot directly from USB but the others need a SD card.

Download the chosen image and write it to UsB in the same way you created the SD cards. Then remove and insert the USB stick from your computee and copy the file bootcode.bin in the /boot directory to an empty SD card. (This card is needed unless you have a Pi3 but it will only be read from so no signifikant wear.)

Insert the USB stick and boot your Pi. That should do it.

If you have a Pi3 there is a different procedure, google is your friend.

justjim1220 · Apr 16, 2018, 5:47 AM

I’m using Windows 10. Not RasPi.

I will have to try and figure it out I guess.

Thanks anyway!

Alvinger · Apr 16, 2018, 6:08 AM

If you have a Windows 10 computer, why would you need a USB drive?