Here is what I did to get the UniPi Neuron running the UniPi Mervis OS image on a SSD connected to USB.
Use the info below on your own risk.
The Neuron should already be running on a SD card using the UniPi Mervis OS image.
No additional software were added to the SD card to complete the steps below.
All steps were done using ssh.
Default ssh login = root:unipi
1: Enable writing to the /boot partition
# mount -o remount,rw /boot
2: Enable Raspberry Pi 3 booting from USB connected mass storage. Please see here for more details.
# echo 'program_usb_boot_mode=1' >> /boot/config.txt
Please be aware that this command is not reversible.
Reboot the Neuron, and log in again.
Verify success by issuing the command:
# vcgencmd otp_dump | grep 17:
The output should read: 17:3020000a
After reboot it is a good idea to remove the line added to /boot/config.txt above.
This can be done using this command:
# mount -o remount,rw /boot; sed -i '$d' /boot/config.txt
3: Prepare the USB connected disk
Make sure there is only one USB connected mass storage device connected to the Neuron.
Identify the disk by issuing the command:
# lsblk
The output should look something like this:
root@unipi:~# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 111.8G 0 disk
|-sda2 8:2 0 1G 0 part
|-sda3 8:3 0 1G 0 part
`-sda1 8:1 0 60M 0 part
mmcblk0 179:0 0 7.4G 0 disk
|-mmcblk0p2 179:2 0 1G 0 part /
|-mmcblk0p3 179:3 0 1G 0 part /var
`-mmcblk0p1 179:1 0 60M 0 part /boot
root@unipi:~#
sda is the USB connected disk, and in this case it has three partitions sda1-sda3
mmcblk0 is the SD card.
We can also see that none of the partitions on sda is mounted.
Wipe the disk by issuing the command:
# wipefs -a /dev/sda
The disk I used was 120 Gb. Partition sizes should be adjusted accordingly.
Create the following partitions by using:
fdisk -c -u /dev/sda
A 150 Mb Fat32 partition set as bootable. This will become /boot
A 58 Gb Linux partition. This will become /
A 52 Gb Linux partition. This will become /var
A 1.7 Gb swap partition (the rest of the disk).
4: Format the partitions
# mkfs -t vfat -n BOOT -F 32 /dev/sda1
# mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda2
# mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda3
# mkswap /dev/sda4
Make sure TRIM is a default mount option
# tune2fs -o discard /dev/sda1
# tune2fs -o discard /dev/sda2
# tune2fs -o discard /dev/sda3
# tune2fs -o discard /dev/sda4
5: Make directories and mount the new partitions
Create a mount point for the partition that will become /
# mkdir /tmp/myssd
Mount the partition that will become /
# mount /dev/sda2 /tmp/myssd
Create mount point for the partition that will become /boot
# mkdir /tmp/myssd/boot
Mount the partition that will become /boot
# mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/myssd/boot
Create mount point for the partition that will become /var
# mkdir /tmp/myssd/var
Mount the partition that will become /var
# mount /dev/sda3 /tmp/myssd/var
6: Copy all content on the SD card to the USB disk
# rsync -ax —progress / /boot /var /tmp/myssd
7: Chroot into the new file system to do required changes
Enter the new file system and mount special file systems prior to chroot
# cd /tmp/myssd/
# mount --bind /dev dev
# mount --bind /sys sys
# mount --bind /proc proc
Chroot into the new file system
# chroot /tmp/myssd
8: Make new ssh keys
Remove ssh keys copied from the SD card
# rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*
Generate new keys
# dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server
Just ignore perl warnings.
9: Edit /etc/fstab and /boot/cmdlline.txt to replace SD card with SSD
# sed -i "s,/dev/mmcblk0p1,/dev/sda1,” /etc/fstab
# sed -i "s,/dev/mmcblk0p2,/dev/sda2,” /etc/fstab
# sed -i "s,/dev/mmcblk0p3,/dev/sda3,” /etc/fstab
# echo '/dev/sda4 none swap sw 0 0' >> /etc/fstab
# sed -i "s,root=/dev/mmcblk0p2,root=/dev/sda2,” /boot/cmdline.txt
10: Exit chroot, move out of the SSD filesystems and power off the Neuron
# exit
# cd ~
# poweroff
11: Remove power from the Neuron and remove the SD card.
12: Boot from SSD
13: Remove local ssh key
Prior to logging in to the Neuron you should remove your locally stored ssh key for the Neuron from your known_hosts file.
14: Modify /etc/fstab to use UUID instead of partition names
Use UUID instead of partition names in /etc/fstab. It is wise to do this modification to the fstab in case you attach another USB mass storage device to the Neuron, and what used to be /dev/sda has suddenly become /dev/sdb.
Please see here for details about the use of UUID in /etc/fstab
15: Have fun!
--
Joran