Pi 4 + Running ROMS from USB stick

Chapster5

@mitu thank you. I've restarted and plugged the USB into my laptop and seems it's started building the folder hierarchy inside the folder I created. Guess I'll leave it for a few hours and hope it finishes unfortunately I don't have an activity led on the USB stick so it's a guessing game 😂👌

mitu

@Chapster5 You don't have to reboot. Once the copying finishes, it will automatically set up the ROMs/BIOS/etc. folder from the USB. Just don't add something new right now, since it might not get copied.

Chapster5

@mitu perfect if I have to turn off before it's finished copying will this corrupt anything? Will it continue where it left off copying?

mitu

@Chapster5 You should leave it on to finish the copying.

Chapster5

@mitu OK so I plugged it back in last night left it overnight to do its thing checked on the laptop this morning and it's not copied anything across from when I last checked it, should i just format the stick again and start again?

mitu

Did you leave it to finish copying the first time ? If no, reformat and try again.

Chapster5

@mitu more than likely a no I took it out after about 3 minutes haha so it's not had a chance to do anything I'll reformat and try again thank you :)

Chapster5

@mitu OK so, I've started a fresh with the USB device. Formatted as FAT32 created the retropie_mount folder. Plugged it in whilst on the enulationstation menu screen. Waited around 12/18h just to be sure. Unplugged it from the pie put it into my laptop and checked the file structured had been created and files copied. That was all OK. Turn the pie off plugged it back in switched the pie on and it stops on the inital startup black screens with the following message

alt text

Any thoughts I've pushed enter and it just repeats itself.

mitu

@Chapster5 Did you modify the /etc/fstab file to mount the stick ? It's not needed if you use the usbromservice.

Chapster5

@mitu I have the usbromservice installed an ld enabled. Unless I have to modify that file aswell?

mitu

@Chapster5 No, you shouldn't, but for some reason the boot process stops because of the USB stick.
Can you remove the stick, see if your system boot, then run the following commands on the command line and post the output:

sudo lsblk -zf
cat /etc/fstab
cat /boot/cmdline.txt

Chapster5

@mitu boots just fine without the USB in here's the commands you asked me to run

https://ibb.co/ZXCXK4Q
https://ibb.co/GCcCzZ7

mitu

The fstab seems fine. To get access to the system when the error occurs, you should set the root password:

sudo su
passwd

# enter the new password for user "root"

Then insert the USB stick and - when you get the boot error - you should be able to access the console and run journalctl -xb to view the logs.

Chapster5

@mitu I apologise in advance for app the links I don't know how to copy and paste to a paste bin dump site so there's a lot of mention of not being able to find a clock then it mentioned the file system a but further down failing to mount it.

https://ibb.co/Nx9YB72
https://ibb.co/ZgQhLTh
https://ibb.co/h7DFwzF
https://ibb.co/Trp6YSg
https://ibb.co/60g8VTx
https://ibb.co/VYwgQC7
https://ibb.co/19Z9Trd
https://ibb.co/W2kq5K1
https://ibb.co/F65G27J
https://ibb.co/D19f10z
https://ibb.co/H4SCX3Y
https://ibb.co/Bg4bphR
https://ibb.co/F6VzQS0

mitu

Ha, that was interesting, no need to apologize. The error is in the following picture:

https://ibb.co/D19f10z

Seems like the 1st USB disk partition is mistakenly mounted as /boot/ (well at least tried to mount), instead of the actual /boot partition on the SDcard. I wonder if the card and the /boot partition have the same PARTITION_UUID.

As a workaround, modify /etc/fstab and, instead of

PARTUUID=9b2d5bc6-01  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2

write

LABEL=boot  /boot           vfat    defaults          0       2

You'll have to use sudo nano /etc/fstab and edit the file. Make sure you're not adding any extra chars or erasing something else, it's a sensitive file.
After saving the file, reboot with your USB stick inserted.

If everything works ok, then run the following command and post the output (the USB stick must be present):

blkid

Chapster5

@mitu aha!

Seems to boot with the USB plugged in now does this look correct:

https://ibb.co/kJXyT8j

mitu

@Chapster5 said in Pi 4 + Running ROMS from USB stick:

does this look correct:
https://ibb.co/kJXyT8j

It does, but it's missing a partition. Your USB partition is at /dev/sda5, which is the 1st logical partition, but you also have another primary partition (/dev/sda1) which might be un-formatted and I assume it was that partition that was causing issues with the boot.

Anyway, all is well when it ends well. Out of curiosity, how did you format the USB drive - did you use Windows or other OS ?

Chapster5

@mitu perfect thank you

I formatted using the USB formatting guide here:

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/format-large-hard-drive-fat-fat32/

Using FAT32 Format

Plugged the stick in, clicked format and waited haha.