RE: [opensuse-arm] Transactional update on RPi4

-----Original Message----- From: Ludwig Nussel Sent: 29 June 2020 09:59 To: opensuse-arm@opensuse.org Subject: Re: [opensuse-arm] Transactional update on RPi4

Am 28.06.20 um 23:03 schrieb Bill Merriam:

...

I have openSUSE 15.2 running very nicely on an RPI4 8GB. I cheated and used Raspbian to flash the latest firmware. I wasn't sure how to flash the firmware from openSUSE.

I guess it would make sense to document that process in the wiki (eg https://en.opensuse.org/HCL:Raspberry_Pi4). Anyone?

This should be available now in Tumbleweed with raspberrypi-firmware-eeprom package. Info from the package description: ********** The update mechanism writes recovery.bin and the EEPROM update image(s) (pieeprom.upd and vl805.bin) to the EFI partition. The SHA256 hash of the corresponding images are written to pieeprom.sig and/or vl805.sig. This guards against file system corruption which could cause the EEPROM to be flashed with an invalid image. This is not a security check. At the next reboot the ROM runs recovery.bin which updates EEPROM(s). If the update was successful recovery.bin renames itself to RECOVERY.000 to prevent it from running a second time then resets the system. The system should then boot normally. **********

...

Transactional servers update their software every day and reboot as needed, without me having to pay attention. I would like to try that on a RPI4. Are there TS images for RPI4 already built in OBS or do I need to create one?

That is basically MicroOS. You can get the Tumbleweed version of it from https://download.opensuse.org/ports/aarch64/tumbleweed/appliances/ Or, if you want, you could help with some beta testing of the 15.2 port: https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/openSUSE:/Leap:/15.2:/MicroOS:/ ToTest/images/

You may also use the DVD or NET ISOs to install openSUSE Tumbleweed, MicroOS, Leap. Not tested myself yet. Cheers, Guillaume

...

Although I run some Pis on SSD drives, on some I just use the SDHC card. It strikes me that transactional updates might work very well on SDHC cards or maybe not. Does it help or hurt wear leveling on flash?

There shouldn't be much of a difference to a traditional system. In the end both download and install rpms. MicroOS 15.2 and Tumbleweed in general turn on rpm's _minimize_writes setting to avoid overwriting files that didn't change though.

cu Ludwig

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