RetroPie / OpenELEC (KODI) Dual Boot Disc Image

[smithers]

Hi.

Ok I have finished making a new OSMC / RetroPie Dual-boot installer and here is the link:

[link removed]

RetroPie is v3 and has my normal tweaks. No other changes to RetroPie other than enabling the OSMC script and disabling the KODI script.

OSMC – I have tweaked my scripts to make them a bit more professional looking (compared to the last OSMC attempt), and have also installed and set up the Aeon Nox skin. I have left the OSMC skin applied as default, but you have the option of using Aeon if you like. Unfortunately the standard ‘Confluence’ skin does not allow custom scripts to be ran natively so I cannot add in my script to that skin.

I have allocated 1.8GB to OSMC and the rest to RetroPie. This should allow sufficient space for anything including the Beast Build in OSMC (if it works in OSMC?).

Hope this is what you were wanting – let me know if it works out ok for you.

Cheers.
Steve

[evaspaceman]

Thanks. I’m looking forward to trying the dual OSMC/Retropie build. I’d love to learn how to build these dual and triple builds with the scripts to switch. Any chance you would be willing to put together a how to guide?

[nolageek]

Just wanted to say thanks for these images. I got the KODI/Raspberry Pi image up and running and am loving it!

[fonze98]

Hey smithers thanks for all the work I have been using the old Kodi V4 that had the beta version of kodi and thought I would give the new OSMC build a go. I saw that the OSMC version available online is of the kodi 15.1 variety but when I loaded your dual boot one I found that it is still an older version of OSMC. I thought maybe I could do an in place update of the system and found it is throwing errors when trying to update through the OSMC settings. Is there any way to update this as I need a version that is using Kodi >= version 15 due to the MySQL database I use in my mixed windows/linux environments. If not I will need to move back to the openelec V4 with the beta kodi.

[dork313]

Thank you so much. Your work has saved me. Is there anyway to expand the partition for openelec though? I have a 32gb sdcard and the majority goes to the retropie partition. I know this is to give room for games but I keep running out of space for kodi.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[katodragon]

First like to say thank you for all your hard work.

How do I set openelec to boot at default instead of retro pie?

[dork313]

First like to say thank you for all your hard work.

How do I set openelec to boot at default instead of retro pie?

Whichever system you last used should be the one that boots next. For example, if you shutdown while using openelec, it will be what boots when you turn your system on. If you shutdown while using retropie it will be what boots.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[xd3l]

I picked up an external 320Gb drive. Your kit installed from it without any issues, but…

…what was the point of installing it from USB? It didn’t install to USB. Bah!

I really really like what you’ve done with this, I tried to use the SD to USB tutorial on this, but I got lost as the guide is for a 3 in 1 boot and this is a 2 in 1. For what ever reason I could never get the SD to see the USB drive at boot time.

[smithers]

[quote=107280]Hey smithers thanks for all the work I have been using the old Kodi V4 that had the beta version of kodi and thought I would give the new OSMC build a go. I saw that the OSMC version available online is of the kodi 15.1 variety but when I loaded your dual boot one I found that it is still an older version of OSMC. I thought maybe I could do an in place update of the system and found it is throwing errors when trying to update through the OSMC settings. Is there any way to update this as I need a version that is using Kodi >= version 15 due to the MySQL database I use in my mixed windows/linux environments. If not I will need to move back to the openelec V4 with the beta kodi.

[/quote]

Hi.

Sorry for delay in replying. So the reason I use an older version – Helix – is because I (and others) find that the v15 builds seem to have a few bugs in them which affects performance and reliability. Last build I tried was 15.2 and it wasn’t compatible with some of the addons I use but also I was seeing crashes / freezes quite often. Switching back to v14 solved all of this.

I did release one (or two?) of my builds with KODI 15.2 if you look back through the postvyou could probably find it, if not I’ll post a link. You could rip out the KODI section of that build and pair it up with my latest RetroPie image then install via NOOBS – that would get you what you want.

[smithers]

[quote=107325]

First like to say thank you for all your hard work.

How do I set openelec to boot at default instead of retro pie?

Whichever system you last used should be the one that boots next. For example, if you shutdown while using openelec, it will be what boots when you turn your system on. If you shutdown while using retropie it will be what boots.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[/quote]

Correct – thanks. This is the way I like to have mine setup. There would be a easy(ish) way of making the pi default to KODI each time but it would mean creating a ‘Power’ theme in emulation station so I could create my own shutdown script (that forces the KODI partition again on next boot). I personally like it the way it is but I appreciate everyone has their own preference.

[smithers]

[quote=107293]Thank you so much. Your work has saved me. Is there anyway to expand the partition for openelec though? I have a 32gb sdcard and the majority goes to the retropie partition. I know this is to give room for games but I keep running out of space for kodi.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[/quote]

You can only set partition sizes prior to install I’m afraid. If you look back through this thread you will see this has been covered a few times but unfortunately there is no way to expand the partition once installed.

[smithers]

[quote=107500]

…what was the point of installing it from USB? It didn’t install to USB. Bah!
[/quote]

I suspect somebody hasn’t read the ‘readme’ file!

The purpose of a USB install is to get the maximum space available out of your SD card. The standard version of NOOBS doesn’t allow installing via USB and therefore if you install my latest image from the SD card then you’re going to lose around 2gb of space just to install files, which you can’t recover. I didn’t like that so after much searching I found a github page for a USB install method, compiled it and now use it in all my builds.

2gb is precious on an SD card!

There has been much discussion on running from an external drive in this thread already. If you have a look through you should find your answer. It is not something I do personally so I can’t really offer any assistance.

[xd3l]

Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be a jerk, I was just surprised, and no, I guess I missed that part of the readme.

[xd3l]

Actually, I just went through this entire thread, and no one seems to be attempting to boot from USB. They are hosting their roms from USB, but not hosting OpenElec and RetroPie on the USB.

Also in the Readme.txt that comes with this, I can’t seem to find any guidance on where to put my roms on the USB stick if I want to use it to host my roms, zdoom, and the like.

[smithers]

[quote=107518]Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be a jerk, I was just surprised, and no, I guess I missed that part of the readme.

[/quote]

No worries man – I didn’t think you were being a jerk!

[quote=107521]Actually, I just went through this entire thread, and no one seems to be attempting to boot from USB. They are hosting their roms from USB, but not hosting OpenElec and RetroPie on the USB.

Also in the Readme.txt that comes with this, I can’t seem to find any guidance on where to put my roms on the USB stick if I want to use it to host my roms, zdoom, and the like.

[/quote]

So out of curiosity – what is the real world advantage of hosting everything on USB rather than just ROMs? Is it a speed thing or is it more so a reliability thing? (i.e. to prevent corruption of the SD card). And yes, I don’t mention in my readme on how to do this. Its all foreign territory to me! :s

[smithers]

[quote=107075]Just wanted to say thanks for these images. I got the KODI/Raspberry Pi image up and running and am loving it!

[/quote]

You’re welcome – glad its working for you and thanks for taking the time to make a post! :)

[xd3l]

They claim there is a speed boost, though most of those guys are saying this when using a USB 3 stick which I don’t own. Plus this does not make sense because the Pi only has USB 2.
That being said, it is faster than some SD cards, but the only speed boost I noticed was maybe a slightly quicker boot time, and some PSX games played less choppy or had the chop removed from them all together, I.E. Quake 2 when you open the first door to a large colorful room with an enemy in it. On the SD it struggles for a second, on the USB not at all.
Also this spares your large and fast SD and allows you to use your old slow and small SD since it is only required to boot.

Those small issues aside, yes, the SD cards can not handle as many read writes and will in the end fail long before a USB stick will. Also when ever you over clock your Pi (which I believe we all do for those emulation speeds), this still puts the SD card at risk. The risk is not as great as it was with the Pi 1, but it is still there.

I was able to boot off my other USB stick using the triple boot guide I posted in your other thread, but was not able to convert your work over either, at least not the dual boot image as it’s the one I’m most interested in running at this point as I don’t find Raspbian to be very practical.

So here is where I want to go:

A: Stick with your Dual Boot kit and use a USB to store my roms, saves, art and such. I just need to know how.

B: Go back and make my own Dual Boot from USB, and figure out a way to load up your boot screen on mine. I REALLY WANT THAT THING MAN!!!! :)

EDIT: C: I forgot your reboot scripts, I want to know how you do that also, then I’ll figure out custom themes last.

RetroPie installed and booting from USB?
byu/tonyt3rry inRetroPie

[xd3l]

Here’s my latest discoveries.
I created a back up of my USB stick using Win32DiskImager:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

For what ever reason, DD was fine when creating a bootable USB stick out of my pre-made SD image(s), but was not suitable to use making a back up of my USB stick to my new larger USB drive.

Anyhow, the Win32DiskImager backup worked perfectly! Now I am using Gparted to expand the Raspian and RetroPie partition, while moving OpenElec’s to the end. I’ll know if that worked here in a about an hour. “Note to self, purchase or steal super computer.”

“EDIT: Resize with Gparted works!!!! This method requires two Operating Systems, but it does indeed work until I or someone can figure out how to do the backup images and cloning with DD or Clonezilla if anything.”

I did notice that the image files can be compressed pretty well, assuming the partitions are not actually full such as the RetroPie image. Also, using the Img back up method, I realize it would be best to use as small as USB stick as possible to make your initial set up, create an image from that and the new SD (you can back up your large SD and move only the files you need to a smaller one), which will then greatly reduce the size of your image back ups and reduce the time spent creating your back ups. Now assuming it is possible to resize the new partitions created from the backup images, then once I or someone else figures out how to get your Dual Boot kit hosted on USB, a simple Win32DiskImager image could be uploaded and easily used.

Here is the hard drive I’m using… cheap compared to SD hugh? :)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151745910857?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[xd3l]

EDIT: Nevermind, found what I needed to change in the “ss” folder within the OpenElec root partition. This is now running off USB for me.

I got it going, well almost!
The one thing that is preventing this from working in the autoboot.txt on the recovery partition.

Initially it read: “boot_partition=7″

So I changed it to:”boot_partition=6”

(I moved the original partition to usb and deleted the original off the SD so now partition 7 is 6).

What happens now is that RetroPie boots fine. It can load OpenElec fine, but once you have loaded OpenElec and try to boot into RetroPie, your script alters autoboot.txt back to “boot_partition=7” thus locking the boot sequence onto OpenElec.

All I need to know now is where is the script and what line do I need to alter and I should be set, after which I will try to create two small image files and upload so there is an easy to install USB version if this.

I’m going to PM you in case you don’t see this for a few days… I’m eager if you can’t tell! ;)

[grizzlema]

So now that 3.1 is out, is there a way to install/upgrade only the retropie partion and leave the others alone?

[petrockblog]

Well, up to now, I hadn’t tried out the images. But now I have – and I’m furious.

The rules on this forum are clear. I know you know the rules on the Kodi forum too. Why would you post an image that contains so many plugins that stream copyrighted content etc. This is not a warez forum. What the hell were you thinking.
You threaten this project with such actions – how can you be so stupid.

[edited] no need for my swearing either – but I was pretty shocked to see the contents of the image.

I have found and removed more links to the images – if anyone notices any that have been missed please PM me.

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