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ESXi with UEFI iSCSI boot on Raspberry Pi

Posted on by Bian Xi Leave a Comment on ESXi with UEFI iSCSI boot on Raspberry Pi

ESXi with UEFI iSCSI boot on Raspberry Pi

Steps

Setup iSCSI disk

  • Create iSCSI Target and LUN in Synology
  • Download RPi4 UEFI Firmware, and unzip it to a SD card which formatted as FAT32 partition
  • Boot from the SD card, and perform following tasks using UEFI menu
    • Disable 3G memory limit
      Device Manager => Raspberry Pi Configuration => Advanced Configuration => Limit RAM to 3 GB)
    • Create device which mapped to iSCSI target
      Device Manager => iSCSI Configuration => Add an Attempt

After Attempt 1 created, Reset (restart) Raspberry Pi. Now, in Boot Manager, should see UEFI SYNOLOGY iSCSI Storage.

Setup boot order

  • Change Boot order and let it before other network boot, otherwise, there will be too much waiting time.

Prepare ESXi installation disk

  • Download and flush VMware-VMvisor-Installer-7.0.0-xxxx.aarch64.iso to USB device

Install ESXi

  • Reset (Reboot) again, and in UEFI menu select boot from USB device
  • Then perform ESXi installation, and select iSCSI disk as target

After installation completed, take out ESXi installation USB, then another reset is required,

Configure ESXi

  • Boot into iSCSI
  • Change ESXi name, etc.

Troubleshooting

Unable to see iSCSI disk in Boot Manager

Most likely is the iSCSI configuration wrong.

  • Check iSCSI Target Name
  • Check iSCSI Target IP
  • Check iSCSI LUN ID (This issue costed me a few hours)
  • Check User/Password

Synchronous Exception

After installation complete, suddenly cannot boot into any destination, and just show error Synchronous Exception.

End up, I have to recopy UEFI image into micro SD card, redo iSCSI configuration. Luckily the iSCSI has no issue, which contains installed ESXi image.

References

Boot ESXi-Arm Fling on a Raspberry Pi 4 Using ISCSI
Raspberry Pi 4 UEFI Firmware Images
ESXi on Arm 10/22 更新
Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 8GBにESXi for ARM 7.0.0をインストール
Synchronous Exception at 0x00000000371013D8 #97

Mi Bluetooth Audio Receiver User Manual

Posted on by Bian Xi Leave a Comment on Mi Bluetooth Audio Receiver User Manual

Mi Bluetooth Audio Receiver User Manual

Pros

This bluetooth audio receiver is very light, very suitable for sports.

Cons

Can not adjust volume, and also can not use the headset to adjust the volume if the headset has volume control.

Only support bluetooth 4.2. Anyway, for sports, it is very good as audio quality is not that important.

Picture

Specifications

97mAh built-in battery
Maximum continuous playing time: 4 hours
Working distance: 10 meters
Charging port: Micro USB
Wireless connection: bluetooth version 4.2
Input parameters: 5V1A
Implementation of the standard: Q / WMSX007-2017
CMIIT ID: 2017DP3366
bluetooth protocol: HFP / HSP / A2DP / AVRCP
Compatible with external headphones: support 3-segment 3.5mm plug stereo headphones; support 4-segment 3.5mm plug GB and American standard phone headset (OMTP/CTIA automatic identification switch)

Package Included

1 x Xiaomi bluetooth Remote 4.2 Audio Wireless Receiver
1 x 3.5mm Audio Cable

Manual

Mi Bluetooth Audio Receiver User Manual

References

YPJSQ01JY Mi Bluetooth Audio Receiver User Manual Tiinlab Acoustic Technology (Shenzhen)

OBS capturing error

Posted on by Bian Xi Leave a Comment on OBS capturing error

OBS capturing error

OBS is a software can be used to capture, streaming from an USB capturing device. I bought one HD Video Capture USB dongle, trying to use it to monitor Pine64 OS installation.

Error occurred when view files, such as below.

The screen was not only display wrongly, but also blinking from the point of error. I think the cause this issue is due to encoding and decoding error, because the blinking screen was follwoing the error line.

Try to change the encoding method, but could not be seen in OBS menu.

I think if it is decoding issue, then need to change USB dongle setting.

Permission error when run Fusion VM

Posted on by Bian Xi Leave a Comment on Permission error when run Fusion VM

Permission error when start Fusion VM

Error

When trying to start a newly created virtual machine in VMware Fusion, following error occurred

Error: Could not open /dev/vmmon...

This is because Fusion has no permssion to open device file required.

Steps

  • Navigate to System Preferences > Security & Privacy on the host macOS (High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina).
  • Under the General tab towards the bottom of the window, you see error similar to following message with option to click on “Allow”:
System software from vendor "VMware, Inc." was blocked from loading.
  • Click Allow.
  • Restart Fusion, and start virtual machine again.
  • If some other permission errors occurr again, repeat above steps.

References

Error: Could not open /dev/vmmon: Broken pipe, while launching the Virtual Machine (80467)

Remap Windows keyboard to Mac layout

Posted on by Bian Xi Leave a Comment on Remap Windows keyboard to Mac layout

Remap Windows keyboard to Mac layout

MacOS keyboard preference can remap keys for individual keyboard. This is not a global key remapping, it will not impact other keyboards except the one selected.

Steps

  • Go to System Preferences
  • Click on Keyboard
  • Click on Modifier Keys
  • Select keyboard to be modified in Select keyboard option
  • Map Option key to Command key, and Command key to Option key

How-To: Remap Windows keyboards to match the Mac keyboard layout

GRUB Basic

Posted on by Bian Xi Leave a Comment on GRUB Basic

GRUB Basic

Access grub menu

For hidden menu, it can be accessed by holding down the Shift key at the very start of the boot-up process.

If still cannot be started, then provide following lines in /etc/defaults/grub could fix the issue.

GRUB_TERMINAL_OUTPUT="console"

Power down monitor

Power down monitor can be done via command line as below.

setterm --blank 1 --powerdown 2

It blanks screen after 1 min and turn it off after 2 min.

By adding the kernel parameter consoleblank=60 will lets screen off in 60 seconds if no one touch it.

Regenerate /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Run following command can regenerate /boot/grub/grub.cfg using /etc/defaults/grub

update-grub
# or
update-grub2

Update /boot/efi/EFI/ubuntu/grub.cfg

Run following command can update this file according to current envirnment structure.

dpkg-reconfigure grub-efi-amd64

It is also update /boot/grub too.

References

GRUB2 101: How to Access and Use Your Linux Distribution’s Boot Loader
How To Configure GRUB2 Boot Loader Settings In Ubuntu
How to power down display on terminal?
How to Configure the GRUB2 Boot Loader’s Settings

Convert Raspberry Pi Ubuntu to iSCSI btrfs root

Posted on by Bian Xi Leave a Comment on Convert Raspberry Pi Ubuntu to iSCSI btrfs root

Convert Raspberry Pi Ubuntu to iSCSI btrfs root

This is to move root file system of Raspberry Pi Ubuntu OS to iSCSI LUN and convert it to btrfs file system

Pros

  • Cheaper than using small SD card
  • Backup and restore easy, only need to backup 150MB boot partition on SD card
  • Able to perform snapshot at LUN level or OS level (btrfs)
  • Should be Faster

Steps

Install iscsi packages

apt install open-iscsi
systemctl enable open-iscsi
systemctl start open-iscsi
systemctl enable iscsid
systemctl start iscsid

Configure iscsi

Edit /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi, update following line

InitiatorName=<YOUR_INITIATOR_NAME>

Note: The YOUR_INITIATOR_NAME is the iSCSI client name

Edit /etc/iscsi/iscsid.conf, update following lines

node.session.auth.authmethod = CHAP
node.session.auth.username = <YOUR_USERNAME>
node.session.auth.password = <YOUR_PASSWORD>
# iscsiadm --mode discovery --type sendtargets --portal <YOUR_TARGET_IP>
# iscsiadm --mode node --targetname <YOUR_TARGET_NAME> --portal <YOUR_TARGET_IP> --login

Note: If can not login, restart iscsid and try again.

systemctl restart iscsid

Identify block device

Use lsblk command to identify device file, normally should be /dev/sda.

Partitioning

Creating two partitions using fdisk, the first partition is to prepare following for future used, such as

  • Network boot
  • UEFI iSCSI boot
  • SD card backup

Partition /dev/sda1: vfat, 2GB
Partition /dev/sda2: for root filesystem

Create filesystems

mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1
mkfs.btrfs /dev/sda2

Identify UUID for root filesystem

blkid /dev/sda2

Update initramfs

This is to enable ubuntu load iscsi driver during boot

touch /etc/iscsi/iscsi.initramfs
update-initramfs -v -k $(uname -r) -c

Duplicate files

mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
rsync -avhP --exclude /boot/firmware --exclude /proc --exclude /sys --exclude /dev --exclude /mnt / /mnt/
mkdir /mnt/{dev,proc,sys,boot/firmware,mnt}

Modify /etc/fstab in LUN

Note: Don't modify the file in /etc, it will not be used during iSCSI boot.

vi /mnt/etc/fstab

Change root mounting to

UUID=<YOUR_DEV_UUID> / btrfs defaults 1 1

Modify /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt

First create a backup of this file

cp /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt.sav

Change the content of /boot/firmware/cmdline.txt

Note: Beware of rootfstype=btrfs

net.ifnames=0 dwc_otg.lpm_enable=0 console=serial0,115200 console=tty1 rootfstype=btrfs elevator=deadline rootwait fixrtc ip=dhcp root=UUID=<YOUR_DEV_UUID> ISCSI_INITIATOR=<YOUR_INITIATOR_NAME> ISCSI_TARGET_NAME=<YOUR_TARGET_NAME> ISCSI_TARGET_IP=<YOUR_TARGET_IP> ISCSI_TARGET_PORT=3260 ISCSI_USERNAME=<YOUR_USERNAME> ISCSI_PASSWORD=<YOUR_PASSWORD> rw

Note: Root partition can also be identified by label if assigned one, see next topic

Reboot

umount /mnt
reboot

Use LABEL for root

Using label instead of UUID for root filesystem.

Assign a label

For mounted filesystem

sudo btrfs filesystem label <mountpoint> <newlabel>

For not mounted filesystem

sudo btrfs filesystem label <device> <newlabel>

Change /etc/fstab

LABEL=<newlabel> / btrfs defaults 1 1

Change /boot/fireware/cmdline.txt

... root=LABEL=<newlabel> ...

Use Static IP

To use static IP for iSCSI connection, the ip definition in cmdline.txt needs to be changed to

ip=192.168.1.200::192.168.1.1:255.255.255.0:rpi:eth0:off

This will create an IP 192.168.1.200 on interface eth0 as below.

2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
    link/ether dc:a6:32:ef:07:0f brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.200/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global eth0
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
    inet 192.168.1.23/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global secondary dynamic eth0
       valid_lft 43036sec preferred_lft 43036sec
    inet6 fe80::dea6:32ff:feef:70f/64 scope link
       valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever

One way to just maintain one IP is, disabling OS IP address.

Reboot

Other cmdline.txt format

I tried following format, but failed. I think it maybe work if no partition in iSCSI LUN

root=iscsi:[<username>:<password>[:<reverse>:<password>]@][<servername>]:[<protocol>]:[<port>][:[<iscsi_iface_name>]:[<netdev_name>]]:[<LUN>]:<targetname>

Use UUID is better, because there is no need to worry about LUN id and partition as UUID is unique ideitifier.

To specfic UUID, following format can be used according to kernel parameters, but it doesn't work too.

root=UUID=<UUID>
netroot=iscsi:[<username>:<password>[:<reverse>:<password>]@][<servername>]:[<protocol>]:[<port>][:[<iscsi_iface_name>]:[<netdev_name>]]:[<LUN>]:<targetname>

I also tried rd.* format, such as rd.iscsi.initiator, etc., they are new format to replace old format ISCSI_INITIATOR, etc., but also not failed. I think the dracut.cmdline version used by ubuntu in raspberry pi is old. Maybe should try grub2 used in Fedora OS for raspberry pi, or uefi used in Windows 10.

Backup and restore using pre-backup data

Backup data into iSCSI LUN partition 1

First create vfat in iSCSI LUN as partition 1, then backup /boot/fireware data into that partition

mkfs.vfat /dev/sda1
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
cp /boot/firmware/. /mnt
umount /mnt

Restore to an empty SD card

Create partition in new SSD as type c, which W95 FAT32 (LBA), with Boot flag.

Device         Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1       2048 1050623 1048576  512M  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Format SD card and give label as system-boot, the LABEL is defined in /etc/fstab, it can be changed to UUID if needed.

mkfs.vfat -n system-boot /dev/sdb1
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
cp -a <backup_filesystem> /mnt
umount /mnt

Make sure system reported correct LABEL on the newly created vfat filesystem, using blkid command to verify.

Troubleshooting

iscsi_tcp missing

If following error occurred, install package linux-modules-extra.

libkmod: ERROR ../libkmod/libkmod-module.c:838 kmod_module_insert_module: could not find module by name='iscsi_tcp'

Please read post Missing iSCSI module in Ubuntu 20.10

Reboot error

If failed to boot, initram command prompt will appear. In this case, following commands can be used to recover back the booting.

mkdir /mnt
mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt
cd /mnt
cp cmdline.txt.sav cmdline.txt
cd /
umount /mnt
reboot

Note: the umount is very important, otherwise, the changes wouldn't be saved.

There are very minimum commands can be used, such as no vi. So let it boots into previous status, then troubleshooting from there.

References

dracut kernel command line options
Kernel command line parameters
introduction to boot time parameters of the Linux kernel
Raspberry Pi 4 UEFI Boot
RPi cmdline.txt
RPi config.txt
kernel-parameters.txt
The config.txt file
Raspberry Pi iSCSI Root on Ubuntu 20.04
btrfs root filesystem on raspbian
[Howto] booting from iSCSI
Ubuntu Server 20.10 on Raspberry Pi 4: installation guide with USB Boot (no SD card) and full disk encryption (excluding /boot) using btrfs-inside-luks and auto-apt snapshots with Timeshift
Raspberry Pi 4 - Ubuntu 20.04 w/Btrfs root
dracut.cmdline(7) — Linux manual page