I have the black VanPi relay board and I am wondering which OS system I should be using. Should I be using the VanPi Core v2.0.1 or the VanPi v1.1.2?
Also, I prefer to have a non-headless system to access the RPI4. Is there an install script for manual install of the VanPi Core v2.0.1? I see there’s one for VanPi v1.1.2 but it may be out of date? The important message in the instructions (VAN_PI/VanPi-OS/vanpi-init-manual.md at main · Pekaway/VAN_PI · GitHub) indicate there may be problems with other RPI OS beyond debian 10 Buster. Is this still the case? Or can I use the lasted RPI OS?
Hey,
as of now, there’s no install script for the v2.0.1, but I’m working on it.
What has changed on the newer software for the VanPi Core is the way the wired shunt (RJ11 connector) and the waterlevel sensors are accessed. Evyerthing else is still compatible with the older black board.
Then again, I’m working on the latest release right now, which will feature a simple method to switch between the older board and the newer one, softwarewise. Once that is done, the new software versions are fully backwards compatible to the older boards.
With the release of the v2.0.2 we’ll also have the updatescript up to date and after that I will take care of the init-script.
v2.0.2 will release next week
The init-script for v1.0.2 uses an older file/folder structure (serverwise, locally on the pi its pretty much still the same). So basically, if all parts where files are accessed on the server need to be changed. If you’re familiar with executing all these script by hand, you can very well start with a fresh Raspberry OS Bookworm and and walk through the script manually, just make sure you get all the files from the VanPi-Core-OS folder instead of the VanPi-OS folder.
Or, if you can wait another week or two, then the new init-script will be available. Otherwise I can assist you of course, should you run into any troubles.
Awesome! Thanks Vincent. I’ll wait until the new version comes out and maybe try to manually install if the script isn’t ready. Looking forward to the new release!
I know, I know, I wanted to release last week already… but you know how it is, there’s always these small things that need to be taken care of and need more time than they should.
Anyway, the updatescript is done and tested from v2.0.0, I will run some more tests tomorrow though. Then I’ll clean up the original image and upload it.
Next step after that is the init script, I’m planning to have it finished by the end of this week. Sorry for the delay, but we’re getting there.
The script took around 16mins on an RPI5 (Debian 12 Desktop) and 23min on a RPI4 on my test runs. That is because in the script we do “sudo apt update” and “sudo apt upgrade” at first, so that all packages are up to date. Depending on how long that takes and of course your bandwith it will need more or less time.
Anyway, the script may not be perfect, but it should get you up and running.
Please let me know if you have questions or run into troubles.
@Vincent Thank you for letting me know! I tried it out and it worked well. Took about 25 min on my RPI 4B.
I ran into two issues:
I had already setup my RPI OS with my own host name so I did have an error at first when opening Node Red. I had to manually change the hosts in sudo nano /etc/hosts to match that in sudo nano /etc/hostname.
The other issue I ran into was opening a web browser at first boot. I was getting an error that the browser was in use. I fixed it by running rm -rf ~/.config/chromium/Singleton*
Everything seems to work now. There’s a bit of lag when accessing the user interface (front end) through my Macbook but I am sure it will get better. Thanks again for getting back to me on this.
That makes sense, I guess we can just delete the line that sets the hostname in the script, since users can/will choose their own one when flashing their image. Just like you did.
Did this only happen on the first boot after running the script? I’m not sure if it is related to the script, since we’re never touching anything near chromium (apart from the packages updates)
Could it be that a previous Chromium session wasn’t properly closed?
I had already pre-configured the RPI for my own use before running the script. Apparently it can happen after changing the host name. It’s possible it wasn’t closed properly before. Running that one command was a simple fix though!
