Problems creating a new HS3 uSD card for Rpi2

[ve3bwp]

Can you post the text? Dropbox blocked here at work ...

Is there an easy way to cut and paste console text and post it? I get an error when I do a startx to run the GUI. Presumably due to lack of disk space.

[zwolfpack]

Is there an easy way to cut and paste console text and post it? I get an error when I do a startx to run the GUI. Presumably due to lack of disk space.

Easiest way is to use PuTTY from Windows to SSH into the box, then copy/paste from the PuTTY window.

[zwolfpack]

I just get hundreds of lines scroll by all saying 'Permission denied' at the end of each line. A couple that say 'No such file or directory'.

Sorry, forgot you'll get a bunch of extraneous stuff when listing the entire file system like this. Amend to

find / -size +100M 2>/dev/null

Details if interested: In UNIX/Linux, output is generally directed to one of two streams. Stream 1 is "standard output" (stdout); stream 2 is "error output" (errout). by adding 2> /dev/null, we redirect stream 2 to a special 'null' device, aka "the bit bucket".

[zwolfpack]

An alternate way of copying an SD card on the unit itself, 'rpi-clone', is discussed here: https://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=194014

(This will work with a 'NOOBS' based OS like the ZeeS2 as well as a Raspbian one like the Z-Net).

[rfingez]

If it helps at all, My SD card is not full yet I still get the same errors. (Failed to mount Arbitrary Executable file formats file system and Failed to start /etc/rc.local compatibility plus another one pops up earlier but can't read before it's gone)
I tried sudo apt-get update/upgrade and that took about 20 minutes but made no difference.
All I can see is the 911 maintenance screen but none of the links seem to do anything on the Pi.

I had success trying the windows version of HS3 but I feel the Pi would be a better use for me, if I could get it to work that is. My guess/hope is the current build is broken.
I don't don't have a working image to copy either.

[Pete]

Really build to build for the RPi 2-3 all your need to have a back up of is the /usr/local/HomeSeer directory.

This Homeseer directory will run on any Linux computer with Mono installed whether it is an RPi ARM based computer, Intel or AMD based computer.

Relating to starting with the RPi Zee 2 image that you download test this only on a 16Gb microSD card. It is a script really and not an image. The script creates two partitions on your RPi. One is a DR boot Partition that rewrites the running OS.

So relative you your endeavor do the following:

1 - shut down your running Homeseer
2 - copy the /usr/local/HomeSeer directory over to a USB stick. Best to use sudo or root for this.

3 - Download the current Zee 2 image (script) and write it to your microSD card.
It is located here ==>
Current Downloads - Download HS3 Pi

The gotcha with this current version is that it is Jessie and uses Mono 3.2.8. It will work fine though.

Recently (last weekend) did something similiar with a new SEL.

==============================================
I did update the SEL (remotely) from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04 this weekend only using SSH. (Chicago to London)

For desktop / gui views I utilize a tunnel within a tunnel and it works great. (desktop and browser tunnels via side mounted SSH).

That said the recovery boot partition will write Ubuntu 14.04 back to the running OS partition. (this is the same as the current Zee2 / RPi2-3 except that it will write the Jessie build back to the working HS3 partition). The difficult piece though here was upgrading Mono. It was difficult to remove the Mono Version 3.2.8 and I was able to do it but really it is not easy to do.
==============================================

Before copying Homeseer 3 and before using it for Homeseer SSH to the running OS and via GUI shut down Homeseer 3.

Via SSH just do this:
1 - sudo update
2 - sudo upgrade

If you want add a couple of sudo users, same ones that will be in the HS3 GUI list of users.

Then with Homeseer 3 in OFF mode copy your backup directory as saved on your running HS3 box (RPi).

Reboot and you will have a micro SD card with 16Gb of OS and the backup of your Homeseer 3 running. You may need to re-register it but that is not a big deal.

My current HS3 lite directory is 256Mb with 5 running plugins. Check yours and make another copy of it. Check the Homeseer 3 directory for excessively large logs. I have seen issues here where logs are never deleted and go to up to and past 100 Mbs.

Way back here ran out of 16Gb micro SD cards and went to using a 32Gb micro SD card for my Pine 64 2Gb ARM based computer running HS3 Lite.

This computer though is not running Raspberian rather it is running Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit server so it is a bit different than the RPi OS (but it is Linux and linux is linux and Homeseer 3 is just a directory).

BTW testing a new program for burning USB / SD cards called Etcher. Works on Linux, Windows or iOS. Give it a try.

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[ve3bwp]

If it helps at all, My SD card is not full yet I still get the same errors. (Failed to mount Arbitrary Executable file formats file system and Failed to start /etc/rc.local compatibility plus another one pops up earlier but can't read before it's gone)
I tried sudo apt-get update/upgrade and that took about 20 minutes but made no difference.
All I can see is the 911 maintenance screen but none of the links seem to do anything on the Pi.

I had success trying the windows version of HS3 but I feel the Pi would be a better use for me, if I could get it to work that is. My guess/hope is the current build is broken.
I don't don't have a working image to copy either.

This helps a lot. There has to be a broken image file posted. I would still like to gen a fresh image onto my 32gb card. I logged a trouble ticket with Homeseer support. Their first response without even reading the fault description or looking at the errors and say lots of people have created images as recent as Friday. I sent them the file I got from their site and asked them to make sure we are all working from the same hs3pi2boot.zip (Wheezy I believe) file. I sent them this as of mid day yesterday. Haven't heard back yet. Luckily I have an image from a card I built Feb 11th that works but is full and I've had no luck expanding the file system out to fill up a 16Gb card. I'll bring your post to their attention so they can't keep saying it's just me. Thanks again for posting.

[ve3bwp]

Sorry, forgot you'll get a bunch of extraneous stuff when listing the entire file system like this. Amend to

find / -size +100M 2>/dev/null

Details if interested: In UNIX/Linux, output is generally directed to one of two streams. Stream 1 is "standard output" (stdout); stream 2 is "error output" (errout). by adding 2> /dev/null, we redirect stream 2 to a special 'null' device, aka "the bit bucket".

Ok I got Putty working. +100M returned nothing so I tried it with +40M and got this back...

homeseer@HomeTrollerZeeS2V2:~ $ find / -size +40M 2>/dev/null
/var/swap
/var/lib/apt/lists/mirrordirector.raspbian.org_raspbian_dists_jessie_main_binar y-armhf_Packages
/usr/local/zees2.tar
/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-8-oracle-arm32-vfp-hflt/jre/lib/rt.jar
/opt/Wolfram/WolframEngine/10.3/SystemFiles/Libraries/Linux-ARM/libWolframEngine.so
homeseer@HomeTrollerZeeS2V2:~ $

Let me digest the rest of your posts and I will respond shortly...

[concordseer]

Ok I got Putty working. +100M returned nothing so I tried it with +40M and got this back...

homeseer@HomeTrollerZeeS2V2:~ $ find / -size +40M 2>/dev/null
/var/swap
/var/lib/apt/lists/mirrordirector.raspbian.org_raspbian_dists_jessie_main_binar y-armhf_Packages
/usr/local/zees2.tar
/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-8-oracle-arm32-vfp-hflt/jre/lib/rt.jar
/opt/Wolfram/WolframEngine/10.3/SystemFiles/Libraries/Linux-ARM/libWolframEngine.so
homeseer@HomeTrollerZeeS2V2:~ $

Let me digest the rest of your posts and I will respond shortly...

Just to recap on your problem.

You have HS3 on an SD card that is full and you would like to transfer the image on this card to a larger capacity card.

I'm assuming you are familiar with win32disk imagining software. In that case you pop the SD card with HS3 image into a card reader on a Windows computer. Instead of writing an image you read the image from the SD card but first giving the image a name before you select the Read option in win32disk image.

When it's complete eject it from Windows. Remove it from the card reader and pop the larger capacity SD card into the card reader. Format it with a utility like SD Formatter before you go any further. As soon as that's complete open Win32disk image and select the file that you've just written from the old SD card. Select the Write option this time and select the drive that your card is mounted on.

As soon as this operation is complete eject the card from Windows and pop the card into the Raspberr Pi and power it up. From the Windows machine use Putty to access the Raspberry Pi and at the prompt in the Putty window type sudo raspi-config. A blue window will appear in the Putty window and select option 1. Expand File System. When complete it will inform you that the file system will be expanded on your next reboot of the Raspberry Pi.

You are now ready to go with HS3 on your new larger capacity SD card.

Might be worth having a read through this link as it explains how all this can be achieved in Linux https://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewt...hp?f=31&t=3119
Remember you're in the Linux world and it's worth learning the basics of how it works.

I hope I understand you're problem clearly.

[zwolfpack]

Might want to re-download the HS3 Zee image from https://homeseer.com/current-downloads/.
Looks like a new one was posted yesterday.

curl --head https://homeseer.com/updates3/HomeSeerPi.zip
HTTP/1.0 200 Connection established

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx/1.12.2
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2018 17:07:35 GMT
Content-Type: application/zip
Content-Length: 2459787992
Last-Modified: Mon, 23 Apr 2018 18:28:04 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
ETag: "5ade25b4-929d62d8"
Accept-Ranges: bytes

[zwolfpack]

Ok I got Putty working. +100M returned nothing so I tried it with +40M and got this back...

homeseer@HomeTrollerZeeS2V2:~ $ find / -size +40M 2>/dev/null
/var/swap
/var/lib/apt/lists/mirrordirector.raspbian.org_raspbian_dists_jessie_main_binar y-armhf_Packages
/usr/local/zees2.tar
/usr/lib/jvm/jdk-8-oracle-arm32-vfp-hflt/jre/lib/rt.jar
/opt/Wolfram/WolframEngine/10.3/SystemFiles/Libraries/Linux-ARM/libWolframEngine.so
homeseer@HomeTrollerZeeS2V2:~ $

Let me digest the rest of your posts and I will respond shortly...

Hmmm, nothing there out of the ordinary. Try this to see how much space the HS3 root is using. (I believe this is the correct location).

du -sk /usr/local/HomeSeer

Then to break down further what each subdirectory is using,

du -sk /usr/local/HomeSeer/*

[ve3bwp]

Really build to build for the RPi 2-3 all your need to have a back up of is the /usr/local/HomeSeer directory.

This Homeseer directory will run on any Linux computer with Mono installed whether it is an RPi ARM based computer, Intel or AMD based computer.

Relating to starting with the RPi Zee 2 image that you download test this only on a 16Gb microSD card. It is a script really and not an image. The script creates two partitions on your RPi. One is a DR boot Partition that rewrites the running OS.

So relative you your endeavor do the following:

1 - shut down your running Homeseer
2 - copy the /usr/local/HomeSeer directory over to a USB stick. Best to use sudo or root for this.

3 - Download the current Zee 2 image (script) and write it to your microSD card.
It is located here ==>
Current Downloads - Download HS3 Pi

The gotcha with this current version is that it is Jessie and uses Mono 3.2.8. It will work fine though.

Recently (last weekend) did something similiar with a new SEL.

==============================================
I did update the SEL (remotely) from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 16.04 this weekend only using SSH. (Chicago to London)

For desktop / gui views I utilize a tunnel within a tunnel and it works great. (desktop and browser tunnels via side mounted SSH).

That said the recovery boot partition will write Ubuntu 14.04 back to the running OS partition. (this is the same as the current Zee2 / RPi2-3 except that it will write the Jessie build back to the working HS3 partition). The difficult piece though here was upgrading Mono. It was difficult to remove the Mono Version 3.2.8 and I was able to do it but really it is not easy to do.
==============================================

Before copying Homeseer 3 and before using it for Homeseer SSH to the running OS and via GUI shut down Homeseer 3.

Via SSH just do this:
1 - sudo update
2 - sudo upgrade

If you want add a couple of sudo users, same ones that will be in the HS3 GUI list of users.

Then with Homeseer 3 in OFF mode copy your backup directory as saved on your running HS3 box (RPi).

Reboot and you will have a micro SD card with 16Gb of OS and the backup of your Homeseer 3 running. You may need to re-register it but that is not a big deal.

My current HS3 lite directory is 256Mb with 5 running plugins. Check yours and make another copy of it. Check the Homeseer 3 directory for excessively large logs. I have seen issues here where logs are never deleted and go to up to and past 100 Mbs.

Way back here ran out of 16Gb micro SD cards and went to using a 32Gb micro SD card for my Pine 64 2Gb ARM based computer running HS3 Lite.

This computer though is not running Raspberian rather it is running Ubuntu 16.04 64 bit server so it is a bit different than the RPi OS (but it is Linux and linux is linux and Homeseer 3 is just a directory).

BTW testing a new program for burning USB / SD cards called Etcher. Works on Linux, Windows or iOS. Give it a try.

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Hi Pete,

This may be a bit above my current pay grade. Some of it goes over my head but I'm sure I can get through it but I might need some hand holding. Before I dive in I notice the HomeSeerPi.zip (2,402,137 KB) file you provided the link to is different then the hs3pi2boot.zip (22,296 KB) file I picked up last week from a link in the welcome email I got when I first bought the HS3 license.

On the 18th I tried the link you provided ( https://homeseer.com/current-downloads/"]Current Downloads - Download HS3 ) and it was not a .zip file it was either a .tar or some other format which did not match the instructions so I assumed they had placed an Ubuntu archive at that link in error so I discarded it. Now I see it's the same link but it's offering up HomeSeerPi.zip (2,402,137 KB) instead.

Given this different file I was going to try following the regular instructions and copying the contents of the .zip file (which in this case is hs3image (7,761,920 KB) with no file extension to the 32gb SD card and see if it will works as promised. Ok that didn't work. When I try copying the hs3image file to the card it craps out about half way through (maybe this is why you specified a 16GB card?) and gives an 'Error 0x80004005: Unspecified Error". I'm guessing that is because the uSD card is formatted to FAT32 (what ever 'SD Card Formatter' formats it to as per the instruction txt file in the hs3pi2boot.zip (have I mismatched the instructions?).

I tried download Etcher (https://etcher.io/) and Windows defender stops the install and says "Windows Defender SmartScreen prevented an unrecognized app from starting. Running this app might put your PC at risk.". Is this a false positive?

So is there a simple way to make use of this new HomeSeerPi.zip image first before delving into the file process you provided?

Brian

[ve3bwp]

Hmmm, nothing there out of the ordinary. Try this to see how much space the HS3 root is using. (I believe this is the correct location).

du -sk /usr/local/HomeSeer

Then to break down further what each subdirectory is using,

du -sk /usr/local/HomeSeer/*

homeseer@HomeTrollerZeeS2V2:~ $ du -sk /usr/local/HomeSeer
3028676 /usr/local/HomeSeer
homeseer@HomeTrollerZeeS2V2:~ $ du -sk /usr/local/HomeSeer/*
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/autostart_hs
3156 /usr/local/HomeSeer/bin
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/change_password.sh
36 /usr/local/HomeSeer/check_passwd
2953220 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Config
2900 /usr/local/HomeSeer/ConfigBackup
26500 /usr/local/HomeSeer/core
2148 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Data
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Docs
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/factory.sh
72 /usr/local/HomeSeer/FTD2XX_NET.dll
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/go
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Grammar
76 /usr/local/HomeSeer/HomeSeerAPI.dll
40 /usr/local/HomeSeer/HS3SentryLinux.exe
44 /usr/local/HomeSeer/HSCF.dll
16 /usr/local/HomeSeer/HSConsole.exe
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/HSConsole.exe.config
116 /usr/local/HomeSeer/HSPI_DSC.exe
216 /usr/local/HomeSeer/HSPI_HSTOUCH.exe
96 /usr/local/HomeSeer/HSPI_Insteon.exe
3024 /usr/local/HomeSeer/HSPI_ZWave.exe
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/HSPI_ZWave.exe.config
30696 /usr/local/HomeSeer/html
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/install.sh
548 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Insteon.dll
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/led.sh
12 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Logs
912 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Mail.dll
400 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Media
104 /usr/local/HomeSeer/mochad
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/password_check.c
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/play_audio.sh
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/register_with_find.sh
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/restart.sh
124 /usr/local/HomeSeer/RssToolkit.dll
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/run_command_raw.sh
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/run_command.sh
2784 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Scheduler.dll
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Scheduler.dll.config
32 /usr/local/HomeSeer/scripts
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/shutdown_controller.sh
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/shutdown.sh
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/speak.sh
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/speak_to_file.sh
1232 /usr/local/HomeSeer/temp
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Temp
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/updatehs.sh
56 /usr/local/HomeSeer/updater.txt
8 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Updates3
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/update.sh
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Wave
4 /usr/local/HomeSeer/wave_files
homeseer@HomeTrollerZeeS2V2:~ $

[zwolfpack]

Your HS3 directory has grown to 3GB. So now we investigate the heavy hitters...

2953220 /usr/local/HomeSeer/Config

2.95GB is in this folder. Descend into this and list contents

cd /usr/local/HomeSeer/Config
ls -al

Also there is a core dump file that you can get rid of

sudo rm /usr/local/HomeSeer/core

[rfingez]

Might want to re-download the HS3 Zee image from https://homeseer.com/current-downloads/.
Looks like a new one was posted yesterday.

curl --head https://homeseer.com/updates3/HomeSeerPi.zip
HTTP/1.0 200 Connection established

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: nginx/1.12.2
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2018 17:07:35 GMT
Content-Type: application/zip
Content-Length: 2459787992
Last-Modified: Mon, 23 Apr 2018 18:28:04 GMT
Connection: keep-alive
ETag: "5ade25b4-929d62d8"
Accept-Ranges: bytes

Yup, working now!! Thanks!