How to create a bootable OP25 (and more) USB drive

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johnslabo

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Mar 13, 2014
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Hi,

I thought that I would post a brief summary of the process that I used to create a bootable USB drive to run OP25. Hopefully others may benefit.

Assumptions:

- You know how to boot from a USB drive
- You have at least a cursory familiarity with Ubuntu, including how to setup networking and how to edit files (using vi, gedit, etc...)

The process:

1. Format a USB drive to FAT32. Insure that the maximum size of the stick is 32GB (or the first bootable partition on a larger USB drive is 32GB or smaller).

2. Download the GNU Radio ISO image from:

GNURadioLiveDVD - GNU Radio - gnuradio.org

3. On Windows, download the unetbootin utility from:

UNetbootin

(If you are running Linux, you should be able to do something like 'sudo apt-get install unetbootin').

4. Use unetbootin to create the bootable USB stick:

* Click on 'Diskimage', insure the dropdown menu is set to 'ISO', and select the GNU Radio ISO file downloaded previously.

* Set a value for 'Space used to preserve files across reboots' (I use 2000 to enable 2GB of persistent storage).

* Insure 'Type' is set to 'USB Drive', and 'Drive' points to your USB drive.

* Click 'OK'

5. When finished, eject and then re-insert the USB drive (do not boot from it yet).

6. Edit file \boot\grub\grub.cfg on the USB drive to add persistence (if running Windows, don't use Notepad, use Notepad++, or another editor that preserves the original unix file format). I remove other entries from the boot menu as well, so my grub.cfg file ends up looking like this:

Code:
if loadfont /boot/grub/font.pf2 ; then
	set gfxmode=auto
	insmod efi_gop
	insmod efi_uga
	insmod gfxterm
	terminal_output gfxterm
fi

set menu_color_normal=white/black
set menu_color_highlight=black/light-gray

menuentry "Boot Ubuntu (persistent)" {
	set gfxpayload=keep
	linux	/casper/vmlinuz.efi file=/cdrom/preseed/ubuntu.seed boot=casper quiet splash -- persistent
	initrd	/casper/initrd.lz
}

7. Now boot the USB drive. Setup networking, and set the correct timezone/date/time.

8. To eliminate errors when updating using apt-get, open a shell terminal, and enter the following commands:

* sudo apt-get remove cryptsetup
* sudo dpkg --configure -a

Now execute:

* sudo apt-get update

You can now use apt-get to install and/or upgrade standard packages if you wish.

NOTE: Do not ever update the kernel (ie. 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade'), the USB drive will no longer boot if you do!

9. Next, from a shell terminal, change to directory '/usr/local/src/pybombs_legacy' and do the following:

* Edit config.dat to change line:

gotoptions = --reference=/root/live/gitcache

to

gotoptions =

* Execute 'sudo ./pybombs install gr-op25'

* Assuming the prior command executed without error, execute 'sudo ldconfig'


**** General Notes ****

- After installing, the working directory for op25 is:

/usr/local/src/pybombs_legacy/src/gr-op25/op25/gr-op25_repeater/apps

- For assistance with setting up op25, watch this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxQeCzksDi4

and read these:

OP25
SignalScopePage


Regards,
JS
 
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