READ:
None of the below is supported by Stellarmate.
<em> Proceed at your own risk</em>
There are those among us always looking to pimp our Pi. I run Stellarmate on my rigs, and have really enjoyed all the convenience it brings, and appreciate the hard work involved in producing it. But speed thrills baby, So I suppose, it was inevitable, that I started tinkering. Having scoured the many (usually confusing) reports and articles about this, I discovered, that it got a hell of a lot easier on June 15, 2020, and not that many folks noticed.
The below are steps generally needed to 1. Overclock your Pi 4b (and probably 3's as well, but untested), and to run and boot your Pi Stellarmate installation from a USB3 SSD drive. No SD card needed. When complete, it's a good bit quicker. A GOOD bit
So far, this is running flawlessly on my rig. I live in Texas, and it's been in the hundreds here for about 3-ish weeks. Fully overclocked with the settings below, imaging all night with max nighttime temp starting at 107, and low temp about 83, the Pi never missed a beat, and stayed reasonably cool (65C).
I use a 60W USB3 hub from Plugable, and I never plug anything but the hub into the Pi4b. However, I've included a tweak that helps a bit with the wambly USB power issues caused by plugging devices into the USB bus on the Pi (forums full of problems on that). The SSD drive (a half terrabyte Sandisk that costs $69 on Amazon) plugs into the Hub, and boots the Pi from there.
I also installed the Pi in a new case, with heatsinks and a cooling fan. The better the cooler, the faster you can clock it. Doubtful you'll get far overclocking without new cooling. The SSD doesn't need it at all, FYI.
You need to start from a running Pi, with whatever Linux dist running on it.
From the terminal prompt, do the following:
#Lets get the new bootfromusb bootloader, and install it.
1. sudo nano -w /etc/default/rpi-eeprom-update
2. change the FIRMWARE_RELEASE_STATUS value from "critical" to "stable"
3. ctrl-x and answer yes to save
# This installs the boot-from-USB Bootloader
5. sudo rpi-eeprom-update -d -a
6. sync;sync;sync;reboot
# Check to make sure it succeeded
7. vcgencmd bootloader_version
8. Verify date of bootloader is newer or equal to June 15, 2020
9. // Didn't work? Likely usb issue. go fix. Remember what I said about unsupported? If you don't posses the skill and determination (it takes more of the latter) to track down the issue and fix it yourself, you probably shouldn't be tinkering with this crap. Shoot images instead.
10. sync (force of habit)
11. Powerdown and unplug power supply
Ok, now we have the bootloader in place, so lets install Stellarmate on the SSD
Option 1 - Migrate existing install
1. Power on, then log back in
2. OPen the "SD Card Copier" app found in Accessories menu in Stellarmate desktop.
3. Select SD card as source, and SSD drive as destination. The SSD will be wiped completely out, and reset during the copy operation.
4. Start the copy, and go eat lunch.
5. Once copy complete, remove the SD-card and keep it as a fallback, in case you run into problems.
6. Power off then on. Presto! (we hope. if it blows up, just put the SD card back in, and reboot, and figure out problem, and fix, but worked no issues for me.)
Option 2 - Fresh install
1. Use BalenaEtcher to burn the distribution StellarmateOS image to the SSD. Do it exactly the same way you would with an SD card, except select SSD drive as destination.
2. Once copy complete, reboot RPi and presto!
Tough hack eh? Boot from USB is now native to RPi4 !
<strong>Overclock the Pi</strong>
1. From the terminal in Stellarmate, do the following:
stellarmate@stellarmate:~ $ sudo nano -w /boot/config.txt
<em>Add the following lines at the end of the file:</em>
over_voltage=6
arm_freq=1750
max_usb_current=1
Editors NOTE 9/7/2020: Now strongly suggest not overclocking the GPU. This settings has some unexpected effects on various system clocks, and can result in problems occaisionally. Given that keeping accurate time on a running Stellarmate box is pretty important, I suggest not modifying the GPU settings.
#gpu_mem=256
#gpu_freq=600
hit ctrl-x and Y to save the file.
Over_Voltage gives the chipset a little more juice. Max_usb_current bumps up the power supplied to the USB ports. The Pi4b defaults to 600mA (total) on all USB ports. This command bumps that to 1200mA. That's probably still not going to be enough to run a bunch of power hungry gear, so better keep using the powered hub).
These are conservative freq numbers, because again - Texas heat, but many people have reported stable boards with arm_freq as high as 2147, Feel free to experiment with higher settings. The GPU boost actually helps more than the arm boost. The SSD really makes it run noticeably faster in so many places though. So for improved performance, start with the SSD drive. The RPi runs hot though, so I wouldn't do much overclocking without adding heat sinks, etc.
I tried this again this morning, with a fresh install of 1.5.4, No issues noticed at all. Its rocking right along!
HOWEVER.
My Dad used to tell me: "Son, trust everyone the same way you want to be trusted. <em>But brand your calves boy</em>." So I backup my Ekos configs and keep an working SD card with me, just in case.