PINN has been updated to v3.9
V3.9
I still consider Pi5 support to be beta quality as it still has some issues, but it is good enough to be usable.
Although the PINN program itself has required little change for Pi5 support, this new model has required:
but to save space I have had to change the background wallpaper to a blue hexagonal design. If you see this after a self-update,
then you really should think about increasing the size of PINN'S RECOVERY partition to 128MB.
If you have existing OS installations that you want to keep, there are several options to choose from to exapnd this partition:
Note that simply increasing the partition size will not change the wallpaper directly. It will need an update or a fresh install to revert to the original wallpaper.
If you install PINN afresh, then it will automatically create a 128MB RECOVERY partition and use the standard wallpaper.
Pi5 support has required some big changes to the RECOVERY partition, but the self-update process does try to preserve any PINN settings from recovery.cmdline to cmdline.txt.
The config.txt file has changed a lot, so please check it if you needed to make modifications to it previously.
Note that the previous versions of these files will be backed up to config.bak and cmdline.bak for reference.
Pi5 support is not yet complete and the following issues are still present:
This release is a hybrid as it includes 2 different kernels: a 64-bit 6.1 version for the Pi5 and a 52-bit 5.10 for all other models.
Only the Pi5 uses the new KMS video drivers. If you need to specify a different video resolution, this is done in cmdline.txt by adding something like `video=HDMI-A-1:1280x800@60D` for example. See the Raspberry Pi documentation for details.
All the other models will use the same legacy firmware drivers as before, so video resolution changes are done in config.txt using the hdmi_group and hdmi_mode options. Please be aware of these differences if, for example, you need to modify the config.txt or similar files.
The second major highlight in this release is the ability to set the overall partition size for each OS, in a similar vein to the pinn.mjh.nz website.
Please see the documentation at https://github.com/procount/pinn/blob/m ... tion-sizes for information on how this works, although hopefully it will be quite intuitive.
PINN 3.9 can be installed using the RPi Imaging tool. It can be found under the `Misc utility images`. I have left v3.8.8 there for now, but this will be removed shortly.
V3.9
- Pi5 Support - First release of Pi5 support
- Adjust OS Sizes - Adjust the partition sizes of each OS
- Fonts - Fix (most) font sizes under KMS
- Preupdate - Added preupdate script
- Update - Dialogs improved
- Update - settings preserved across update
- Wallpaper - Blue wallpaper indicates small recovery partition
- Background - Overscan disabled
- Recovery - Renamed kernel and recovery files
I still consider Pi5 support to be beta quality as it still has some issues, but it is good enough to be usable.
Although the PINN program itself has required little change for Pi5 support, this new model has required:
- A 64-bit kernel (v6.1)
- The use of KMS video drivers
- Removal of the alternate load mechanism
but to save space I have had to change the background wallpaper to a blue hexagonal design. If you see this after a self-update,
then you really should think about increasing the size of PINN'S RECOVERY partition to 128MB.
If you have existing OS installations that you want to keep, there are several options to choose from to exapnd this partition:
- 1. Use a tool like GParted to shrink and move some OS partitions to make room to expand the RECOVERY partition to 128MB.
2. Use PINN to backup all your OSes to a USB drive.
2a. Install a new version of PINN to a blank SD card then reinstall the backedup OSes from the USB drive.
2b. Set the `runinstaller` option and reboot PINN to repartition and reformat your drive to the correct size. This will wipe out all OSes, but they can be reinstalled from your backups.
Note that simply increasing the partition size will not change the wallpaper directly. It will need an update or a fresh install to revert to the original wallpaper.
If you install PINN afresh, then it will automatically create a 128MB RECOVERY partition and use the standard wallpaper.
Pi5 support has required some big changes to the RECOVERY partition, but the self-update process does try to preserve any PINN settings from recovery.cmdline to cmdline.txt.
The config.txt file has changed a lot, so please check it if you needed to make modifications to it previously.
Note that the previous versions of these files will be backed up to config.bak and cmdline.bak for reference.
Pi5 support is not yet complete and the following issues are still present:
- The GUI will sometimes freeze or lock up, usually when the network is just established. It helps not to move any mice until the network has established itself and all the OS descriptions have been downloaded.
If this occurs, remove the power or reset the Pi5 using the on/off button and reboot it until PINN starts properly. If you have enabled SSH, this will still be active, so it is still possible to login and issue a `rebootp` command to reset it, even remotely. - The KMS drivers sometimes result in very small font sizes, but this may be due to EDID monitor incompatibilities with KMS.
Most of these have been fixed, but some window titles have proven difficult to fix. An alternative is to comment out the `dtoverlay=vc4-kms-v3d` line in config.txt, but this will prevent the video resolution from being changed. - CEC support (to control PINN using your TV remote) is not yet supported as it requires modifying for the KMS drivers.
- Hyperpixel displays are not yet supported.
- The official 7" LCD touchscreen has not been tested.
- Support for auto-monitor detection with pinn_init requires modification before it will work.
This release is a hybrid as it includes 2 different kernels: a 64-bit 6.1 version for the Pi5 and a 52-bit 5.10 for all other models.
Only the Pi5 uses the new KMS video drivers. If you need to specify a different video resolution, this is done in cmdline.txt by adding something like `video=HDMI-A-1:1280x800@60D` for example. See the Raspberry Pi documentation for details.
All the other models will use the same legacy firmware drivers as before, so video resolution changes are done in config.txt using the hdmi_group and hdmi_mode options. Please be aware of these differences if, for example, you need to modify the config.txt or similar files.
The second major highlight in this release is the ability to set the overall partition size for each OS, in a similar vein to the pinn.mjh.nz website.
Please see the documentation at https://github.com/procount/pinn/blob/m ... tion-sizes for information on how this works, although hopefully it will be quite intuitive.
PINN 3.9 can be installed using the RPi Imaging tool. It can be found under the `Misc utility images`. I have left v3.8.8 there for now, but this will be removed shortly.
Statistics: Posted by procount — Sat May 11, 2024 10:37 am