Pi Power Tools: General Purpose Disk Image & SD Card Manager

[Botspot]

Pi Power Tools is a GUI tool that manages Raspbian .img files.
Key features:

• Boot - Powered by Vdesktop. Runs the disk image in a virtual machine.
• Flash - Speed-tuned. Can flash Raspbian directly from the Internet to the selected device.
• Mount - In one click, view & edit the contents of a Raspbian disk image.
• Edit - Creates a virtual usb device for the disk image, then opens it with Gparted.
• Resize - Expand or shrink a disk image, thanks to RonR's Image-utils.
• More features, such as advanced mountpoint control, filesystem repair & diagnostics, and incremental backups.

A few screenshots:



You want to give it a try?
To run the graphical installer:
Paste this in the terminal, then press Enter.

Code: Select all

wget -O - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Botspot/Pi-Power-Tools/master/update | bash

GitHub page & instructions right here.

If you have any questions, just reply to this forum or open an issue on GitHub.

I've had a total blast developing this powerful tool for my own benefit. Feel free to play with it too.

[RonR]

Botspot,

You should let users know that you are distributing outdated and modified versions of my Image File Utilities in opposition to my request and against my wishes.

[jamesh]

If RonR can confirm his issues have been dealt with, I will delete posts as necessary.

[Botspot]

If RonR can confirm his issues have been dealt with, I will delete posts as necessary.

Although RonR has not confirmed (yet), I have dealt with the issue on my end and am no longer "distributing outdated and modified versions or Image File Utilities."
The PPT installation script now downloads Image-utils directly from RonR's latest download link and does not modify them at all.

Furthermore, I have reached out to RonR four times now. See here, here, here, and here. Still waiting for a response.

Edit: As of 3/16/2020, I've decided to completely remove RonR's image-utils from Pi Power Tools. And so, I've developed a replacement to image-shrink, called shrinkimage. It's built from scratch, and doesn't copy RonR's code design at all. More details here.

[neal1]

Hi I tested Pi power tools, thanks a lot for this wonderful tool,

I am facing a little issue, i can see in your github repo snapshots your instance is connected to internet possibly by LAN, but i am unable to connect to internet inside instance, it keep on searching for wifi but never found.

Though it connect pi localhost.

Also i cant find any email to contact you.

[Botspot]

Hi I tested Pi power tools, thanks a lot for this wonderful tool,

I am facing a little issue, i can see in your github repo snapshots your instance is connected to internet possibly by LAN, but i am unable to connect to internet inside instance, it keep on searching for wifi but never found.

Though it connect pi localhost.

Also i cant find any email to contact you.

That's one thing I haven't been able to test for. I use LAN, not WiFi, so I haven't been able to test how a container will behave under those conditions.
I would like to ensure it works though, so would you be willing to try some tests for me?

[neal1]

Count me in, let me know what to test.

One strange behavior i found yesterday,
two days before it work perfectly.

yesterday after two power outages, my pi got off without shutdown.

Now when i boot Pi power tool image.

Icon on top disappears, i can use then but can't see

I am not sure about partition thing, i clicked Reset PT, didn;t solved issue.






I am using Raspberry pi 4 b 4 gb RAM, 128 Gb Card, i didn't tried WLAN, will try. Though best will be if it work on wifi for my needs.

I am trying to use it as a Xorg + Light DM + Xpheyper alternative (as i do not know well and can;t find easy instructions to setup)

As a multi user setup using 1 pi board with 2 monitors + 2 keyboards + 2 mouse (two cursor, still need to find how to enable or make visible two cursors)

I did tried your 11.5 Gb vdesktop image on same card, but it was not booting for 8 minutes (first boot), i gave u trying

[Botspot]

Count me in, let me know what to test.

One strange behavior i found yesterday,
two days before it work perfectly.

yesterday after two power outages, my pi got off without shutdown.

Now when i boot Pi power tool image.

Icon on top disappears, i can use then but can't see

I am not sure about partition thing, i clicked Reset PT, didn;t solved issue.

I've noticed all the icons disappear in my testing. Think it's related to the icon cache or something. Usually, I just shutdown the vdesktop container and then restart it. It's rare enough that I've never had it happen twice on the same day, and because of that it's been a hard bug to track down.
If you get the missing-icon error more regularly than I do, then I have a couple things I'd like to try to fix it.

I am trying to use it as a Xorg + Light DM + Xpheyper alternative (as i do not know well and can;t find easy instructions to setup)

As a multi user setup using 1 pi board with 2 monitors + 2 keyboards + 2 mouse (two cursor, still need to find how to enable or make visible two cursors)

I don't know how well that would work, or if doing a multi-seat with Vdesktop would even be possible.
The first screen would be easy, just plug in a mouse & keyboard like usual and there you go. The second screen (vdesktop) would be more difficult. Somehow, you'd have to plug in a second mouse & keyboard, and somehow make the host system ignore their existence.
If you could manage that, then it would be comparatively easy to mount those devices to the vdesktop machine by adding some lines to the vdesktop/nspawn file.

I did tried your 11.5 Gb vdesktop image on same card, but it was not booting for 8 minutes (first boot), i gave u trying

Oh boy. I've been meaning to remove that from the Vdesktop README since I do not maintain it. Thanks for the reminder as I removed it just now.

[neal1]

Missing icon is repetitive in my installation, snapshots i took today, after rebooting 2 times.

Also Wifi still not connecting

For multiple cursor i will try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Multi-pointer_X or https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/MPX

https://manpages.debian.org/testing/gro ... .1.en.html

Though i am still learning to make this work.

I am planning to use Monitor extend capability to mimic multiseat setup

Once Vdesktop is boots i will move image to other monitor and multi pointer will control other keyboard and mouse

[Botspot]

Missing icon is repetitive in my installation, snapshots i took today, after rebooting 2 times.

Find the vdesktop folder. By default, the vdesktop folder is at /home/pi/vdesktop, or if you're using it within Pi Power Tools, it's in /home/pi/Pi-Power-Tools/vdesktop.
BTW, are you using Pi Power Tools to launch vdesktop? If so, you may prefer running vdesktop separately as shown in the README.
Anyway, once you find the folder, locate the file vdesktop/profile.
Open the file with a text editor.

Currently the last few lines should look like this:

Code: Select all

export DISPLAY=:1
eval "while true;do
  /usr/bin/startlxde-pi
  sleep 10
done" &

sleep 10
eval "pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi; sleep 20; pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi" &
lxpanelctl restart
sleep 10
lxpanelctl restart

Change that to:

Code: Select all

export DISPLAY=:1
eval "while true;do
  /usr/bin/startlxde-pi
  sleep 10
done" &
sudo gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/*
sleep 10
eval "pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi; sleep 20; pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi" &
sudo gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/*
lxpanelctl restart
sleep 10
lxpanelctl restart

Save the file and close the text editor. Next time you run vdesktop, please tell me if the problem is solved.

Also Wifi still not connecting

Let's figure out what's going on. You can't trust the WiFi indicator on the panel, because it's not meant to detect systemd-nspawn's form of internet tunneling. Also, you can't trust the browser, since it's a known issue that it always crashes on every website.
To see if the guest is getting any internet, in a in-guest terminal, run this:

Code: Select all

ping google.com

Do you see messages back saying stuff like "64 bytes from dfw28s02-in-x0e.1e100.net", or do you get "ping: sendmsg: Network is unreachable"?

For multiple cursor i will try https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Multi-pointer_X or https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/MPX

https://manpages.debian.org/testing/gro ... .1.en.html
Though i am still learning to make this work.

I am planning to use Monitor extend capability to mimic multiseat setup

Once Vdesktop is boots i will move image to other monitor and multi pointer will control other keyboard and mouse

That's new to me. I'm afraid I won't be of much help, and won't know which /dev/ devices will need to be mounted to the guest to make it work.

[neal1]

Your fix, didn;t solved issue.

Like always icons appears for first 2 or 3 seconds, then disappear.

You were right about internet, in terminal ping google.com responded.

Can you find a fix why all websites are crashing on chrome (but in strange way all local host addresses works perfectly)

[Botspot]

Your fix, didn't solved issue.
Like always icons appears for first 2 or 3 seconds, then disappear.

OK, try this: when the guest boots, open a terminal and type openbox --restart. (and press Enter of course)
If that doesn't work, then enter all these commands:

Code: Select all

sudo update-icon-caches /usr/share/icons/*
lxpanelctl restart
openbox --restart
killall pcmanfm lxpanel
pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi &>/dev/null &
lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi &

You were right about internet, in terminal ping google.com responded.
Can you find a fix why all websites are crashing on chrome (but in strange way all local host addresses works perfectly)

I've been trying to fix the Aw Snap error for a year now. Not made any progress, except noticing that the problem doesn't affect the Pi 3 for some reason. Also I've noticed that simple text-based websites load and display just fine. Like this one, even the videos.
What kind of websites displayed fine on local host for you? Only real simple sites without CSS or javascript?

[mtlynch]

This is great! I'm excited about this project. I seem to be running into a crash:

• Run Pi Power Tools
• Click IMG Mode
• Click Download New
• Click Raspberry Pi OS Lite
• Click Download

Expected: Pi Power Tools downloads the IMG.

Actual: Pi Power Tools abruptly closes with no additional information

[Botspot]

This is great! I'm excited about this project.

Thanks! I've put a lot of work into it, and it's nice to see others find it useful.

I seem to be running into a crash:

Do you have a Github account? If you do, it would keep this thread cleaner if you post your issue on my github page.
Still though, no big deal - I can help solve your issue here.

I seem to be running into a crash:

• Click Raspberry Pi OS Lite
• Click Download

Expected: Pi Power Tools downloads the IMG.

Actual: Pi Power Tools abruptly closes with no additional information

How long did you wait afterwards? Before the next window can open, PPT has to do a bunch of calculations first. Sometimes it can take a few seconds before you see anything further.
If you did wait and nothing ever showed up, then please run this command in the terminal:

Code: Select all

/home/pi/Pi-Power-Tools/img-mode

Click the same buttons as last time, and if the terminal shows any errors then please post them.

[mtlynch]

Oh, sure. I actually prefer Github but the terminal message directs users to post in this thread. I'll move to Github.

[neal1]

Your fix, didn't solved issue.
Like always icons appears for first 2 or 3 seconds, then disappear.

OK, try this: when the guest boots, open a terminal and type openbox --restart. (and press Enter of course)
If that doesn't work, then enter all these commands:

Code: Select all

sudo update-icon-caches /usr/share/icons/*
lxpanelctl restart
openbox --restart
killall pcmanfm lxpanel
pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi &>/dev/null &
lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi &

Tested, It worked It worked, but didn;t completely solved the issue

1st step didn't did anything
Second brought back icons
Third made them disappear again

and last command brought back all icons.

When when i boot image again icons disappeared again, and i needed to use same accomand to bring icons back.


pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo update-icon-caches /usr/share/icons/*
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ lxpanelctl restart
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ openbox --restart
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ killall pcmanfm lxpanel
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi &>/dev/null &
[1] 800
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi &
[2] 810
pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ** Message: 19:35:53.375: x-terminal-emulator has very limited support, consider choose another terminal
grep: /home/pi/.config/lxpanel/LXDE-pi/panels/*: No such file or directory
** Message: 19:35:53.669: Connecting ...
** Message: 19:35:53.670: Status changed to down
xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Unit pt-device-manager.service could not be found.

** (lxpanel:810): WARNING **: 19:35:53.799: Battery 0 not found

(lxpanel:810): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: 19:35:53.803: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

(lxpanel:810): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 19:35:53.803: g_signal_handler_disconnect: assertion 'G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed

(lxpanel:810): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 19:35:53.803: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
rfkill: cannot open /dev/rfkill: No such file or directory
rfkill: cannot read /dev/rfkill: Bad file descriptor
rfkill: cannot open /dev/rfkill: No such file or directory
rfkill: cannot read /dev/rfkill: Bad file descriptor
rfkill: cannot open /dev/rfkill: No such file or directory
rfkill: cannot read /dev/rfkill: Bad file descriptor

(lxpanel:810): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 19:35:53.974: IA__gtk_image_set_from_pixbuf: assertion 'GTK_IS_IMAGE (image)' failed
** Message: 19:35:54.672: Status changed to opened
** Message: 19:35:54.672: Connected to dhcpcd-8.1.2
** Message: 19:35:54.673: Status changed to initialised




You were right about internet, in terminal ping google.com responded.
Can you find a fix why all websites are crashing on chrome (but in strange way all local host addresses works perfectly)

I've been trying to fix the Aw Snap error for a year now. Not made any progress, except noticing that the problem doesn't affect the Pi 3 for some reason. Also I've noticed that simple text-based websites load and display just fine. Like this one, even the videos.
What kind of websites displayed fine on local host for you? Only real simple sites without CSS or javascript?

I can run webmin installed on my pi, but i need to run other websites too.

[Botspot]

I can run webmin installed on my pi, but i need to run other websites too.

I've been trying to fix that aw snap error for over a year. So far no leads unfortunately. If you need it to work, use a Pi3. (*because for some reason this doesn't happen on a Pi3)

[neal1]

check if it gives some hint to Aw snap error of chrome

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo apt install firefox-esr
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
libjsoncpp1
Suggested packages:
fonts-stix | otf-stix fonts-lmodern pulseaudio
The following NEW packages will be installed:
firefox-esr libjsoncpp1
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 41.3 MB of archives.
After this operation, 161 MB of additional disk space will be used.
E: You don't have enough free space in /var/cache/apt/archives/.


there seems some cache or memory problem, i think somehow vddesktop is running out of memory while trying running chrome.

I faced siilar issue when i used chrome on windows 10 with 4 gb RAM, once several excel and word files were open, all chrome tabs were giving Aw snap error

[Botspot]

Code: Select all

After this operation, 161 MB of additional disk space will be used.
E: You don't have enough free space in /var/cache/apt/archives/.

there seems some cache or memory problem, i think somehow vddesktop is running out of memory while trying running chrome.

I faced siilar issue when i used chrome on windows 10 with 4 gb RAM, once several excel and word files were open, all chrome tabs were giving Aw snap error

That error is because the img has run out of free space. It's similar to a full hard drive.
You can expand it by clicking the 1GB Free button in PPT.

[Botspot]

I can run webmin installed on my pi, but i need to run other websites too.

I've been trying to fix that aw snap error for over a year. So far no leads unfortunately. If you need it to work, use a Pi3. (*because for some reason this doesn't happen on a Pi3)

Update:
I've found someone who seems to have gotten Chromium working within Vdesktop! (with full OpenGL support no less)
I have yet to get it working on any of my Pies though, so we'll see what happens.
If anyone here would like to monitor our progress or give suggestions, go see: https://github.com/Botspot/vdesktop/issues/3

[Botspot]

Another update: I have released a beta version of Vdesktop that fixes all the "Aw, Snap!" errors!

Chromium no longer crashes, and even better: the VM has full access to OpenGL.
Now you can play Youtube from within vdesktop using Chromium! Now how wacky is that?

Before I can add this new version to the repositories, I need feedback! Bug reports? Suggestions?
My announcement topic is here, and you can download this special release of vdesktop here.

[RaspbianUser1]

Hi Botspot

I have recently updated your tool and vdesktop actually does something for me

Because I am using MATE its not running LXDE which vdesktop is trying to run

I can fix this slightly by running

Code: Select all

sudo lightdm | mate-session

But this really isn't good as the resolution is terrible

I think it would work perfectly fine if I was normal and used standard LXDE desktop

Also my installed desktop is broken and fixed with tape and glue

(to use wifi I have to run

Code: Select all

sudo systemctl start wpa_supplicant.service

)

I will give you a further update on your tools when I am next using my standard raspberry pi install.

Overall the tools look very handy.

Maybe mention in the readme.md file that it is unstable on other desktop environments / OS

vdesktop for me has to be run in terminal so I can do things, but its working but using the desktop environment as it can't find /usr/bin/LXDE

vdesktop still allows me to run command so it doesn't matter

[Botspot]

Hi Botspot

I have recently updated your tool and vdesktop actually does something for me

Because I am using MATE its not running LXDE which vdesktop is trying to run

Are you using my vdesktop beta version? It may work better in your situation.
And, are you saying: "vdesktop does not work at all because my host system is mate", or are you saying "vdesktop does not properly display the VM's mate desktop"?

[RaspbianUser1]

Hi Botspot

I have recently updated your tool and vdesktop actually does something for me

Because I am using MATE its not running LXDE which vdesktop is trying to run

Are you using my vdesktop beta version? It may work better in your situation.
And, are you saying: "vdesktop does not work at all because my host system is mate", or are you saying "vdesktop does not properly display the VM's mate desktop"?

Option 2.

Its because the vm img doesn't have the LXDE installed which vdesktop is asking for when run

Code: Select all

-bash: /usr/bin/startlxde-pi: No such file or directory
Cant connect to display: :1
Cannot open display: 

it does this 3 times then gives up trying to show a gui de and instead just gives me CLI access to the VM

[Botspot]

Code: Select all

-bash: /usr/bin/startlxde-pi: No such file or directory
Cant connect to display: :1
Cannot open display: 

it does this 3 times then gives up trying to show a gui de and instead just gives me CLI access to the VM

Once again: are you using my vdesktop beta version?
And what command do you have to run for this mate desktop to launch?

Also, does running x-terminal-emulator launch a terminal on your system? Or do you get "command not found"?