FriendlyELEC-Forum

Hi,

I have searched a bit but could not find any information on USB booting.
Is it possible, for an R4S?

Performance-wise, the R4S 4GB is very interesting, compared with a Raspberry Pi 4 4GB/8GB for those that need affordable home servers or, in my case, mini-clusters.
I'd love to buy 4x R4S 4GB and cluster them, for my projects. But, I'd like to use SSDs or even spinning disk as the boot drives, for performance and longevity.

Now that rpi4's can boot from USB very easily, I have 4 of them already "spinning" with both SSDs and harddrives. (For the harddrives, it needs a powered adapter to give the drive the juice the Pi cannot provide via USB. I'm using this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001922773856.html)

Any pointers appreciated.
Thx.

acacio wrote:
Hi,

I have searched a bit but could not find any information on USB booting.
Is it possible, for an R4S?

Performance-wise, the R4S 4GB is very interesting, compared with a Raspberry Pi 4 4GB/8GB for those that need affordable home servers or, in my case, mini-clusters.
I'd love to buy 4x R4S 4GB and cluster them, for my projects. But, I'd like to use SSDs or even spinning disk as the boot drives, for performance and longevity.

Now that rpi4's can boot from USB very easily, I have 4 of them already "spinning" with both SSDs and harddrives. (For the harddrives, it needs a powered adapter to give the drive the juice the Pi cannot provide via USB. I'm using this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005001922773856.html)

Any pointers appreciated.
Thx.

Serious hardware doesn't run from USB since USB (is crap for the job) was never designed for that. Its only good enough for installing and similar actions. Rpi is a toy so this rule doesn't apply.

You usually don't need local storage on cluster node and I am also not sure R4S is best for the clustering. Go for M4 / T4 if you need local nvme storage.

For booting RK3399 boards, check official Rockchip documentation http://opensource.rock-chips.com/wiki_Boot_option

Well, I guess you've set the tone for this forum, didn't you?

> Serious hardware doesn't run from USB since USB (is crap for the job) was never designed for that
> Rpi is a toy
> You usually don't need local storage on cluster node
> I am also not sure R4S is best for the clustering

You really are full of opinions (and other brown stuff, as well), aren't you?
I really don't care about your (hostile, unwanted, unsolicited, smart-ass) opinions.

> You usually don't need local storage on cluster node
Since SD cards are so unreliable, a SSD or hard-drive reduces MTBF for the nodes with less SD failures.

Thx for the link. The only useful part of your reply. (That doesn't actually address the question, though).

You should really try to be a nicer person or, at least, fake it in your interactions.
Especially if the purpose of these forums is to grow a community, instead of hostilise it.

Regards,
Acacio

acacio wrote:
Well, I guess you've set the tone for this forum, didn't you?

> Serious hardware doesn't run from USB since USB (is crap for the job) was never designed for that
> Rpi is a toy
> You usually don't need local storage on cluster node
> I am also not sure R4S is best for the clustering

You really are full of opinions (and other brown stuff, as well), aren't you?
I really don't care about your (hostile, unwanted, unsolicited, smart-ass) opinions.

Likewise. It is very difficult to give advice to people that already knows everything and are only seeking confirmation for their "smart" decisions. My opinions are science based and required to rationale hw design decision which you can follow up in the technical documentation.