8GB Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now at $75 • Hacker News Board

Re: 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now at $75

#191

Post by notanote » Thu, May 28, 2020, 3:50 PM UTC

znpy wrote: post #128

notanote wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s been available on earlier versions of the Pi (2B v1.2, 3B, 3B+). It was not available at launch for the Pi 4, but was released in beta firmware in late September, and is currently part of the critical firmware update. It works well, allowing separate boot images for each individual Pi on your network.

yup, i tried netbooting on the 3b+, with root on nfs and without an sdcard. > It works well, allowing separate boot images for each individual Pi on your network. could you elaborate a bit more on that?

When using netboot, the boot rom will pull the files it needs from the tftp server. It will first look for them in a subdirectory with the Pi’s serial number as its name.

If you’re netbooting without any sdcard installed, I’d suggest disabling sd polling.

Re: 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now at $75

#192

Post by ed25519FUUU » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:00 PM UTC

kart23 wrote: post #21

This is cool. Whats really holding it back at this point is it's use of a sd card. I find that its pretty difficult to use 4gb of ram on a pi practically, and its often bottlenecked by I/O. It might just be my SD card, but executing trivial commands sometimes takes forever and reminds me that I'm in a pi. I've heard ssds can improve speeds a lot, but you still cant boot off usb.

I totally agree. Even spinning rust leaves “fast” microsd cards in the dust. I hope they can manage to give us m.2 slot in the future.

Re: 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now at $75

#193

Post by notanote » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:03 PM UTC

pengaru wrote: post #185

notanote wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s been available on earlier versions of the Pi (2B v1.2, 3B, 3B+). It was not available at launch for the Pi 4, but was released in beta firmware in late September, and is currently part of the critical firmware update. It works well, allowing separate boot images for each individual Pi on your network.

> It works well, allowing separate boot images for each individual Pi on your network. Isn't that a natural capability with PXE implemented at the server keyed off the MAC address?

I’m sure that’s true. I’ve only used this for Rpis, which have it as a neat pull-based capability. Just add a subdirectory with the right name for each one in the tftp root.

Re: 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now at $75

#194

Post by buggeryorkshire » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:05 PM UTC

notanote wrote: post #191

znpy wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yup, i tried netbooting on the 3b+, with root on nfs and without an sdcard. > It works well, allowing separate boot images for each individual Pi on your network. could you elaborate a bit more on that?

When using netboot, the boot rom will pull the files it needs from the tftp server. It will first look for them in a subdirectory with the Pi’s serial number as its name. If you’re netbooting without any sdcard installed, I’d suggest disabling sd polling.

PXE uses the MAC address doesn't it?

Re: 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now at $75

#195

Post by jedieaston » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:26 PM UTC

buggeryorkshire wrote: post #194

notanote wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When using netboot, the boot rom will pull the files it needs from the tftp server. It will first look for them in a subdirectory with the Pi’s serial number as its name. If you’re netbooting without any sdcard installed, I’d suggest disabling sd polling.

PXE uses the MAC address doesn't it?

It does, but I think what the Pi does is connect to the TFTP server handed out by PXE and then look for a folder named serial-number. If it doesn't exist in the path PXE gave it it just boots whatever is in the tftproot.

Re: 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now at $75

#196

Post by bluGill » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:28 PM UTC

skissane wrote: post #178

bluGill wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In theory. In practice roads between counties are not as good so cost goes up.

One of the EU projects is trying to improve the transport links (including road network) between EU countries – https://ec.europa.eu/transport/themes/infrastructure/ten-t_e... One would hope that if they are successful in improving those transport links, shipping costs will reduce as a result.

Somewhat. Population also tends to be centered around the country so it even if transportation is better people still have their lives setup such that practically shipping in their country is cheaper.

Re: 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now at $75

#197

Post by _bxg1 » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:36 PM UTC

$75 for what is honestly a capable desktop computer - even for light development work - and is smaller than a phone and has first-class Linux support. Pretty incredible.

Re: 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now at $75

#198

Post by 2sk21 » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:39 PM UTC

geerlingguy wrote: post #134

2sk21 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also read recently that the lack of cooling can really throttle the performance of a Pi4. Do you have a good heat sink and fan installed?

I did an article on the topic after the Pi firmware update made the situation a lot better. A bare Pi is okay without a fan, but if you want it in a case, the Flirc case is your best option (IMO): https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2019/best-way-keep-your-co...

For my use case, I need access to the GPIO pins. The blurb on the Flirc says that access is possible but I don't see any opening. Can you confirm that GPIO access I possible?

Re: 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now at $75

#199

Post by _bxg1 » Thu, May 28, 2020, 4:47 PM UTC

Something I just thought of: with public schools going full-remote, there are lots of lower-income households whose children are really struggling to stay in the loop. Has anyone thought about starting a program to package up Raspberry PIs with case, cables, installed OS, and a cheap display, and send them to people for quarantine-education purposes?

Re: 8GB Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now at $75

#200

Post by sitkack » Thu, May 28, 2020, 5:34 PM UTC

znpy wrote: post #128

notanote wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s been available on earlier versions of the Pi (2B v1.2, 3B, 3B+). It was not available at launch for the Pi 4, but was released in beta firmware in late September, and is currently part of the critical firmware update. It works well, allowing separate boot images for each individual Pi on your network.

yup, i tried netbooting on the 3b+, with root on nfs and without an sdcard. > It works well, allowing separate boot images for each individual Pi on your network. could you elaborate a bit more on that?

Intel should be making an Optane sdcard for embedded use, potentially with a built in power down capacitor to make sure all acknowledged writes make it to Optane.