This is a guide to making Pi-star card copies …… Note the copy routine in Pistar will ONLY copy from a sd card.
Details below will show how to copy a working SD (TF) card in a Hotspot via a card adaptor over usb to another card, making an identical copy – this has been done on a Pi Zero.
From a physical point of view – you will need an adapter to connect Micro SD (TF) card to Pi’s USB port.
For ease but not essential wipe 2nd card before cloning, I used SD formatter on a Windows system and run a quick format on the card.
See link = https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/sd-memory-card-formatter-for-windows-download/
Once formatted, remove from the windows system.
If you’re familiar and experienced with Linux. Run the following commands:
otherwise please read on – detailed explanation follows (you have been warned-hi).
Connect SD(TF) card via USB port
Via Console screen, login.
1. lsblk – to check your sd card name
2. Sudo pistar-clone sda – then answer following questions
Yes
<Enter>
Yes
3. sudo shutdown now
Boot from cloned card
Login
4. sudo pistar-expand
5. Sudo reboot – That’s it….
If not so much then it’s Hotspot time….
Please note – When you see <Enter>this means press Enter / Return after the typed command…
Via your web browser..
Http://192.168.0.100:2222 Add :2222 to the end of your Hotspot’s ip address as in this example.
pi-star login: pi-star
Password: Your password
Next you should see the following screen
1. Type: lsblk <Enter> – and you will see the following
This is the SD (TF) card in your Hotspot currently working. In this example it is showing 14.9G for mmcblk0 which is a 16gb card, 63Meg boot (Dos) partition, with 14.8Gig left for the Pistar / Linux system.
2. Now connect your 2nd SD card to the USB port and type: lsblk again
As you can see in this example I have used a 8GB sd card this is showing as sda 7.4G (Don’t worry about the sda1 volume / part)
3. Now type: sudo pistar-clone sda <Enter>
When the following screen shows says Yes/no say ‘yes’ & press Enter
4. After the following screen shows – press <Enter> to agree
5. Last screen – asking to proceed Yes / No – Say “Yes” <Enter>
After ‘Yes’ is entered in the last prompt – It will take several minutes to copy system over and return with a completed message – (Time for a Tea Break now….)
6. After copy process is finished – re type: lsblk <Enter>
As shown above ‘sda’ card now shows a 1.8G partition called sda2
This card will now need to be booted from and the file system expanded to fill up the whole sd card.
7. To shut Hotspot down / off – type: sudo shutdown now <Enter>
Swap cards over & log back into console screen go to top of this document then return here
8. Type: sudo pistar-expand <Enter> This command will expand the pistar system to whole card size.
After a screen full of text – the Hotspot needs to be rebooted
Type: sudo reboot <Enter>
And that’s it …… Enjoy 🙂
BHRC 