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Author Topic: How Customizable is the Pi-Star Image?  (Read 233 times)

W5SQL

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How Customizable is the Pi-Star Image?
« on: July 24, 2020, 03:12:54 PM »

I have several Raspberry Pis around the house already for things like Home automation, media player, etc.  I have a Pi4 that I use for a Time Machine backup and FTP server.  I was wondering if I can dual purpose that for Pi-Star and Time Machine.  My plan is to buy an MMDVM hat, get Pi-Star running, then start configuring things to get it back up as a Time Machine/FTP server.

The question I have is how customizable is that Pi-Star image?  Can I install and configure standard software in it without breaking the DMR features?  As a Time Machine Backup, I particularly need Samba and vsftpd, and parted and lsblk to manage the external HHD drive that's connected via USB.

Thanks,
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AB6RF

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Re: How Customizable is the Pi-Star Image?
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2020, 06:27:13 PM »

I'm not an EXPERT pi-star user, but I've been playing with it, so take my answer with a grain of salt.
- You can install and run the pi-star without having a MMDVM card, so you could try if it does what you want to do without spending any money on new HW.
- Pi-star makes the file system Read-Only when ever it boot up (successfully) to minimize the likelihood of any critical files getting corrupted if power is removed without a proper system shutdown.
I'm sure you could change that by editing the right file, but just FYI, that's what pi-star does by default.
- Under the pi-star skin is just a normal Raspian, so as longs as you know what you're doing, you can install and run other SW modules.
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W5SQL

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Re: How Customizable is the Pi-Star Image?
« Reply #2 on: July 25, 2020, 04:10:29 PM »

I'm not an EXPERT pi-star user, but I've been playing with it, so take my answer with a grain of salt.
- You can install and run the pi-star without having a MMDVM card, so you could try if it does what you want to do without spending any money on new HW.
- Pi-star makes the file system Read-Only when ever it boot up (successfully) to minimize the likelihood of any critical files getting corrupted if power is removed without a proper system shutdown.
I'm sure you could change that by editing the right file, but just FYI, that's what pi-star does by default.
- Under the pi-star skin is just a normal Raspian, so as longs as you know what you're doing, you can install and run other SW modules.


That's greatly helpful, thank you.  From the quick research I did, looks like the most common way to make the file system R/W is via script at startup.  Definitely would work, but I'm going to err on the side of the Pi-Star maintainers know what they're doing with keeping it RO.
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