DietPi > Config + Installation

Zero Series
1

@somecdnguy
I’ve opened a separate Topic for DietPi after you mentioned about it;
Thank you.

Question:
-Did you manage to enable wifi and connect for installation ?
I did modify + enabled wifi through

dietpi.txt

But couldn’t find

dietpi-wifi.txt

Do you know if that file exists or maybe named differently ?

Because this file didn’t exist, i went to config settings in installation and enabled wifi and added my wifi information., all seems good but couldn’t manage to actually connect after configuring everything.

Let me know what your experience was and how you resolved this problem with zero ?

2

ok, back again with solution about dietpi-wifi.txt if anyone needs;

The dietpi-wifi.txt file gets removed during initial boot setup, since it contains unencrypted wifi credentials… it‘s a (very good) feature.

My mistake was to boot and try to configure wifi settings from the boot menu and then go back to folder structure to look for wifi text file.
But, because i booted ones it did not exist and i couldnt find it.
It needs to be edited before first boot to activate and add credentials for wifi.

3

On my first try, the initial install failed because it couldn’t do the update.

  • I had configured my wifi through the dietpi-config menu and it connected ok, and even passed the connection test.
  • It kept failing on the ping (9.9.9.9) command that it uses to check the connection before updating.

Today, I re-flashed my SD card and preconfigured my wifi in dietpi-wifi.txt. Same problem happened.

  • Searched online and lots of people reported wifi issues but I saw no real causes/solutions.
  • Then, I found someone reported the same problem I was having. His workaround was to ping a local ip and, since the ping cmd was successful, the update worked!
  • So, I pinged my router and it worked for me too, then I was able to complete the install.
  • It happened again when I tried installing apps, so I had to do the workaround again.

I installed LXDE and a few apps and it works like a charm so far. Next step is to try connecting to it using VNC. Ultimately, I’m just going to use my Zero as a print server anyway but I wanted to play with it first.

1 Like
4

OK. Here’s an update…

SSH works fine.
VNC works fine.
CUPS works fine. I had to manually install HPCUPS and HPLIP for my HP printer because there was only a short list in the DietPi version of CUPS.

Overall, my experience with DietPi has been very good.

  • No issues beyond that strange ping problem during the install/update.
  • In my Debian Buster install, the Zero would get really slow after ~15 minutes, to the point where the desktop wouldn’t respond anymore. Hasn’t happened in DietPi after more than an hour tinkering.

I would highly recommend DietPi, especially for a low RAM Zero. (mine is 1GB)

1 Like
5

It works pretty good on my side too. Very fast, interface is simple and lot of stuff came ready out of box. As an examle i had diffucult time setting up Docker on other distros and dietpi was ready to go.

Next i will be giving a try on SSH on my end too. Its great to know it works fine…Thanks !!

I didnt have this problem yet…

Honestly, Debian was getting very slow on my end too. (4GB )

Only problem i have with Dietpi (problem might be myself too) im not an expert…When i tried to add custom desktop resolution, it didnt like it at all. The screen was flickring and going black and goes back to 1920x1080, no matter what i do…I just need to do some more reading for solution…

6

Are you trying to switch to 4K or a lower res? I’d expect a lower res to work. For 4K, you probably need to increase the amount of RAM for the GPU. I read a post on the DietPi forum saying can do this in dietpi-config or the /DietPi/config.txt file, but I haven’t tried it.

7

2560x1440 16:9 60Hz to be exactly.

I noticed i get very good performance with this resolution - specially in Manjaro,
and at the sametime when i first boot up dietpi or any other distro, it does start as 3840x2160 because of my monitor. Which Radxa zero glitches and keeps distorting the screen ( i will post a separate topic for this)

But in DietPi;

when I tried to add 2560x1440 16:9 60Hz settings it always revert back to 3840x2160 or if i changed the resolution to 1920x1080 it reverts back to that as default.

Can you direct me to that source if you remember..

8

I can’t recall the source and I’m having trouble finding again. But I did find this similar issue on the DietPi forum: https://dietpi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=8127

A couple of interesting things in that thread:

  • dietpi-config does not support >1080p resolution yet (as of Oct 2020), so it sounds like you have to manually edit the config.txt file, which looks complicated.
  • If you had the res you wanted working in another distro, “Copy the config.txt from the OS that worked fine with your monitor over to DietPi”.

I’ll keep looking for my previous reference. There was also something in it about having to copy the updated config.txt file from the SD to the DietPi RAM disk to have it take effect.

Hope this helps.

9

I found my original reference: https://dietpi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=789
It’s about how to make changes stick at the next boot, more than changing the GPU RAM.
It’s confusing because it sounds like the guy was trying both dietpi-config and raspi-config to change the GPU memory split.

Anyway, my GPU RAM suggestion sounds like a red herring because I also found this statement that says “If you use dietpi-software to install some application, gpu_mem will be set automatically according best practice.”. So, basically, the DietPi software install process is smart enough to adjust the GPU RAM based on the installed packages.
That’s from here: https://dietpi.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=7638

Good luck!

10

Thank you.
Looks like this topic is trying to resolve exactly problem i have with 2K res. I dont have any other config.txt file from raspberry os or anything. but i will try to add it to Dietpi OS

11

I got everything working with DietPi, but sound. Any suggestions?

12

Haven’t used Dietpi, but for me on Debian/Ubuntu/Devuan the following works.

sudo amixer sset 'FRDDR_A SINK 1 SEL' 'OUT 1'
sudo amixer sset 'FRDDR_A SRC 1 EN' 'on'
sudo amixer sset 'TDMOUT_B SRC SEL' 'IN 0'
sudo amixer sset 'TOHDMITX I2S SRC' 'I2S B'
sudo amixer sset 'TOHDMITX' 'on'
sudo amixer sset 'FRDDR_B SINK 1 SEL' 'OUT 2'
sudo amixer sset 'FRDDR_B SRC 1 EN' 'on'
sudo amixer sset 'FRDDR_C SINK 1 SEL' 'OUT 3'
sudo amixer sset 'FRDDR_C SRC 1 EN' 'on'
sudo alsactl store

As long as you don’t mess about in the alsamixer and change a bunch of stuff it should work upon reboot.

1 Like
13

Thanks! I’ll give it a try.

14

I get the message:

cannot open mixer: No such file or directory

If I do aplay -l

aplay: device_list:274: no soundcards found

15

Sounds like a kernel module is a miss or a bad dts. Although like I said, I’ve never tried Dietpi on this board.

aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: RADXAZERO [RADXA-ZERO], device 0: fe.dai-link-0 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: RADXAZERO [RADXA-ZERO], device 1: fe.dai-link-1 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: RADXAZERO [RADXA-ZERO], device 2: fe.dai-link-2 (*) []
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0

lsmod | grep meson
meson_vdec             73728  0
videobuf2_dma_contig    24576  1 meson_vdec
v4l2_mem2mem           40960  1 meson_vdec
videobuf2_v4l2         32768  2 meson_vdec,v4l2_mem2mem
videobuf2_common       61440  5 meson_vdec,videobuf2_dma_contig,videobuf2_v4l2,v4l2_mem2mem,videobuf2_memops
videodev              241664  4 meson_vdec,videobuf2_v4l2,videobuf2_common,v4l2_mem2mem
meson_gxbb_wdt         20480  0
snd_soc_meson_axg_sound_card    16384  0
snd_soc_meson_axg_tdmout    24576  1
snd_soc_meson_axg_frddr    36864  3
snd_soc_meson_axg_tdm_interface    16384  2 snd_soc_meson_axg_sound_card
snd_soc_meson_axg_fifo    20480  1 snd_soc_meson_axg_frddr
snd_soc_meson_axg_tdm_formatter    16384  2 snd_soc_meson_axg_tdm_interface,snd_soc_meson_axg_tdmout
meson_dw_hdmi          24576  0
reset_meson_audio_arb    16384  3
mdio_mux_meson_g12a    16384  0
rtc_meson_vrtc         20480  1
mdio_mux               16384  1 mdio_mux_meson_g12a
meson_drm              61440  9 meson_dw_hdmi
dw_hdmi                53248  2 meson_dw_hdmi,dw_hdmi_i2s_audio
meson_canvas           16384  2 meson_drm,meson_vdec
16

lsmod | grep meson
meson_vdec 73728 0
v4l2_mem2mem 40960 1 meson_vdec
meson_saradc 24576 0
videobuf2_dma_contig 24576 1 meson_vdec
videobuf2_v4l2 32768 2 meson_vdec,v4l2_mem2mem
snd_soc_meson_axg_sound_card 16384 0
videobuf2_common 57344 3 meson_vdec,videobuf2_v4l2,v4l2_mem2mem
snd_soc_meson_g12a_tohdmitx 20480 0
snd_soc_meson_axg_tdmout 24576 0
snd_soc_meson_axg_tdm_interface 16384 1 snd_soc_meson_axg_sound_card
snd_soc_meson_axg_frddr 36864 0
meson_dw_hdmi 24576 0
snd_soc_meson_card_utils 16384 1 snd_soc_meson_axg_sound_card
snd_soc_meson_codec_glue 16384 1 snd_soc_meson_g12a_tohdmitx
videodev 278528 4 meson_vdec,videobuf2_v4l2,videobuf2_common,v4l2_mem2mem
snd_soc_meson_axg_tdm_formatter 16384 2 snd_soc_meson_axg_tdm_interface,snd_soc_meson_axg_tdmout
snd_soc_meson_axg_fifo 20480 1 snd_soc_meson_axg_frddr
meson_drm 61440 4 meson_dw_hdmi
dw_hdmi 53248 2 meson_dw_hdmi,dw_hdmi_i2s_audio
snd_soc_core 217088 10 snd_soc_meson_axg_tdm_formatter,snd_soc_meson_axg_sound_card,snd_soc_hdmi_codec,snd_soc_meson_g12a_tohdmitx,snd_soc_meson_axg_tdm_interface,snd_soc_meson_axg_fifo,snd_soc_meson_axg_tdmout,snd_soc_meson_axg_frddr,snd_soc_meson_card_utils,snd_soc_meson_codec_glue
meson_rng 16384 0
drm_kms_helper 249856 5 meson_dw_hdmi,meson_drm,dw_hdmi
meson_canvas 16384 2 meson_drm,meson_vdec
snd_pcm 126976 6 snd_soc_hdmi_codec,snd_soc_meson_axg_tdm_interface,snd_soc_core,snd_soc_meson_axg_fifo,snd_soc_meson_codec_glue,snd_pcm_dmaengine
drm 565248 14 gpu_sched,meson_dw_hdmi,meson_drm,drm_kms_helper,display_connector,dw_hdmi,panfrost
rtc_meson_vrtc 20480 1
reset_meson_audio_arb 16384 3

17

It seems like the distros I’ve tried (debian, manjaro, dietpi) - either the wifi works and the sound doesn’t or the sound works and the wifi doesn’t.

18

Very odd indeed. The wifi thing for me is only iffy on the 2GB model.

19

mine is a no emmc model. This is why I tend to stick with the Raspberry Pi. They wouldn’t put out a model that has so many software issues.

1 Like
20

It is very common with new boards for there to be problems that need solving. So in that regard, I’m not all that surprised. As for the Pi’s well… They have an army of people working and playing on those.

My honest first thought when I saw this board was, Kodi box.