I wanted the capability to run INDI server headless or by VNC KStars/Ekos on a remote pi host.
I have a pi3B+ but recently upgraded my rig to include a Pegasus Astro Power Box Advance (PBA) which has
USB 3 ports for my cameras and focuser as well as USB 3 output to a SBC. The pi3B+ has USB 2 ports, so
upgrading to the pi4B+ seemed logical with the bonus of increased computing power. I have a spare 128Gb
SSD and after reading one can boot direct from SSD and gain further performance improvements I bought a
USB 3 case for it to connect to the pi4B+. I have a licensed copy of Stellarmate OS but haven’t been able to
get it working correctly on the pi4B+. Jasem has been great with support for my device, but until the pi4B+
8Gb is fully supported I thought I would see what tinkering on my own could achieve. I run Linux Ubuntu
distros on all my hardware, so any instructions here are pertinent to Linux.
1) image uSD card
hardware: laptop, pi4B+, uSD card, uSD to USB 2 adapter
software: official raspberry pi imager v1.3 on laptop
Plug the uSD into the adapter and into the laptop. Launch pi imager, select Raspberry Pi OS (32-bit)
recommended desktop as Operating System, select uSD as SD Card, click WRITE. Eject uSD when done.
2) boot pi4B+
hardware: uSD card, pi4B+, SSD drive, keyboard, mouse, HDMI TV, uHDMI-HDMI adapter, 5V 3A power supply
(powered USB 3 hub or dedicated AC DC adapter)
Connect uSD, keyboard, mouse and TV to pi4B+. Turn on the TV and select the corresponding HDMI input.
Plug power to pi4B+ and wait until color splash and other pi logo elements etc are done. You should see a
full desktop and a popup dialog to do the initial pi setup configurations for location, datetime, internet
connection etc. If you don't, unplug power to the pi4B+ and connect your uSD to your laptop and edit
boot/config.txt accordingly (h_t_t_p_s://tinyurl.com/kuc48w5). When connected to my LAN, I read off the MAC
and IP addresses for the pi4B+ and assigned a static IP address in my router DHCP settings.
3) boot from SSD
Follow the instructions to the letter to set the pi4B+ to boot from SSD without uSD (h_t_t_p_s://tinyurl.com/y98x8a7m).
For step 7, I used the imager application running on the pi4B+ desktop to copy the uSD partitions onto the SSD
drive, when done, I shutdown the pi4B+ from the menu, detached the SSD drive, plugged it into my laptop,
removed the uSD card and removed power from the pi. I cloned the official raspberry pi firmware repository
from github to my laptop for copying the necessary *.dat and *.elf files discussed in step 9. Re-connected the
SSD drive to the pi, connected power and it successfully booted to the desktop. You may want to run the
graphical Raspberry Pi configuration tool to adjust your local, keyboard settings, screen resolution etc.
I activated SSH and VNC through the configuratoin tool for remote access from my laptop using RealVNC.
There is no need to install a VNC server or client on the pi, the offical OS comes with: just turn it on through the
configuration tool. Change the default pi password to your own.
4) install KStars, INDI, indi web manager
I sourced indi and KStars from the recommended source for Raspberry Pi OS Buster as stated on
indilib.org (h_t_t_p_s://tinyurl.com/y7c4auxy). I could have posted to the astroberry forum, but I have SM OS
and my intent is to provide a work around until v1.5.3 SM OS fully supports the pi4B+.
Open a terminal and run the commands:
wget -O -
www.astroberry.io/repo/key | sudo apt-key add -
sudo su -c "echo 'deb
www.astroberry.io/repo/ buster main' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/astroberry.list"
sudo apt update && sudo apt install indi-full kstars-bleeding phd2
I installed indi web manager according to instructions here (h_t_t_p_s://tinyurl.com/y7yxnux3). Launch KStars
and install any of the add-ons (star catalogs etc.), define your geographic location and verify the date and
time settings are correct. Shut down pi4B+ from the OS desktop, unplug everything except the SSD drive.
5) first light headless
Disconnect HDMI, keyboard, mouse and power the pi4B+ with the SSD connected. Launch RealVNC on laptop,
enter the static IP address reserved for the pi4B+ and accept all the defaults. I was able to continue tweaking
my pi desktop over VNC, verified ssh access and tested file transferral with scp: all good. I also installed conky
for resource monitoring on the desktop (h_t_t_p_s://tinyurl.com/mf33uvn) and used my own .conkyrc .
I will post a follow-up on running an imaging session with this setup.
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