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Solar Assistant - how do I transfer it to SSD on HatDrive! Nano?

SenileOldGit

SenileOldGit

Solar Enthusiast
Joined
Oct 15, 2022
Messages
359
I have been using a Raspberry Pi 4 for many months, with an SD Card, and have had a few problems, and lost data (because I hadn't backed up regularly, which I now do every weekend). So I bought a Raspberry Pi 5, and a HatDrive! Nano, from The PiHut, and a 128GB used SSD from Ebay for £6.
I have looked all over the internet, but I can't find any guide on how to copy/move Solar Assistant on to the SSD - is there an online guide that anybody here knows of? I'm a Windows 10 user, I don't know much about Linux, but I can follow instructions from a website.
 
Thanks for your replies. Before I try any of them, I was wondering if it was as easy as putting the SSD into a USB enclosure, using Balena Etcher to write the Solar Assistant SD image to the SSD, and putting the SSD into the Raspberry Pi 5, without an SD Card, and turning it on. I will try that first and report back!
 
I've used Balena Etcher to write the Solar Assistant SD image to the SSD, put it back into the Raspberry Pi 5, without the SD Card inserted, but the Raspberry Pi 5 doesn't see the SSD. I presume I need to boot off the SD Card, and somehow change the boot settings from there? I have no idea, as I've been using PCs all my life. I've emailed Solar Assistant, they have excellent support, I'm sure they'll be able to help me, and I'll get back to you all if I get the answer!
 
I know I will have to transfer the licence to the new Raspberry Pi 5, my problem at the moment is that I don't know how to make it boot from the SSD. I think I have to boot into Solar Assistant on the SD Card, then adjust some setting that tells the RP5 to boot from SSD. Surely other people have done this already? (Used Solar Assistant on an SSD on a PCI-E hat?)
 
SenileOldGit said:
I know I will have to transfer the licence to the new Raspberry Pi 5, my problem at the moment is that I don't know how to make it boot from the SSD. I think I have to boot into Solar Assistant on the SD Card, then adjust some setting that tells the RP5 to boot from SSD. Surely other people have done this already? (Used Solar Assistant on an SSD on a PCI-E hat?)
Click to expand...
Just did a quick search and the main problem is you need to change the boot order on the PI. With PiOS it's simple enough. Not sure if you can do the same with Solar Assistant.


Go to 5:50 in the video.
 
Well, I've followed the instructions in the video, but my SSD card isn't seen by the Raspberry Pi Imager program, and it doesn't appear in the File Manager in the Raspberry Pi OS. The power light on the HatDrive! Nano is working (after I changed the ribbon cable for the fourth time - there are no instructions on which way to fit it. I finally got it to work after lining up the arrow on the ribbon cable with the arrow on the HatDrive! Nano, next to the ribbon cable connector.) I had installed Solar Assistant to the SSD using my PC and a USB to SSD enclosure, but no luck. I will wait to hear from Solar Assistant maybe tomorrow.
I have to say that changing the boot device to the NVME SSD is insanely time consuming, compared to changing the boot order on a PC!
 
Have you tried this?

If you see no NVMe SSD popping up at all, then that could be mean that…

  • … your the FFC cable between board and M2 head is not connected properly.
  • … your SDD is not probed correctly and you need to add PCIE_PROBE to your EEPROM config first.
# sudo rpi-eeprom-config --edit
# Add the following line if using a non-HAT+ adapter:
PCIE_PROBE=1

Or maybe....

Enable the PCIe port on the Raspberry Pi​

Most likely this needed at all times. To enable the pcie-port as root we need to edit the <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/config_txt.html#what-is-config-txt" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">config.txt</a> containing the kernel configuration. As root you can also edit the following the file directly: /boot/firmware/config.txt

To enable pcie add the following lines:

dtparam=pciex1
dtparam=nvme
If you still have errors in you log you could also enable gen3.
 
Thank you, TM48, that's very helpful - I've done some of those things (I added something about dtparam=pciex1 and something else, last night), but no luck, but I will boot up the Pi 5 again today and go through your post, and see if that works.
I have heard back from Solar Assistant - they say that they haven't got a way to flash Solar Assistant onto an SSD yet (which I don't understand, because I did it easily with a USB to SSD enclosure last night), but they know some people have got Solar Assistant working on PCI-E SSDs, and they think they did it with Debian, but Solar Assistant are working on it, but can't say exactly when it will be available.
So at the moment, my main problem is getting the Pi 5 to even see the SSD - once I've done that, it may just work - so I will follow your instructions today, TM48, and get back to you, thanks very much! Hopefully we can produce a definitive guide on how to do it, between us all.
 
In case it helps, this is how I have plugged the ribbon cable in - but I've tried several other ways too. The PWR light comes on when I turn on the Pi, so I presume the ribbon must be correct now. (Previously I put the Pi cover back on after putting the ribbon cable in, and screwing the standoffs down, so I didn't notice there was a PWR light on the board. The ACT light never does anything though.)
I know that a 128GB SSD isn't needed, but it was under £10, so I thought I might as well get a 128GB one, as get a 16GB one for two pounds less.

Nanohat.jpg
 
I used a Pimoroni NVME hat that mounts under the Pi 5. The Pi os on the SD I bought from Pishop.us recognized the drive straight up so I didn't have your troubles. Yesterday I moved Home Assistant from an old creaky x86 laptop I was trying it out on to a new RP 5. The only issue I had was the Pi OS had to be fully upgraded before I got the Raspberry imaging app that would allow installing a base Home Assistant OS. Then I just restored a current full back up on top of the newly install version.
 
This is what I got this afternoon when I turned the Pi 5 on, after doing nothing since last night (and none of what TM48 wrote in his previous post):

Error1.jpg

Error3.jpg

Does this mean it's seen the SSD now, but Solar Assistant on the SSD isn't booting properly? I still have the Pi OS SD Card in the Pi 5.
 
Just a suggestion for troubleshooting...install a standard PI OS on the NVme drive just to be sure everything works. If it won't work with that, you're just wasting your time trying to get SA to work.
 
I've tried it - I booted from an SD card with Pi OS on it, then tried to use the Imager to image Pi OS to the NVME SSD, but it doesn't appear in the selection window. So the Pi 5 just can't see it.
I also used my PC and a USB SSD enclosure to image Pi OS to the SSD, then put it back into the Pi 5 and took the SD card out, and turned it on - it is now looking actively for the NVME SSD, but it doesn't find anything, and then tries to boot from SD card, and then from USB, and then goes back to NVME SSD. So I've adjusted the bootloader seemingly correctly. There was one other setting that I hadn't tried, I will go through all of TM48's email now, and see if doing all of those steps makes it work.
 
SenileOldGit said:
I've tried it - I booted from an SD card with Pi OS on it, then tried to use the Imager to image Pi OS to the NVME SSD, but it doesn't appear in the selection window. So the Pi 5 just can't see it.
I also used my PC and a USB SSD enclosure to image Pi OS to the SSD, then put it back into the Pi 5 and took the SD card out, and turned it on - it is now looking actively for the NVME SSD, but it doesn't find anything, and then tries to boot from SD card, and then from USB, and then goes back to NVME SSD. So I've adjusted the bootloader seemingly correctly. There was one other setting that I hadn't tried, I will go through all of TM48's email now, and see if doing all of those steps makes it work.
Click to expand...
I seem to remember in one of the links I sent you something about only certain NVme cards working. Can't remember exactly which ones.
 
Hi TM48, I've done everything in your post, but it hasn't worked, the Pi 5 still can't see the NVME SSD. Maybe it's the SSD, I don't know.
 
Okay - I've put the NVME SSD into the external USB enclosure, and plugged it into one of the Pi 5 USB ports, and it is visible in Pi OS when booting from the SD card. When I remove the SD card and reboot, the Pi 5 starts to boot into Pi OS from the NVME SSD in the USB enclosure, but it's hanging at the 'Welcome to the Raspberry Pi Desktop' screen, and not loading anything else. But that's good enough!
Now I will put Solar Assistant back onto the NVME SSD and try to boot off that, see what happens.
If the Pi 5 works with the NVME SSD in a USB enclosure, that will be absolutely fine for me, all I want is a reliable Pi that isn't using an SD card.
Wildbillpdx, thanks for your post, I will have a go at that too!

Just tested it out - Solar Assistant booted fine from the USB enclosure on the Pi 5! I think that will do fine for me - if a solution for using the NVME SSD on the HatDrive! Nano comes in the future, then I'll use it, but for now, this is working fine for me - I just need to back up and turn off my old Pi 4, then start up the Pi 5 and restore the back up and then transfer the licence. I wish I hadn't bothered with the ruddy Hatdrive! Nano - what a huge amount of time I've spent on this.
 
Last edited:
I've been following this, hoped you would find an easy plug and play solution. I just lost 18 months of data from an SD card failure. It's my own stupid fault, I know to back up data frequently and was just lazy. I'm thinking of transferring my license to an Orange Pi device. If I understand correctly how it works, I just need the SD to load the on board Emmc and then it runs there.
 
Brett V said:
I've been following this, hoped you would find an easy plug and play solution. I just lost 18 months of data from an SD card failure. It's my own stupid fault, I know to back up data frequently and was just lazy. I'm thinking of transferring my license to an Orange Pi device. If I understand correctly how it works, I just need the SD to load the on board Emmc and then it runs there.
Click to expand...
Yep. Works great. My orange pi 3 lts has been flawless for over a year now running on the emmc internal drive.
 
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