Kodi Community Forum

Hi guys

I've used an SD Card which came with a Pi2 Bundle so far. As i found out, a pretty weak one especially when it comes to random writing, which is so important for Kodi performance. That card isn't able to random write more than 0,128 MB/s

So i decided to get a new one. The Samsung Evo was recommended in Kodi Wiki, so the choice was an Evo UHS1 16GB, which is performing such a lot better, at least according to CrystalDisk Mark.
But the old one with my up to date Kodi (Helix) has only 8 GB.

So i thought about reading an image from the 8GB card which contains up to date Kodi and write it to the new Samsung Evo 16 GB Card.

Should that work? I'm pretty unsure, how this would affect the available disc space. The new 16GB SD Card will take the partitions from the 8GB Image, right?
Is there any chance to migrate my 8gb image to 16gb SD Card and also get the free space of the 16GB SD ?

Or should i completely forget the plan about reading the image from the old sd and writing it to the new one and go on completely different?

Thank you
.

Kodi 14 Helix is not the most up to date version of Kodi. We now have Kodi 15 Isengard. I'd suggest upgrading if it won't cause any library database issues for you.

You can clone then expand the partition and it should be OK.

Thank you for you answer

Update to Isengard was intended after migrating to the 16 GB Card. But as you suggest updating first, i'll do so

As soon as i've written the image to the new SD, how to expand the partition? i assume somehow using putty/ssh?

When you image the existing card and write it to a new bigger card it will be exactly the same as what you started with size-wise when you start up the Pi.
But then you can use raspi-config from a PuTTY session to expand the disk to use the full size. It is the first option in the menu.
Just connect with SSH using PuTTY and then enter the command:
sudo raspi-config
You will see a menu where you can select the expand option.

See also this webpage.

If its a Openelec img.. use the Openelec addon to make a backup of your old system... use it on the new EVo card

(2015-10-31, 20:34)Bosse_B Wrote: [ -> ]When you image the existing card and write it to a new bigger card it will be exactly the same as what you started with size-wise when you start up the Pi.
But then you can use raspi-config from a PuTTY session to expand the disk to use the full size. It is the first option in the menu.
Just connect with SSH using PuTTY and then enter the command:
sudo raspi-config
You will see a menu where you can select the expand option.

See also this webpage.

Thank you

I successfully moved my kodi installation to the 16GB Card, but without the additional storage so far ...

How do i get into raspi-config in openelec? I just have the openelec installation, nothing else ...
If i connect to the Pi using my notebook and putty and enter "sudo raspi-config" it just tells me there is no need for sudo ... nothing else

Sorry, i'm an absolute linux noob ... just got to know it a little little bit since Kodi ...
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(2015-10-31, 23:12)Warez Wrote: [ -> ]If its a Openelec img.. use the Openelec addon to make a backup of your old system... use it on the new EVo card

Thank you for the hint, but it keeps telling me there's not enough space for backup
------------------------------

edit:

another thing i tried, was

Then i rebooted using ssh and it first seemed it would try to resize the storage, but then just wrote: Resizing is not allowed
----------------

edit2:
Obviously since isengard it's intended that "please_resize_me" doesn't work any more on existing installations ...
I'll try this workaround: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=230353

The worst that can happen, is a corrupted kodi installation, but doesn't matter as i still have the old sd card with all the kodi data ...

(2015-10-31, 23:23)nokodemus Wrote: [ -> ]another thing i tried, was

Code:

touch /storage/.please_resize_me

Then i rebooted using ssh and it first seemed it would try to resize the storage, but then just wrote: Resizing is not allowed

It's disabled on configured and supposedly working systems - it's designed to resize freshly installed systems.

Personally I'd suggest installing a fresh image to the 16GB card and starting from scratch.

However if you want to use your current setup, then you'll need to do the following to "trick" OpenELEC into thinking your system isn't already configured - don't blame me if it goes tits up...


OpenELEC should now proceed to resize the partition.

After the partition has been resized you will need to restore your original configuration:

Thank you for your answer

Quote:

Code:

systemctl stop kodi
mv .cache .cache.bak
mv .config .config.bak
mv .kodi .kodi.bak
touch /storage/.please_resize_me
sync
reboot

Damn ... that's more than i did in the morning
I just renamed the folders manually in winscp ... without stopping kodi, without any "sync" ...
After resizing worked i renamend manually again, no sync, no stop kodi ...

Ok it seemed to work, /storage is resized ...

(2015-11-01, 00:29)Milhouse Wrote: [ -> ]don't blame me if it goes tits up...

but somehow i don't feel good about it any more ^^
I think i'll give the fresh installation a chance, i don't want to bang my head against the wall in 3 months or so, when everything may be fucked up ...
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What do you think is backupable securely and without any problems and potential difficulties in the future? Could i use the "Backup" Addon or just copy/paste /addons and /userdata to at least migrate Addons and their settings? A Backup at least for the skin shortcuts of my arctic zephyr would be awesome. my navigation was a lot of work

And i bet, i should update the old SD Card to latest Isengard/Openelec BEFORE i think about backing up something to bring it to the new SD later, right?

Update to Kodi Isengard first.

Am I missing something here, but if running OpenELEC, just backup the current settings in the OpenELEC configurator as already mentioned in this thread. Its foolproof.

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/OpenEL...tion_Addon

Copy the .tar file from the backup folder to a PC, install a new OpenELEC image on to the bigger SD card and then copy the backup .tar from the PC to the backup folder again (you may need to do a test backup on the new OpenELEC image to create the actual new backup folder first)

Then Restore OpenELEC from the .tar backup.

(2015-11-01, 13:29)wrxtasy Wrote: [ -> ]Update to Kodi Isengard first.

Am I missing something here, but if running OpenELEC, just backup the current settings in the OpenELEC configurator as already mentioned in this thread. Its foolproof.

http://wiki.openelec.tv/index.php/OpenEL...tion_Addon

Copy the .tar file from the backup folder to a PC, install a new OpenELEC image on to the bigger SD card and then copy the backup .tar from the PC to the backup folder again (you may need to do a test backup on the new OpenELEC image to create the actual new backup folder first)

Then Restore OpenELEC from the .tar backup.

Hey

I already tried that, but it keeps telling me, there's not enough disk space.
I also couldn't find a way to change the path for the backup, like external drive or something like that. It wants so backup to the SD

edit: mhmmmm i just think about what i could delete, to possibly get enough space for a openelec backup ...
Thumbnails folder has at least 1,5 GB ... And there's also a bunch of skins which i could install again later without any problems ... mhmm
i'll try that

thanks you for mentioning this again

edit2:

I deleted a bunch of skins and Thumbnails and now the openelec backup is running thank you for mentioning this again

I'll report again after bringing openelec backup to the new sd

Start the Pi with your old SD card. Install the addon Backup. Create a Backup and store it elsewhere. Create a new SD card with a fresh install of Kodi. Boot the Pi with the new SD card, install the addon Backup and restore the backup you made. Job Done.

(2015-11-01, 15:52)speedwell68 Wrote: [ -> ]Start the Pi with your old SD card. Install the addon Backup. Create a Backup and store it elsewhere. Create a new SD card with a fresh install of Kodi. Boot the Pi with the new SD card, install the addon Backup and restore the backup you made. Job Done.

Thank you, but already tried that ...
Unfortunately it abandoned during restoring the backup and as i looked around a little bit, it didn't seem like there was a lot successfully restored
I don't really know why, probably i did something wrong ...
Anyway, the backup made by the addon "Backup" is there if i should need it ...

I'll now go on with a fresh Isengard Image on the new SD and restoring the openelec backup to it ...

Alright, the job is done

So what did i do:

1.) Updating the old SD to latest openELEC / Kodi
2.) Checking whether everything relevant was still there and in place - check
3.) Backing up the old 8GB SD using Openelec Interface + Backup using "Backup" Kodi Addon, just to be sure ...
4.) Writing a fresh OpenELEC 05.95.5 / Isengard to the new 16GB SD
5.) Restoring the new SD from the Openelec Backup made at step 3) ... takes a while

But waiting payed off. The entire storage of the new SD is available. As far as i can say so far, everything is exactly as it was before on the old smaller SD.
Skin Settings, watched status of local and online sources, Addon settings ... everything is still in place
There were just some minor settings, i had to set again. But i think those settings didn't get lost during backup. I believe some settings are also overwritten by Isengard Update, right?

Yeah, so far so awesome. Kodi runs smooth as never before. I already expected improving performance, as the new SD Card benchmarked a lot better, especially at random writing. But THIS result is really awesome.

Just in case that problems should appear in the future i'll keep a backup image of the old SD as it was before updating to isengard or migrating to the new SD ... just to be safe ...

Thank you all guys for guiding me through here ...
Especially the hint about the OpenELEC Backup possibility was great. I hope it keeps stable and smooth, but i'm very optimistic

Alright, i'll edit to "solved". Thank you guys and have a nice evening

I need to do the same thing, but I don't really have any watching history I'm worried about losing on my Kodi - I just set it up a few days ago.

Would it be easier to get Openelec installed on new card, then install Isengard, and set up from scratch?

If you've only had it a few days, yes.