Add support of RPI zero 2 W

[kelson42]

This is important, many users of the Imager service have requested it

[MrAppAndCrap]

Yes please! Support for rpi2w :)

The .img will boot and create a HotSpot named Wikipedia but the devices are unable to connect to it.

The swapfile can add more memory if needed as explained below:
SWAPSIZE=100 to 1024

"The Pi Zero 2W has 512M of memory and you may not have enough swap space to do the update.

From a Terminal window, enter the command "swapon". The answer gives the file name, size, and usage of the swap file.

The default swap file size is 100M and that probably is not sufficient with 512M memory.

Edit the file /etc/dphys-swapfile and change CONF_SWAPSIZE=100 to 1024. Reboot and then before doing anything enter the command "swapon" in a terminal window to see the swap space usage.

Butch"

Source: https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?p=2216581#p2216581

[44yu5h]

Hii. So after hours of messing around, I got the Offspot image running on RPi zero 2W with several combinations of tweaks to services require and want dependencies, delays in execution, swap sizes, and a few more edits I forgot about (have logs)

I don't think this problem is solely due to low memory. I can't say this for sure since I was on the Demo image, but it's nothing a couple of GBs of swap can't handle. Yes, it will load a bit slower, but once it's loaded, most of the content is static and shouldn't cause a problem.

I did notice some premature failures and exits after initial boot. I am guessing that these can be fixed by making sure the execution happens in proper order and adding some failsafes to retry.

After that's done, I have to SSH and manually start the containers, and then thereafter everything runs prettttttyyy smoothly

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                  COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS                        PORTS                                                                                         NAMES
9af0a8b94ac2   ghcr.io/offspot/metrics:0.3.0          "uvicorn offspot_met…"   57 minutes ago   Exited (137) 6 minutes ago    80/tcp                                                                                        metrics
b645cee01d0b   ghcr.io/offspot/captive-portal:1.5.1   "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   57 minutes ago   Exited (127) 23 minutes ago                                                                                                 home-portal
f74ba009fc5f   ghcr.io/offspot/reverse-proxy:1.11     "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   57 minutes ago   Exited (0) 7 minutes ago      0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, :::80->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp, :::443->443/tcp, 443/udp, 2019/tcp   reverse-proxy
0ccabf9b7105   ghcr.io/offspot/hwclock:1.2            "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   57 minutes ago   Exited (0) 7 minutes ago      80/tcp                                                                                        hwclock
377621f7e36d   ghcr.io/offspot/file-manager:1.3       "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   57 minutes ago   Exited (0) 7 minutes ago      80/tcp                                                                                        resources
2b7ed4d7323c   ghcr.io/offspot/kiwix-serve:3.7.0-2    "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   57 minutes ago   Exited (0) 7 minutes ago      80/tcp                                                                                        kiwix
f704e70f5f90   ghcr.io/offspot/file-manager:1.3       "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   57 minutes ago   Exited (0) 7 minutes ago      80/tcp                                                                                        zim-manager
43e9d7555882   ghcr.io/offspot/dashboard:1.6.1        "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   57 minutes ago   Exited (0) 7 minutes ago      80/tcp                                                                                        home
b135b69c6b37   ghcr.io/offspot/file-browser:1.1       "lighttpd -D -f /etc…"   57 minutes ago   Exited (0) 7 minutes ago      80/tcp                                                                                        files

Alt: SSH into RPi zero 2W and dashboard running in the background. Terminal showing running containers and available space

In the image above, with everything running (except captive-portal because it's the demo img ig), there is enough space in both memory and swap for it to run smoothly

               total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           416Mi       186Mi       173Mi       544Ki       109Mi       230Mi
Swap:          630Mi       237Mi       393Mi

I also tried overclocking it a little, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

In all, the compatibility for the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W can be added with some tweaks, which would also be beneficial for other Raspberry Pi models.

I'll share the exact changes I made soon. I need to complete writing my proposal ;) It was pretty interesting, but spent way too much time on this.

[benoit74]

Kudos @44yu5h ! Looking forward for the details ^^

[rgaudin]

Thank you @44yu5h ! That's good news.

Just a couple of comments from what you shared:

• we don't use swap on purpose.
• captive portal is an essential piece that should be working. It's enabled on all the images at the moment. demo is no different.

Feel free to share rough/raw notes on what you did so it's not lost !

[44yu5h]

Thanks for the replies

we don't use swap on purpose

Why so? I don't think the Zero 2W/Zero W will survive without a swap in place.

captive portal is an essential piece that should be working. It's enabled on all the images at the moment. demo is no different.

Okay, so it was my error. I was trying to run it with the RPi 5 configuration, but it worked fine when I did a clean flash with Pi Zero's config.

CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                  COMMAND                  CREATED          STATUS                    PORTS                                                                                         NAMES
c81d5a53c6db   ghcr.io/offspot/metrics:0.3.0          "uvicorn offspot_met…"   24 minutes ago   Up 8 minutes              80/tcp                                                                                        metrics
2a25f4678d0a   ghcr.io/offspot/dashboard:1.6.1        "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   24 minutes ago   Up 20 minutes (healthy)   80/tcp                                                                                        home
368f514b59a3   ghcr.io/offspot/reverse-proxy:1.11     "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   24 minutes ago   Up 7 minutes              0.0.0.0:80->80/tcp, :::80->80/tcp, 0.0.0.0:443->443/tcp, :::443->443/tcp, 443/udp, 2019/tcp   reverse-proxy
b2fb9e2666e2   ghcr.io/offspot/captive-portal:1.5.1   "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   24 minutes ago   Up 6 minutes                                                                                                            home-portal
d3fe029021a0   ghcr.io/offspot/hwclock:1.2            "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   24 minutes ago   Up 7 minutes              80/tcp                                                                                        hwclock
7f6e8be87362   ghcr.io/offspot/file-manager:1.3       "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   24 minutes ago   Up 7 minutes              80/tcp                                                                                        resources
4ee4a2f946b4   ghcr.io/offspot/file-browser:1.1       "lighttpd -D -f /etc…"   24 minutes ago   Up 6 minutes              80/tcp                                                                                        files
04eca7d5249d   ghcr.io/offspot/file-manager:1.3       "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   24 minutes ago   Up 20 minutes             80/tcp                                                                                        zim-manager
d0467381b6d2   ghcr.io/offspot/kiwix-serve:3.7.0-2    "/usr/bin/dumb-init …"   24 minutes ago   Up 9 minutes              80/tcp                                                                                        kiwix

So I tried a few more things..

Here's a quick breakdown:

• The RPi Zero 2W doesn't work when flashed with device selected as Zero 2W in rpi-imager. Haven't figured out why yet.
• You must be aware that the basic OS is the same for all Pi's, they just apply some extra customization on top based on the device selected. So I tried changing that.
• Interestingly, I was able to get it to run when flashed with the device set as RPi 5 or RPi Zero (1)
• Possibly an issue w/ pi-gen or the patches?
• Still, after flashing w/ Pi Zero's config, the containers didn't start automatically
• After initial boot they all exit with 137, 147 or 0 for some reason
• Had to ssh in and manually start them. Worked fine after that.

So clearly it can run just fine on RPi zero 2W as well. I'll look into the above issues and possibly ask on pi-gen repo too.

Couldn't do an in depth analysis though. Will do that as soon as I get some time.

[kelson42]

@Popolechien @anupulu At some point soon we will be asked if we want to prioritize this feature request. This would allow to create easily cheaper Kiwix Hotspot on low-end devices.
@rgaudin An estimation of the time necessary to support this new kind of hardware would be helpful

[rgaudin]

I've already mentioned somewhere that we should allocate a week. It cannot be precise at this stage obviously

[nekkutta]

Hello all, I sent a message on the website concerning this and I have a build for the pi zero 2w that works as a hotspot. Marc pointed me over here. I'm wanting to contribute it to the org as my way of saying thanks.

[rgaudin]

Hi @nekkutta ; thank you!

I have a build for the pi zero 2w that works as a hotspot.

What does that mean? Did you make a hotspot-like on a piZ2W or did you manage to have kiwix-hotspot work on a piZ2W?

Can you describe your changes or link to them if it's somewhere? Anything I could test on device would help of course.

[nekkutta]

@rgaudin

Figured out how to make a repo, added you to it.
Basically I'm not using raspiOS as a base, I'm using Alpine Linux as a base, running the whole OS from ram as readonly so very little chance of file corruption on power loss. The / filesystem is only ~ 70MB, the zim files are mounted read-only on a separate partition /media/kiwix/

It may not be as polished as the rpi5 solution you all have come up with. My design goal was to have a device with a large chunk of human knowledge that could run off a usb powerbank that just fires up a wifi hotspot and directs any http or https traffic to the kiwix-serve server. All zim files have to be copied to the sd card beforehand.

[rgaudin]

Thank you ; I've looked at it briefly.
I'm glad it fit your needs; that seems well suited for what you're doing.
Unfortunately, that's of little help for this ticket as our goal (at the moment) is not to build an entirely different system for the Z2W but to make our regular one work on the lower-end device.