boot from SD card

[Qutix]

Hello!

I built this repo on an Ubuntu and flashed it to my dev board:

However I have difficulties booting from SD card. On every boot I have to use Putty.exe to connect to the board and execute the following code:

import os
os.mount(os.VfsSDCard(), '/sd')
os.chdir('/sd')
import boot

Could this be automated somehow? How can I check if an SD card is actually inserted? An editable _boot.py file would be great like this one

I digged a little deeper and I found the static const char* DEFAULT_BOOT_PY but editing the string with newlines and space indents is a bit tedious. Is there a better option? Should I edit that line? If so what would be the best script? Should I just put the os.mount(...) in a try catch block and if there is an exception print out something along the line of "failed to mount SD Card"?

Side note: I've checked the wiki: https://github.com/loboris/MicroPython_K210_LoBo/wiki/i2c But for master I2C I got errors when I tried to use those arguments. For example "i2c.writeto(addr, buf [,stop=True])" has no stop argument. If I put True or False at the end I get argument related error messages. What am I doing wrong? Do I have to enable a flag in mpconfigport.h file to have all the features? I see that there is a MICROPY_PY_MACHINE_I2C option disabled by deafult. But if I enable it nothing really changes. The output file has the sime size, same argument error. Maybe I mixed up something?

[Qutix]

On my dev board I actually have a pin connected to the SD card socket's card detect pin:

But I understand that this pin is not used/connected on the original Sipeed boards so this might be a custom thing to check/have and might not have a future in the code.

[loboris]

However I have difficulties booting from SD card. On every boot I have to use Putty.exe to connect to the board and execute the following code:

import os
os.mount(os.VfsSDCard(), '/sd')
os.chdir('/sd')
import boot

Could this be automated somehow? How can I check if an SD card is actually inserted? Side note: I've checked the wiki: https://github.com/loboris/MicroPython_K210_LoBo/wiki/i2c But for master I2C I got errors when I tried to use those arguments. For example "i2c.writeto(addr, buf [,stop=True])" has no stop argument.

If you want to mount SD Card on boot, just insert the code into boot.py on internal file system (/flash). If the SD Card is not inserted , the exception will be raised:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 2, in <module>
OSError: [Errno 22] EINVAL

so it is best to insert this part of the code into try - except block.

# This file is executed on every boot

import sys, os
sys.path().append('/flash/lib')

sd_ok = True
try:
    os.mount(os.VfsSDCard(), '/sd')
    #os.chdir('/sd')
except:
    sd_ok = False

if sd_ok:
    os.listdir('/sd')

You can edit boot.py directly from MicroPython:

from pye import pye
pye('/flash/boot.py')

---

There is no stop argument in any of I2C methods. I have fixed the Wiki, thanks for reporting this (The methods syntax was copied from my MicroPython for ESP32).

---

You don't need to use Putty to connect to the board. MPyTerm.py terminal emulator is included which was specially created for this MicroPython portand has capability to transfer the files to/from the board.

---

Sorry for the uncomplete documentation, it will be updated and completed soon.

[Qutix]

I've modified my /flash/boot.py like this:

import sys, os
sys.path().append('/flash/lib')

try:
    os.mount(os.VfsSDCard(), '/sd')
    os.chdir('/sd')
    sys.path.append('/sd')
    print('SD card successfully mounted.')
except:
    print('Could not mount SD card.')

devices = os.listdir('/')
if 'sd' in devices:
    if 'boot.py' in os.listdir('/sd'):
        print('boot.py found on SD card. About to start it...')
        import boot
    else:
        print('Could not find boot.py on SD card.')

It's working perfectly, however when I try to edit files on the SD card using the pye('/sd/boot.py') editor it saves all files with a wierd .pyetmp at the end of file name. For example:

pye('/sd/boot2.py')
<add some code>
<press Ctrl + S>
for name it says boot2.py.pyetmp
<I delete the wierd ending and press Enter>
<press Ctrl + Q>
os.listdir('/sd')
boot2.py.pyetemp

Can this be turned off somewhere?

[loboris]

... when I try to edit files on the SD card using the pye('/sd/boot.py') editor it saves all files with a wierd .pyetmp at the end of file name...:

I couldn't reproduce this. The file is saved under requested name. When saving the file pye first saves it with .pyetemp extension added, then renames it to the requested name.

## write file
    def put_file(self, fname):
        tmpfile = fname + ".pyetmp"
        f = open(tmpfile, "w")
        for l in self.content:
            if self.write_tabs == 'y':
                f.write(self.packtabs(l) + '\n')
            else:
                f.write(l + '\n')
        f.close()
        try:
            is_file = os.check_file(fname)
            if is_file == 2:
                os.remove(fname)
            os.rename(tmpfile, fname)
        except:
            pass

If the code in try ... except block raises an exception, the saved file will not be renamed.

[Qutix]

I did try to do the renaming and it gave me an error. Let me reproduce it and attach the error message here.

-------------------------------
MicroPython 1.11.6 (6f4a861-dirty) built on 2019-07-27; Sipeed_board with Kendryte-K210
Type "help()" for more information.
>>> os.listdir()
['boot.py.pyetmp', 'boot2.py.pyetmp', 'System Volume Information', 'H\u0151- \xe9s \xe1rmal\xe1stan 2015-16 2 f\xe9l\xe9v 1_el\u0151ad\xe1s.pdf', 'power.py', 'display.py', 'led.py']
>>> os.rename('boot.py.pyetmp', 'boot.py')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
OSError: [Errno 2] ENOENT

[Qutix]

If I do

os.rename('/sd/boot.py.pyetmp', 'boot.py')

Then it works and the renamed file is put in '/sd/boot.py'. Maybe there is a pathing issue? If I go back and edit the file again it's name is wrong again.

os.rename('/sd/boot.py.pyetmp', 'boot.py')
os.listdir()
['boot2.py.pyetmp', 'boot.py', 'System Volume Information', 'H\u0151- \xe9s \xe1rmal\xe1stan 2015-16 2 f\xe9l\xe9v 1_el\u0151ad\xe1s.pdf', 'power.py', 'display.py', 'led.py']
pye('boot.py')
os.listdir()
['boot.py.pyetmp', 'boot2.py.pyetmp', 'System Volume Information', 'H\u0151- \xe9s \xe1rmal\xe1stan 2015-16 2 f\xe9l\xe9v 1_el\u0151ad\xe1s.pdf', 'power.py', 'display.py', 'led.py']

[loboris]

Yes, I've just discovered it myself. I'll try to fix it...

[Qutix]

If I do

pye('/sd/boot.py')

Then it saves without any problem.

[loboris]

This bug is now fixed.

Thank you for noticing and reporting the issue. It looks I've never tested renaming the file in the current directory.