RPi2b: Libreelec not working in spite of many attempts

[Guybrush3pw00d]

Hello to everyone. I've tried everything I could think of but I can't get a LE 10.0.2 image to work on my RPi2b. I always get kernel panics immediately, just after choosing the image.
I exclude issues with my setup (tried different microSDs, tried different PSUs, tried both the prebuilt image available on the official BerryBoot images repository and one built by me from the official LE image, other images like for example RetroPie work with no issues at all) and tend to believe the issue is with BerryBoot itself given that almost everyone advice not to use it on LE forum).
Out of ideas, I've also tried to downgrade BB from the latest version (berryboot-20190612-pi0-pi1-pi2-pi3) to the previous one (berryboot-20180909-pi2-pi3) with even worse results: exactly the same issue with LE, RetroPie still boots but it locks during the boot process.
I don't know what to think and if a solution does exist or not. Thanks in advance for you advices.

[symbios24]

Hi

Try this one

https://sourceforge.net/projects/berryboot-updated-images/files/Raspberry-Pi/libreelec_rpi1_rpi2_stable_v10.0.2_2022.05.03_berryboot.img.gz/download

If it does not work then berryboit needs an update as it's quite old the current version..

[Guybrush3pw00d]

Hi and thanks for your follow up. That was the first one I've tried as already said then I've built one by myself starting from the official LE image. Kernel panic with them both.
I know that version is old and quite outdated but it's the latest one available for the RPi2 being all the newer ones only for the RPi4. :(

[symbios24]

Then its probably the berryboot version its outdated and not working with some newer images, I suggest you use kodi within RetroPie.
Or just the official image without berryboit.

You can take your self an Rpi4 the 1GB version its not expensive i think.

[Guybrush3pw00d]

To be honest, that doesn't help a lot... I was using LE alone before and it was just perfect but then I've felt the need for a multiboot solution and that was why I've chosen BerryBoot, mainly because unlike PINN (but I may be wrong; I haven't already had the chance to test it personally) it can be controlled by IR remote so reverting back to LE alone isn't a choice.
Kodi under RetroPie is too sluggish when compared with LE so it isn't a choice neither. I thank you for your time but your reply is something like "Do you have problems? Don't use BerryBoot then!" and honestly speaking I don't get the point with such an approach.
I don't understand why the RPi2 version has been abandoned: I'm not the only one who still uses one, for sure! :( Building an RPi2 version based on the latest sources means cross-compiling something for armhf and I haven't done it before so I haven't the needed toolchain and I need to set one up from scratch.
I would try to convert and older LE version and try with it then, should it boot, maybe I could try to update it afterwards, directly from the running system using the common LE procedure involving the .update folder. That's the only feasible path to follow, certainly better than setting a whole toolchain up. Have a nice day! :)

[symbios24]

I never say that all i said is its outdated,dont make up things,and for sure it wont get updated any time soon
Rpi2 vereion will never get updated as the developer said a long time ago in a post here.

Rpi2 is quite slow use an older retropie maybe

Good day to you.

[Guybrush3pw00d]

I can confirm that I've been able to get the previous official LE image (9.2.8) working.
I've had to modifiy it by myself to get it working under BerryBoot this way:

sudo gunzip LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-9.2.8.img.gz
sudo losetup loop55 -P LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-9.2.8.img
sudo mount /dev/loop55p1 /mnt
sudo unsquashfs /mnt/SYSTEM
sudo umount /mnt
sudo losetup -d /dev/loop55
sudo sed -i 's/^/dev/mmcblk/#\0/g' squashfs-root/etc/fstab
sudo sed -i 's/^\PARTUUID/#\0/g' squashfs-root/etc/fstab
sudo sed -i 's/^\UUID/#\0/g' squashfs-root/etc/fstab
sudo sed -i 's/^\LABEL/#\0/g' squashfs-root/etc/fstab
sudo mksquashfs squashfs-root/ LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-9.2.8-BerryBoot.img -comp lzo -e lib/modules var/cache/apt/archives var/lib/apt/lists
sudo rm -rf LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-9.2.8.img.gz squashfs-root

(procedure integrally learnt from the code here)
Then I wanted to try if I could successfully update it to the latest Matrix version but at that point something strange has started to happen. I've tried both to download just the official compressed image and put it inside the .update folder as always and to download the tar from here, extract it and put just the target folder under .update as instructed to do here but nothing, either case.
The update files just get ignored and they stay there in the .update folder forever till when I delete them.
Another very strange thing is that I can't configure my IR remote because the /flash mount point isn't present and even config.txt isn't present. It seems all the filesystem is screwed up but LE 9.2.8 works just fine and the changes to the configuration and whatever else are permanent instead so I really don't know how to figure out the reasons for this very strange behaviour but it is certainly something linked with BerryBoot...

[Guybrush3pw00d]

EDIT:

Going back to previous posts in the aforementioned thread on the LE forum, I've found another advice about putting just SYSTEM from the tar containing the update inside the .update folder.
That may be the right procedure because it has screwed my LE setup under BerryBoot up, even without actually applying the update: it seems that just trying to start the update proceess has been enough to destroy everything. My conclusion is that the latest LE version working with the latest available BerryBoot version for the RPi2 is Leia: everything is just fine with the only thing to be reported a FAILED during boot regarding kernel modules loading. I don't know if it could be relevant or not but it doesn't seem to impact on anything, at least to the extent of my very limited testing till now.
I can live with Leia instead of Matrix, not a disaster but I'd like to understand that strange behaviour with the LE filesystem handling from BerryBoot, just to be able to configure my IR remote as I'm used to do (or even in a way tweaked up to deal with underlying BerryBoot).