Dave,
The main issue, has you are now aware, is the number of people that will have problems and will need your help. Once they start using the software you installed, and they can't get it to work,? your free time will disappear.? ?
Thus is life of a developer.?
My PiGate RMS images are made on a 16GB card and then compressed. It is slightly smaller than 2GB, but that depends on how much empty space there is.? I just use 7zip on my PC.
I guess bit torrent works, we never trusted it in the IT field for huge downloads.? We broke up the files and had software to reassemble the parts.
Again just my 2 cents.?
Let me know if I can help in any way.?
Mark?
KD0QYN?
On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 12:13 PM, Dave Slotter, W3DJS
<slotter@...> wrote:
On Thu, Oct 31, 2019 at 12:43 PM, Mark Griffith wrote:
Having watched this long discussion (I have no choice if I'm in the group), I'd just like to mention a few things.?
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First, 17GB is just too large an image for successful download. Just one bit needs to be lost and the whole thing is barfed.? Some web browsers won't do it although they will say it was successful.?
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Second, I'm sure all this software and the OS image won't use a whole 128GB SD card.? If you compressed 128GB down to 17GB that means there is a lot of empty space.
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Third, you probably can build all this on a 16 or 32GB card.? Compressed 16GB would be less than 2GB. 32 probably less than 4.? That would be a much easier download.?
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If the author doesn't want to rebuild this (I'm sure it is a major task,? search the net for procedures on how to reduce the image size.
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For those that want to install this on a larger SD card, you just copy the 16GB image to a 128GB card, boot up, and use the Raspbian utility to expand the image to use the full size.
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Just my 2 cents after decades of doing this. Your mileage may vary.
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Mark?
KD0QYN?
Mark, you bring up some interesting points.
First, let me express my gratitude in you showing your interest in improving the quality of the "customer experience" for everyone.
I created this image originally for myself and then realized I could share it with my local Ham Radio Club, , or "". After it was very successfully received by my local ham radio colleagues, and one member, Norm Schklar, WA4XV, graciously donated his Google Drive storage space, and Dave Bruse, W4DTR, graciously donated his space/bandwidth on his hosting provider, I said, "what if" some Raspberry Pi for Ham Radio enthusiasts on Group.io would be interested in it?
I thought there would maybe be 10 people interested -- 20 tops.
Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected 700 downloads in 36 hours, and seeing bandwidth limits being imposed on both hosting providers.
This is a victim of its own success, and will have some growing pains as a result.
I knew the image was huge, but I figured with 10-20 downloads, that it wouldn't be a big deal. I grossly underestimated the level of interest.
I hadn't originally thought to compress the image because I didn't think that would become a concern. Again, I was so wrong about underestimating the interest.?
As it turns out, the estimate you made of a 16GB image being compressed to below 2GB is a bit optimistic. After compressing the v2.0 image with bzip2 (which is generally better than gzip), I reduced the 17.1 GB image down to 5.2 GB image.
I will see about updating the current hosting providers with the bzip image to reduce download times and bandwidth.
Uncompressed, the image I created does require 17.1 GB. It cannot fit on a 16GB or smaller SD or micro SD card. It requires a 32GB card or larger.
I hope I have addressed your concerns.
73,
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- Dave
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