BerryBoot is an RPi system providing a boot menu that allows you to install and boot multiple RPi OS on the same SD card.
(or on an external USB drive).
When a compatible image is booted by BerryBoot, most of its kernel routines and drivers are replaced by those supplied by BerryBoot, which is necessary for these images to use the virtual filesystems needed to allow multiple images to coexist on the same card. But this also means that it is the drivers and kernel of BerryBoot which determine the hardware compatibility, as the system calls of the installed image are handled by the BerryBoot kernel and drivers, even if the installed image was compiled for other hardware. So as long as the system call usage is compatible at software level, BerryBoot will supply compatibility at the hardware level to the hardware that BerryBoot was compiled for. And the latest release of BerryBoot was compiled for the RPi2.
That can allow an image originally compiled for the old RPi model to work without internal changes on the new RPi2 model.
(It may not work for everything, certainly not for any program doing direct I/O hardware access bypassing system.)
The images that can be installed for BerryBoot are not the full SD card images you would flash on separate cards though.
But most such full card images can be converted for use with BerryBoot. (A topic I just mention, but don’t deal with here.)
And in the case of RasPlex an image file compatible with BerryBoot is part of the normal RasPlex distribution.
That’s the file named “SYSTEM” stored in the FAT32 partition of any SD card flashed with a RasPlex image.
Renaming that file to whatever you please but with a “.img” extension allows its use with BerryBoot.
Guides for how to use BerryBoot are available elsewhere (I’ve written some myself in these forums), so I won’t go into detail on that here. The main purpose of this post is just to clarify that existing RasPlex versions will work without changes on the RPi2, when installed for and launched by the RPi2 version of BerryBoot.
I have of course tested this myself on my RPi2 unit (bought appx 12 hours ago :)), using a 32GB SD card with BerryBoot as the main OS and several alternate OS images, including both RasPlex 0.4.1 and RasPlex 0.5.0, both of which work fine as far as I’ve been able to test them.
I hope some of you find this method useful. I know I do… 
Best regards: dlanor
Going to try this tonight! I assume that this just gets Rasplex running on the new hardware but not necessarily taking advantage of any of the capabilities of the new hardware.
Correct. RasPlex is not coded for quad-core use, and running it under BerryBoot won't change that. But BerryBoot itself can still make use of all new hardware features, and when it does this in its kernel routines and drivers, then RasPlex too can benefit from it. So it's very possible for some I/O driver routines to run in threads on other cores than the main PHT program of RasPlex. I'm not sure if this happens or not, and have no means of testing it, but it is a definite possibility.Going to try this tonight! I assume that this just gets Rasplex running on the new hardware but not necessarily taking advantage of any of the capabilities of the new hardware.
Another benefit from the new hardware which RasPlex definitely does use is the larger RAM size, eliminating time-wasting swaps.
The overall effect is that RasPlex run this way does seem a lot speedier than on the older RPi model, to such an extent that I can now use the complex "Night" skin with good results, which never worked well on the old RPi model. That skin is still slower than the default, especially in the skin initialization (a little over one minute), but once initialized it works fairly well.
Best regards: dlanor
*runs to go try this*
Worked perfectly. I don't have an older RPi so i have nothing to compare against but Rasplex on the RPi2 under BerryBoot is very quick and responsive. I even tested it with a bdrip of Jurassic Park which is a 20MB/s h264/ac3 and it played it with no issues at all (which my Roku3 can't handle without transcoding to a lower bitrate). Now i'm working on programming a Flirc receiver and then this will become my default Plex client for my family room.
rcork, I have had a completely different experience, menus seemed sluggish wouldn't even play properly keept freezing every 2 seconds, I tried both off USB and off SD, same results. I used the rasplex-RP-0.4.0-rc1.img image, What am I doing wrong ?
I’m running 0.5.0 from SD
Alrighty i'm going to try 0.5
For those of you not familiar with Berryboot installation of Rasplex see here for @dlanor's excellent guide and how-to https://forums.plex.tv/topic/112786-berry-boot-recent-image/?p=670020
Regards
I can confirm that running Rasplex 0.5.0 in Berryboot uses all four cores of the new processor, that's the reason for the increased performance couple with more memory.
Good news for all you eager RPi2 users.
Regards
I seem to be having issues getting 0.5.0 to boot, I get a Kernel panic straight away, i wonder if my SD cards have had it.
I seem to be having issues getting 0.5.0 to boot, I get a Kernel panic straight away, i wonder if my SD cards have had it.
Are you using the Berryboot method?
Are you using the Berryboot method?
I think my SD cards are acting up because I started from scratch but I used a USB stick to move the IMG into Berry and it seems to have worked. I havent really used the Rpi before for OpenElec / XBMC / Plex etc because ive always found it just too slow however with the RPi 2 it seems to be alot better. With regards to movies being in DTS is this a no go for the Rpi2 ?
I think my SD cards are acting up because I started from scratch but I used a USB stick to move the IMG into Berry and it seems to have worked. I havent really used the Rpi before for OpenElec / XBMC / Plex etc because ive always found it just too slow however with the RPi 2 it seems to be alot better. With regards to movies being in DTS is this a no go for the Rpi2 ?
No DTS is fine, if you output to a DTS capable receiver then remember to enable Passthrough and set your number of speakers appropriately.
When you tried it before you were probably using earlier builds, don't forget to overclock your Pi if using standard Pi, info in the forums stickies.
Regards
Running rasplex 0.5.0 on the pi 2 with berryboot, just like dicribed in dlanors guide.. When I want to play a video the screen goes black and rasplex reboot..
What to do here?
Running rasplex 0.5.0 on the pi 2 with berryboot, just like dicribed in dlanors guide.. When I want to play a video the screen goes black and rasplex reboot..
What to do here?
Something's gone wrong in the process, suggest starting from scratch, I've had it playing 1080p movies with all four cores utilised (but with u optimised code - yet).
Regards
I will try again.. Is the speed of the sd card important? I installed the OS on a USB 3..
What version do you prefer? 0.4.1 or 0.5.0?
Edit.
Did a reinstall.. Berry boot on the SD, an empty USB 3 and the img on a separate usb.. Navigation in Rasplex is really smooth but when I want to start a video, Rasplex reboots.. Not the Pi but just Rasplex
Edit 2:
Rasplex 0.4.1 doesnt boot at all.. I see the plex screen and than black. No rasplex loading image.. I sometimes have to switch HDMI when installing OS.. With 0.5.0 it boots after the switch..
Edit 3:
When the Plex image is shown, it stated:
"cdc_acm ........... This device cannot do calls on its own. It is not a modem."
"lirc_rpi: gpio chip not found!"
Both versions will give this message.. On 0.4.1 there is one more message:
n: /storage/.cache/swapfile: swapon failed: input/output error
Final edit:
Running Kwiboo's image now.. This will keep me satisfied till a new Rasplex version!
Kwiboo's didn't work for me, systemmenu did nothing so I couldn't get wifi up. Berryboot worked a treat. Seems very nippy, looking forward to the official RPI2 version.
Works great for me too. And since using berry boot, was motivated to set up retropi as well. Wife is very happy.
Great work.
This works perfectly for me. (Pi2 and rasplex 0.5.0)
Thanks a bunch!
