General discussion • Re: STICKY: PINN - An enhanced version of NOOBS.

I am using PINN v3.9.3 on a Pi4B.

I am trying to replace a project space with Batocera, but I run into "Error downloading meta file". It looks like PINN is trying to connect to a dud Sourceforge mirror, "cyfuture.dl.sourceforge.net", which I cannot reach even from a webbrowser or ping, either because of my location or there is a problem with the mirror itself.

That led me to try to perform the installation using local media. I am able to download manually the contents of the folder "https://sourceforge.net/projects/pinn/f ... cera_RPi4/" by choosing a different mirror. I've copied the files to an "os" directory on a fat32 usb stick. PINN can see it as "sdb: USB Flash Drive".

It seems PINN wants to verify the OS version on the usb by using meta files from Sourceforge as reference. Unfortunately, as PINN is trying to access the same unreachable mirror, the entire install/replace procedure cannot move forward.

Is there a way to bypass this version check, or is there some other way for me to proceed?

Thank you for any help.

Also, I have resized the project space fat partition to 6GB to allow for the Batocera sizings, and updated the installed_os.json. At any rate, PINN can see the project space just fine.

1. I just downloaded batocera_RPI4 from sourceforge ok, but sometimes the mirrors do go down. This is normally resolved by waiting a while and trying again. But if you are impatient, yes you can download the files manually as you did.
2. The USB stick should ideally be formatted as FAT32 as you did, but also it must first be partitioned as an MBR drive and the first primary partition then formatted as FAT32. If you just format the USB stick as FAT32, it could result in /dev/sdb instead of /dev/sdb1 and PINN will not find the files. This is not easy to tell just from the entry in the Destination Drive box in PINN. Check that the drive is mounted at /tmp/media/sdb1 (or sda1 depending on what other drives you may have connected)
3. The OS installation files should not be directly stored in the `/os` folder of the USB stick, but rather in a suitably named folder e.g. `/os/batocera_RPi4`. In this way the USB stick can store multiple OS installations, not just one.
4. When you have all the files on the USB stick and you plug it into the Pi, PINN should recognise the new OS. Even though it is the same date as the version on the internet, local files will take precedence. So if you navigate to the games tab and look for Batocera_RPi4, the icon at the right hand side should have changed from an Ethernet connector to a USB logo to indicate this is the version that will be used. If it is still showing an ethernet connector (which I presume is your case at the moment) then the USB files have not been recognised and it is still using the internet version.
5. Finally, the meta-files must all be correct, and unfortunately, there were a couple of errors in them that prevented the local files from being recognised. Sorry for that! Please re-download os.json and partitions.json and replace the previous files you downloaded.

Statistics: Posted by procount — Thu May 22, 2025 11:28 pm