Install on Raspberry Pi OS

This is an alternative to flashing seedypod OS. If you flashed the seedypod image, go straight to garden setup. Back up the stock card before replacing its contents.

The script path does not normally build the whole app on the device. If the ARMv6 better-sqlite3 binary is missing or fails its load check, the installer falls back to compiling that dependency. That compile took about 53 minutes on the original Zero W. The OS image includes the binary and avoids that step entirely.

The prebuilt script path took 6m13s for a combined HAL/core redeploy on the measured Zero W, with dependencies already present. See the measurement scope and timings.

Flash Raspberry Pi OS

Use a high-endurance microSD card, the kind rated for continuous video recording (SanDisk High Endurance, Samsung PRO Endurance or similar). It costs a few dollars more than a standard card and is the cheapest reliability gain there is.

In Raspberry Pi Imager, choose Raspberry Pi OS Lite: 64-bit for a Zero 2 W, Pi 4 or Pi 5, 32-bit for the original Zero W. In the advanced options set the hostname to seedypod, enable SSH and add your Wi-Fi. Reseat the card, boot, then connect:

ssh <your-login>@seedypod.local

Enable I²C and install the hardware daemon

On an original Pi Zero W, use the development installers for both services:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/seedypod/core/dev/scripts/install-hal | bash -s -- --version dev-latest
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/seedypod/core/dev/scripts/install | bash -s -- --branch dev

The second command installs core too. For other supported boards, the release commands are:

sudo raspi-config nonint do_i2c 0
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/seedypod/core/main/scripts/install-hal | bash
hald --check

The installer detects the CPU, downloads the matching hald binary from the latest GitHub release, writes a commented /etc/seedypod/hal.toml, creates a seedypod system user in the gpio, i2c and video groups, enables the PWM overlay for the grow light (one reboot needed), installs fswebcam, installs the Mosquitto MQTT broker on 127.0.0.1:1883 (reachable only from the Pi itself), and enables hald.service. hald --check validates the config and prints the devices it plans to use. See the hald reference for options.

It also cuts how much the Pi writes to its card (ADR 0021): the system journal stays in RAM, swap moves to compressed RAM (zram), and / is mounted with noatime. Each change is checked once it’s applied and undone if the check fails, and --no-wear skips all three. Logs then last until reboot; Debugging shows how to keep them longer. Settings → Storage shows how much the unit writes a day.

The first Zero W bring-up measured about 63 MB/day of card writes over a 20-minute sample, down from about 440 MB/day. This is a short sample, not a long-term endurance result; see the bring-up handoff.

Install core

If you ran both Zero W development commands above, core is already installed: skip this command. Otherwise, on the same Pi or another machine on your LAN:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/seedypod/core/main/scripts/install | bash

Development installs also forward port 80 to core on port 3000, so http://seedypod.local/ opens the app. If hald runs on another machine, set HAL_MQTT_URL in /etc/systemd/system/seedypod-core.service. Then open http://seedypod.local:3000/.

A new install opens on Welcome. Choose Set up a new garden, or Restore from a backup if this card replaces one that died (Replace a dead SD card).

The installer accepts --branch dev to install the rolling development build, --prefix to change the install location (default /opt/seedypod), and --restore <file|url> to restore a backup straight after installing. It also installs the restore helper at /usr/local/sbin/seedypod-restore and lets core’s user run it with sudo, for that one path.

Continue to garden setup.

Source: docs/INSTALLATION.md · docs/MAINTENANCE.md · scripts/install · scripts/install-hal · scripts/seedypod-restore.cjs