war story: creating Raspberry Pi 2 boot card
I found an excuse to buy a Raspberry Pi 2. Mathematica was too slow on the Raspberry Pi B. We bought one at the Canada Robotix store in Markham. $48.99 + 6.37 tax. The RP2 uses Micro SD rather than normal SD and the software isn't 100% compatible so I created a new MicroSD as the "hard drive". I used a SanDisk Extreme PLUS microSDHC UHS-1 32GB card (I had one on hand). I wanted to use the latest Raspbian because it is compatible with the RP2 and includes Mathematica. I tried several things before one worked. I'm writing this up to save others from frustration. These accounts are based on my unreliable memory -- I had no idea that it would have been worth taking notes. I was kind of improvising, starting from here <http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/> Spoiler: my current hypothesis is that my (Linux) desktop's SD interface is silently busted in some way. If you've done any of this, I'd like to hear how it worked for you. Attempt 1: - The card was brand new, already formatted with some FAT-family filesystem - I fetched the NOOBS Offline and network install - I installed the card in my desktop computer and used Linux unzip - I moved the card to the RP2 and powered it on. The green "reading SD" and orange or red "power" LEDS came on and stayed on, with no other visible activity. I gave up. Attempt 2: - same card - from my desktop machine, I dd'ed the RASPBIAN image onto the card - I tried to boot it. Same result. Attempt 3: - same card - booted Windows on a notebook and ran SD Formatter 4.0 (as prescribed in <http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/>) to create just the right filesystem. - went to my desktop machine and unzipped NOOBS into the card - I tried to boot it. Same result. Attempt 4: - same card - booted Windows on a notebook and ran SD Formatter 4.0 (as prescribed in <http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/>) to create just the right filesystem. - I used Windows to unzipped NOOBS into the card - I tried to boot it. It worked! ================ Early hypotheses that are refuted: - my microSD card was no good. Or not compatible with the RP2 - my RP2 was no good Lingering hypotheses: - Perhaps my desktop's SD interface is silently busted. It is a common factor on all failures. - the preformatted filesystem that came on the microSD may not work for the RP2's boot system - Linux's unzip botches things some way. Perhaps some flag is needed. Experiments I should try (but may not): - retry each of the experiments that failed, but use Linux on my notebook rather than on my desktop. - see if my notebook can read and verify microSD cards written by my desktop
When creating a system for the RP I have had a 100% success rate with the GTK-based Startup Disk Creator <https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/usb-creator-gtk/> under Ubuntu. 'dd' has worked for me but I recall having to use some non-default block settings. One article suggests "bs=1m" as an arg to dd. On 8 March 2015 at 12:50, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh@mimosa.com> wrote:
I found an excuse to buy a Raspberry Pi 2. Mathematica was too slow on the Raspberry Pi B.
We bought one at the Canada Robotix store in Markham. $48.99 + 6.37 tax.
The RP2 uses Micro SD rather than normal SD and the software isn't 100% compatible so I created a new MicroSD as the "hard drive".
I used a SanDisk Extreme PLUS microSDHC UHS-1 32GB card (I had one on hand).
I wanted to use the latest Raspbian because it is compatible with the RP2 and includes Mathematica.
I tried several things before one worked. I'm writing this up to save others from frustration. These accounts are based on my unreliable memory -- I had no idea that it would have been worth taking notes.
I was kind of improvising, starting from here <http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/>
Spoiler: my current hypothesis is that my (Linux) desktop's SD interface is silently busted in some way.
If you've done any of this, I'd like to hear how it worked for you.
Attempt 1:
- The card was brand new, already formatted with some FAT-family filesystem
- I fetched the NOOBS Offline and network install
- I installed the card in my desktop computer and used Linux unzip
- I moved the card to the RP2 and powered it on. The green "reading SD" and orange or red "power" LEDS came on and stayed on, with no other visible activity. I gave up.
Attempt 2:
- same card
- from my desktop machine, I dd'ed the RASPBIAN image onto the card
- I tried to boot it. Same result.
Attempt 3:
- same card
- booted Windows on a notebook and ran SD Formatter 4.0 (as prescribed in <http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/>) to create just the right filesystem.
- went to my desktop machine and unzipped NOOBS into the card
- I tried to boot it. Same result.
Attempt 4:
- same card
- booted Windows on a notebook and ran SD Formatter 4.0 (as prescribed in <http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/>) to create just the right filesystem.
- I used Windows to unzipped NOOBS into the card
- I tried to boot it. It worked!
================
Early hypotheses that are refuted:
- my microSD card was no good. Or not compatible with the RP2
- my RP2 was no good
Lingering hypotheses:
- Perhaps my desktop's SD interface is silently busted. It is a common factor on all failures.
- the preformatted filesystem that came on the microSD may not work for the RP2's boot system
- Linux's unzip botches things some way. Perhaps some flag is needed.
Experiments I should try (but may not):
- retry each of the experiments that failed, but use Linux on my notebook rather than on my desktop.
- see if my notebook can read and verify microSD cards written by my desktop --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org http://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
-- Evan Leibovitch Toronto Canada Em: evan at telly dot org Sk: evanleibovitch Tw: el56
On Sun, Mar 8, 2015 at 1:21 PM, Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> wrote:
When creating a system for the RP I have had a 100% success rate with the GTK-based Startup Disk Creator <https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/usb-creator-gtk/> under Ubuntu.
'dd' has worked for me but I recall having to use some non-default block settings. One article suggests "bs=1m" as an arg to dd.
I created an Ubuntu 14.04 boot image for the Pi 2 using (new to me) *bmap-tools*. My notes for writing to microSD and setting up root to run from an external USD hard drive: http://www.circuidipity.com/run-a-raspberry-pi-2-from-external-usb-storage.h... Uptime 6 days and counting... -- (o< .: Per curiositas ad astra .: http://www.circuidipity.com (/)_
| From: Daniel Wayne Armstrong <daniel@circuidipity.com> | I created an Ubuntu 14.04 boot image for the Pi 2 using (new to me) | *bmap-tools*. Using bmap-tools makes sense if you are handed a .bmap file. Apparently one was supplied in 2015-02-19-ubuntu-trusty.zip. The file 2015-02-19-ubuntu-trusty.img contained in the .zip originally had holes but these disappeared through the zipping. Neither NOOBS_v1_4_0.zip nor 2015-02-16-raspbian-wheezy.zip contain a .bmap file. It would be good if they did, assuming that there were significant holes. Oh, and assuming that bytes corresponding to holes need not be zeroed -- raw disks don't notionally have holes. | My notes for writing to microSD and setting up root to run | from an external USD hard drive: | | http://www.circuidipity.com/run-a-raspberry-pi-2-from-external-usb-storage.h... Thanks for these!
| From: Evan Leibovitch <evan@telly.org> | When creating a system for the RP I have had a 100% success rate with | the GTK-based | Startup Disk Creator | <https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/usb-creator-gtk/> under Ubuntu. That's interesting. I've avoided it since it does not treat the image as a black-box and I haven't put the effort in to understand the restrictions. It does say on that page that it is for Debian-based OSes (if I remember correctly, it failed when I tried it on Fedora; I don't think that it warned me that it had failed). | 'dd' has worked for me but I recall having to use some non-default block | settings. One article suggests "bs=1m" as an arg to dd. I think that is only for speed. The Raspberry Pi foundation recommends bs=4M. It's all superstion since it is going through the buffer cache.
If you can't get to a Windows machine or Mac, low-level formatting on a digital camera will clean up the card read for NOOBS. After that, I've always had success with: unzip NOOBS-/ver/.zip -d /mountpoint_of_SD_card/ I think the SD card type sensitivity has gone away with more recent firmwares on the Raspberry Pi, but they are still very critical of poor power supplies. The 2 can be especially picky, since it can put out larger currents over USB than the earlier models. I do like the Model B Version 2. I'll have to see if it's faster than the two older (> 5 years) computers I have lying about for dedicated jobs. Incidentally, Lawrence now has a stock of the Raspberry Pi 2 now at Creatron. cheers, Stewart
| From: Stewart C. Russell <scruss@gmail.com> | Incidentally, Lawrence now has a stock of the Raspberry Pi 2 now at | Creatron. Good to know. And for a dollar less than I paid. Too bad that our meetings are no longer nearby (30 minute walk according to google maps).
I have a few Pi's and I have come to the conclusion that you can't skimp on the SD cards. Rasbian killed my el cheapo ADATA class 10 microSD. OpenELEC and XMBC are unusable on the class 10 cards. FreeBSD won't boot reliably with a class 10 or less SD card unless you use the tweaks I mentioned here: <http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=85&t=99151&sid=4784ce25811d943c46ce005dc8e89f12> When I finally ponied up the cash for high speed Kingston Ultimate (90MB read/40MB write) cards I had zero issues. On Sun, Mar 8, 2015 at 10:12 PM, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh@mimosa.com> wrote:
| From: Stewart C. Russell <scruss@gmail.com>
| Incidentally, Lawrence now has a stock of the Raspberry Pi 2 now at | Creatron.
Good to know. And for a dollar less than I paid.
Too bad that our meetings are no longer nearby (30 minute walk according to google maps). --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org http://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
On 2015-03-09 01:21 PM, Ansar Mohammed wrote:
When I finally ponied up the cash for high speed Kingston Ultimate (90MB read/40MB write) cards I had zero issues. I haven't had any problems with cheaper Class 10 cards, even for long term use, but I should note that Canada Computers has a special on Kingston Ultimate microSDs this weekend. It brings them down to within a couple of bucks of the price of regular cards.
cheers, Stewart
I had a Pi running happish on a class 4, if I recall correctly... I just mounted the root file system read only and created a small ramdisk to /tmp. Whenever I needed to change something I would remount it rw, change, reboot. Before that the card would be killed every other week, every time the Pi suffered a power failure. Probably a slow card cannot flush the cache fast enough. But I don't own it anymore, I sold it to a friend and now I am a proud owner of a cubietruck. On Mar 14, 2015 9:18 PM, "Stewart C. Russell" <scruss@gmail.com> wrote:
On 2015-03-09 01:21 PM, Ansar Mohammed wrote:
When I finally ponied up the cash for high speed Kingston Ultimate (90MB read/40MB write) cards I had zero issues. I haven't had any problems with cheaper Class 10 cards, even for long term use, but I should note that Canada Computers has a special on Kingston Ultimate microSDs this weekend. It brings them down to within a couple of bucks of the price of regular cards.
cheers, Stewart --- Talk Mailing List talk@gtalug.org http://gtalug.org/mailman/listinfo/talk
D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:
I found an excuse to buy a Raspberry Pi 2. Mathematica was too slow on the Raspberry Pi B. ... If you've done any of this, I'd like to hear how it worked for you.
- Downloaded 2015-02-16-raspbian-wheezy.zip - Unzip in /tmp - Determined that the uSD was sdg on my workstation # dd if=/tmp/2015-02-16-raspbian-wheezy.img of=/dev/sdg - Hook up Pi2 (HDMI, USB keyboard, USB power) - Power up - See quad raspberries on boot screen - Enjoy Since you're using NOOBS, YMMV. I did note that the last two release log entries for Raspbian spoke of Pi2 compatibility, so grab the latest of whatever you're using and don't use an image you downloaded back when. (If you do the latter, the Pi2 displays a pretty coloured block and just sits there. DAMHIKT.) -- Anthony de Boer
participants (7)
-
Ansar Mohammed -
Anthony de Boer -
D. Hugh Redelmeier -
Daniel Wayne Armstrong -
Evan Leibovitch -
Mauro Souza -
Stewart C. Russell