Fidonet Portal
From:
Chris Green (2:221/10)
To: All
Date: Mon, 13.12.21 21:22
How to diagnose failure to boot from USB?
To: All
Date: Mon, 13.12.21 21:22
How to diagnose failure to boot from USB?
From: Chris Green <cl@isbd.net>
I have written a Pi image to a little (spinning) USB drive I have and
have connected it to my Pi 4. It's the same image as I recently
installed on a new SD card.
I have gone through the various update checks for the eeprom and
related things (I think, I've followed a couple of web sites
descriptions).
I have changed the BOOT_ORDER entry in the eeprom using
rpi-eeprom-config to 0x41 which should try USB first and then the SD
card.
... and it doesn't boot from USB, it thinks for a fairly long time and
then boots from the SD card (fortunately since the Pi is rather
inacessible out in the garage).
If I manually mount the USB drive it appears to have the correct
partitions and types with all the usual files etc.
The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
is the 'first' USB drive)
Any ideas gratefully received.
--
Chris Green
·
---
* Origin: rbb.fidonet.fi - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10)
I have written a Pi image to a little (spinning) USB drive I have and
have connected it to my Pi 4. It's the same image as I recently
installed on a new SD card.
I have gone through the various update checks for the eeprom and
related things (I think, I've followed a couple of web sites
descriptions).
I have changed the BOOT_ORDER entry in the eeprom using
rpi-eeprom-config to 0x41 which should try USB first and then the SD
card.
... and it doesn't boot from USB, it thinks for a fairly long time and
then boots from the SD card (fortunately since the Pi is rather
inacessible out in the garage).
If I manually mount the USB drive it appears to have the correct
partitions and types with all the usual files etc.
The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
is the 'first' USB drive)
Any ideas gratefully received.
--
Chris Green
·
---
* Origin: rbb.fidonet.fi - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10)
From:
Jim Jackson (2:221/10)
To: All
Date: Mon, 13.12.21 22:31
Re: How to diagnose failure to boot from USB?
To: All
Date: Mon, 13.12.21 22:31
Re: How to diagnose failure to boot from USB?
From: Jim Jackson <jj@franjam.org.uk>
I don't boot from the USB drive, so I have no idea what the eeprom
loader does. In my setup I boot from the SD card - i.e. the /boot VFAT
partition with the kernel etc on.
The cmdline.txt file in the boot partition specifies to the kernel where the
root partition is - you need to change that. you need to know the uuid
of the root partition then change the "root=...." parameter to be
root=UUID=magic_uuid_number
The kenrel will then know where to look for the root filesystem.
On 2021-12-13, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> I have written a Pi image to a little (spinning) USB drive I have and
> have connected it to my Pi 4. It's the same image as I recently
> installed on a new SD card.
>
> I have gone through the various update checks for the eeprom and
> related things (I think, I've followed a couple of web sites
> descriptions).
>
> I have changed the BOOT_ORDER entry in the eeprom using
> rpi-eeprom-config to 0x41 which should try USB first and then the SD
> card.
>
> ... and it doesn't boot from USB, it thinks for a fairly long time and
> then boots from the SD card (fortunately since the Pi is rather
> inacessible out in the garage).
>
> If I manually mount the USB drive it appears to have the correct
> partitions and types with all the usual files etc.
>
> The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
> will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
> is the 'first' USB drive)
>
> Any ideas gratefully received.
>
---
* Origin: rbb.fidonet.fi - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10)
I don't boot from the USB drive, so I have no idea what the eeprom
loader does. In my setup I boot from the SD card - i.e. the /boot VFAT
partition with the kernel etc on.
The cmdline.txt file in the boot partition specifies to the kernel where the
root partition is - you need to change that. you need to know the uuid
of the root partition then change the "root=...." parameter to be
root=UUID=magic_uuid_number
The kenrel will then know where to look for the root filesystem.
On 2021-12-13, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> I have written a Pi image to a little (spinning) USB drive I have and
> have connected it to my Pi 4. It's the same image as I recently
> installed on a new SD card.
>
> I have gone through the various update checks for the eeprom and
> related things (I think, I've followed a couple of web sites
> descriptions).
>
> I have changed the BOOT_ORDER entry in the eeprom using
> rpi-eeprom-config to 0x41 which should try USB first and then the SD
> card.
>
> ... and it doesn't boot from USB, it thinks for a fairly long time and
> then boots from the SD card (fortunately since the Pi is rather
> inacessible out in the garage).
>
> If I manually mount the USB drive it appears to have the correct
> partitions and types with all the usual files etc.
>
> The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
> will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
> is the 'first' USB drive)
>
> Any ideas gratefully received.
>
---
* Origin: rbb.fidonet.fi - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10)
From:
Chris Elvidge (2:221/10)
To: All
Date: Mon, 13.12.21 22:45
Re: How to diagnose failure to boot from USB?
To: All
Date: Mon, 13.12.21 22:45
Re: How to diagnose failure to boot from USB?
From: Chris Elvidge <chris@mshome.net>
On 13/12/2021 21:22, Chris Green wrote:
> The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
> will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
> is the 'first' USB drive)
>
> Any ideas gratefully received.
When I tried this (admittedly on a Pi3) with 2 USB drives (one SSD and
one HDD) I got the same sort of problem. In the end I gave up and now
boot from a (small) SD card (FAT boot partition) having changed the
cmdline.txt file to point to the UUID of the USB SSD I use as root device.
--
Chris Elvidge
England
---
* Origin: rbb.fidonet.fi - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10)
On 13/12/2021 21:22, Chris Green wrote:
> The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
> will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
> is the 'first' USB drive)
>
> Any ideas gratefully received.
When I tried this (admittedly on a Pi3) with 2 USB drives (one SSD and
one HDD) I got the same sort of problem. In the end I gave up and now
boot from a (small) SD card (FAT boot partition) having changed the
cmdline.txt file to point to the UUID of the USB SSD I use as root device.
--
Chris Elvidge
England
---
* Origin: rbb.fidonet.fi - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10)
From:
bob prohaska (2:221/10)
To: All
Date: Tue, 14.12.21 00:06
Re: How to diagnose failure to boot from USB?
To: All
Date: Tue, 14.12.21 00:06
Re: How to diagnose failure to boot from USB?
From: bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net>
Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> I have written a Pi image to a little (spinning) USB drive I have and
> have connected it to my Pi 4. It's the same image as I recently
> installed on a new SD card.
>
> I have gone through the various update checks for the eeprom and
> related things (I think, I've followed a couple of web sites
> descriptions).
>
> I have changed the BOOT_ORDER entry in the eeprom using
> rpi-eeprom-config to 0x41 which should try USB first and then the SD
> card.
>
> ... and it doesn't boot from USB, it thinks for a fairly long time and
> then boots from the SD card (fortunately since the Pi is rather
> inacessible out in the garage).
>
You might try the "bootcode.bin-only" boot mode:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#special-bo
otcode-bin-only-boot-mode
It worked for me in one case and failed in another, so your odds of success
are likely to be about 50:50
As a sanity check, you might try putting the microSD card in a USB
adapter and seeing if that will boot; if it does, most likely there's
a problem with how long the disk takes to wake up. If it doesn't,
maybe check the OTP bit for USB boot.
I've been having trouble along the same lines (getting a Pi3 to boot
from a hard drive) for some time now with FreeBSD, so if you find
something interesting please post!
bob prohaska
> If I manually mount the USB drive it appears to have the correct
> partitions and types with all the usual files etc.
>
> The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
> will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
> is the 'first' USB drive)
>
> Any ideas gratefully received.
>
---
* Origin: rbb.fidonet.fi - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10)
Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
> I have written a Pi image to a little (spinning) USB drive I have and
> have connected it to my Pi 4. It's the same image as I recently
> installed on a new SD card.
>
> I have gone through the various update checks for the eeprom and
> related things (I think, I've followed a couple of web sites
> descriptions).
>
> I have changed the BOOT_ORDER entry in the eeprom using
> rpi-eeprom-config to 0x41 which should try USB first and then the SD
> card.
>
> ... and it doesn't boot from USB, it thinks for a fairly long time and
> then boots from the SD card (fortunately since the Pi is rather
> inacessible out in the garage).
>
You might try the "bootcode.bin-only" boot mode:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#special-bo
otcode-bin-only-boot-mode
It worked for me in one case and failed in another, so your odds of success
are likely to be about 50:50
As a sanity check, you might try putting the microSD card in a USB
adapter and seeing if that will boot; if it does, most likely there's
a problem with how long the disk takes to wake up. If it doesn't,
maybe check the OTP bit for USB boot.
I've been having trouble along the same lines (getting a Pi3 to boot
from a hard drive) for some time now with FreeBSD, so if you find
something interesting please post!
bob prohaska
> If I manually mount the USB drive it appears to have the correct
> partitions and types with all the usual files etc.
>
> The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
> will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
> is the 'first' USB drive)
>
> Any ideas gratefully received.
>
---
* Origin: rbb.fidonet.fi - the fidonet nntp junction (2:221/10)