Raspberry Pi Forums

Hello, I'm a new user (not very knowledgable) and having problems with the initial setup. I've imaged Wheesy (used the win 32 Disc Imager utility) but the boot sequence hangs with teh following message " Authentication Failure Respawning Too Fast restart in 5 minutes". After 5 minutes it tries to boot again but hangs at same point. I dide a search and another post with a similar problem suggested the image may be sorrup and that "sync" should be used when writing teh image to the SD card. Not sure exactly how to do this. I'd be grateful for any help.

Thanks

First check that your SD card is on the supported list here: http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeriphera ... g_SD_Cards
If it isn't, there is still a chance that it'll work.

Scrap all of the files that you downloaded the first time and start again using these steps:

Fully format - yes, without quick format enabled - your SD using FAT32 (I don't know if FAT32 is the only working file system, but I used it and it was fine).

Then download the image via torrent. Extract it onto somewhere easily accessible and then download Win32DiskImager Binary. Download version 0.5, since this is not a buggy version.

Extract that and run that as Admin.

Write it directly to the SD card.

See if that does the trick. You may find that it doesn't, but your card seems formatted completely fine. Replace the firmware files on your card with the newer one in the boot folder off here: https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware.

Try booting it again. If that doesn't work, look at the OK light on the board. Is it flashing a particular pattern? That is an error code, and that means that something is wrong.

Worse comes to worst, you can try Berry Boot.
If it still isn't working in your Pi, format the card and try again.

Genius,

Tanks for the prompt reply. I followed your advice, this time used a torrent download manager (UTorrent) and I've now got it booting up to the white desktop screen with the raspberry logo. However there are no icons or menu command on the desktop. If I right click on the mouse I have some options to launch the browser or change desktop. I'm using an 8GB card but once imaged the card shows significantly less capacity than 8 GB; I don't know why or if this is a problem.

At the moment I'm using a DLP projector (only thing I have with suitable HDMI connection), I was wondering if the lack of desktop icons has to do with my screen resolution setup on the projector. Again any help greatly appreciated .

Jimmie

Could be, you should have seven icon on the left side of your screen, and a launch button (shaped a bit like a blue bird) in the bottom left.

Maybe your screen is just shifted to the left, and these icons and buttons fall outside the screen border.
Things like that (screen adjustments and settings) can be adjusted in the config.txt file (raspi-config)

If your mouse pointer can go off screen your screen is truncated.

Thanks mahjongg, I'll explore that today. Starting to wish I had bought one of the preloaded cards now.

I've noticed what may be an associated problem with respect to my SD card. I'm using an 8 GB card but after imaging the card it only shows up as 56 MB! I tried reformatting (back on the pc) but it will only reformatt to 56MB. Have I just turned an 8GB card into a 56MB card (please tell me its recoverable)!

I've also noticed that when I unzip the image file (using XP) before I use the win imager the unzip hangs, I wonder if this is corrupting the image file. I used the torrent download from the download page.

Its quite possible that your download is corrupt, that is why the file comes with a SHA-1 code, which can be used to check the integrity of the download, using a free tool that can be downloaded from many places, including here:
http://download.cnet.com/MD5-SHA-1-Chec ... 11445.html

The image isn't a zip file, (I think) so its no surprise an unzipper chokes on it.

on OS X you can open the file and examine its contents, because OS X uses the same kind of images to distribute software, on "virtual drives".

This image contains several disk partition, of which only the smaller one can be handled by Windows, windows ignores the existence of linux partitions.

Also, the image is made to be small, so it will fit on the smallest supported SD-card.
The linux partition will be expanded to the full capacity of your SD-card (whatever it is) when you choose that option on the raspi-config menu you will get after the first few boots (when you also do not need to enter a password, which only will happen later after a few reboots). If you choose that option the software will expand the partition to full size after you reboot.
The first boot is also particular in that it takes a bit longer than normal, because it does many "run one time" household tasks, many which include making changes to your SD-card. Because the FAT (windows) partition doesn't like to be closed non cleanly you should do a clean shutdown, using the command "sudo shutdown -h now" especially after first boot, or you FAT file system may become damaged by not finishing the last writes to it (or you could wait a minute or so, so that linux gets the time to finish). As an simpler alternative to the shutdown command you can also do a "sudo halt". Sudo by the way is telling the system that you are asking to do something that needs operator privileges, and asks for your password before doing it. Linux is very much built around the concept of safety, unlike windows where its an afterthought.

After first boot its not as bad to turn off the PI by pulling the plug, as the Linux file system is self repairing, and not many writes are needed to be done to the FAT file system (unless you run the start menu again with "sudo raspi-config".

hope this helps.

Mahjongg, thanks for taking the time to reply. I had no idea about the sensitivity of the shutdown procedure for the first few boots. Once i get this sorted I'll run the sudo cmd as you suggest; thanks for sharing the sudo cmd lines.

I just assumed that downloaded OS was compressed (I have little experience with torrent files or imaging). Given that I can see the white desktop with the Raspberry icon but simply lack the other "programme" icons I'm starting to suspect a corrupted image of the OS. I'll redo the download and see what happens without unzipping. I'm chilled now about the formatting of the disk, I've since reformatted on my digital camera and, as if by magic, the 8GB capacity reappears. I really thought I had screwed the disc up. I also saw the option offered to partition to use all of the disc capacity on the first boot attempt so I'll look for it again second time around. I probably wont look at this until end of week but I'll post again when its sorted. Cheers, thanks again, I feel I am getting closer.

Mahjongg, its working! I used the check sum and sure enough the image was corrupted. Downloaded again this time using the HTLM link, re imaged the card and it booted to the desktop without any incident. I used your sudo shutdown cmd and it shut down, rebooting without any problem. All the expected icons are on the desktop. All I need now is to start playing, I'm looking to use it to drive stepper motors for a telescope focuser (school project). Thanks again for your help, have a virtual beer on me!

Jimmie

Ill take a whisky if you don't mind (a dram of a nice Glen Talloch).

Glug.. glug.. glug... burp.
Thanks.

I have the same problem with my Pi. I have tried the troubleshoot posted by Genius, I also tried using the Soft-float Debian “wheezy” but that didnt help either.
Any suggestion to what to do next?

Never mind my last post, we used another computer to configure the SD card and now it works!