RPi not booting after power out

[nicologhezzi]

I can confirm with Raspian full install not noobs dated 2018-11-13 (taken from raspberry site) the boot fails after even one incorrect power off. The problem does not happen, never, on my octoprint raspian version (taken from octoprint website). God knows why. However it's a bad "bug" that needs fixing after more than one year.

[pcmanbob]

I can confirm with Raspian full install not noobs dated 2018-11-13 (taken from raspberry site) the boot fails after even one incorrect power off. The problem does not happen, never, on my octoprint raspian version (taken from octoprint website). God knows why. However it's a bad "bug" that needs fixing after more than one year.

It is not a bug , it is caused by the fact that the OS is writing to the SD card when the power is removed, this results in a file or several files being corrupted and hence the problem of the pi not booting and booting with errors on the next power up.

Your octoprint version my be based on raspbian lite which does not write back to the SD card so often and as long as the octoprint software does not write to the SD card to often then there is a good change your SD card will not be corrupted because the pi is not writing to the SD card when the power is removed.

This can affect any computer that's writing to its disk drive when the power is removed unexpectedly not just the pi.

[Blutek]

I managed to get past this issue by installing the operating system on a usb stick, I used a "cruzer fit" stick due to how small it is.

I would then modify the boot sequence on the SD card to boot from the usb stick. Read write would switch to the usb stick after boot thus limiting the chance for the sd card to get corrupted.

The device in question has been running as a media centre for more than a year and dropping power of any kind has not caused any issues yet

[adamreisnz]

We also used these USB sticks instead of SD cards, and this has definitely reduced the risk of data corruption and failed boots, however, it has not completely eliminated them. Last week we experienced a prolonged power outage at a remote site (which does have a UPS), yet the Pi never booted back up when power was restored. Someone had to visit the site, yank out the power cable and plug it back in for the Pi to reboot.

Any thoughts as to why the Pi would physically not boot back up when power is restored? Any particular circumstances under which that can happen?

To reiterate: there was no card/disk corruption, the device booted just fine after power was cut and restored manually again, it just didn't do it automatically during the extended power outage for some reason. Any way to force the unit to always boot up when it's got power again?

[GlowInTheDark]

We also used these USB sticks instead of SD cards, and this has definitely reduced the risk of data corruption and failed boots, however, it has not completely eliminated them...

You know, funnily enough, the one and only time I had a Raspberry Pi OS boot setup go bad on me was one where the rootfs was on a USB thumb drive.

Never had any problems at all with pure SD card bootups.

And, yes, I've had my share of power outages and such. Although, to be fair, most of my Pis are now on UPS, so the problem is largely moot at this point. But power supplies still do fail from time to time... (As do UPSes)

[hippy]

Any thoughts as to why the Pi would physically not boot back up when power is restored? Any particular circumstances under which that can happen?

I used to get that with an old B+. Shut it down, unplug the power, plug it back in, wouldn't boot. Unplug it again and plug it back in and it would.

No idea why, but from experience with other systems I have investigated such issues I would put that down to some sort of residual power 'hanging around' preventing the reset circuit working as it should, phantom or partial powering from something else and similar issues. On the other hand, something not quite right, with a pre-power-up effectively priming it for an actual power-up which works.

It's very hard to diagnose without being able to replicate the issue and being able to monitor exactly what is happening with the hardware, firmware and software during an appearance of the issue.

[Lewis-H]

At any random time, a Pi running off an SD card could be writing to the card, or the card itself could be doing housekeeping. If the power is cut during either of those, the card can become corrupted.

[hippy]

At any random time, a Pi running off an SD card could be writing to the card, or the card itself could be doing housekeeping. If the power is cut during either of those, the card can become corrupted.

It seems unlikely that it's card corruption if it doesn't boot but does when power is pulled and then reconnected. One would expect the corruption to persist and prevent all booting.

[rin67630]

It is a good idea to always have a second SD card at hand.
At least you can tell if ii is hardware or Software when it does not boot...