RPi4 not booting with RPi2 SD card

[wwe]

I know already that I am trying to do something that is not recommended, but I wonder if anyone has any suggestion.
Basically I am trying to move a system that is currently installed and running on a RPi2 to the new RPi4, but the only thing I get is a blank screen. Details follow.

1) RPi4 without SD card: 4 flashes of the ACT led (everything fine on the hardware side)
2) RPi4 with RPi2 system SD card: ACT blinks irregularly for ½ second, then off; screen black (no rainbow)
3) Rpi4 with NOOBS SD card: boots fine, can install raspbian and boot completes to command line

4) Rpi4 with RPi2 system SD card but with config.txt and cmdline.txt from Rpi4-installed Raspbian: does not boot, similar to (2)
5) Rpi4 with RPi2 system SD card with entire boot partition copied from Rpi4-installed Raspbian: does not boot, similar to (2)
6) Rpi4 with RPi2 system SD card with entire boot partition copied from Rpi4-installed Raspbian and adjusted root PARTUUID: does not boot, similar to (2)

In brief, it looks to me that I am not even getting through to the point where the root partition is mounted, so I am wondering what is missing/different in the Rpi2 SD card.

Thank you for your help

[fruitoftheloom]

I know already that I am trying to do something that is not recommended, but I wonder if anyone has any suggestion.
Basically I am trying to move a system that is currently installed and running on a RPi2 to the new RPi4, but the only thing I get is a blank screen. Details follow.

1) RPi4 without SD card: 4 flashes of the ACT led (everything fine on the hardware side)
2) RPi4 with RPi2 system SD card: ACT blinks irregularly for ½ second, then off; screen black (no rainbow)
3) Rpi4 with NOOBS SD card: boots fine, can install raspbian and boot completes to command line

4) Rpi4 with RPi2 system SD card but with config.txt and cmdline.txt from Rpi4-installed Raspbian: does not boot, similar to (2)
5) Rpi4 with RPi2 system SD card with entire boot partition copied from Rpi4-installed Raspbian: does not boot, similar to (2)
6) Rpi4 with RPi2 system SD card with entire boot partition copied from Rpi4-installed Raspbian and adjusted root PARTUUID: does not boot, similar to (2)

In brief, it looks to me that I am not even getting through to the point where the root partition is mounted, so I am wondering what is missing/different in the Rpi2 SD card.

Thank you for your help

Only RASPBIAN BUSTER is officially supported by the Raspberry Pi 4B SBC.

[HawaiianPi]

New hardware requires new firmware and kernel support. This happens every time a new model is released. Older OS versions will not work because they don't have the correct firmware and kernel. In some cases all that was required was a simple update/upgrade, but with the release of the new Pi 4B they also released the new Raspbian Buster, and that's the only OS that fully supports the Pi 4B at this time.

When a new Raspbian version is released it is recommended to start over with a new, clean install, but there is a non-recommended (and non-supported) procedure for upgrading versions. See the docs here: https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/buster ... -raspbian/

Don't do this on your working card (make a backup first).

[mahjongg]

The PI4 needs the latest Raspbian Buster that was released alongside of it, older versions of Raspbian will NOT boot on it.
But if you have Raspbian Buster running on your older PI now, the same SD-cards should run on the PI4 too.

p.s. if you are running an older version of raspbian now, and are thinking to do an upgrade (sudo apt-get upgrade & sudo apt-get dist-upgrade) then don't, its better to start anew. dist-upgrade is not guaranteed to work, so if you want to risk it, make a backup first!

from the buster launch blog:

We do not recommend upgrading an existing Stretch (or earlier) system to Buster – we can’t know what changes everyone has made to their system, and so have no idea what may break when you move to Buster. However, we have tested the following procedure for upgrading, and it works on a clean version of the last Stretch image we released. That does not guarantee it will work on your system, and we cannot provide support (or be held responsible) for any problems that arise if you try it. You have been warned – make a backup!

for (PI4) boot problems, please read the Boot problem sticky in troubleshooting, it contains the accumulated knowledge about booting any PI, from the last seven years, and has a separate section specifically for the PI4.
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 28&t=58151

[wildfire]

Etcher software on your x86 PC is creating the SD Card from .zip download ( one does not need to unzip the download ) ?

Additionally, when using etcher there is no need to format your card.

[wwe]

Just to be clear I am already on Raspbian Buster (I dist-upgraded at the beginning of July), and I have already read through the Rpi4 -specific "failed to boot guide". I will read through the whole post — maybe I missed something.

It doesn't seem to be a matter of different kernel or firmware (both the freshly installed version and my version on the old Rpi2 SD card have the same sha checksum)

[davidcoton]

Just to be clear I am already on Raspbian Buster (I dist-upgraded at the beginning of July), and I have already read through the Rpi4 -specific "failed to boot guide". I will read through the whole post — maybe I missed something.

dist-upgrade by itself does not upgrade Stretch to Buster. You need to change the repository lists too, then do (modern form):

Code: Select all

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

There is a blog post with a recipe, and a warning that it may not work
You must complete the update on an older Pi before transferring to the Pi4.
This does not explain why a new download doesn't work, but it sounds more like an HDMI issue than a boot issue.
EDIT: not relevant to OP. Sorry.

[rpdom]

Just to be clear I am already on Raspbian Buster (I dist-upgraded at the beginning of July), and I have already read through the Rpi4 -specific "failed to boot guide". I will read through the whole post — maybe I missed something.

Just to clarify, did you install the original Raspbian from an image file, or by using NOOBS?

[fruitoftheloom]

Just to be clear I am already on Raspbian Buster (I dist-upgraded at the beginning of July), and I have already read through the Rpi4 -specific "failed to boot guide". I will read through the whole post — maybe I missed something.

It doesn't seem to be a matter of different kernel or firmware (both the freshly installed version and my version on the old Rpi2 SD card have the same sha checksum)

It seems another poster has HIJACKED your post above and therefore apologise for answering the hijackers response.

[fruitoftheloom]

Just to be clear I am already on Raspbian Buster (I dist-upgraded at the beginning of July), and I have already read through the Rpi4 -specific "failed to boot guide". I will read through the whole post — maybe I missed something.

It doesn't seem to be a matter of different kernel or firmware (both the freshly installed version and my version on the old Rpi2 SD card have the same sha checksum)

Please can you grab another SD Card and on you x86 PC use Etcher to create a bootable Raspbian Buster SD Card !!

https://www.balena.io/etcher/

https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/

[HawaiianPi]

Just to be clear I am already on Raspbian Buster (I dist-upgraded at the beginning of July),

Raspbian is not a rolling release, so dist-upgrade only upgrades the current version (dist-upgrade of Stretch will only get you the latest Stretch, it does not upgrade to a newer version).

I have stated above that I have formatted the sd card which I was using in RPI3 and burned the latest and clean image

You need to start your own thread. You do not have the same problem as the OP, and your presence in this thread is confusing the issue

[wwe]

Thank you for the suggestions, but I am on Buster.

Code: Select all

xyz@idefix:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/ buster main contrib non-free rpi
# Uncomment line below then 'apt-get update' to enable 'apt-get source'
#deb-src http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/ buster main contrib non-free rpi

xyz@idefix:~$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="10"
VERSION="10 (buster)"
VERSION_CODENAME=buster
ID=raspbian
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianForums"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianBugs"

I did install the original system from noobs. I am trying to look up in the RECOVERY and SETTINGS partition for any differences between the SD card that boots (fresh noobs install ) and the one that doesn't (noobs, from RPi2 ), but I have not found the responsible yet

[fruitoftheloom]

Thank you for the suggestions, but I am on Buster.

Code: Select all

xyz@idefix:~$ cat /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/ buster main contrib non-free rpi
# Uncomment line below then 'apt-get update' to enable 'apt-get source'
#deb-src http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/ buster main contrib non-free rpi

xyz@idefix:~$ cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
NAME="Raspbian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="10"
VERSION="10 (buster)"
VERSION_CODENAME=buster
ID=raspbian
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianForums"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://www.raspbian.org/RaspbianBugs"

I did install the original system from noobs. I am trying to look up in the RECOVERY and SETTINGS partition for any differences between the SD card that boots (fresh noobs install ) and the one that doesn't (noobs, from RPi2 ), but I have not found the responsible yet

My suggestion is to not use NoobS as I stated above.....

[HawaiianPi]

Thank you for the suggestions, but I am on Buster.
...
I did install the original system from noobs...

Which "original system" was installed from NOOBS?

If your Pi2 card was a NOOBS card then you are in for a world of hurt and should just start over. It's going to be monumentally difficult to get that working, and you'll end up with a system that I would not consider trustworthy.

[rpdom]

The problem with NOOBS is that essentially you have two separate systems on your card - the NOOBS system and the Raspbian system. Your apt upgrade has updated the Raspbian system, but the NOOBS system is still using the old boot code and doesn't support the Pi 4B.

When you boot your Pi it loads NOOBS first, then reboots into Raspbian. As NOOBS is old, it won't get that far.

It is possible with a lot of fiddling to convert a NOOBS+Raspbian card to a Raspbian only card, but that is quite a complex procedure. Much better to just install a fresh Raspbian image and start from scratch.

[fbe]

I did install the original system from noobs. I am trying to look up in the RECOVERY and SETTINGS partition for any differences between the SD card that boots (fresh noobs install ) and the one that doesn't (noobs, from RPi2 ), but I have not found the responsible yet

The support for NOOBS ends when you install NOOBS. It's not intended to be updated.
Try to follow this How-To: https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... 3&t=212452
Don't run rpi-update!

[mahjongg]

Okay, tried to unravel this mess, by splitting all the hijackers posts out of this thread.

please continue.

[wwe]

Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. The RECOVERY partition with noobs needed to be updated. In fact the driver bcm2711-rpi-4-b.dtb was missing. Booting and running with no evident issue now.