My pi WILL NOT let me USB boot!

[boomonster]

Hello, I am new here, so if I am missing some step, please tell me.

I have a Pi 2 B Rev 1.1 and I want to install Debian from USB.
So I used a tutorial found in the Other/Debian/ forum, and in there is a post named:
HOWTO: Install Debian armhf on the pi 2/3

So, I made the installer, and tested it with a few modifications from SD card. It booted and
ran successfully. (until I had to install GRUB which wasn't supposed to happen)

Now, I tried from USB formated using mkfs.vfat (SD card formatted the same way).
I put the installer on an Apple 512mb USB drive, and the bootcode.bin file on the SD card.

I tried to boot...

Nothing happened. The red and green lights on my pi stayed on. So I pulled the plug.

My point being, my pi will not usb boot!

Thanks in advance & sorry if I put my post in the wrong forum,
Boomonster

[HawaiianPi]

The USB drive needs a Pi compatible OS image file.

I doubt the problem is your Pi. It's almost certainly the "installer" (as you call it). If your end game is Debian, then use Raspbian (a Pi optimized Debian build). Grab the latest Raspbian image from the Downloads link above and write it to your USB drive with the Etcher image writing software. No need to extract the image first, Etcher can do that as it writes the image (write it directly from the .zip download).

Most single board computers need a custom boot-loader and kernel, so it's unlikely a standard Debian install will work.

[boomonster]

I am not trying to run debian from USB, I am trying to install it from USB installation media...

See this post and maybe you will understand what I mean:
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=216079

Boomonster

[W. H. Heydt]

Be careful when just talking about a "Pi2" as there are two versions of the Pi2B, the Pi2Bv1.1 with a quad Cortex-A7 (ARMv7) SoC and the Pi2Bv1.2 with a quad Cortex-A53 (ARMv8-A) SoC. The Pi2Bv1.1 is 32-bit only. The Pi2Bv1.2 can do 64-bit and is a down-clocked version of the SoC on the Pi3B.

[code_exec]

Be careful when just talking about a "Pi2" as there are two versions of the Pi2B, the Pi2Bv1.1 with a quad Cortex-A7 (ARMv7) SoC and the Pi2Bv1.2 with a quad Cortex-A53 (ARMv8-A) SoC. The Pi2Bv1.1 is 32-bit only. The Pi2Bv1.2 can do 64-bit and is a down-clocked version of the SoC on the Pi3B.

Not to mention that the original Pi 2 is incapable of booting from USB.

[DirkS]

Not to mention that the original Pi 2 is incapable of booting from USB.

OP is talking about using the 'bootcode.bin on SD card' method. That should be compatible with any model

[code_exec]

Not to mention that the original Pi 2 is incapable of booting from USB.

OP is talking about using the 'bootcode.bin on SD card' method. That should be compatible with any model

Alright, here's how you boot from an SD card with the root filesystem on a USB:

First of all, copy all the bootloader files over to the microSD. You can get the latest copy of the bootloader files and extract them to your SD card:

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sudo mkdir /tmp/pi-bootloader
wget http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/pool/main/r/raspberrypi-firmware/raspberrypi-bootloader_1.20181112-1_armhf.deb
sudo dpkg-deb -x raspberrypi-bootloader_1.20181112-1_armhf.deb /tmp/pi-bootloader
sudo cp -r /tmp/pi-bootloader/boot/* /mnt

Assuming that your microSD card is mounted at /mnt, if not, then mount it first:

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sudo mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt

Then, on the SD card, create cmdline.txt:

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sudo nano /mnt/cmdline.txt

Put the following in there:

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root=/dev/sda1

Save the file and then unmount the SD:

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sudo umount /mnt

Then insert the USB drive into your PC. Mount it at /mnt:

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sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt

Edit /etc/fstab to point to the correct devices:

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sudo nano /mnt/etc/fstab

Replace /dev/sda1 with /dev/mmcblk0p1, and /dev/sda2 with /dev/sda1. Save the file and unmount the device:

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sudo umount /mnt

Put the microSD card into your Pi and insert your USB drive into one of the USB ports, and then power it up! Debian should boot successfully.

[DirkS]

Not to mention that the original Pi 2 is incapable of booting from USB.

OP is talking about using the 'bootcode.bin on SD card' method. That should be compatible with any model

Alright, here's how you boot from an SD card with the root filesystem on a USB:

That's one way. The other is to put just 'bootcode.bin' on an SD card and put everything else (boot and root) on a USB device.
And that's what OP is trying,

[HawaiianPi]

Alright, here's how you boot from an SD card with the root filesystem on a USB:
...

Sure, if you want to do it the hard way.

The simple/best solution for older Pi models is to write a Raspbian image directly to the USB drive, then use a FAT32 SD card with just bootcode.bin on it. The bootcode.bin file can be copied from the imaged USB drive, or you can download it here (bootcode.bin).

Advantages:

• The system boots entirely from USB (SD card is not used beyond early stage boot-loader).
• Auto-resize on first boot works (it doesn't with /boot on SD and rootfs on USB).
• Kernel and firmware updates are correctly applied.
• No file or configuration editing needed with recent versions of Raspbian (just burn-n-boot).