File structure on SD card

[psyphy]

I put the NOOBS files on my SD card as this web site says, but my SD card won't boot. There is nothing wrong with my Pi 2.

Instructions about file structure on the card are vague and inconsistent. Exactly what is the file structure? What subdirectories need to be opened or not? Raspbian contains some zipped files like root.tar.xz. Do they need to be unzipped completely before the install? (I have a Windows machine. What program, if any, is required to do this?)

Also, instructions are inconsistent about how to format the SD card. Some instructions say it must have a bit-by-bit image, others say just drag and drop. What is the truth?

Thanks for your help!

[fruitoftheloom]

I put the NOOBS files on my SD card as this web site says, but my SD card won't boot. There is nothing wrong with my Pi 2.

Instructions about file structure on the card are vague and inconsistent. Exactly what is the file structure? What subdirectories need to be opened or not? Raspbian contains some zipped files like root.tar.xz. Do they need to be unzipped completely before the install? (I have a Windows machine. What program, if any, is required to do this?)

Also, instructions are inconsistent about how to format the SD card. Some instructions say it must have a bit-by-bit image, others say just drag and drop. What is the truth?

Thanks for your help!

You are totally over thinking, Format SD Card FAT32, unzip NOOBS and copy contents of the unzipped folder to the SD Card, just like on the RPF Webb Site: https://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup


Also see: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=58151

[psyphy]

OK, I tried it again. I ran SD Formatter with overwrite to format the card, then I dropped the NOOBS files on it. Here are the files:

Volume in drive G is CODER
Volume Serial Number is CB99-4C7E
Directory of G:\

02/21/2015 09:20 AM 18,693 COPYING.linux
02/21/2015 09:20 AM 1,447 LICENCE.broadcom
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 4,658 bcm2708-rpi-b-plus.dtb
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 4,379 bcm2708-rpi-b.dtb
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 5,622 bcm2709-rpi-2-b.dtb
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 555,672 start_cd.elf
01/31/2015 08:38 PM 120 cmdline.txt
02/21/2015 09:29 AM 1,346 config.txt
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 6,144 fixup.dat
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 2,354 fixup_cd.dat
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 9,196 fixup_x.dat
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 3,996,668 kernel.img
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 3,969,768 kernel7.img
02/21/2015 09:21 AM <DIR> overlays
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 2,643,544 start.elf
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 3,600,424 start_x.elf
02/21/2015 09:21 AM 17,856 bootcode.bin
01/31/2015 09:24 PM 137 issue.txt
09/25/2013 09:57 PM 18,974 LICENSE.oracle
02/21/2015 09:25 AM 41 .firmware_revision
02/21/2015 11:27 AM <DIR> coder_settings
02/21/2015 09:29 AM 1,312 config.bak
03/26/2016 10:50 AM 0 gdir.txt
21 File(s) 14,858,355 bytes
2 Dir(s) 43,417,600 bytes free

(Note: I am using a large SD card because I want to install Mathematica and other things on it later).

It didn't boot. Any other ideas?

[stderr]

OK, I tried it again. I ran SD Formatter with overwrite to format the card, then I dropped the NOOBS files on it.
It didn't boot. Any other ideas?

I don't know what you are supposed to do when you put NOOBS on an sdcard, but I would suggest getting Jessie Lite and using some means to write the image itself to the sdcard and not just as a file. This will make sure that everything is correct.

Then boot this up and go into the raspi-config program and expand your file system to the full size of the sdcard. Reboot and then

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

and then reboot and then come back in and after making sure things are running correctly, using df -h to see the free file space, add in the programs you want. You'll find that this will just work and if you do have a problem, you'll find a lot more people who can help because most people who can help aren't going to be using NOOBS.

[DirkS]

It didn't boot. Any other ideas?

I'm not surprised because those files are not Noobs files.
It looks like the contents of a Raspbian FAT / boot partition (one that actually has seen a run of rpi-update)

[psyphy]

With your help, I got it to work! Thanks for your kind and prompt replies.

I never got the NOOBS process to work.
I had to use EaseUS Partition Master to format the SD card as FAT32 (the Windows tool would only format the partition as exFAT). Then I downloaded Raspbian Jessie (the image file), then I used Win32DiskImager to install it on the SD card. This is a 3GB file, so it took awhile.

The Jessie package already contains Mathematica, so I'm good to go with that. Again, thanks for helping a beginner!

[klricks]

With your help, I got it to work! Thanks for your kind and prompt replies.

I never got the NOOBS process to work.
I had to use EaseUS Partition Master to format the SD card as FAT32 (the Windows tool would only format the partition as exFAT). Then I downloaded Raspbian Jessie (the image file), then I used Win32DiskImager to install it on the SD card. This is a 3GB file, so it took awhile.

The Jessie package already contains Mathematica, so I'm good to go with that. Again, thanks for helping a beginner!

Don't forget to expand the filesystem and reboot ASAP! Use the GUI config tool [Menu]--> [Preferences] --> Raspberry Pi Configuration
OR

Code: Select all

sudo raspi-config 

Use menu option 1 in either tool.

[mercurybreza]

I have been having the same problem with no luck -This is the 3rd RPi I have installed and it gets harder each time. 5 hours - 10 hours -20+ hours respectively - just to get a boot??? Had me looking for RPi alternatives - time leave it for the insulars to enjoy their club

[drgeoff]

With your help, I got it to work! Thanks for your kind and prompt replies.

I never got the NOOBS process to work.
I had to use EaseUS Partition Master to format the SD card as FAT32 (the Windows tool would only format the partition as exFAT). Then I downloaded Raspbian Jessie (the image file), then I used Win32DiskImager to install it on the SD card. This is a 3GB file, so it took awhile.

The Jessie package already contains Mathematica, so I'm good to go with that. Again, thanks for helping a beginner!

1. Yes, cards larger than 32 Gbyte come formatted as exFAT and most formatting utilities will either default to exFAT or only do that. A RPi will never boot from a card that has its boot files in an exFAT partition.

2. If putting an img file on a card, the partition table and file format(s) already on the card are overwritten by the image. Thus it is not necessary to do any reformatting of any card of any size.

[jahboater]

I have been having the same problem with no luck -This is the 3rd RPi I have installed and it gets harder each time. 5 hours - 10 hours -20+ hours respectively - just to get a boot??? Had me looking for RPi alternatives - time leave it for the insulars to enjoy their club

What are you doing all that time? I have installed countless images on dozens of Pi's over the years - never takes more than a few minutes and always works (well except once when I tried noobs with the wrong partition type).

If you have a slow or dodgy network connection, or a faulty SD card, that's not the Pi's fault is it?

[RaTTuS]

I have been having the same problem with no luck -This is the 3rd RPi I have installed and it gets harder each time. 5 hours - 10 hours -20+ hours respectively - just to get a boot??? Had me looking for RPi alternatives - time leave it for the insulars to enjoy their club

viewtopic.php?f=28&t=58151