What is this symbol about?

[Notinkeys]

I have a Pi3 and lately, it pops up a symbol (a square which looks like a color chooser) that I am unsure about. I have been getting the lightning bolt lately even though I used the same power supply for a while. I know the lightning bolt is basically saying "new power adapter time!" What does this other one mean?

[DougieLawson]

On old systems the rainbow square meant "new, better" power adapter needed. They changed it to the yellow lightning bolt to make it clearer what it means.

[Notinkeys]

On old systems the rainbow square meant "new, better" power adapter needed. They changed it to the yellow lightning bolt to make it clearer what it means.

I've had both the bolt and the square. My system is only a couple of months old as well. But I figured i was a power warning, but couldn't find any reference to confirm my guess. I will order a new one.

[pcmanbob]

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... g-icons.md

The old icons were

The first is a red/orange square rendered in the approximate top-right of the screen that indicates an over-temperature condition.


The second is a "rainbow" square rendered in the same area that indicates input under-voltage.

[gkaiseril]

Evsn with an adequate power supply you still need a good cable and possibly a good power strip with surge protection.

[davidcoton]

Evsn with an adequate power supply you still need a good cable and possibly a good power strip with surge protection.

Adequate power supply, absolutely. One capable of delivering the current you require (up to the recommended 2.5A) while maintaining 5V at the Pi. The "official" one is good.
Good cable (short and thick) absolutely, it avoids losing those precious PSU volts one the way to the Pi. The "official" PSU has a good cable attached.
A good power strip is always better than a bad one, less likely to fail or to burst into flame. But a bad one is unlikely to cause a voltage warning on the Pi -- the PSU will compensate until such time as the strip stops working completely. Transition from "working" to "not working" will most likely be sudden.
Likewise surge protection can save your PSU (and possibly the Pi) and other equipment connected to the strip, particularly if your power arrives on an overhead cable and you get thunderstorms. But it won't cure the undervoltage warning.

[Notinkeys]

Evsn with an adequate power supply you still need a good cable and possibly a good power strip with surge protection.

Got that part!

[Notinkeys]

I do have a new PS ordered so once it is in, I should be okay. I wonder if the one I have "softened" due to the hurricane we had a couple of weeks ago? (I live in southwest Florida.)

[Burngate]

The question that hasn't been answered is "why is the old symbol sometimes appearing instead of the new one?"

[DougieLawson]

The question that hasn't been answered is "why is the old symbol sometimes appearing instead of the new one?"

Can only be due to old bootcode/firmware. That power management stuff is baked-in to the GPU BLOB and not part of the Linux kernel or user-space stuff.

[mikerr]

The OP doesn't mention it, but I'd guess he's using 2 different sd cards with different firmware
e.g. one for kodi / another for raspbian