[Solved] Stuck on a black screen with a blinking white dot

[FrancoisT]

Hello everybody,

After trying to install Pandas in a way that I retrospectively should not have done it (sudo apt-get install python3-pandas) my Pi does not run anymore.

During the booting process it acts normal (as far as I can judge as I am a beginner in Raspberry Pi) however instead of launching the GUI it just goes to a black screen with a blinking dot. Oddly enough I can VCN it but I am nevertheless stuck so it is not really helpful.
Concerning the led patterns, the red is fixed and the green blinks in irregular patterns.

I have a few python scripts that I would really avoid to loose, and I have no idea how to recover them (if possible). I tried to install Linux Reader on my PC but when I insert the SD card I have four partition displayed and two of them appear to have nothing on it (which I higly doubt but I still can't access it) the accessible partition have system files on them.
And by going into recovery mode and reinstalling the system I am affraid that my files will be erased as well.

I am running short of ideas and I should be grateful if you would share your knowledge with me on this matter.

Thank you,

François

[DirkS]

First thing to do is to check the free disk space.
Best option is to use SSH to log in.

[k-pi]

Being a beginner, with files that are valuable to you, I'd get another SD card & a USB card reader/writer.
(These will come in handy in the future too.)

Install a new system on your new SD card, boot from it, plug in your USB card reader, with your old card, & copy all your files to the new system.
Then you can reformat your old SD card & use it as your back up disk, just in case you might have any future problems.

[FrancoisT]

Thanks to both of you for your answers.

@DirkS: That would be a great idea but I did not enable SSH before (that wasn't very bright of me), just VNC, do you think there is a way to SSH it anyways?

@k-pi: That is also a great idea, it's what I tried given that I have an extra card a card reader. Unfortunately the card reader is broken, seems like I have to get a new one.

Thanks again for your input, I keep you posted!

François

[DirkS]

@DirkS: That would be a great idea but I did not enable SSH before (that wasn't very bright of me), just VNC, do you think there is a way to SSH it anyways?

It's sill possible to activate SSH. For Rasbian card: put the card in another computer and put an empty file named 'ssh' (without the quotes) on the boot partition (that's the only partition you can access; it contains kernel.img and config.txt, and more)
See https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... /README.md, #3

On a Noobs card you can also put the file on the first partition, but I don't think it's called 'boot'. It could be 'recovery'

[FrancoisT]

Thanks all of you for your answers, I've applied k-pi's technique and I have been able to recover everything plus I kept the 32go micro-Sd card so I should be set!