RCA video output

[GermanCat]

Hi everyone,

I just received my pi and as I don't own an HD tv/screen, I resorted to plug it using the pi's sd video output and this cable : http://tinyurl.com/a65slch

So I've booted the pi and unfortunately nothing comes on the screen !

I know I'm supposed to wait for 5-10 minutes on the first boot but nothing appears, even after 15 min !

I tried plugging it in onto another sd tv to be sure and same thing again, the screen stays pitch dark ...


As I have no HD monitor, I cannot think of what is going wrong.


Any suggestions ?

[Wheel_nut]

What happens when you apply Power? Does the Red LED light up? Does the Green LED Flash?

[GermanCat]

Red light is up.

Nothing is flashing.

[mahjongg]

Standard thirteen to the dozen boot problem, moved thread to troubleshooting section.
moderated.

[bgirardot]

There is no need to wait more than about 1 minute as far as I know at most for something to appear on the screen for any boot, first or not.

If the green ok led doesn't even flicker a little bit, it is not reading the sd card at all. It can flicker just a fraction of second and then not flicker, but it should flicker at least a little bit when first powered on.

How did you create the sd card?

Can you gently hold the sd card down on the springs and see if boots, sometimes they do not make contact.

[GermanCat]

Well, I use a 8 gig sony Micro SD card with an SD card adapter.

Normally it "should" work.


I put Rasbian onto the micro sd by using the command line:

" sudo dd bs=4M if= imagefile.iso"

(as described in this videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2M1Ev_ShP0)

[bgirardot]

That command doesn't really match what is in the video.

Your file should be a .img file and you are missing the of= part of the command which specifies which volume to put the .img file on.

[GermanCat]

I'll rewrite the image file later onto a SD card (i'll put aside the micro sd card).


The only problem is that the ubuntu usb boot disk maker doesn't work. It simply opens a window saying the installation failed.

So that's why I copied the OS onto the micro sd card through the terminal.
I also tried using another boot disk creator and it still couldn't copy the os onto the micro sd card.

As for the command line being incorrect in my previous post, it's normal, I didn't retype everything in the post as the video was linked. But thanks for pointing it out. However, I did follow exactly what the video said when I was copying the os onto my micro sd card.

[drgeoff]

The only problem is that the ubuntu usb boot disk maker doesn't work. It simply opens a window saying the installation failed.

So that's why I copied the OS onto the micro sd card through the terminal.
I also tried using another boot disk creator and it still couldn't copy the os onto the micro sd card.

As for the command line being incorrect in my previous post, it's normal, I didn't retype everything in the post as the video was linked. But thanks for pointing it out. However, I did follow exactly what the video said when I was copying the os onto my micro sd card.

Why have you written about "ubuntu usb boot disk maker" and "another boot disk creator"? You don't need any of those.

Instructions for writing the SD card from Windows PC, Mac or Linux are all at http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup

[bgirardot]

As for the command line being incorrect in my previous post, it's normal, I didn't retype everything in the post as the video was linked. But thanks for pointing it out. However, I did follow exactly what the video said when I was copying the os onto my micro sd card.

Please do not do that. If asked you how you are doing something, please say exactly what you are doing as completely as possible. You even put it in quotes as if it was exactly what you were doing. It wastes people's time who are trying to help to write something "similar" to what you are doing.

We see all sorts of little tiny variations in commands and procedures that make a big difference to successful operations or not, so it really helps to see exactly what you are doing as completely as possible so we might be able to spot the issue causing the trouble.

I think re-doing the writing of the SD card should help either way though.

[Burngate]

If you are certain you have followed the instructions correctly, then you should be able to put the card into a card reader and see some files on it.

If you are using a Windows computer, you will only see BOOTCODE.BIN, START.ELF, KERNEL.IMG, and a few others.
On a Linux computer you will also see another partition, with a whole lot of other things

If you don't see these files, then you've done it wrong.

[efflandt]

Ubuntu's "Startup Disk Creator" is for Ubuntu live/install iso files (and related Mint), but would not work for regular Debian Linux img or Raspberry Pi img files that need to written in full directly from the beginning of the SD/microSD. Also make sure that you are dd'ing the .img file unzipped from the .zip file and not the zip file itself.

Change the x in sdx to your device (a letter, no numbers, no spaces around =):

Code: Select all

sudo dd bs=4M if=2012-12-16-wheezy-raspbian.img of=/dev/sdx

Once dd is finished in Ubuntu, if you unplug your card and plug it back in, the file manager should automatically come up showing 2 partitions. If you want to at that point you can umount the 2nd partition of the card and use gparted to expand the 2nd partition to fill the card (gparted is not installed by default, but you can install it). Or you will be given that option when you 1st boot the Pi (or later by running sudo raspi-config)