Can't boot new B+ (solved)

[LandShark]

Hi All,

New to Raspberry Pi but fairly knowledgeable in computers.

Got a new B+ starter kit. Put in SD card, keyboard, mouse, WiFi . Hooked up HMDI via DVI adapter to a Samsung 941BW...No Joy...solid Green and red LEDs (To be honest, I did not start looking at the LEDs until I had re-powered a number of times).

I have read the Boot sticky.

I have tried an alternate display (HMDI into a Sony TV)
I have checked the SD card, correct files are there.

I have checked the SD card holder...seems to be in good order (hard to tell with bi-focals)

I tried booting with no USB attachments.

No matter what I try, I do not see any sign of the ACT blink (solid green the whole time).

Any ideas on what I may be missing her?

Thanks,

Jeff (aka LandShark)

[jdb]

The unblinking gaze of the red and green LEDs with no video output means that the bootloader hasn't loaded bootcode.bin. The provided SD card most likely contains old or out-of-date software.

Download the latest NOOBS or Raspbian image and write it to the SD card.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/documentatio ... /README.md

[LandShark]

OK, I deleted the files on the SD card, downloaded fresh files and copied those to SD card. I reinstalled in the Pi, and plugged in with nothing else (no HMDI, no Ethernet, no USB) and only get a steady green and red LED. Do I nee dto connect to HMDI or is this a sufficient test set up?

Jeff

[mahjongg]

As you will only get any video, after NOOBS has booted, before that the only indication you get is the ACT LED, if its not blinking in an irregular pattern, the PI has not found the valid boot file it needs to start the bootup process. That is all in the sticky already! The PI doesn't need anything attached to boot, only power!

[LandShark]

I was just asking if the fact that I did not hook up HMDI would effect the booting process ( I did read the Sticky...it does not implicitly state if HMDI makes a difference).

So since it does not, any suggestion on what I can do to get this working? Or should I send it back?

Jeff

[DougieLawson]

If you don't have a TV & a mouse you can't get through the NOOBS Operating System selection menu without some degree of difficulty.

Hooking it up to your HDMI TV should just work for 99.9% of users.

[mahjongg]

I was just asking if the fact that I did not hook up HMDI would effect the booting process ( I did read the Sticky...it does not implicitly state if HMDI makes a difference).

So since it does not, any suggestion on what I can do to get this working? Or should I send it back?

Jeff

the percentage of PI's sent back "because they don't boot", that happen to work perfectly approaches 99%.

[LandShark]

I will try again today with HMDI attached. I a also going to find a mini SD card adapter. I had to use an old phone as an adapter so it would not let me completely reformat. I will let you know how it works out.

[andrum99]

I will try again today with HMDI attached. I a also going to find a mini SD card adapter. I had to use an old phone as an adapter so it would not let me completely reformat. I will let you know how it works out.

That may well be the cause of the problem. You need to use a Mac or PC to format the micro SD card, then install the files onto it. Here is a link to the page that explains the process:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/

[LandShark]

OK, I bought an SD adapter, and a new 8 gig micro SD. Formated new mircoSD, using SD adapter. Then loaded frsh copy of NOOBS. Hooked up Mouse, Keyboard, and HMDI to it and powered up up. No difference. Still solid red and green LEDs.

[andrum99]

OK, I bought an SD adapter, and a new 8 gig micro SD. Formated new mircoSD, using SD adapter. Then loaded frsh copy of NOOBS. Hooked up Mouse, Keyboard, and HMDI to it and powered up up. No difference. Still solid red and green LEDs.

Can you post a list of the files that you have on your SD card?

[donest]

I am having the exact same problem. I bought the Pi, the power chord/supply, a 32 gig mini sd card, and an adaptor that the card plugs into all at the same time at a computer store from a knowledgeable salesperson who has a Pi. Including a little translucent case the the board fits into.
I have downloaded the format utility and formatted the card. I have then extracted the OS (NOOBS) on my PC and copied the files over to the card. The files on the card look exactly like the images that I have seen. The files are all there. I tried connecting the Pi to my monitor (Viewsonic 1080p HDMI) with a new HDMI cable.
The mini sd card inserts into an adaptor which inserts into a stick that looks like a USB stick. My PC has no problem reading or writing to it. Each time that I plug the power into the Pi, I just get solid green and red LEDs. I have tried connecting JUST the power to the Pi to see if the lights behave any differently. They do not. Still solid green and red.
I have never bought a PC from a store, but rather have built my own from scratch or through "barebones" kits. I started with Dos before windows was readily available. Still, not an expert, but not a beginner either. Just a beginner at the Raspberry Pi. I feel there are a lot of things that I could do with this if I could just get it to run. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Yes, I did read the sticky.

[mahjongg]

I am having the exact same problem. I bought the Pi, the power chord/supply, a 32 gig mini sd card, and an adaptor that the card plugs into all at the same time at a computer store from a knowledgeable salesperson who has a Pi. Including a little translucent case the the board fits into.
I have downloaded the format utility and formatted the card. I have then extracted the OS (NOOBS) on my PC and copied the files over to the card. The files on the card look exactly like the images that I have seen. The files are all there. I tried connecting the Pi to my monitor (Viewsonic 1080p HDMI) with a new HDMI cable.
The mini sd card inserts into an adaptor which inserts into a stick that looks like a USB stick. My PC has no problem reading or writing to it. Each time that I plug the power into the Pi, I just get solid green and red LEDs. I have tried connecting JUST the power to the Pi to see if the lights behave any differently. They do not. Still solid green and red.
I have never bought a PC from a store, but rather have built my own from scratch or through "barebones" kits. I started with Dos before windows was readily available. Still, not an expert, but not a beginner either. Just a beginner at the Raspberry Pi. I feel there are a lot of things that I could do with this if I could just get it to run. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Yes, I did read the sticky.

Simply start reading the boot problems sticky, it has all the answers you need!

[donest]

Last sentence in my post..."Yes, I did read the sticky." But I just read it again. It seems to me that the problem is not at all video related, but boot related. I have formatted and re-installed NOOBS 3 times. As I said...my PC has no problem formatting or reading or writing to the card, so I don't know what else to look at. If the card was "bad", then the PC wouldn't see it.
It seems that the LEDs are supposed to behave similarly to the HD on my PC. The light on the HD flickers as it is working.and booting up. The video link in the sticky shows something very similar on the Pi. But mine just stays solid. I was hoping maybe another user has had the same problem, and there is an easy solution. (short of re-formatting my brain...lol)

[rpdom]

Solid green LED basically means that the Pi could not find the bootcode.bin file in the root folder of the SD card. This could be because the card is not formatted correctly, or the file has not been put in the right place, or the Pi has been unable to read the card. If that file is not readable then nothing will happen at all.

Firstly, is the card formatted in FAT32 format? Not NTFS, not exFAT, just FAT32.

Secondly, what files do you see on the card? These should be in the E:\ folder (or whatever letter your card reader has been assigned). You should see these files:
bootcode.bin, recovery.img, BUILD-DATA, recovery.cmdline, recovery.rfs, recovery.elf,
riscos-boot.bin, INSTRUCTIONS-README.txt, RECOVERY_FILES_DO_NOT_EDIT
and these folders:
os, defaults

[donest]

Hi, thanks for your reply. Not sure if it was FAT 32, will check. Here is a list of the folders and files on the card. I also named the card 4Noobs when formatting.
(folder)defaults
(folder)os
bootcode.bin
riscos-boot.bin
recovery.cmdline
recovery.img
recovery.elf
BUILD-DATA
RECOVERY_FILES_DO_NOT_EDIT
recoveryrfs
INSTRUCTIONS-README.txt

Just checked...it IS FAT32
I see in the video on the Pi site that the version of NOOBS that they are using is NOOBS_v1_3_4
The version that I downloaded is NOOBS_v1_3_11
Could that matter?

[andrum99]

Hi, thanks for your reply. Not sure if it was FAT 32, will check. Here is a list of the folders and files on the card. I also named the card 4Noobs when formatting.
(folder)defaults
(folder)os
bootcode.ini
riscos-boot.bin
recovery.cmdline
recovery.img
recovery.elf
BUILD-DATA
RECOVERY_FILES_DO_NOT_EDIT
recoveryrfs
INSTRUCTIONS-README.txt

Just checked...it IS FAT32

There should be a file named bootcode.bin. Can you check and see if there is one on your card? There isn't one in the listing you provided. The Pi will not do anything without this file.

[DougieLawson]

On a correctly written NOOBS V1.3.11 SDCard you should see these files with these dates and sizes

Code: Select all

drwxr-xr-x  4 root root     4096 Dec 29 22:06 .
drwxr-xr-x 70 root root     8192 Dec 29 22:11 ..
-rw-rw-r--  1 root root    17840 Sep 12 09:54 bootcode.bin
-rw-rw-r--  1 root root      326 Dec 24 23:53 BUILD-DATA
drwxrwxr-x  3 root root       19 Nov  7  2013 defaults
-rw-rw-r--  1 root root     2249 Sep 12 09:54 INSTRUCTIONS-README.txt
drwxrwxr-x  4 root root       42 Sep 12 10:03 os
-rw-rw-r--  1 root root       71 Sep 12 09:54 recovery.cmdline
-rw-rw-r--  1 root root   533080 Sep 12 09:54 recovery.elf
-rw-rw-r--  1 root root        0 Sep 12 09:54 RECOVERY_FILES_DO_NOT_EDIT
-rwxrwxr-x  1 root root  2097376 Sep 12 09:54 recovery.img
-rw-rw-r--  1 root root 20559863 Sep 12 09:54 recovery.rfs
-rw-rw-r--  1 root root     9728 Sep 12 09:54 riscos-boot.bin

And this tree structure

Code: Select all

.
├── bootcode.bin
├── BUILD-DATA
├── defaults
│   └── slides
│       └── A.png
├── INSTRUCTIONS-README.txt
├── os
│   ├── Data_Partition
│   │   ├── Data_Partition.png
│   │   ├── data.tar.xz
│   │   ├── os.json
│   │   └── partitions.json
│   └── Raspbian
│       ├── boot.tar.xz
│       ├── flavours.json
│       ├── os.json
│       ├── partition_setup.sh
│       ├── partitions.json
│       ├── Raspbian_-_Boot_to_Scratch.png
│       ├── Raspbian.png
│       ├── release_notes.txt
│       ├── root.tar.xz
│       └── slides_vga
│           ├── A.png
│           ├── B.png
│           ├── C.png
│           ├── D.png
│           ├── E.png
│           ├── F.png
│           └── G.png
├── recovery.cmdline
├── recovery.elf
├── RECOVERY_FILES_DO_NOT_EDIT
├── recovery.img
├── recovery.rfs
└── riscos-boot.bin

6 directories, 30 files

[donest]

you are correct...somehow when typing bootcode.bin became bootcode.ini. Typo. It IS there.

[donest]

The files are all there, and seem to be the correct size. Yours in bytes, mine in kb
I hope that LandShark doesn't think that I am highjacking his thread since I am having the exact same problem! Wonder how he is doing?

[drgeoff]

The mini sd card inserts into an adaptor which inserts into a stick that looks like a USB stick.

Apologies if this insults your intelligence. Are you plugging the micro-SD card in its adaptor in that stick into a USB port on your RPi?

[donest]

lol...I caught that, but was hoping no one would notice! Yes, it's a micro SD.
I can post a screen shot of the files if that would help.

[drgeoff]

lol...I caught that, but was hoping no one would notice! Yes, it's a micro SD.
I can post a screen shot of the files if that would help.

That doesn't categorically answer the question.

[LandShark]

Hi all,

This is the original poster Landshark.

I have gotten it to boot. Here is what I did

The last time I formatted the MicroSD card, I chose the option to do the "full erase".

This time I picked the "overwrite" option.

Then loaded the NOOBS files again.

I also mashed down guard on the MicroSD bracket to make the card hold as tight as possible.

I'd like to say thanks for all the help, but all I got was "its in the sticky." I must be honest I heard the Pi community was very helpful...but I have not seen that yet.

donest, I hope you get yours working...

Jeff

[donest]

The micro-SD card plugs into an adaptor (looks like a larger version of the micro-SD card. THAT plugs into the reader, which in appearance could pass for a USB thumb drive. The whole thing plugs into the USB port on my PC and functions correctly there. Just doesn't seem to work correctly in the Pi. I may invest in a preformatted card that has NOOBS installed to see if THAT works. It's the only thing that I can think of at this point.