[GTALUG] war story: creating Raspberry Pi 2 boot card

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

I found an excuse to buy a Raspberry Pi 2.  Mathematica was too slow on
the Raspberry Pi B.

We bought one at the Canada Robotix store in Markham.  $48.99 + 6.37 tax.

The RP2 uses Micro SD rather than normal SD and the software isn't
100% compatible so I created a new MicroSD as the "hard drive".

I used a SanDisk Extreme PLUS microSDHC UHS-1 32GB card (I had one on
hand).

I wanted to use the latest Raspbian because it is compatible with the
RP2 and includes Mathematica.

I tried several things before one worked.  I'm writing this up to save
others from frustration.  These accounts are based on my unreliable
memory -- I had no idea that it would have been worth taking notes.

I was kind of improvising, starting from here
<http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/>

Spoiler: my current hypothesis is that my (Linux) desktop's SD
interface is silently busted in some way.

If you've done any of this, I'd like to hear how it worked for you.


Attempt 1:

- The card was brand new, already formatted with some FAT-family
  filesystem

- I fetched the NOOBS Offline and network install

- I installed the card in my desktop computer and used Linux unzip

- I moved the card to the RP2 and powered it on.
  The green "reading SD" and orange or red "power" LEDS came on and
  stayed on, with no other visible activity.  I gave up.


Attempt 2:

- same card

- from my desktop machine, I dd'ed the RASPBIAN image onto the card

- I tried to boot it.  Same result.


Attempt 3:

- same card

- booted Windows on a notebook and ran SD Formatter 4.0 (as prescribed
  in <http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/>) to create just
  the right filesystem.

- went to my desktop machine and unzipped NOOBS into the card

- I tried to boot it.  Same result.


Attempt 4:

- same card

- booted Windows on a notebook and ran SD Formatter 4.0 (as prescribed
  in <http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/>) to create just
  the right filesystem.

- I used Windows to unzipped NOOBS into the card

- I tried to boot it.  It worked!

================

Early hypotheses that are refuted:

- my microSD card was no good.  Or not compatible with the RP2

- my RP2 was no good


Lingering hypotheses:

- Perhaps my desktop's SD interface is silently busted.  It is a
  common factor on all failures.

- the preformatted filesystem that came on the microSD may not work
  for the RP2's boot system

- Linux's unzip botches things some way.  Perhaps some flag is needed.


Experiments I should try (but may not):

- retry each of the experiments that failed, but use Linux on my
  notebook rather than on my desktop.

- see if my notebook can read and verify microSD cards written by my
  desktop