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

[Evan Leibovitch]

When creating a system for the RP I have had a 100% success rate with
the GTK-based
Startup Disk Creator
<https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/usb-creator-gtk/> under Ubuntu.

'dd' has worked for me but I recall having to use some non-default block
settings. One article suggests "bs=1m" as an arg to dd.



On 8 March 2015 at 12:50, D. Hugh Redelmeier <hugh at mimosa.com> wrote:

> 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
> ---
> Talk Mailing List
> talk at gtalug.org
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>



-- 
Evan Leibovitch
Toronto Canada

Em: evan at telly dot org
Sk: evanleibovitch
Tw: el56
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