Pi 0 board not initialized

[KE0DVW]

When I flash a new SD micro the pi 0 board is not initialized. The green light on the pi 0 board doesn't come on at all. I downloaded the newest version of pistar from the website. I have one SD micro card that was working before this problem. When I use the good SD micro card and pi 0 and mmdvm boards, the system comes right up. So I know the hardware is working. I have used 4 different SD micro cards that can be formatted and flashed without any error messages. 1. What is causing my problem when I flash pistar on another SD micro? 2. Is there anyway that I can restore the backup of the working SD micro card?

[KE7FNS]

Not all SD cards are 100% compatible, plus there are tons of counterfeits being sold. Just because one computer can write to it with no errors, does not mean that the RPi can read data from that card.

Here is a listing of users reporting issues using specific brand and sized SD cards.
https://elinux.org/RPi_SD_cards

Yes, you can image the working SD card with some special software, however if you write that image onto a SD card that other people have reported compatibility issues with it isn't going to work so I just can't warrant going into great details about how to make a clone disk image of a SD card step by step but this is the software that will do it.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

I'd just buy SD cards (brand and sizes) that others have mentioned success with here on the forum, or from that website, or buy more of the same brand and size as the first one you said works. Also, stay away from cheap deals on SD cards on e-bay that are too good to be true.

[AF6VN]

The software being used for writing the image was not mentioned. Current preference on Windows appears to be BalenaEtcher, although it is a write-only application (Win32DiskImager could also create an .img file from an SD card).

Regardless, and even accounting for the img not being a FAT filesystem, I recommend running SD Card Formatter (in overwrite, and if available [X] CHS adjustment) first -- this should identify if there is any problem with writing to the card, before letting Etcher wipe it out with the EXTx Linux file system.

[KE0DVW]

I don't want to hear any laughing.

The SD card that came with the Jumbo spot and works has the following files on it:

.fseventsd
overlays
kernel.img
kernel7.img

You know the file system that pi-star comes with. Please don't tell me that I got suckered into buying a POS?

Thank you for your help.
Steve
KE0DVW

[KE7FNS]

Nobody is laughing.

I am confused though. You say that the card with those files works, but its missing a bunch of other files. My guess is it isn't pi-star, or maybe its a really old version of pi-star that I am unfamiliar with or something, but I've played with raspbian since it first came out and I don't remember the boot folder as only having those two files and a directory.

Also, looking at it in windows doesn't really tell you what all is on the SD card because windows (not sure what shows on a Mac) won't read the linux partition by default. So theres a whole other section of things you aren't seeing.

How can you say its a POS if it works? My guess is you are not writing the image correctly to the other SD cards, or you just happened to have incompatible SD cards.

You really are not providing enough information to determine what the issue is. Like what SD cards (brand, size, model) you are trying to use, what software you are using to write the image etc. What is displayed when you hook it up to a monitor to watch the boot process.

Use https://www.balena.io/etcher/
You don't have to extract the img file from the zip, just load the zip file into etcher and let it write the SD card.

[AF6VN]

The SD card that came with the Jumbo spot and works has the following files on it:

.fseventsd
overlays
kernel.img
kernel7.img

I'm kind of surprised that even boots, as it is missing all the model specific device tree files. However -- what is on your /working/ card is not relevant... What does your newly imaged card display?

I just used Etcher to write the 3.4.17 image to a a SanDisk 16GB card. The resulting FAT partition contains:

Code: Select all

C:\Users\Wulfraed>dir i: /a/s
 Volume in drive I is boot
 Volume Serial Number is 22E0-C711

 Directory of I:\

07/17/2017  09:17 PM    <DIR>          overlays
07/17/2017  09:17 PM            15,456 bcm2708-rpi-b-plus.dtb
07/17/2017  09:17 PM            18,693 COPYING.linux
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,494 LICENCE.broadcom
07/17/2017  09:17 PM            16,523 bcm2709-rpi-2-b.dtb
07/17/2017  09:17 PM            15,197 bcm2708-rpi-b.dtb
07/17/2017  09:17 PM            14,916 bcm2708-rpi-cm.dtb
05/27/2016  01:41 PM               145 issue.txt
07/06/2018  07:17 AM    <DIR>          .fseventsd
07/17/2017  09:17 PM            17,624 bcm2710-rpi-3-b.dtb
07/17/2017  09:17 PM            50,248 bootcode.bin
08/02/2016  10:36 AM               132 cmdline.txt
08/18/2017  09:06 AM             1,830 config.txt
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             6,674 fixup.dat
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,583 fixup_cd.dat
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             9,813 fixup_db.dat
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             9,813 fixup_x.dat
07/17/2017  09:17 PM         4,379,032 kernel.img
07/17/2017  09:17 PM         4,579,248 kernel7.img
07/17/2017  09:17 PM         2,855,556 start.elf
07/17/2017  09:17 PM           659,492 start_cd.elf
07/17/2017  09:17 PM         4,993,604 start_db.elf
07/17/2017  09:17 PM         3,939,492 start_x.elf
05/27/2016  01:41 PM            18,974 LICENSE.oracle
07/17/2017  09:17 PM            16,380 bcm2710-rpi-cm3.dtb
07/17/2017  09:17 PM            15,660 bcm2708-rpi-0-w.dtb
10/01/2019  01:00 PM    <DIR>          System Volume Information
              24 File(s)     21,638,579 bytes

 Directory of I:\overlays

05/27/2016  12:40 PM    <DIR>          .
05/27/2016  12:40 PM    <DIR>          ..
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,387 akkordion-iqdacplus.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM            64,913 README
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,027 adau1977-adc.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,426 ads7846.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               449 bmp085_i2c-sensor.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               787 audioinjector-wm8731-audio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,668 at86rf233.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,298 rra-digidac1-wm8741-audio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,425 ads1015.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               983 dht11.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               789 dpi24.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               423 dwc-otg.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               852 dwc2.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,403 enc28j60.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,036 gpio-ir.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               901 gpio-poweroff.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               779 hifiberry-amp.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               655 hifiberry-dac.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,693 hifiberry-dacplus.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               959 hifiberry-digi.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,468 hy28a.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,939 hy28b.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               991 i2c-gpio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,185 i2c-mux.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               644 i2c-pwm-pca9685a.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             3,442 i2c-rtc.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,182 i2c0-bcm2708.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               854 i2c1-bcm2708.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               343 i2s-gpio28-31.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,425 ads1115.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,272 iqaudio-dac.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,511 iqaudio-dacplus.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,276 justboom-dac.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,348 lirc-rpi.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,833 mcp2515-can0.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,833 mcp2515-can1.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,099 mmc.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,850 mz61581.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               569 pi3-act-led.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               818 pi3-disable-bt.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,105 pi3-miniuart-bt.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,713 piscreen.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,617 piscreen2r.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,544 pitft22.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,385 pitft28-capacitive.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,802 pitft28-resistive.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,043 pps-gpio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,057 pwm-2chan.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               946 pwm.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,315 qca7000.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,301 raspidac3.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               489 rpi-backlight.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               643 rpi-dac.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,524 rpi-display.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               462 rpi-ft5406.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               771 rpi-proto.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               893 rpi-sense.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               846 sdhost.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               666 spi-gpio35-39.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               981 smi.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,326 iqaudio-digi-wm8804-audio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,508 smi-nand.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,011 allo-piano-dac-pcm512x-audio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,547 spi1-1cs.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,920 spi1-2cs.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,293 spi1-3cs.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,547 spi2-1cs.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,920 spi2-2cs.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,293 spi2-3cs.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             4,878 tinylcd35.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,473 allo-boss-dac-pcm512x-audio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               758 vga666.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               980 uart1.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,251 w1-gpio-pullup.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,116 w1-gpio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,080 wittypi.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,587 adau7002-simple.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,329 mcp23017.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,078 sdio-1bit.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               376 smi-dev.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               575 audremap.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               663 dionaudio-loco.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               765 dpi18.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,125 hifiberry-digi-pro.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               955 justboom-digi.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM            15,229 mcp23s17.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,174 sc16is750-i2c.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,875 sc16is752-spi1.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               635 spi-rtc.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               492 spi0-hw-cs.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             3,108 vc4-kms-v3d.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,116 sdio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               699 sdtweak.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,802 pitft35-resistive.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,454 pisound.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,279 enc28j60-spi2.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             2,864 i2c-sensor.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             4,237 mcp3008.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               265 pi3-disable-wifi.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               919 spi0-cs.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,585 allo-piano-dac-plus-pcm512x-audio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,412 vc4-fkms-v3d.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               499 rpi-tv.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               270 i2c-bcm2708.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,027 dionaudio-loco-v2.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,932 fe-pi-audio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,437 goodix.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               720 midi-uart0.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             3,406 rpi-cirrus-wm5102.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             4,143 i2c-rtc-gpio.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,208 allo-digione.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,259 googlevoicehat-soundcard.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               857 midi-uart1.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM               796 mpu6050.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,275 rotary-encoder.dtbo
07/17/2017  09:17 PM             1,972 audioinjector-addons.dtbo
             116 File(s)        244,138 bytes

 Directory of I:\.fseventsd

07/06/2018  07:18 AM    <DIR>          .
07/06/2018  07:17 AM    <DIR>          ..
07/06/2018  07:18 AM                36 fseventsd-uuid
07/06/2018  07:18 AM                46 0000000000528ae8
07/06/2018  07:18 AM                71 0000000000528ae9
               3 File(s)            153 bytes

 Directory of I:\System Volume Information

10/01/2019  01:00 PM    <DIR>          .
10/01/2019  01:00 PM    <DIR>          ..
10/01/2019  01:00 PM                76 IndexerVolumeGuid
               1 File(s)             76 bytes

     Total Files Listed:
             144 File(s)     21,882,946 bytes
               9 Dir(s)      43,180,032 bytes free

C:\Users\Wulfraed>

and that is only the stuff in, as mentioned, the 63MB FAT format boot partition used by the R-Pi. The Linux partition(s) are unreadable by Windows -- and I don't know enough about Linux to figure out how to mount specific partitions from a Debian running in VirtualBox (single partition SD cards auto-mount as I recall, but not multiple).

[KE7FNS]

I'm kind of surprised that even boots, as it is missing all the model specific device tree files. However -- what is on your /working/ card is not relevant... What does your newly imaged card display?

Its missing bootcode.bin so the GPU doesn't have the very first booting instructions it needs to even begin. Its also missing loader.bin and start.elf which are needed before you can even load kernel.img into the ARM processor. It would also need config.txt, and cmdline.txt files.




Theres just no way that can boot a RPi. Maybe its getting the files it needs from another source like a USB stick or TFTP boot, but it isn't booting from the SD card that is for sure.

[KE0DVW]

I agree that I am not see all the Linux directories. However, I did a google search and the first result was the Raspberrypi forum talking about the two images on my SD card. The forum talks about kernel.img and kernel7.img. This is the link I copied, https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... p?t=101122.
Let me go back to the basics. I normally find most of my errors by going back to the basics.
1. Is there a limit to the size of SD card. Is 16 GB the magic number?

2. I know that your programs work. I have downloaded your software a couple of months ago, and the software fired off right away. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I have expanded my inventory of SD cards to 10 cards from different suppliers and different sizes. I have Scan Disk, Pny, Micro Center, and no name SD cards. I have tried all of them, and none of them work.

3. Do your programs work if the SD card has a title?

4. I have used two different computers in downloading and flashing pi-star. Both computers run Windows 10 Home, an Intel 1-7 processors, with 16 GB of ram. My last resort is an old PC in my basement that runs Windows 7.

5. It has been a couple years since I used / learned Linux machines. I can fire up a virtual machine with some study and time. Is it better to copy the working SD card in Linux, and if so, what version of Linux should I use?

6. I read that Raspberry Pi have a disk copy program in one of their libraries. I could try to use my RPi-3b board, and copy the working SD disk. Is that what I should try?
I know that I am grasping at straws, which is illegal in California, do you have any suggestions?

[KE7FNS]

I agree that I am not see all the Linux directories. However, I did a google search and the first result was the Raspberrypi forum talking about the two images on my SD card. The forum talks about kernel.img and kernel7.img. This is the link I copied, https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/view ... p?t=101122.

Yes, those are valid linux kernel images, but they cannot be booting because the instructions to boot them do not exist on your SD card. So the processors on the RPi are just sitting there waiting and doing nothing.

Let me go back to the basics. I normally find most of my errors by going back to the basics.
1. Is there a limit to the size of SD card. Is 16 GB the magic number?

The limit appears to be 256 GB. Why didn't you look at the SD card compatible website I posted earlier? It clearly lists sizes.

2. I know that your programs work. I have downloaded your software a couple of months ago, and the software fired off right away. I don't know what I am doing wrong. I have expanded my inventory of SD cards to 10 cards from different suppliers and different sizes. I have Scan Disk, Pny, Micro Center, and no name SD cards. I have tried all of them, and none of them work.

You need to step logically through the troubleshooting to determine which chain link is failing.

This is literally a copy and paste of one of my posts in another similar thread.

After you write the image to the SD card, does that SD card boot the RPi? And yes, to determine that answer, you are going to need to plug in a monitor to the mini-hdmi (or HDMI) port and watch what is happening on the monitor. You should see a normal RPi boot process that looks similar to this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tw7U5EPYbs

Once you've determined that the RPi is in fact booting, that pretty much eliminates issues with writing the image to the SD card. If the RPi doesn't boot, try a different SD card (brand and size), until you get to one that does boot.

Then you can test and see if its connecting to the network correctly, and then test to make sure MMDVMHost is connecting correctly, and so on and so forth instead of just vaguely saying, "it doesn't work".

3. Do your programs work if the SD card has a title?

I don't understand that question. Are you asking if it matters to Linux if you rename a volume in Windows? If so, no, it doesn't matter but by default it is named "boot" just leave it that way.

4. I have used two different computers in downloading and flashing pi-star. Both computers run Windows 10 Home, an Intel 1-7 processors, with 16 GB of ram. My last resort is an old PC in my basement that runs Windows 7.

Processor, OS, and ram have no determination to successfully writing a SD card.

5. It has been a couple years since I used / learned Linux machines. I can fire up a virtual machine with some study and time. Is it better to copy the working SD card in Linux, and if so, what version of Linux should I use?

VM's won't help you, and no if you are not familiar with Linux you had best stick to Windoze.

Just use software like Belena Etcher or Win32 Disk Imager BOTH which I just so happened to have linked earlier. (seems to be a pattern developing here)

6. I read that Raspberry Pi have a disk copy program in one of their libraries. I could try to use my RPi-3b board, and copy the working SD disk. Is that what I should try?
I know that I am grasping at straws, which is illegal in California, do you have any suggestions?

OMG no.

Don't worry about VM's , or trying to duplicate a working SD card, You are making this way more complicated than it needs to be. Just put the one SD card that works away somewhere safe so you don't screw it up.

Code: Select all

How to:
Download Belena Etcher
install it.

Download a pi-star image.  (for a RPi 3B+ you need the beta )
Do not extract it, leave it .zip.

Open belena etcher
select the pi-star image.zip you just downloaded.

insert SD card into reader on Windows PC.
select SD card drive in belena etcher

click flash

wait, drink a few sips of coffee.

when finished, take out SD card from reader and insert it into RPi

install monitor to mini HDMI port

Boot RPI Zero

watch monitor, if you see the boot process of a RPi happening, there is nothing wrong with the SD card.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Tw7U5EPYbs

then configure your pi-star normally by using a browser on the PC you used to write the SD card image.

[AF6VN]

I'm kind of surprised that even boots, as it is missing all the model specific device tree files. However -- what is on your /working/ card is not relevant... What does your newly imaged card display?

Its missing bootcode.bin so the GPU doesn't have the very first booting instructions it needs to even begin. Its also missing loader.bin and start.elf which are needed before you can even load kernel.img into the ARM processor. It would also need config.txt, and cmdline.txt files.

My point was that the OP states THAT IS THE WORKING CARD!

We have no idea what the OP's attempts to create a card contain.