Is there any software available for testing the early stage boot
process for an old Pi2 v1.1 ? One of mine, I think it's the first
Pi I bought, has become reluctant to boot unless it's been sitting
with power off for around 20-30 minutes.

If powered on sooner, it just sits with red and green LEDs on
steadily, no flash codes. If I unplug it completely and wait
until well after zero millivolts are reported on the GPIO 5V
pins it seems to boot normally.

I'm using a microSD card in the slot, with only bootcode.bin
on it. That finds a USB hard disk which then supplies the boot
software. As it happens I'm running FreeBSD 14, but the Pi isn't
getting that far when it has trouble.

AIUI, the green LED remaining on indicates that bootcode.bin
isn't being found. Since it apparently _is_ found after a
cold shutdown, I think the problem is somewhere internal to
the Pi2.

Thanks for reading and any guidance!

bob prohaska

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On 08/12/2023 16:26, bob prohaska wrote:

AIUI, the green LED remaining on indicates that bootcode.bin
isn't being found

AIUI the green LED remaining [solidly] on indicates that the SD card
isn't being found.

Shouldn't it flash as it accesses it?

Have you tried at least a new SD card installation?

--
How fortunate for governments that the people they administer don't think.

Adolf Hitler

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The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 08/12/2023 16:26, bob prohaska wrote:

AIUI, the green LED remaining on indicates that bootcode.bin
isn't being found

AIUI the green LED remaining [solidly] on indicates that the SD card
isn't being found.

Shouldn't it flash as it accesses it?

Yes. On a successful boot both red and green LEDs turn on, green flashes,
the disk light flashes, green goes off and boot starts. My first thought
was that the Pi didn't get far enough to look for the microSD card. IIRC,
a Pi emits an error message if looks for a card and doesn't find one.

Have you tried at least a new SD card installation?

Up to now, no. Next time it happens I'll try switching to an old
RasPiOS microSD. That won't do what I want, but if it does something
different that'll be a good sign. It simply never occurred to me that
the microSD might fail reversibly. Maybe it can.

Meanwhile I was wondering if anybody knew of a test suite that more
fully explores a Pi. It seems like there must be some kind of boot
debugger.

Thanks for writing,

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Meanwhile I was wondering if anybody knew of a test suite that more
fully explores a Pi. It seems like there must be some kind of boot
debugger.

You can toggle a flag in the bootcode binary that enables output of
early-stage debugging info to the UART.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#bootcode-bin-uart-enable


--
__ __
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--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 08/12/2023 21:49, bob prohaska wrote:

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

On 08/12/2023 16:26, bob prohaska wrote:

AIUI, the green LED remaining on indicates that bootcode.bin
isn't being found

AIUI the green LED remaining [solidly] on indicates that the SD card
isn't being found.

Shouldn't it flash as it accesses it?

Yes. On a successful boot both red and green LEDs turn on, green flashes,
the disk light flashes, green goes off and boot starts. My first thought
was that the Pi didn't get far enough to look for the microSD card. IIRC,
a Pi emits an error message if looks for a card and doesn't find one.

What I discovered when doing SD-less booting, that the SD card light
continued to flash even once booted as no SD car was ever found.
Threw me because I was running headless and thought it hadn't booted
when it actually had.

I fiound a magic spell to stop that somewhere.

Have you tried at least a new SD card installation?

Up to now, no. Next time it happens I'll try switching to an old
RasPiOS microSD. That won't do what I want, but if it does something different that'll be a good sign. It simply never occurred to me that
the microSD might fail reversibly. Maybe it can.

Meanwhile I was wondering if anybody knew of a test suite that more
fully explores a Pi. It seems like there must be some kind of boot
debugger.

I remember once writing a bit of BIOS for a PC manufacture, and thinking
'at this point in time, I am the only person in the world who
understands this piece of code'.
Five times in my life doing technical support I have had on the end of
the phone *the person who actually wrote the code.*

A college friend is one of half a dozen people who developed NAND flash
memory.

My point being that the pool of people who *actually know stuff * is
often vanishingly small.

Compare with the vast number who just use it. Or bugger around with it
until it works.

Thanks for writing,

bob prohaska

--
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as
foolish, and by the rulers as useful.

(Seneca the Younger, 65 AD)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

bob prohaska <bp@www.zefox.net> wrote:

Meanwhile I was wondering if anybody knew of a test suite that more
fully explores a Pi. It seems like there must be some kind of boot
debugger.

You can toggle a flag in the bootcode binary that enables output of early-stage debugging info to the UART.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#bootcode-bin-uart-enable

I don't think it's getting that far, but have bookmarked the link and will experiment more when the host is free.

Thanks for writing,

bob prohaska

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Compare with the vast number who just use it. Or bugger around with it
until it works.

[sheepishly raises hand]

8-)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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On 10/12/2023 16:08, bob prohaska wrote:

The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Compare with the vast number who just use it. Or bugger around with it
until it works.

[sheepishly raises hand]

8-)

There are a few things I did become an absolute expert in, the rest I
just bugger around till it works.

Life is simply too short.

--
The theory of Communism may be summed up in one sentence: Abolish all
private property.

Karl Marx

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