LibreElec v11 on RPI3 won't start

    The bigger the amperage the better BUT it needs to be stable. That’s the biggest problem with PSUs on sale out there. Headline amperage but little or no stability. One of my pet hates is that damn mini usb power connector. Give me a barrel jack connector any day.

    Again just to get the damn thing to boot LE11 on a high capacity card and put the this to bed I’d keep peripherals hanging off the RPI to a minimum. Mouse/keyboard only preferably.

    The power supply is only half of the important bits, the other half is cables.

    Lots of power supplies don't maintain to provide stable 5V under load (and you might not see the dips with a multimeter, all computers nowadays can generate very short current spikes when the CPUs have lots of stuff to do and you'll see the voltage drops only with a scope - been checking that 10+ years ago on original RPi).

    Also lots of USB cables are poorly made, have thin 5V and GND strains, thus a high resistance and drop A LOT of (milli-)volts under high currents. Finding proper cables isn't easy (most of them are just crap).

    So, to summarize, if you don't want to pay the 7 bucks (or whatever they cost nowadsays) for an official RPi power supply you are going to have to endure a lot of pain and spend a lot more money on chargers/power supplies and cables until you find a working combination.

    Plus, users with power supply issues who don't understand that simple fact that a computer won't work without proper powering (would your car run properly if you filled in the wrong fuel?) have cost us developers (and RPi engineers) enormous amounts of time that we could have better spent otherwise.

    so long,

    Hias

    Quote from HiassofT

    Also lots of USB cables are poorly made, have thin 5V and GND strains, thus a high resistance and drop A LOT of (milli-)volts under high currents. Finding proper cables isn't easy (most of them are just crap).

    Thank you for this, never really thought about this but it makes sense. Also read up on this problem, and the author's rationale why Raspberry Pi and others are pushing 5.1V PSUs:

    USB Cable Resistance: Why your phone/tablet might be charging slow
    Tablets and smartphones are now ubiquitous, and almost universally, they rely on some form of USB connection to provide the power to charge the device. This…
    goughlui.com

    It always seemed a bit ridiculous that a micro-USB would be the connector of choice for such a high current draw, but ultimately in my case, the issue with the "low voltage" ended up with the cable, not the power supply. Even a 6v battery powered (almost limitless amperage) power supply didn't fix the problem until I found a very short, thick cable.

    But, even after all that, the issue still remains. Sometimes it's not the usual suspects like SD cards and power supplies, but you're not wrong to ask to have those items checked and resolved first!

    Hopefully this log will offer some insight into what's going wrong?

    For anyone else looking in here.

    Found an old RPI3+ in the box of spares. Used one of the official RPI PSUs and borrowed a 128gb Sandisk Ultra (with a warning not to thrash it) to test the install procedure.

    Downloaded the RPI2 image, 7 zipped it and used win32 disc image to burn it. From start to booting GUI on the RPI3* took 15 minutes.

    No errors reported on boot and definitely no under voltage detected messages.

    No doubt if you’ve read through this whole topic you’ll have a general idea what to look out for in the event of a problem. Rule out the simple items first before digging down too deep and frustrating yourself.

    The RPI3+ is back in the box and the 128gb is freshly formatted and safely back in the hands of its owner

    You're saying you installed the latest LE11 on the RPI3 using a 128gb µSD card and it booted without error?

    Interesting.

    So here's what we know:

    • Not a voltage/power supply problem
    • Not a card quality problem (The SanDisk "High Endurance" is a high-quality, much-recommended card, and tests perfectly)
    • If the bug is in RPiOS, it has an issue with certain µSD cards of a certain size. Cards that work fine with previous versions of RPiOS and other distros.

    Where to go from here?

    No idea. All I can say is you’ve encountered a problem, I haven’t. Maybe others who come across this topic and have similar setups could give an LE11 installation from fresh a whirl and report back.

    Obviously if digging down further a whole host of equipment comparisons would need to be done. Good cables v bad cables, good PSUs v bad PSUs etc. That’s something you could probably do yourself at very little extra cost if you really are that determined to get LE11 up and running on a 256gb SD card. It certainly wouldn’t be a priority of mine.

    I will say that reporting it as a bug with one negative experience may not find much traction. Again you just need to find others willing to try an install along you lines and see what the outcome is.

    I will say I was mildly surprised at the performance of the RPI3+ using Live TV and even more surprised using it wireless as all my setups run wired.

    Meestor_X thanks for the new log, this looks fine now.

    The next step will be that you create a bug report on the RPi linux repo here https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues

    The key point to creating a useful bug report is to provide as much as useful information as possible upfront so the devs can unterstand, reproduce, analyze and then fix the issue.

    RPi devs use a standard issue template that you have to fill out and provide the necessary info. Best have a look at it first, then take your time to collect the info and fill it out and submit it once you have all the info.

    Check through the items I listed here RE: LibreElec v11 on RPI3 won't start and include all this info in the bug report.

    I'd suggest using a meaningful title like "RPi3 boot regression with Sandisk Extreme Endurance 256GB since kernel 5.15".

    Start with mentioning boot issues with current RPiOS bullseye image and post the error message you got on screen and/or attach a picture of it.

    Also mention that you get the same issue with LibreELEC and kernel 6.1 and attach the dmesg you captured - that should be very helpful to devs.

    Run "raspinfo" on the working RPiOS legacy / Buster image to collect the info the devs usually want.

    Mention the results of rpi-update to latest 5.10 and first 5.15 kernels/firmwares, as mentioned in my list.

    Also feel free to post a link to this forum thread as a reference.

    Very likely RPi devs will then come back to you with more questions or will ask you to test some kernels with rpi-update - be patient, depending on their current workload this could take anything from a few minutes to months.

    If you want to proofread or check your bug report before you submit it on the RPi repo then just post a draft of it here in this thread and I'll have a look and comment on it.

    so long,

    Hias

    Just doing it in the interests of science. Learning is a good thing for no reason other than knowledge.

    Copy that. Probably won't have time to do all that until the summer. Maybe it will have miraculously have fixed itself anyway by then.

    BTW, I want to use a 256g card because I like to have content without having to have a USB stick or external drive hanging off the device. Another reason I prefer other devices where you can install an internal eMMC or SSD.

    I'll just use LE10 for my upcoming trip and check in on the status of LE11 when I get back.

    Thanks, everyone!

    I have the same problem. My configuration is :

    - RPI3 A+

    - 128GB msata SSD on SSD to USB adaptator

    - No sdcard (USB boot)

    My configuration work correctly with L10.0.4

    I upgrade to L11 and after the upgrade, the system hanged up with the message : Could not mount /flash/SYSTEM

    I try manual upgrade with L11 nigthly build :

    - LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-11.0-nightly-20221231-b9ea43f.img.gz OK (kernel 6.1.0)

    - LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-11.0-nightly-20230129-c2ff0c7.img.gz OK (kernel 6.1.8)

    - LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-11.0-nightly-20230228-80ac358.img.gz KO

    So the problem appears between 20230129 and 20230228. I will try with february builds to find which build make the problem.

    The last nightly build that works is : LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-11.0-nightly-20230201-a144326.img.gz and then, it's KO for LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-11.0-nightly-20230204-7beffea.img.gz. I see there is a size change between these 2 builds : 126.8M for the first one and 127M for the second.

    Quote from bborredon

    The last nightly build that works is : LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-11.0-nightly-20230201-a144326.img.gz and then, it's KO for LibreELEC-RPi2.arm-11.0-nightly-20230204-7beffea.img.gz. I see there is a size change between these 2 builds : 126.8M for the first one and 127M for the second.

    add dtoverlay=cma,cma-256 to /flash/config.txt - otherwise devices with 512MB RAM won't boot.

    so long,

    Hias

    Update - it looks like Moode (an audio player) also has this same issue in the more recent builds. I had version 6 and was trying to update to version 8 and am hitting the same roadblock. I'd be sad to think that these fast and (otherwise) high quality µSD cards are not useable with newer Linux builds.
    I'm not sure I understand what changed in the underlying OS that now rejects these cards while they worked fine before - these cards that are great performers in all the other uses I have for them...
    2 Different RPI3s, Multiple cards (but all SandDisk High Endurance), Both LibreElec and Moode images, 64 bit and 32 bit versions. All fail.
    My guess is that this isn't going to get fixed because the "solution" is to use a different card.