[RPi5] A new surprise every turn on with LibreELEC 12.0.2

    After a week of work, I was able to setup on my TV LibreELEC on a PI5 connecting over Wifi to my Jellyfin server (using Jellyfin for Kodi). The issue is, every time I turn on the TV or reboot the PI I have a different behavior. Almost half of the time, the PI just do not boot, and to loop 8 short flashes of the green LED, according to PI5 documentation it means SDRAM failure and then it just need to be restarted on Power some times. When it finally boots, most of the time it looses the password to the wifi and just show a notification of invalid-key and asks again for Wireless Network Passphrase. It is so strange, it does not even need to reboot, if I am watching a video and reboot my router, same will happen. Not sure why LibreELEC is not able to store the information.

    Did someone solve that?

    Please provide a full debug log.

    How to post a log (wiki)

    1. Enable debugging in Settings>System Settings>Logging
    2. Restart Kodi
    3. Replicate the problem
    4. Generate a log URL (do not post/upload logs to the forum)

    use "Settings > LibreELEC > System > Paste system logs" or run "pastekodi" over SSH, then post the URL link
    Quote from bulk

    loop 8 short flashes of the green LED, according to PI5 documentation it means SDRAM failure

    That indeed could be a RAM failure (BGA soldering maybe) or a power source issue... or something else. But a full debug log could provide more information. Just don't forget, there is many people using their RPi5 with LE without complains, so is a solid possibility to be something wrong at your setup. Another thing you can easy try, find a spare SD-card and install the latest LE13 nightly build (that's a nice thing in the RPi). Just to see if there is any difference. These nightly builds usually are stable for daily use. One last thing, all the RPi boards have only a tiny wifi antenna, so if you have any posibility, better use cable.

    About the SDRAM failure, I was suspected of the Power Supply (which is the official one rated at 27W). I also tried a Macbook charger which has no problem to deliver 27W since it is rated for 140W, also same issue. When I have time I will try to catch the logs.. I was thinking maybe I can stop using wifi completely and try to use the ethernet from the TV via HDMI, not sure how it works, but I saw it is possible from my cable at least. Or I can try an external wifi antenna if that is not possible. I have the last days before I can return the PI so I shall test it more.

    Update: I just learned Raspberry PI 5 also do not support HEC (HDMI Ethernet Channel) interface, sad story.

    Edited once, last by bulk (July 24, 2025 at 9:26 PM).

    The "invalid-key" error can be multiple things including poor signal (never a strong point of Pi boards) but another common iissue is having the network in WPA3 mode; which the broadcom WiFi module doesn't fully or properly support, so you need to use WPA2/3 mixed mode.

    Quote from bulk

    Or I can try an external wifi antenna if that is not possible.

    That you should forget unless you have a real soldering skill! For RPi3B I did the modification to use an external antenna, and it's a big improvement. For RPi4B (that part is the same as the RPi5) you can see here: external-antenna-for-raspberry-pi-4

    Maybe you can try with an USB-Wifi dongle... but in that case come the question of the driver support...

    First of all check your RPi5 hardware, follow the "Da Flex" advice, prepare a minimal RPiOS installation on a new SDcard, only the power and HDMI connection, and you will see if is a warranty case or not.

    chewitt I was already using WPA2/3 mixed mode for all wifis I connected the LibreELEC. Maybe would be great to improve the error message to have invalid-key and the name of the wifi network it tried to connect, otherwise only logs will tell. For the user it can be confusing invalid-key for what and also when it asks for the password, it does not say for which SSID. Is this coming from Kodi or is a customization from LibreELEC?

    Even with Raspberry PI OS I am having the same issue with SDRAM. The logs only show things when the system booted so they are also not helping. I will just return the PI and try a new one. Do you recommend another board that works better with LibreELEC than RPi5?

    Quote from bulk

    Do you recommend another board that works better with LibreELEC than RPi5?

    Nope. I have 40+ ARM SoC boards and RPi5 is the best (consistent and reliable) experience of them all. I don't ever use WiFi with any device though, and if forced to use WiFi i'd be using a USB device with a proper external antenna, or a WiFi bridge; not the onboard module which I've always found to be a bit rubbish for streaming use.

    The error message is generated between kernel + iwd + ConnMan so isn't something we control and the key is something obscure and internal to 802.11 radio standards. If you're already using a WPA2/3 mixed mode network poor signal strength is probably the underlying cause.