Not Saving Initial Setup

  • Installed the latest stable LibreELEC with Kodi 17.1 on a Raspberry Pi 2 (16GB microSD), but the next day I got the same initial setup screen (asking to set computer name, etc) as the day before when I installed the software.

    I can understand the Raspberry not keeping the time, even though I set it to wait for the network before loading Kodi, but not saving the initial setup was unexpected.

    Is there a way to fix both issues?

  • Basically it's not an issue as you are about the only one reporting this issue. I suggest you redo a full fresh installation, and let LibreELEC resize the storage partition on the first boot. Walk through the welcome wizard and then reboot. If you again get the setup screens, I think the SD card has a problem.

    Now change a couple of settings and reboot again. If settings are still not stored, try another SD card.

  • The microSD card is a Samsung EVO used for the Raspberry Pi.

    After using the LibreELEC USB-SD Creator tool it appears as write protected using 2 different PCs (gaming and desktop) and using 2 different unlocked SD adapters (Samsung and SanDisk).

    I can't format the card using SDFormatter 4.0.

    Never had a problem with the microSD card before.

    Is it possible for a microSD to be write-protected without a SD adapter? This would explain why Kodi is showing initial setup when the Raspberry Pi is turned on.
    [hr]
    Wrote the image a second time to the microSD card using the LibreELEC USB-SD Creator tool, but Raspberry Pi is not loading the image.

    SDFormatter can't format the card, but I can rename, create, and save files to the microSD card in Windows File Explorer.

    Ran "chkdsk" without problems.
    [hr]
    Tried a third time, downloaded image and wrote to the card using the LibreELEC tool (no checksum error).

    This time everything is working as the first time, but when I reboot the system I keep getting the Welcome screen (to set computer name, etc).

    I'm back to the same issue I had before.

    It seems the system on Raspberry Pi is (like SDFormatter on Windows) unable to write to the microSD.

    Is strange that SDFormatter can't write to the card after using the LibreELEC tool, but the LibreELEC tool can write to the card.

    Maybe it is the LibreELEC tool that causes the issue with both the Raspberry Pi (LibreELEC/Kodi) and Windows (SDFormatter).

    Edited once, last by liyin (March 30, 2017 at 5:26 PM).

  • I would try loading Raspbian onto the SD card and see if you have any issues. If you do, then the SD card is more than likely corrupt - they do get corrupted, either power failures, incorrect shutdown or just bad manufacturing.

    If all works well, try installing Raspbian on another SD card and use Raspbian to try and write LE onto the suspect card.

    Remember that once written the LE SD card will have 1 FAT16 partition and 1 ext4 partition. Windoze can only read the FAT16 partition (Without loading additional ext4 disk utilities)

  • Don't know if this is true, but just read that when a card is close to failing completely it enters a write-protected state to allow the user to recover the files in it.

    Nothing seems to be able to write to it, so going to buy a new card, but will try with a much slower card in the meantime.

    The timing couldn't be worse (when trying a new OS).

    Edited once, last by liyin (March 30, 2017 at 8:17 PM).

  • I thought of installing Raspbian, but it also has issues keeping the current time on the Raspberry Pi 3.

    I have tried several distros over the years and the Raspberry Pi 2 didn't sync with NTP servers at boot time.

    LibreELEC had the same issue and even if the problem with saving the initial setup was caused by a faulty card, another user posted a problem with setting time using NTP servers on his Raspberry Pi.

    Can anyone confirm if LibreELEC syncs reliably with NTP servers at boot time on a Raspberry Pi 2/3? (lost a card in the process)

    ======== SOLUTION ========

    I found a SanDisk Extreme card and installed OSMC and it automatically syncs with NTP servers at boot time.

    The first line when booting OSMC is: " [Ok] Started Set Time using HTTP query "

    And it does what all the other distros I've tried didn't, it syncs flawlessly with NTP servers.

    OSMC does require changing the sking to Estuary, or you won't find the Kodi Add-ons menu (hidden).

    Whatever the issue is with syncing to NTP servers on the Raspberry Pi, OSMC shows it can be done.

    Edited once, last by liyin (March 31, 2017 at 1:14 AM).