Skip to main content

Recovering from Raspberry Pi 2 Boot Failures - Safe Boot Methods

By
I was recently loaned a Raspberry Pi 2 from a friend and I immediately dove in and started playing around. 

Of course, as is always the case, when you start fiddling about with something new, you're almost guaranteed to mess something up. In fact, I have done just that one at least 2 occasions.

In my case, the first boot failure came after I updated my initial Raspbian installation and the second after I tried to choose the maximum overclocking speed for my Raspberry Pi. In both cases, the Raspi started to boot but then hit an issue when loading display drivers or something around there in the boot cycle.

After the first failure -- since I hadn't done much configuration of software installed, I simply rebuilt the SD Card and started over. On the second, more recent, boot failure, I really didn't want to start all over again, so I looked for some additional remedies.

Use your PC to rewrite configuration files

 Since the Raspi wouldn't boot, there was no direct way to alter the configuration files to reset the overclocking setting and safe HDMI settings which I hoped would put things back to right. Thankfully, you can pop out the SD Card and mount it directly on your local PC where you can edit the config and then re-install it in the Raspi. The /boot partition on the SD Card is set up in such a way as to allow it to mount on and system that can read FAT32 or xFAT partitions. Changing the configuration settings mentioned above got me back to a bootable system where I could then re-configure it.

Use Safe Boot Options

Later after some research, I discovered a safe boot keystroke (Hold left shift on the keyboard during Boot) that specifically disables the overclocking option in the config.txt file.

A more difficult safe boot can be performed by shorting pins 5 & 6 on the P1 header. This takes some knowledge and car, though, or you can damage your Raspi system.

See further discussion of this safe book method

See this discussion on Stack Exchange for more information.

​Get Raspberry Pi Boards and Components from Amazon
Get Raspberry Pi Boards and Components from eBay

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Elsewhere Online: AT&T's Spam Filter Gets A Bit Too Aggressive

By
This story from TechDirt lays out yet another reason I recommend that folks DON'T use the email provided to them by their ISP. My typical recommendation right now is to get a Gmail account instead. It also points out why I want to manage all my SPAM on my end, without pre-filtering from an ISP. I will gladly manage my spam if it helps to insure that I see as many of my "real" messages as possible. Again, Gmail's tools work pretty good in this regard. Having an alternative email account also insures you will keep the same email, even if you decide to leave your current ISP. Witness all the folks holding onto AOL accounts just to keep their AOL email address. Thank goodness at least that is free now. AT&T's Spam Filter Gets A Bit Too Aggressive You can certainly understand why ISPs offer spam filters. It's a service for users who don't want to be totally bombarded with spam. But what I've never understood is that these ISPs rarely give the user a
Post a Comment
Read more

On my iPhone…IFTTT (If This Then That) for iOS

By
IFTTT (If This Then That) for iOS IFTTT (If This Then That) for iOS My best description of IFTTT, both their main web site, and this new iOS app is "a scripting language for the We." It allows you to set up "recipes" that watch one particular service, like Feedly, Evernote, Gmail and more, and then take action on another service whenever a particular action occurs. I use this to automatically save my shared items from Feedly and elsewhere into an Evernote Notebook and also use it to post automatically post information on a variety of services. The iOS app adds to this functionality by allowing you to take various actions on your phone and triggering IFTTT actions whenever they occur. In the case of the iPhone, initiating actions can include adding new contacts to your iPhone, taking a new picture and more.  For more complete information on how IFFTT works, visit ifttt.com    From the iTunes App Store... " Put the internet to work for you. IFTTT lets y
Post a Comment
Read more

This DIY domino clock tells the time using three LED-lit tiles via Arduino Blog

By
After coming across Carbon Design Group’s Domino Wall Clock, which uses electronic magnetic coil motors to reveal white dots, Instructables member “Kothe” decided to create a simplified version of their own. The clock is comprised of three custom dominoes — the first tile for hours, the second and third for minutes. Unlike its inspiration, Kothe’s device uses addressable RGB LEDs as dots that allow for a variety of colors to shine through. Read This DIY domino clock tells the time using three LED-lit tiles via Arduino Blog An interesting link found among my daily reading
Post a Comment
Read more