8.5 KiB
| title | date | showReadingTime | showWordCount | showPagination | showBreadcrumbs | feed_exclude |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raspberry Pi | 2024-01-27T11:01:31+0000 | false | false | false | true | true |
Some basic info about Raspberry Pi of any version.
Activity LED codes
Up to Raspberry Pi 3 models
Actual models
| LED Activity | Description |
|---|---|
| 3 flashes | start.elf not found |
| 4 flashes | start.elf not launch-able (corrupt) |
| 7 flashes | kernel.img not found |
| 8 flashes | SDRAM not recognized. You need a newer bootcode.bin/start.elf firmware, or your SDRAM is damaged |
Older models up to Raspberry Pi 3
| LED Activity | Description |
|---|---|
| 3 flashes | loader.bin not found |
| 4 flashes | loader.bin not launch-able (corrupt) |
| 5 flashes | start.elf not found |
| 6 flashes | start.elf not launch-able |
| 7 flashes | kernel.img not found |
Raspberry Pi 4
| Long flashes | Short flashes | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 3 | Generic failure to boot |
| 0 | 4 | start*.elf not found |
| 0 | 7 | Kernel image not found |
| 0 | 8 | SDRAM failure |
| 0 | 9 | Insufficient SDRAM |
| 0 | 10 | In HALT state |
| 2 | 1 | Partition not FAT |
| 2 | 2 | Failed to read from partition |
| 2 | 3 | Extended partition not FAT |
| 2 | 4 | File signature/hash mismatch - Pi 4 |
| 4 | 4 | Unsupported board type |
| 4 | 5 | Fatal firmware error |
| 4 | 6 | Power failure type A |
| 4 | 7 | Power failure type B |
Freeze a package with apt/apt-get
Raspberry Pi 4
4GB version, if that information is of any use.
WiFi setup
Run wifi-menu. It does not survice a reboot though!
I prefer iwctl or NetworkManager, so what I do:
# pacman -S networkmanager
No network after boot
Sometimes I make mistakes in my initial wpa_supplicant.conf file (that I'd place on
the boot partition of the new Raspberry Pi SDcard). Recently my wpa_supplicant.conf
file was totally messed up (a bracket too much I think).
So there is a quick way to connect to a WiFi network with the use of nmcli (NetworkManager).
$ sudo nmcli device wifi connect [ssid] password [password]
You can view networks with (no need for sudo):
$ nmcli device wifi list
Moving to testing (from bookworm)
Why would you want to do that in the first place? Well, most packages on debian stable are quite old -- hence the name stable.
If you need newer packages, you should consider moving to the testing
branch. I moved my Raspberry Pi 4 to testing because of the starship
prompt that I use on my computers -- it needed a newer version of the
rustc package.
First of all, upgrade to the latest packages.
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
Now change the release name (e.g. bookworm) to testing in /etc/apt/sources.list:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian testing main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security/ testing-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian testing-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
Then update step by step.
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade
Restart services during package upgrades without asking?
Answer with Yes.
Finish the update:
$ sudo apt full-upgrade
$ sudo reboot
Python 3
Installing non-packaged modules
I could not find aprslib as a package, so I had to install this myself.
Debian did not allow the installation as it did before, so I had to create
a virtual environment. And it went like this:
$ python -m venv ~/.env
$ source ~/.env/bin/activate
$ pip install aprslib
$ deactivate
I now have a similar line in my crontab:
3 * * * * /home/dominic/.env/bin/python /home/dominic/bin/aprs_sendstatus.py
We could also create virtual environments per application, module, package etc.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/os.html#python-on-raspberry-pi
Raspberry Pi 3
UPS Plus
An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is very useful if you have your own servers at home. I've been using one with my old DiskStation (NAS1) but I got rid of the DiskStation at the end of 2023. I got the UPS Plus for the Raspberry Pi now for a while but never tested all its features yet (well, I haven't used it much to be honest).
Though, I have some quick notes to remember:
Some software is needed to get status information about the batteries (which are of type 18650).
$ python3 -m venv .
$ curl -LsO https://raw.githubusercontent.com/geeekpi/upsplus/main/install.sh
$ bash install.sh
Any errors can be resolved by installing by hand. In my notes I thought that info is enough, so here we are 😉
We may have to edit our crontab:
* * * * * /home/dr/bin/python3 /home/dr/bin/upsPlus.py > /tmp/upsPlus.log
* * * * * /home/dr/bin/python3 /home/dr/bin/upsPlus_iot.py > /tmp/upsPlus_iot.log
Getting information:
$ python3 bin/upsPlus.py
------------------------------------------------------------
------Current information of the detected Raspberry Pi------
------------------------------------------------------------
Raspberry Pi Supply Voltage: 5.028 V
Raspberry Pi Current Current Consumption: 571.068 mA
Raspberry Pi Current Power Consumption: 2570.227 mW
------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------Batteries information-------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
Voltage of Batteries: 4.208 V
Battery Current (Charging) Rate: 30.000 mA
Current Battery Power Supplement: 263.415 mW
Successfully set the protection voltage to: 3700 mV
------------------------------------------------------------
Currently charging via Type C Port.
The Raspberry Pi will continue to work if you remove the power cable.
Raspberry Pi 2
WiFi adapter
The Raspberry Pi 2 does not have any WiFi capabilities so an adapter is needed to make use of your local WiFi network. I found this small adapter and can confirm it as a working unit.
Raspberry Pi Pico W
Using MicroPython
https://micropython.org/download/RPI_PICO_W/
I did the dumb thing and made the boot.py file break which led to an endless
loop showing me only the Error code and restarting...
I was able to stop the script by quickly pressing CTRL+D,
CTRL+C on the serial console but never was able to update the broken
file without it doing a soft-reboot which loads boot.py again instantly...
After some research I was glad I found pico-nuke.
Boot into uf2 loading (pressing BOOTSEL while power on) and place the correct .uf
file (pico_nuke_pico_w-1.1.uf2) on the mounted device.
On OpenBSD there is no response but you can see the filesystem unmounted/removed. Unplug the USB and plug it in again booting into uf2 loading, copying over the MicroPython uf2 file again.