Occasionally won't boot
#1
Anyone else have issues with occasionally not being able to boot their Pine with a known good image?

When doing a reboot, usually because the kernel updated during an apt-get, sometimes it takes six or seven tries (pulling the power, inserting the power) before it will boot back up. I'm running headless, but if I plug a monitor in, the screen is just blank when it doesn't boot.

After six or seven unplug/replug, it boots up fine and is 100% stable until it comes time to reboot again.

I have tried other images on other SD cards, same issue.

Any ideas what it could be?
#2
I have had similar things happen to my 512mb board after another 'mystery' event.  Here is a quick rundown: 
My 512mb board runs a webserver; with port 22 forwarded it would sometimes go down (every couple days or so), the SOC would get very very hot, and the board would stop working for a period of time. It would take a couple of reboots to have it boot up properly again. 

My guess is that port 22 was getting hammered and the device couldn't keep up. Why it wouldn't reboot properly ... no clue. 

I solved it by making port 22 inaccessible from the outside; I now access it via VPN. Since then, no issues with it going down and no issues with rebooting the board. 

Not sure this helps in any way or sheds any further insight ...
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#3
(03-08-2017, 05:09 PM)Luke Wrote: I have had similar things happen to my 512mb board after another 'mystery' event.  Here is a quick rundown: 
My 512mb board runs a webserver; with port 22 forwarded it would sometimes go down (every couple days or so), the SOC would get very very hot, and the board would stop working for a period of time. It would take a couple of reboots to have it boot up properly again. 

My guess is that port 22 was getting hammered and the device couldn't keep up. Why it wouldn't reboot properly ... no clue. 

I solved it by making port 22 inaccessible from the outside; I now access it via VPN. Since then, no issues with it going down and no issues with rebooting the board. 

Not sure this helps in any way or sheds any further insight ...

Thanks for responding. My PINE SSH is only accessible by VPN, but I do have other ports exposed via forwarding. Hmmmm.

Thanks for the tip. I'll see if next time perhaps disabling that forwarding allows the device to boot every time.
#4
My Pine A64+ (2GB RAM) is experiencing issues:
* The board occasionally crashed ( Angry ) while only running boinc seti@home and nothing else (idle from interactive user activity).
* Cold booting (as opposed to reboot while running) after a crash, at first, always succeeded.
* Then, after a few months, it would take an unplugging and count to 10 seconds before re-plugging in for a cold boot to succeed.
* Then, after a few days, I needed to wait a few hours - usually overnight.
* Finally, I give up! Cry

After experiencing this and hearing the stories of others, I have come to the conclusion that the initial product offering (2016) had an unreliable production line.  I have seen this before with other electronics manufacturers.  Either they get quality under control soon enough or they eventually get abandoned by the market.

My board is heading for the responsibly-recycling center.  Lesson learned.
#5
(09-04-2017, 01:42 PM)texadactyl Wrote: My Pine A64+ (2GB RAM) is experiencing issues:<snip> 

After experiencing this and hearing the stories of others, I have come to the conclusion that the initial product offering (2016) had an unreliable production line.  I have seen this before with other electronics manufacturers.  Either they get quality under control soon enough or they eventually get abandoned by the market.

My board is heading for the responsibly-recycling center.  Lesson learned.


My initial boards run 24-7-365 since last November !   ... no hits, no runs, no errors;

... I would try a recent image on a good SD card ;  your board will be just fine.

Shy
marcushh777    Cool

please join us for a chat @  irc.pine64.xyz:6667   or ssl  irc.pine64.xyz:6697

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#6
(09-04-2017, 02:37 PM)MarkHaysHarris777 Wrote:
(09-04-2017, 01:42 PM)texadactyl Wrote: My Pine A64+ (2GB RAM) is experiencing issues:<snip> 

After experiencing this and hearing the stories of others, I have come to the conclusion that the initial product offering (2016) had an unreliable production line.  I have seen this before with other electronics manufacturers.  Either they get quality under control soon enough or they eventually get abandoned by the market.

My board is heading for the responsibly-recycling center.  Lesson learned.


My initial boards run 24-7-365 since last November !   ... no hits, no runs, no errors;

... I would try a recent image on a good SD card ;  your board will be just fine.

Shy

My Pine64 board ran "24-7-365" for 10 months before the first symptoms.  I have re-installed with 3 new cards from 2 different manufacturers (SanDisk, PNY).  I have been using the same power adapter that I use with my Raspberry Pi 2 (CanaKit 5V 2.5A).  Swapped Pine64 and Pi power adapters.  Same Pine64 symptoms appeared (problem did not move).  Both are plugged into the same UPS.  Swapped UPS sockets with Pi.  Same Pine64 symptoms appeared (problem did not move).  It's the board.  It's either a slow-failing lemon or  there was a 2016 assembly-line issue (hopefully fixed).

The Raspberry Pi 2 is on its 3rd year.  Either they have consistently good quality or I had good luck with this particular Pi.  I'd bet on the former.
#7
(09-05-2017, 08:37 AM)texadactyl Wrote:
(09-04-2017, 02:37 PM)MarkHaysHarris777 Wrote:
(09-04-2017, 01:42 PM)texadactyl Wrote: My Pine A64+ (2GB RAM) is experiencing issues:<snip> 

After experiencing this and hearing the stories of others, I have come to the conclusion that the initial product offering (2016) had an unreliable production line.  I have seen this before with other electronics manufacturers.  Either they get quality under control soon enough or they eventually get abandoned by the market.

My board is heading for the responsibly-recycling center.  Lesson learned.


My initial boards run 24-7-365 since last November !   ... no hits, no runs, no errors;

... I would try a recent image on a good SD card ;  your board will be just fine.

Shy

My Pine64 board ran "24-7-365" for 10 months before the first symptoms.  I have re-installed with 3 new cards from 2 different manufacturers (SanDisk, PNY).  I have been using the same power adapter that I use with my Raspberry Pi 2 (CanaKit 5V 2.5A).  Swapped Pine64 and Pi power adapters.  Same Pine64 symptoms appeared (problem did not move).  Both are plugged into the same UPS.  Swapped UPS sockets with Pi.  Same Pine64 symptoms appeared (problem did not move).  It's the board.  It's either a slow-failing lemon or  there was a 2016 assembly-line issue (hopefully fixed).

The Raspberry Pi 2 is on its 3rd year.  Either they have consistently good quality or I had good luck with this particular Pi.  I'd bet on the former.


Based on my experience with these boards ( and the cards you mention ) that its a bad SD card ( or a corrupted image ) or its the power connector!

The 5v 2.5A PSU should be fine;  however, I would like you to power it via the euler bus.  The micro usb connectors are defective on these boards, and constrain clean power (current) to the board;  please power the board via euler bus and retry:   pin(2 or 4   +5v)   pin(6 ground).   Use female standard header connectors solder & crimp to the wires ( of course, remove the micro usb plug ).

Also,  try a recent image, and debug with a serial adapter cable.  Any  cp2102, pl2303, ch340g  adapter will work:  usb to ttl serial bridge adapter.  The other end (usb) is plugged into your pc or mac;   run a terminal emulation program like minicom , cu , or screen;  you can watch the bootup messages from uboot, as well logon to the console when you get the login prompt.

It would be interesting to see where the boot-up is hanging;  you can only see this with a serial adapter plugged in.  

Again, I doubt very seriously that the board is the problem;  almost always ( 99.99% ) the trouble is in the power supply ( or connector ) or in the SD card...

btw;  we recommend Samsung Class 10 Evo Plus 32G cards.   not PNY, not SANDISK, not Kingston;   Also, use  f3  for linux and test the card BEFORE you burn an image to it....

Shy
marcushh777    Cool

please join us for a chat @  irc.pine64.xyz:6667   or ssl  irc.pine64.xyz:6697

( I regret that I am not able to respond to personal messages;  let's meet on irc! )
#8
Thanks for your reply.

I already said above that the power adapter and its connector which has been powering my Raspberry Pi 2 without issues for quite awhile works only intermittently with my Pine64 board. Also, I read/write checked the last brand new Class 10 32GB card exhaustively before writing an image. The image on the new card fails intermittently on Pine64 boot. When I tested the raw disk image with a full raw device scanner afterwards, no errors are reported.

Maybe there is a faulty power connector on the board. Maybe there are bus issues somewhere on the board. In any case, it's the board. I have invested enough time on this board.
#9
(09-06-2017, 04:48 AM)texadactyl Wrote: I already said above that the power adapter and its connector which has been powering my Raspberry Pi 2 without issues for quite awhile works only intermittently with my Pine64 board.  Also, I read/write checked the last brand new Class 10 32GB card exhaustively before writing an image.  The image on the new card fails intermittently on Pine64 boot.  When I tested the raw disk image with a full raw device scanner afterwards, no errors are reported.

Maybe there is a faulty power connector on the board.  Maybe there are bus issues somewhere on the board.  In any case, it's the board.  I have invested enough time on this board.


If you don't want it to work, that's ok too.  Its not the board until you debug the boot-up with a serial console cable. If you want it to work, you'll try that... if you don't want it to work, throw it away.

The power requirements are more exacting on the PineA64+ than they are for the RPi2.  You can't use the RPi2 in this case to determine that your PSU is ok ( I'm telling you the truth ).  For instance, the RPi2 does not have an AXP803 PMIC on-board.  It is very sensitive; and noise on the PSU, or bad connector, and the board will not boot;

If you want to make the board work get a Samsung Class 10 Evo Plus SD card ( 32G is good ) , power the board via euler bus  pins(2 or 4   +5v)  pin(6  ground),  and use a serial console cable to watch the boot-up to find out where its hanging up.  My guess is that if you use a Samsung evo plus card, and power the board correctly, it will run for a long long time.

Shy

PS   Its like the ancient text says,  "Do you want to be healed ? "

.
marcushh777    Cool

please join us for a chat @  irc.pine64.xyz:6667   or ssl  irc.pine64.xyz:6697

( I regret that I am not able to respond to personal messages;  let's meet on irc! )
#10
My 512mb board runs a webserver; with port 22 forwarded it would sometimes go down (every couple days or so mega joker), the SOC would get very very hot, and the board would stop working for a period of time. It would take a couple of reboots to have it boot up properly again. 


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