• RPi 4 USB boot without SD card

    From Marco Moock@3:770/3 to All on Sun Feb 5 16:20:09 2023
    Hallo,
    I bought the following board:

    bootloader: a5e1b95f
    board: b03111 2cde1136

    I created an USB flash with Debian for RPi 4, but it doesn't boot. It
    tries to find the SD card (I don't have on). Is it possible to switch
    on USB booting without having an SD card?
    It offers TFTP booting, I could set up a TFTP server and DHCP.
    Is it possible to boot via TFTP without the SD card?

    --
    Gruß
    Marco

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Marco Moock on Sun Feb 5 15:36:08 2023
    On 05/02/2023 15:20, Marco Moock wrote:
    Hallo,
    I bought the following board:

    bootloader: a5e1b95f
    board: b03111 2cde1136

    I created an USB flash with Debian for RPi 4, but it doesn't boot. It
    tries to find the SD card (I don't have on). Is it possible to switch
    on USB booting without having an SD card?
    I believe it should work on a USB 2 port without need for an SD card.

    It offers TFTP booting, I could set up a TFTP server and DHCP.
    Is it possible to boot via TFTP without the SD card?

    I have no idea.

    --
    If I had all the money I've spent on drink...
    ..I'd spend it on drink.

    Sir Henry (at Rawlinson's End)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Jim Jackson@3:770/3 to Marco Moock on Sun Feb 5 17:24:50 2023
    On 2023-02-05, Marco Moock <mo01@posteo.de> wrote:
    Hallo,
    I bought the following board:

    bootloader: a5e1b95f
    board: b03111 2cde1136

    I created an USB flash with Debian for RPi 4, but it doesn't boot. It
    tries to find the SD card (I don't have on). Is it possible to switch
    on USB booting without having an SD card?
    It offers TFTP booting, I could set up a TFTP server and DHCP.
    Is it possible to boot via TFTP without the SD card?

    My advice is always to try booting in the most supported way first -
    that is with PiOS on an SD card. That proves the Pi works. I've had a
    duff Pi4 board. I got it replaced.

    Move on after that.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From tumppiw@3:770/3 to All on Mon Feb 6 10:23:58 2023
    The Natural Philosopher kirjoitti 5.2.2023 klo 17.36:
    On 05/02/2023 15:20, Marco Moock wrote:
    Hallo,
    I bought the following board:

    bootloader: a5e1b95f
    board: b03111 2cde1136

    I created an USB flash with Debian for RPi 4, but it doesn't boot. It
    tries to find the SD card (I don't have on). Is it possible to switch
    on USB booting without having an SD card?
    I believe it should work on a USB 2 port without need for an SD card.

    Boots fine from USB3 also

    It offers TFTP booting, I could set up a TFTP server and DHCP.
    Is it possible to boot via TFTP without the SD card?

    I have no idea.


    How to Boot Raspberry Pi 4 / 400 From a USB SSD or Flash Drive https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/boot-raspberry-pi-4-usb

    --
    -----------------------------------------------------
    Thomas Wendell
    Helsinki, Finland
    Translation to/from FI/SWE not always accurate -----------------------------------------------------

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Marco Moock@3:770/3 to All on Mon Feb 6 10:48:45 2023
    Am 06.02.2023 um 10:23:58 Uhr schrieb tumppiw:

    How to Boot Raspberry Pi 4 / 400 From a USB SSD or Flash Drive https://www.tomshardware.com/how-to/boot-raspberry-pi-4-usb

    Although that article only show a method that needs an SD card - I
    currently don't have one.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Joe@3:770/3 to Marco Moock on Mon Feb 6 11:45:12 2023
    On Sun, 5 Feb 2023 16:20:09 +0100, Marco Moock <mo01@posteo.de> wrote:

    Hallo,
    I bought the following board:

    bootloader: a5e1b95f
    board: b03111 2cde1136

    I created an USB flash with Debian for RPi 4, but it doesn't boot. It
    tries to find the SD card (I don't have on). Is it possible to switch
    on USB booting without having an SD card?
    It offers TFTP booting, I could set up a TFTP server and DHCP.
    Is it possible to boot via TFTP without the SD card?

    Mine "cat /sys/firmware/devicetree/base/model" says Pi4 Model B, rev 1.5 booted straight from SSD on USB-3 port. Created bootable
    SSD (Samsung T7) with Raspberry pi imager. Al my other pi (4's and some 3's) work the same.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Marco Moock@3:770/3 to All on Mon Feb 6 15:03:14 2023
    Am 06.02.2023 um 11:45:12 Uhr schrieb Joe:

    Created bootable SSD (Samsung T7) with Raspberry pi imager

    I also did that, it still tries to boot from SD card.

    My other Pi 3 B did directly boot from USB without modification.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Anssi Saari@3:770/3 to Marco Moock on Tue Feb 7 12:30:27 2023
    Marco Moock <mo01@posteo.de> writes:

    I created an USB flash with Debian for RPi 4, but it doesn't boot. It
    tries to find the SD card (I don't have on). Is it possible to switch
    on USB booting without having an SD card?

    Might be difficult. AFAIK, The inability to boot from USB might be due
    to bootloader being too old or boot order set to something not including
    USB boot. Kinda need to boot Linux from SD to fix either. Assuming it
    actually boots from SD, since as far as you've said, it's never booted
    from anything?

    It offers TFTP booting, I could set up a TFTP server and DHCP.
    Is it possible to boot via TFTP without the SD card?

    I guess it depends on what you mean by "it offers"? Again AFAIK, network
    boot is one option in the boot order. If enabled then it should work if
    you have the servers running.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Anssi Saari on Tue Feb 7 10:46:51 2023
    On 07/02/2023 10:30, Anssi Saari wrote:
    Marco Moock <mo01@posteo.de> writes:

    I created an USB flash with Debian for RPi 4, but it doesn't boot. It
    tries to find the SD card (I don't have on). Is it possible to switch
    on USB booting without having an SD card?

    Might be difficult. AFAIK, The inability to boot from USB might be due
    to bootloader being too old or boot order set to something not including
    USB boot. Kinda need to boot Linux from SD to fix either. Assuming it actually boots from SD, since as far as you've said, it's never booted
    from anything?

    It offers TFTP booting, I could set up a TFTP server and DHCP.
    Is it possible to boot via TFTP without the SD card?

    I guess it depends on what you mean by "it offers"? Again AFAIK, network
    boot is one option in the boot order. If enabled then it should work if
    you have the servers running.

    Does a PI have some sort of flash RAM in it then that can emulate BIOS
    NVRAM?

    I cant recall ever being able to do any of this except via the boot
    partition files on the SD card.

    I assumed that USB disk boot was 'burned in' to the firmware.


    --
    Any fool can believe in principles - and most of them do!

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Marco Moock@3:770/3 to All on Tue Feb 7 12:40:31 2023
    Am 07.02.2023 um 12:30:27 Uhr schrieb Anssi Saari:

    Marco Moock <mo01@posteo.de> writes:

    I created an USB flash with Debian for RPi 4, but it doesn't boot.
    It tries to find the SD card (I don't have on). Is it possible to
    switch on USB booting without having an SD card?

    Might be difficult. AFAIK, The inability to boot from USB might be due
    to bootloader being too old or boot order set to something not
    including USB boot. Kinda need to boot Linux from SD to fix either.
    Assuming it actually boots from SD, since as far as you've said, it's
    never booted from anything?

    I bought it used on eBay. I never managed it to boot into an operating
    system.

    It offers TFTP booting, I could set up a TFTP server and DHCP.
    Is it possible to boot via TFTP without the SD card?

    I guess it depends on what you mean by "it offers"? Again AFAIK,
    network boot is one option in the boot order. If enabled then it
    should work if you have the servers running.

    I see options for DHCPv4 (including TFTP server address etc.) when I
    switch it on, but it doesn't seem to use DHCPv4 (I have it, but no DNS
    and no TFP options set).

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Theo@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Tue Feb 7 16:14:59 2023
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Does a PI have some sort of flash RAM in it then that can emulate BIOS
    NVRAM?

    Pi 4 has EEPROM which contains the boot firmware. If you can boot it (with
    an SD card perhaps) you can update the EEPROM to the latest version.

    I'd guess some of the NVRAM settings can be written to the EEPROM, but not
    sure what does.

    I assumed that USB disk boot was 'burned in' to the firmware.

    Pi 3 doesn't have an EEPROM. Some (but not all) versions of them have USB
    boot available in their revision of the boot ROM, and you can blow an e-fuse
    to (irreversibly) enable it.

    Theo

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From The Natural Philosopher@3:770/3 to Theo on Tue Feb 7 16:27:53 2023
    On 07/02/2023 16:14, Theo wrote:
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Does a PI have some sort of flash RAM in it then that can emulate BIOS
    NVRAM?

    Pi 4 has EEPROM which contains the boot firmware. If you can boot it (with an SD card perhaps) you can update the EEPROM to the latest version.

    I'd guess some of the NVRAM settings can be written to the EEPROM, but not sure what does.

    Hang on..NVRAM *is* EEPROM...

    I assumed that USB disk boot was 'burned in' to the firmware.

    Pi 3 doesn't have an EEPROM. Some (but not all) versions of them have USB boot available in their revision of the boot ROM, and you can blow an e-fuse to (irreversibly) enable it.

    Wow. Bit burn-your-bridges, that.

    Theo

    --
    WOKE is an acronym... Without Originality, Knowledge or Education.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Theo@3:770/3 to The Natural Philosopher on Wed Feb 8 11:22:00 2023
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    On 07/02/2023 16:14, Theo wrote:
    The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
    Does a PI have some sort of flash RAM in it then that can emulate BIOS
    NVRAM?

    Pi 4 has EEPROM which contains the boot firmware. If you can boot it (with an SD card perhaps) you can update the EEPROM to the latest version.

    I'd guess some of the NVRAM settings can be written to the EEPROM, but not sure what does.

    Hang on..NVRAM *is* EEPROM...

    NVRAM is a high level concept. The implementation can be EEPROM, flash,
    FERAM, MRAM, battery-backed SRAM, memristors...

    The RPi folks call it EEPROM. I haven't checked the part to confirm if it's actually EEPROM or some other tech.

    (these days flash is generally cheaper than EEPROM, especially if you don't need single-byte write capability)

    I assumed that USB disk boot was 'burned in' to the firmware.

    Pi 3 doesn't have an EEPROM. Some (but not all) versions of them have USB boot available in their revision of the boot ROM, and you can blow an e-fuse
    to (irreversibly) enable it.

    Wow. Bit burn-your-bridges, that.

    It's not so bad because it's a priority order. Normally boot just goes straight to the SD. If you enable USB boot, it tries that first before
    trying the SD. It's basically like your BIOS boot-order setting that you
    can only change once. Unless you're in the habit of having bootable drives
    in both SD and USB slots at the same time it shouldn't matter.

    Theo

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)