Problem with 512MB Pi

[vdherik]

Hi guys,

First, this may not necessarily be an Xbian problem, but I'll try and post it anyway..

If been running Xbian (Alpha 4) for weeks now on a borrowed 256MB Pi (model B), without any problems. Figuring I couldn't borrow it forever, I purchased my own unit, a 512MB Pi.

Did a fresh install, but can't get Xbian running on the new unit. It will crash consistently, although not always at the same moment. When lucky, it boots all the way and launches xbmc and then crashes, other times it crashes somewhere during the boot sequence. 'Crash' meaning screen goes black and can't SSH in.. need to reset power to get it going again.

Tried different SD-cards (diff. brand/size/class) and different power supplies, since these seem to be common causes for crashes, but no luck.

Any ideas? Also where to start looking for the problem?

Thanks!

[pocster]

Hey,

I am having similar experiences. Tried different SD cards. Can get it to boot once but not again - black screen but can ssh in.
Any ideas anyone?

Cheers

p.s. ssh in the install app starts - config->services shows XBMC not running. Starting it and rebooting seems to have no effect.

[rikardo1979]

ok guys,just a quick check before we go deeper
Have u tried any other distribution ?
if no than try Openelec for example if it runs
im suspicious there may be something wrong with your RPi

[pocster]

Hey there.

I tried openelec but it was always around 94% cpu usage!! - as this kind of crippled it I couldn't get wifi to work (assume cpu was hogged).
Going to reflash my sd card; import all the music again, setup wifi and see what happens.
If it does go wrong and I get the black screen are there any useful log files I can post here.
Xbian looks great as did raspbmc - but not stable :-((((

Any help is appreciated!

Cheers

[CurlyMo]

Or try updating the files from the boot partition (the one that is visible in windows) with the ones here:
https://github.com/xbianonpi/xbian/tree/xbian-alpha5/boot

[pocster]

Hey!

Sorry you lost me! :-) . I'm installing from a mac.
Are you suggesting ref lash my SD (too late just done it!) ; then copy those files you've listed onto it? i.e. overwrite the .img ones??

Cheers

[CurlyMo]

Overwriting all files. If it boots, use this thread http://forum.xbian.org/thread-370.html to match the rest of the files.

[pocster]

Thanks for the quick info.
Just flashed with original .img and it's up fine i.e. I have done nothing.
Just rebooted 3 times from the menu so good i.e. not a memory card issue I can assume.

Shall I continue to 'add' things until the black screen and then supply a log or just skip straight to your suggestion???

thanks

p.s. appreciate the quick replies. Assuming I get this working and rebooting reliably do you have a donate button??

[vdherik]

Quick update..

I got Xbian running for a full 3 minutes before it crashed, but at least that was long enough to SSH in and remove the overclock, just in case that was screwing things up. Still crashed after the reboot though.

Just installed openElec and will leave that running for a bit, and see what happens. If that's stable, I'll try CurlyMo's suggestion for Alpha5.

Thanks so far!

---

Well, openElec just crashed..

I'm give CurlyMo's suggestion a try.. but I'm starting to think it's just a flawed board..

[pocster]

I took the overclock out previously *just incase* ; think I will try curlymo's suggestion before I start adding files/configing

Cheers

---

No boot with Curlymo's suggestion!

---

Will flash back latest .img add my music files do nothing else but reboot 3 times

[rikardo1979]

what I know there were some boards with a fault on fuse(if I remember marked F3) on it so if you have an simple multimeter you can check the voltage front and behind thus fuse and it should be same.If no than is faulty and this cause higher resistance so your board get less power and when loaded it just crash

[pocster]

Thanks for the info.
I have had squeezeplug running on it for days previously with no issue i.e. lots of reboots never failed. - so *assume* board and sd card are fine.
Got another pi I can try it on if I need too (actually think I've got 3 spare at the moment!!)

[udrnovsek]

Just a hint. I had similar problems and i found this solution.
After burning an image. I mount SD cart on my laptop and edit config.txt
I comment all lines about any frequency.
So my /boot/config.txt looks like this:

disable_overscan=1
gpu_mem_256=100
gpu_mem_512=100

From that time, no problems.
(just after plugging off the working raspi, SD card gets corrupted)