First time starting up Core Pro—it won't start

Elektronik allgemein
1

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the English, I’m Swiss and I don’t speak German. However, I do have DeepL.

I hope someone can help me.

Today I tried to start up my Core Pro for the first time.

I have a first-generation Core Pro ,bought immediately after its release.

I downloaded the current official image VanPICTRL_pi4_pi5_v2.1.0_VANPI_CORE_PRO.img from the Pekaway download page and wrote it to a microSD card using balenaetcher.

Afterward:

microSD card inserted.

Core is switched on.

Since then, no Pekaway Wi-Fi network appears and the web interface is inaccessible.

I then removed the microSD card and restarted the Core. Unfortunately, the problem persists:

no Wi-Fi

no access to pekaway.local,

Only the red LED on the core is constantly lit.

The Core Pro has a connected touchscreen. The screen displays the Pekaway logo, the loading animation, and the message “Waiting for system.”

I try two Micro sd card:
-SanDisk Extreme 256gb
-SanDisk Extreme 64gb

Two different utility for flashing the micro sd card:
-balenaetcher
-Rufus

My questions:

Is there an additional step required after flashing the SD card on the first generation Core Pro?

Does the Core Pro boot directly from the SD card?

Is there a recovery guide for this case?

Thank you so much for your help!

Rémy

2

Hier war das gleiche Problem. Vielleicht hilft dir das weiter

3

Ich habe gestern weitere Tests durchgeführt.

Mit einer SD-Karte im Core Pro wird das Pekaway-Logo und eine Wartemeldung auf dem Systembildschirm angezeigt.

Ohne SD-Karte startet das System.

Es gibt jedoch keinen Zugriffspunkt, kein WLAN und keine Möglichkeit, Einstellungen zu ändern.

Auch auf einem per Ethernet-Kabel verbundenen Computer ist das Gerät nicht sichtbar.

Die Einstellungen zeigen Softwareversion 2.01 an.

Ich kann die Software nicht aktualisieren und es besteht keine Netzwerkverbindung.

Handelt es sich hierbei ebenfalls um ein EEPROM-Problem, wie es nach einem manuellen Update auftrat?

4

Das kann ich dir nicht sagen. Ich habe noch son altes Relayboard.
Du schreibst Version 2.01 ist das wenn du von Festplatte bootest??
Ich habe noch den pi 4, aber bei dem pi5 sollte das genau so sein, der bootet von sd karte. Pack die karte mal rein, warte eine weile und drück dann mal die Taste kaputt machen kannst du ja nix mehr.
:wink:

5

Version 2.01 erscheint im Einstellungsmenü, wenn der Core Pro ohne SD-Karte hochfährt.

Mit SD-Karte wird nur das Pekaway-Logo angezeigt.

Ich werde versuchen, den EEPROM neu zu flashen.

6

Das Display mußt du dann auch noch updaten, die 2.1.0 Version funktioniert auf dem Display sonst nicht.

7

@Remy
Please try inserting the bootable SD card directly into the Raspberry Pi inside the Core Pro. You will need to open the Core Pro enclosure to access the Raspberry Pi’s SD card slot.

Once the SD card is inserted, power on the Core Pro normally. Please do not power the Raspberry Pi separately. Give the system a few minutes to complete the first boot and check whether the Pekaway Wifi network appears and the system starts correctly.

If you have another compatible Raspberry Pi available, you can also use it to test the SD card/image separately. No additional Pekaway hardware needs to be connected for this test; the system should still boot and the Wifi network should become available.

Keep in mind that the Wifi may not come up if an ethernet cable is already connected and the system was given a valid IP-address.

The system should always try to boot from SD card first if one is available, which would explain why it boots without one, because it will then use NVME/USB to boot.

As @ahtdf already explained, you will need to update the display as well. To do so, simply disconnect the cable from the display, then insert the SD card on the back (the needed files are included in the RPI image, so that you can use the very same SD card), power it back on and it should update. Once done, remove the cable once again, remove the SD card and power it back on.

Regardless of the software version on the RPI, if you can access the Raspberry Pi via SSH or connect a keyboard and monitor, check the EEPROM bootloader configuration with:

sudo rpi-eeprom-config

The settings should look like this:

BOOT_UART=1
BOOT_ORDER=0xf461
NET_INSTALL_AT_POWER_ON=1

This boot order tells the Raspberry Pi to try booting from the SD card first and then fall back to NVMe/USB storage if no bootable SD card is available.