Raspi 4 blinks 4 times

[wd9895]

Hi fvdw & sl,

I tried to install the Raspi FW but it doesn't boot. It blinks 4 times which means the loader couldn't be found.

What I did so far:
- formatted the sd card in FAT32
- extracted the 3 rar files as described on the sd card.
- on the SD card are 51 files + 1 folder "overlays".

I plug in the SD cards and powered on but no success.
What is wrong ?

I tested 2 different SD cards (16+32GB). Both show no errors and run with a Rasberian image.

[fvdw]

Mmm...strange. Is there a log file on the sd card? And did you connect a monitor to see what happens?
The pi4 is critical to power supply. I also had sometimes that it didn't boot. Unplugging power and wait until led goes out and replugging power made it boot.
Also the hdmi port must be plugged in before powering up.
If hdmi port is not initialized properly the board will not boot.

See also here https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=437084#p437084
Seems boot issues are a known issue

I bought a power supply specific for raspberry pi 4

[wd9895]

The power supply is the original one.
But I tried to boot headless, so no monitor is connected.

I'll give it a try.

[matzi]

To fvdws post:
To my experience it boots without anything connected on hdmi. The only thing is there is no hotplugging on hdmi.

Another common "problem" I experienced: Having the Pi in a plastic case sometimes lead to a non proper sd card insertion.

[wd9895]

Hi, it's me again.
After a busy time in job I touched the RPi4 again.

1. I dismantled the Pi from housing to avoid any misfitting of the SD card.
2. I formatted SD card by FAT32 and extracted the rar files to the SD card. I did this with 3 differend 32GB cards, also with a new 16GB.
3. I tried 2 different SD card interfaces

No success. The RPi's green LED blinks 4 times. I waited a few minutes. No success.
The file struture wasn't changed on SD card.
:hairpull

Any hints ? Do you have an image of preinstallation which I can test ?

Raspberian boots flawlessly, Openmediavault, too but it supports no exFat.

[fvdw]

:scratch
Which files are present on the sd card after extracting the rar files?

What exact pi 4 do you have? How many GB ram and which cpu?

Please post a picture of the pi top and bottom view. So I can compare it with mine. Maybe this is a new serie which needs another kernel.(very unlikely).

When you boot with a monitor connected do you get shortly after start boot a screen with colors?

[fvdw]

How to prepare the sd card by using an usb card reader on one of your nas.

Replace sdX in the following instructions with the device name for the SD card as it appears on your nas.

Start fdisk to partition the SD card:
fdisk /dev/sdX
At the fdisk prompt, delete old partitions and create a new one:
Type o. This will clear out any partitions on the drive.
Type p to list partitions. There should be no partitions left.
Type n, then p for primary, 1 for the first partition on the drive, press ENTER to accept the default first sector, then type +512M for the last sector.
Type t, then c to set the first partition to type W95 FAT32 (LBA).
Write the partition table and exit by typing w

Create and mount the FAT filesystem:
mkfs.vfat /dev/sdX1
mkdir /sdX1
mount /dev/sdX1 /sdX1

Extract the rar archive to folder /sdX1

Umount sdX1

Put the sd card in the pi an powerup

[wd9895]

Here come the photos. It's a 4GB version.

[wd9895]

Creation of partition on the USB card reader went well but ...

root@Lacie-NS2:/ # mkfs.vfat /dev/sde1
-sh: mkfs.vfat: not found

[wd9895]

fdisk /dev/sdX
At the fdisk prompt, delete old partitions and create a new one:
Type o. This will clear out any partitions on the drive.
Type p to list partitions. There should be no partitions left.
Type n, then p for primary, 1 for the first partition on the drive, press ENTER to accept the default first sector, then type +512M for the last sector.
Type t, then c to set the first partition to type W95 FAT32 (LBA).
Write the partition table and exit by typing w

Create and mount the FAT filesystem:
*mkfs.vfat /dev/sdX1*
mkmsdos /dev/sdX1
mkdir /sdX1
mount /dev/sdX1 /sdX1

Extract the rar archive to folder /sdX1

Umount sdX1

No blinking code ... waiting ....