I have written a Pi image to a little (spinning) USB drive I have and
have connected it to my Pi 4. It's the same image as I recently
installed on a new SD card.

I have gone through the various update checks for the eeprom and
related things (I think, I've followed a couple of web sites
descriptions).

I have changed the BOOT_ORDER entry in the eeprom using
rpi-eeprom-config to 0x41 which should try USB first and then the SD
card.

... and it doesn't boot from USB, it thinks for a fairly long time and
then boots from the SD card (fortunately since the Pi is rather
inacessible out in the garage).

If I manually mount the USB drive it appears to have the correct
partitions and types with all the usual files etc.

The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
is the 'first' USB drive)

Any ideas gratefully received.

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

On 13/12/2021 21:22, Chris Green wrote:

The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
is the 'first' USB drive)

Any ideas gratefully received.

When I tried this (admittedly on a Pi3) with 2 USB drives (one SSD and
one HDD) I got the same sort of problem. In the end I gave up and now
boot from a (small) SD card (FAT boot partition) having changed the
cmdline.txt file to point to the UUID of the USB SSD I use as root device.

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

I don't boot from the USB drive, so I have no idea what the eeprom
loader does. In my setup I boot from the SD card - i.e. the /boot VFAT partition with the kernel etc on.

The cmdline.txt file in the boot partition specifies to the kernel where the root partition is - you need to change that. you need to know the uuid
of the root partition then change the "root=...." parameter to be

root=UUID=magic_uuid_number

The kenrel will then know where to look for the root filesystem.

On 2021-12-13, Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

I have written a Pi image to a little (spinning) USB drive I have and
have connected it to my Pi 4. It's the same image as I recently
installed on a new SD card.

I have gone through the various update checks for the eeprom and
related things (I think, I've followed a couple of web sites
descriptions).

I have changed the BOOT_ORDER entry in the eeprom using
rpi-eeprom-config to 0x41 which should try USB first and then the SD
card.

... and it doesn't boot from USB, it thinks for a fairly long time and
then boots from the SD card (fortunately since the Pi is rather
inacessible out in the garage).

If I manually mount the USB drive it appears to have the correct
partitions and types with all the usual files etc.

The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
is the 'first' USB drive)

Any ideas gratefully received.

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

Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:

I have written a Pi image to a little (spinning) USB drive I have and
have connected it to my Pi 4. It's the same image as I recently
installed on a new SD card.

I have gone through the various update checks for the eeprom and
related things (I think, I've followed a couple of web sites
descriptions).

I have changed the BOOT_ORDER entry in the eeprom using
rpi-eeprom-config to 0x41 which should try USB first and then the SD
card.

... and it doesn't boot from USB, it thinks for a fairly long time and
then boots from the SD card (fortunately since the Pi is rather
inacessible out in the garage).

You might try the "bootcode.bin-only" boot mode: https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#special-bootcode-bin-only-boot-mode

It worked for me in one case and failed in another, so your odds of success
are likely to be about 50:50 8-)

As a sanity check, you might try putting the microSD card in a USB
adapter and seeing if that will boot; if it does, most likely there's
a problem with how long the disk takes to wake up. If it doesn't,
maybe check the OTP bit for USB boot.

I've been having trouble along the same lines (getting a Pi3 to boot
from a hard drive) for some time now with FreeBSD, so if you find
something interesting please post!

bob prohaska

If I manually mount the USB drive it appears to have the correct
partitions and types with all the usual files etc.

The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
is the 'first' USB drive)

Any ideas gratefully received.

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

Hello Chris!

Monday December 13 2021 21:22, you wrote to All:

On a 3B+ I have a HDD in a 825? casing along with the daughter board.
I followed the instructions to install the O/S via a SD card (I think) using specific software then REMOVED the SD card and rebooted.

Since then no problems.

I do not use two USB drives so suggest you try one at a time without the SD card present.

The software build the image onto a HDD and partitions it but you do not seem to having any control of the partitions, sizing etc - it just does it.

Vince

I have written a Pi image to a little (spinning) USB drive I have and
have connected it to my Pi 4. It's the same image as I recently
installed on a new SD card.

I have gone through the various update checks for the eeprom and
related things (I think, I've followed a couple of web sites
descriptions).

I have changed the BOOT_ORDER entry in the eeprom using
rpi-eeprom-config to 0x41 which should try USB first and then the SD
card.

... and it doesn't boot from USB, it thinks for a fairly long time and
then boots from the SD card (fortunately since the Pi is rather
inacessible out in the garage).

If I manually mount the USB drive it appears to have the correct
partitions and types with all the usual files etc.

The system does have two USB drives, is there any logic to which it
will try to boot from? (The drive with the boot image is /dev/sda so
is the 'first' USB drive)

Any ideas gratefully received.

--
Chris Green
·

Vincent

--- Mageia Linux v8 X64/Mbse v1.0.7.22/GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20180707
* Origin: Air Applewood, The Linux Gateway to the UK & Eire (2:250/1)