raspberrypi
[BUG]: Imager incorrectly caches drive information (even if microSD card is removed)
What happened?
Hardly a big bug but a bug nevertheless.
Tried to use Imager to flash the Pi OS Lite (64-bit) to a 2.0 GB card and was told it needs to be 6.0 GB or greater.. took out the 2.0 GB card and inserted a 64 GB card and tried to "Next" and was still told I need a card 2.0 GB or larger.. clicked on the storage again where it said D:\ is 2.0 GB think I had to open and close the storage screen numerous times before it would refresh.
The constraint check should probably check it has the most up to date drive information.
P.s. in the OS list currently is "Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit)" which has in the description "(Recommended) (Recommended)"
Version
1.9.2 (Default)
What host operating system were you using?
Windows
Host OS Version
11 24H2
Selected OS
Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit Lite
Which Raspberry Pi Device are you using?
Raspberry Pi 4B, 400, and Compute Modules 4, 4S
What kind of storage device are you using?
microSD Card in an internal reader
OS Customisation
- [ ] Yes, I was using OS Customisation when the bug occurred.
Relevant log output
Not seeing any logs in C:\Users\Matthew\AppData\Local\Raspberry Pi\Imager.. should I be looking somewhere else for logs?
Tried to use Imager to flash the Pi OS Lite (64-bit) to a 2.0 GB card and was told it needs to be 6.0 GB or greater.. took out the 2.0 GB card and inserted a 64 GB card and tried to "Next" and was still told I need a card 2.0 GB or larger..
Hmmm, regardless of whether the "Choose Storage" dialog has trouble updating the drive information or not (which it obviously shouldn't 😉 ), it feels to me that if you remove the currently-selected card then Imager should "forget" that drive-selection, and so clicking "Next" should prompt you to go back and choose a different drive from the "Choose Storage" dialog?
Can you provide more details about the exact models of micro SD cards that you're using please, and more details about the "internal reader"? (e.g. if it's an internal reader in a laptop, which make & model of laptop?) If you have a USB SD card-reader available, could you see if that behaves any differently if you try to repeat the above scenario?
I booted my 64 GB card and realised I'd accidentally selected the full rather than Lite (hence the 6.0 GB warning instead of 2.6 GB warning).. have reproduced again (selecting the right image this time - card is still too small for Lite).. but I can go one better - I can get the error then completely and physically remove the SD card from the reader and have it disappear from the Imager Storage popup, have the main screen now say "SD CARD" instead and click "NEXT" to still be told:
Would you like to apply OS customisation settings?
[EDIT SETTINGS] [NO, CLEAR SETTINGS] [YES] [NO]
..to which I say "Yes" or "No" (tried both) to then be asked:
All existing data on 'SD Card' will be erased.
Are you sure you want to continue?
[NO] [YES]
..to which I say "Yes" (what SD card?) to be told:
Storage capacity is not large enough.
Needs to be at least 2.8 GB.
[CONTINUE]
There is nothing in the drive and even Raspberry Pi Imager knows this :) - "NEXT" button should either self-disable or the first prompt should be "No storage selected."
Laptop is a "Dell XPS 13 9305" with an embedded "Realtek PCIE CardReader" (according to device manager). I don't think this is card reader specific however as the Storage screen is updating absolutely fine showing nothing inserted yet the cache still prevails. The SD card is a "Nokia" 2.0 GB microSD from decades ago.. I don't suppose this truly matters either considering I can put the "right" card in and still get the message.
I don't think this will impact most people too much (most people will realise it's not updated, is wrong and will close and re-open the app) but I am aware Raspberry Pi is supposed to have a younger audience and so if I were a 10 year old I'd probably be mighty confused (especially if I did insert an SD card I thought was big enough afterwards and am too trusting of error messages from computers).
Starting the Imager with no SD card inserted does prevent me from clicking "NEXT" (even after clicking the Storage popup) as would be expected. This is exclusively a program state / cache issue.
You can probably recreate this cache issue by removing the SD card before clicking "NEXT" but the Imager trying to write to an absent card appears to have crashed my controller - so I'll have to reboot before I can see devices in Windows or Imager again.
Thanks for the report, @Matthew1471 - in particular, taking the time to clearly capture some reproduction steps.
I agree this is an undesirable behaviour, and will take a look once I get back around to Imager duties.
