PhotonOS 4.0 not booting on RPI4 8GB

[WojciechowskiPiotr]

Hi,

I was going to give a try the PhotonOS 4.0 on RPI4 8GB, but unfortunately, I couldn't boot it from the provided image. I followed the instruction on flashing the SD card (https://vmware.github.io/photon/docs/installation-guide/run-photon-on-raspberry-pi/installing-the-iso-image-for-photon-os-rpi/) both using Ether on Windows and dd on Linux. When I try to boot OS from SD card, I get the error "Unable to read partition as FAT".

While using the Ether (version 1.5.116), when I select the image, I receive a warning "It looks like this is not a bootable image. This image does not appear to contain a petition table, and might not be recognized or bootable by your device".

I also tried beta image rpi-4.0-d98e681.tar.xz, but the result was the same. Regards,

[akaher]

Hi @WojciechowskiPiotr,

Please share the screen shot of "Unable to read partition as FAT", if you are getting some error code or hex values.

Please try following from Linux (skip if already tried this): tar -xf rpi.tar.xz cd rpi sudo cat photon-rpi-4.0-**.raw | sudo dd bs=4M of=/dev/sd conv=fsync [replace *** with hex value as in image name, * with SD card device node]

Please share output of following, if rpi4 image not working with above commands: sudo fdisk /dev/sd* [replace * with SD card device node] p + enter q + enter

[WojciechowskiPiotr]

It looks like the problem is when you try to create a bootable SD card from a compressed archive. It is not working using the Ether (or official RaspberryPi Imager because the archive is correctly recognized) because a bootable partition is not created. After decompressing the tar.xz first it booted with no problems.

[ssahani]

After discussion with @akaher figure we need to update the docs . Hence adding RFE.

[ssahani]

/cc @mahabaleshwm

[dcasota]

Hi,

The following test procedure description may help.

1x RPi4 8GB, 1x 32GB microSD, 1x 32GB usb stick

On your client with plugged-in microSD and USB stick

• Download RPi4_UEFI_Firmware_{release}.zip from https://github.com/pftf/RPi4/releases

• Download RPi Imager from https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/

• Start RPi Imager > own image > select RPi4_UEFI_Firmware_{release}.zip, write on 32GB microSD

• Download Photon OS Raspberry Pi image https://github.com/vmware/photon/wiki/Downloading-Photon-OS, and unpack the tar.xz, result is a file photon-rpi-4.0-{hex value}.raw

• Download a tool to write the raw file to the usb stick, eg. Etcher

• Start Etcher > File >select photon-rpi-4.0-{hex value}.raw, write on 32GB usb stick

In RPi4, plugin microSD, and plugin usb stick on an USB2 Port. Power on.

• Configure BIOS: Remove boot options boot from any network. Configure to boot from USB stick, and boot
• On the first boot there is a screen message Timed out waiting for device /dev/disk/by-label/PHOTON_SWAP. The installation doesn't stop and there is no screen output. It takes a couple of minutes until the login screen appears.
• On every reboot Photon starts flawlessly.

In RPi4, plug-out microSD only, and boot.

• Screen message: Saving environment to FAT...Card did not respond to voltage select! Failed (1)

Hope this helps.

[mgladczak]

@dcasota - this works fine as long the sdcard is plugged in. After successful boot of Photon OS all settings (including network boot which seems to prevent from boot from USB) in BIOS are wiped out and set to default after SD card is removed. Do you know how to permanently save the boot order without having SD card plugged in?

[dcasota]

@mateusz-gladczak no, not. The test procedure description was intended as help to reproduce the issue with SD card + "unable to read partition" + "FAT". But, spotted right now the boot flow docs, and for Pi4 model the bootloader eeprom release notes. Wasn't aware that in 2021 the RPi4 bootloader eeprom has received so many updates.

[salfter]

I have some 4GB RPi4s that I want to use for cluster experimentation. I've tried Photon OS 4.0 GA and R2 images; neither will boot up. I get the message shown below after the "rainbow square" pops up for a bit:

To rule out hardware issues, I put the latest stable bootloader on the Pi, then put the latest 64-bit Raspb^WPi OS on the same 8-GB MicroSD card I was using for Photon OS. It booted up as expected. Both OS images were written with dd, with the options specified in the Photon OS installation instructions.

I haven't yet tried a Photon OS 3.x image to see if it'd work.

The weird thing is that the Raspberry Pi doesn't see the disk layout properly, but I can manipulate it on my Gentoo desktop without problems...for instance, I can use gparted to resize the second partition.

[dcasota]

Boot from usb as additional check method should work. eMMC <-> SDCard settings worth to investigate. Photon OS uses ExFAT.

[queeup]

Same here with Raspberry Pi 3. Not booting. And my Fedora is not recognize even partitions on the sdcard. Something odd with raspberry pi raw image.

[akaher]

which Raspberry image you are using? Please share snapshot or log messages.

[dcasota]

@akaher which image per Raspberry Pi hardware type is supported ? the tar.xz's and the arm64 isos as well? The docs refer to the tar.xz image only. Is the listing below correct&complete?

Raspberry Pi hardware	Photon OS bits	supported
Pi 3	Ph 5.0 GA Raspberry Pi Image	yes
Pi 3	Ph 5.0 GA Full ISO arm64
Pi 3	Ph 5.0 GA Minimal ISO arm64
Pi 3	Ph 4.0 Rev2 Raspberry Pi Image	yes
Pi 3	Ph 4.0 Rev2 Full ISO arm64
Pi 3	Ph 4.0 Rev2 Minimal ISO arm64
Pi 3	Ph 3.0 Revision 2 Update1 Full ISO arm64
Pi 3	Ph 3.0 Revision 2 Raspberry Pi3 Image	yes
-------------	-------------	-------------
Pi 4	Ph 5.0 GA Raspberry Pi Image	yes
Pi 4	Ph 5.0 GA Full ISO arm64
Pi 4	Ph 5.0 GA Minimal ISO arm64
Pi 4	Ph 4.0 Rev2 Raspberry Pi Image	yes
Pi 4	Ph 4.0 Rev2 Full ISO arm64
Pi 4	Ph 4.0 Rev2 Minimal ISO arm64
Pi 4	Ph 3.0 Revision 2 Update1 Full ISO arm64

Beside Etcher and xzcat, the official Raspberry Pi Imager isn't mentioned in the docs. Is Raspberry Pi Imager not supported?

[akaher]

Thanks @dcasota. ISO doesn't support RPI board, only *.tar.xz are supported. Your table is correct. I use xzcat to flash the rpi images. Not sure about Raspberry Pi Imager.

[dcasota]

@akaher Facing the questions from @queeup @WojciechowskiPiotr, maybe there is a need for a recipe for how to customize an all-on-a-single-sdcard: supported partition types, partitioning, uefi fw, Ph flavor, Ph bits.

Remark: Since the arm64 iso came out, I switched from the raw image to the iso. For a few photon-os-installer ideas it served well. In Raspberry Pi Imager you choose a custom image and write it to a sdcard or to an usb media. It serves as a gui-onestop for writing uefi fw images + for isos (+tar.xz). Yet another possibility for the arm64 iso, is Ventoy bootloader which supports cmdline as well. As said, I have understood that the arm64 ISO are not officially supported for the RPI boards (it would be nice though).