Raspberry pi won't boot with most USB devices connected.

[Catgirl Enthusiast]

RasPi 4b with the latest 64 bit raspi os. I'm putting together a carputer. Once I'm done the pi will be buried deep in the dash. The problem I'm having is that if almost any USB device is plugged into the fucker it will refuse to boot. I get splash screen and then nothing until I unplug the offender. I'm booting off of a sd. This is of course untenable. I cant take my car apart to unplug a device and then plug it back in after booting and put the car back together before every drive. I'm a retard that can build computers gud but can't program them worth a shit. That is my skill level. I can handle the cmd good enough I guess. Any help is much appreciated.

 

[MagneticTowels]

Maybe it's some sort of short circuit?
Check the USB Port/motherboard for damage.
Check the USB drive, and try new or different ones.

 

[Shig O'nella]

Plug in a USB cable - nothing on the other end. If it fails to boot you've got fucked up soldering somewhere on the board.

 

[Ghostface Killah]

Power draw. Next.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

Did you flash the bootloader to allow usb boot? You have to do that first before booting from usb devices. Use the Rpi Imager tool to do that. Since you're using it in a car, have you devised a way for it to shut down properly too? Unlike microcontrollers, SBC need a shutdown signal for proper use.

 

[Catgirl Enthusiast]

Power draw. Next.

I'm still bench testing this, but I'm getting this result with a 3 amp power supply and the screen and shit powered separately. That is about how it will be set up in the car. If the mother fucker will boot fine on it's on but I plug anything into a usb port like waifu.png on a usb drive and the fucker won't boot that is untenable.

Did you flash the bootloader to allow usb boot?

I don't think so. I kind of know what I'm doing and I would never want it to try to boot off of a usb on this thing. From my research there is no way to set boot order and it just looks for the sd and if you program it to look for a usb it goes to that next. IDK.

Since you're using it in a car, have you devised a way for it to shut down properly too?

Yes. I'm not the first person to do this so I was able to buy a hat that will handle shutdown among other things. I'm kind of free balling it though as I hate all of the software people usually use for this and I'm putting together some homebrew shit.

 

[Car Won't Crank]

I don't think so. I kind of know what I'm doing and I would never want it to try to boot off of a usb on this thing. From my research there is no way to set boot order and it just looks for the sd and if you program it to look for a usb it goes to that next. IDK.

I had to update the bootloader to boot from USB. That's probably what you're missing.

 

[Billy Stinkwater]

Yeah the Pi is not designed to run off USB out of the box you have to set it and there are several ways as people have said flash via pi imager, Raspi-config, or Command line. Also these little bastards are finnicky and sometimes the os just doesn't work after a new flash it's why i moved my os to a usb i got tired of almost breaking my sd card trying to slide it out if it didn't boot after a new flash.

I would 100% make sure you have a easy way to get at it later on there have been several times where just normal updating has bricked my os and needed to be reflashed with a backup image.

This is the site i use when i have a question about how to setup something with my 3b+

Updating the Bootloader on the Raspberry Pi

Get the latest fixes and improvements

pimylifeup.com

 

[TheBigZee]

Dumb question, but have you updated raspbian: apt update, apt full-upgrade

People have already suggested updating the bootloader.

When you say almost any USB device - what does it work with, and what does it fail on?

 

[Ghostface Killah]

I'm still bench testing this, but I'm getting this result with a 3 amp power supply and the screen and shit powered separately. That is about how it will be set up in the car. If the mother fucker will boot fine on it's on but I plug anything into a usb port like waifu.png on a usb drive and the fucker won't boot that is untenable.

Make sure you're specifically using a rated 12v- to whatever power you need otherwise alternator spikes are going to fuck your day up the moment you need to pass someone. I don't know if RP shit is as failsafe for auto designed shit. But my immediate first thought.

e- Power is the most critical component to any electronic

 

[Manul Otocolobus]

If I had to guess I'd say a short.

Plug in a USB cable - nothing on the other end. If it fails to boot you've got fucked up soldering somewhere on the board.

This is a really good suggestion. Use the shortest cable you can. If the cable causes it, I'd place a strong bet on short as a cable plugged into nothing should have a nominal draw.

 

[Stoneheart]

Power draw. Next.

are you sure about that? A Pi is more than able to run on low power, if anything its spikes.

My media server is connected with the cheapest chinks cable i could find and is bitching about low power all the time but its running well enough.

 

[TheBigZee]

You can disable the splash screen and see where it's hanging. Put your SD card in a normal computer, and edit cmdline.txt. Delete the words quiet and splash. You should now get a bunch of scrolling text. Also, you said almost any usb devices, what works and what doesn't?

I'm hanging on the edge of my seat here @Catgirl Enthusiast

 

[Catgirl Enthusiast]

I had to update the bootloader to boot from USB. That's probably what you're missing.

Yeah the Pi is not designed to run off USB out of the box you have to set it and there are several ways as people have said flash via pi imager, Raspi-config, or Command line. Also these little bastards are finnicky and sometimes the os just doesn't work after a new flash it's why i moved my os to a usb i got tired of almost breaking my sd card trying to slide it out if it didn't boot after a new flash.

I would 100% make sure you have a easy way to get at it later on there have been several times where just normal updating has bricked my os and needed to be reflashed with a backup image.

This is the site i use when i have a question about how to setup something with my 3b+

Updating the Bootloader on the Raspberry Pi

Get the latest fixes and improvements

pimylifeup.com

I'm not trying to boot from usb. When I started having the problem with it not booting with usb devices connected my first instinct was boot order because I generally work on pcs, but apparently the pi defaults to sd and you have to program in if you want it to boot off of usb. I don't want it to so no problem there.

Make sure you're specifically using a rated 12v- to whatever power you need otherwise alternator spikes are going to fuck your day up the moment you need to pass someone. I don't know if RP shit is as failsafe for auto designed shit. But my immediate first thought.

e- Power is the most critical component to any electronic

I purchased a hat for this specific purpose. It is supposed to handle voltage and shutdown in an automotive environment. I haven't tested it yet because I'm still testing shit and I havent gotten around to designing the 3d prints to allow me to install it in my car.

Dumb question, but have you updated raspbian: apt update, apt full-upgrade

I'm not a complete noob.

Also, you said almost any usb devices, what works and what doesn't?

I'm hanging on the edge of my seat here @Catgirl Enthusiast

My RTL-SDR is the biggest problem. That will NEED to stay plugged in. It's not isolated to that one device though. Any usb stick will cause it to hang until I unplug it. After that it will boot normally. Wireless or wired keyboards and mice are fine.

 

[Billy Stinkwater]

This is the real fun of the pi figuring out whats wrong and macgyver'in a solution for it. I have been on a wait list for 2 years at adafruit trying to get a non scalper 4 as i was looking to do something similar and setup a carputer so i am glad someone here is beta testing it for me.

It's weird that it hangs on just usb sticks and not anything plugged into the pi cause usually when the usb ports go bad anything you plug in that draws any power whatsoever will short it out. I am still leaning towards a short/power draw issue i would try to separate the usb device from the from pi with a usb extension cable and if that doesn't work a powered usb hub and if that doesn't work it might be time to buy a new pi.

Also try reflashing the os again a couple times i know it sounds weird but sometimes the os flash just doesn't work it's the weirdest shit I've had to reflash mine sometimes 3-4 times to get it to boot and get past the splash screen why i suggested you have a easy way to get at it later on.

 

[TheBigZee]

My RTL-SDR is the biggest problem. That will NEED to stay plugged in. It's not isolated to that one device though. Any usb stick will cause it to hang until I unplug it. After that it will boot normally. Wireless or wired keyboards and mice are fine.

If I understand your description - the pi doesn't power off and back on when you unplug it. It boots all the way up, and then you are able to plug the devices back in and they work? That sounds like a configuration service issue more than a hardware issue.

If that's the case it sounds like non HID devices are causing a systemd service to hang - udev coldplugging, the kernel module loader, or file system probing. You should see that if you disable the splash screen - if you don't want to edit the cmdline, there is an option in raspi-config (system options -> splash screen).

If you haven't already, use the raspberry pi imaging tool and flash a different SD card AND let the tool verify the image. Try booting with the rtl-sdr device plugged in and see if it goes. Do it totally fresh with no new packages installed. Like @Billy Stinkwater said, SD cards can be finnicky, and there isn't much point drilling into it if it solves the issue.

 

[Catgirl Enthusiast]

This is the real fun of the pi figuring out whats wrong and macgyver'in a solution for it.

Agreed. I love hacking shit together. As much as the process can piss you off at times, the reward is even greater knowing the effort that you put into it.

I have been on a wait list for 2 years at adafruit trying to get a non scalper 4 as i was looking to do something similar and setup a carputer so i am glad someone here is beta testing it for me.

I bought my pi 4 about the time covid was starting. It was in service controlling a bitcoin miner until about a year ago when I accidentally yanked the usb port out of the miner's board. I've given up on finding anyone who is skilled and willing enough to fix the miner so I'm repurposing the pi. I'm going the long way around building a carputer. You can buy and install openautopro and have proven software and a whole forum of people who will help you with any problems you have.

Thank you everyone who has posted advice. When I get back to this project I will look over all of it and figure this out. Currently, one of my family members was damn near killed, so he is taking precedent right now. I will be on the farms shitposting now and then, but I can't spend 8 hours between work time and sleep time dicking around with a computer like I usually like to do. When I make progress or need more help I will be posting here again.