New Pi5 only boots into BusyBox. We have tried 3 different new sd cards and have used the Raspberry Pi Imager to create a full 64bit OS for the Pi5. The Pi5 displays the 64bit splash screen but then drops out to BusyBox.
Similar threads on the official forums often look to questionable SD cards (especially ones mis-reporting high capacity ones) - which brand cards have you been trying (and were they suspiciously cheap :-))?
Thanks Pete. That’s what I thought too.
The first 2 we tried we’re Amazon Basics 64Gb ( the pair for £12)
I thought there might be an issue with the cards so then I ordered a SanDisk 64Gb, but had the same issue.
I’ve also tried then in a RPI 3b+ and even though they are the image for the Pi5 it does boot successfully to the desktop. At that point I was stumped so thought I’d log a call with you…
Can you see the Linux boot messages prior to the BusyBox exit? Are there any lines that look like an error?
Thanks - yes - if I type exit at the BusyBox prompt I get:
Gave up waiting for root file system device.
Common problems:
- Boot args
-Check rootdelay - Missing modules
ALERT PARTUUID=870ea24b-02 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!
Hmm, are you using the official PSU? Any other devices attached?
There’s also some interesting comments at the end of this thread, suggesting that if the first boot get interrupted the filesystem can end up in a bit of a mess.
(on the first boot of a freshly imaged SD card, a load of work is done to ‘expand’ the filesystem into the whole card - no idea about the Pi5 but on older Pis this can take a surprisingly long time and it becomes irresistibly tempting to reboot it assuming it’s hung…)
Thanks - that does look like a similar issue.
So we’ve written a new boot image to the Sandisk card this time choosing Raspberry Pi 4 and RPi 64bit OS.
Before inserting it we’ve also edited the cmdline.txt file to set rootwait=60 - to ensure it’s not giving up too quickly and also removed ‘quiet’ and ‘splash’ so we can see what is happening as it boots.
The issue seems the same - screenshot image attached.
In addition blkid returns nothing, supporting the idea that something went wrong in the inital boot, what exactly I don’t know.
Does anyone have any more suggestions? I bought it as a Christmas presnt for my son so I’d like to get it working if possible.
Pete - in answer to your earlier post - no devices are attached except keyboard and mouse and the issue even occurs if these are both disconnected. I have tried 2 power supplies capable of delivering 3A. Neither are the official 5A power supply so I could order one of those.
If they can genuinely provide a clean 3A, I would expect that to be more than enough (not all PSUs are created equal though; a lot of “chargers” struggle to function as clean power supplies, but it doesn’t feel obviously power related.
I have seen a lot of folk observing that the Pi5 is unusually fussy about SD cards, but you’d expect (presumably legit) Sandisk ones to be fine.
Hopefully someone who’s actually seen a Pi5 might have some other suggestions, but at this point I’d probably be emailing support…
Thanks Pete - I’ll try emailing support again
You should check of the UID given in cmdline.txt is the same as the UID of your rootfs.
But I don’t think there are any problems with the SD-card, because you can boot into a desktop with your Pi3B+.
[In the past, once in a while, I also had problems with specific Pi-models and specific SD-cards. I also encountered the situation that a Pi-SD-card combo worked for a few years and suddenly the Pi did not boot anymore from the specific card. Using a different device, everything worked fine again. ]
So I would not rule out that the SD-card reader of the Pi5 is broken.
I’ve put the SD card into the the Pi3b+ and PARTUUID=870ea24b-02 - the same as indicated by the Pi5.
Might it be worth trying to boot from USB?
Always worth a try. If that works, you can at least see if you can access a SD-card from there.
Ok - so yes the Pi5 will boot from USB using the same Sandisk SD card that fails in the SD slot. Also, once booted it is not possible to read from the SD card reader.
I think this means there must be a hardware issue with the Pi5 SD card reader.
Thanks everyone for your support - I’ll wait now for a response from Pimoroni.
I did have the exact same problem.
The solution comes at the end of the Raspi Forum thread which was linked above.
The solution is very weird, but simple:
The Pi5 often comes with a thermal pad, to better cool.
That pad, if you don’t pay enough attention, will exert some force on your SD card slot.
I’m talking of a physical force.
The net result can be on of the following:
• no problem (really lucky you)
• no SD card readable, ever (bad, but the worst is coming)
• SD card readable in part only, so you are thrown into initramfs. This is what happened to me.
Since I got initramfs, of course I assumed that the SD card and the slot were just fine.
Searched for days for some OS related problem.
The solution: Cut some of the thermal pad away, making sure that the SD slot is not touched by any part of the thermal pad.
That’s it!
We were using the Pi without any case at all so nothing pressing on it.
Anyway, Pimoroni have sent us a new one which works fine.
Thanks again for everyine’s support :-)