Install fails on some SD cards with RPi2

[digitalLumberjack]

Hi,
I cannot install any os from noobs 1.3.12 on some sdcards !
The install sceen is stuck on "Clearing existing EBR" and then fails.

My sdcard is a noname 8gb.

dmesg specify the following : (sorry for the picture but i couldnt mount a partition to write dmesg output)

I'm installing on rpi2, all is ok with the same card and same noob version on rpi1.

[lurch]

Hmmm, strange that this should be specific to the rpi2 and work fine on the rpi1. I never saw any errors like this myself during testing. Any ideas, @ghollingworth , @P33M or @popcornmix ?
The "Clearing existing EBR" message is here which then calls this.

@digitalLumberjack Does this always happen every time on the rpi2? Have you used the official SDFormatter tool with format size adjustment on? What power-supply are you using?
You say "fails on many SD cards" - are they all "noname 8gb" cards? (which obviously makes the problem hard to reproduce)

[digitalLumberjack]

It's always happen with the pi2, I used the SD formatter on macosx that always worked with any card and os. I'm using a 2AMP 5V power supply. I have many 32G and 16G cards (samsung, transcend lexxard) and i tried all. Everything ok.
It's just the 8G card. I'm currently getting card models that doesn't work, i'll be reporting this today.

[digitalLumberjack]

Hi, the other card is a "8GB SanDisk Class 2 card"

[lurch]

Does NOOBS v1.4.0 also suffer from the same problem?

[NicoHood]

I am using a Transcend 32gb micro sd (45mb/s) and had the same problem with the old noobs. havent dared to try the newer noobs.
Just wanted to link the forum post:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=694741#p694741

It seems that using a different sd card (talking about raspbian only), using rpi-update and transfering it helped. So if 1.4 uses a new kernel this could have solved the problem. But never tested it with noobs.

[lurch]

Thanks for the link. I believe the "bug in the dynamic clock scaling code" has been fixed in the firmware and NOOBS v1.4 includes updated firmware so this bug should be hopefully fixed now.

So if @digitalLumberjack can test, confirm and close this bug, that would be great :)

[NicoHood]

Well and today my sd card crashed again with the new firmware. I have to try the "broken" sd card with the old b+ pi and the "working" sd card with the pi2.

[crispcbk]

I'm trying to start NOOBS v1.4.0 on a SanDisk 8 GB SDHC card on a RPi2. Unfortunately, after selecting the components to install (Raspbian + "include data partition), the setup process stops with the error message "mkfs.fat: warning - lowercase labels might not work properly with DOS or Windows". This is shown in a popup window; after closing the window, the RPi2 reboots and (obviously) the card is not usable.

[lurch]

@crispcbk Wow, I've never seen that error message before! (and I've obviously done lots of testing)
Did you use the SDFormatter tool first? Can you confirm the contents of your BUILD-DATA file?

(perhaps this might be related to #140 which I only fixed in development versions of NOOBS and not in the release version?)

[crispcbk]

Hi lurch, thanks for the quick feedback. I'm a total n00b with respect to RPi2 so please don't hesitate to point out if I'm not providing essential information :).

I tested again on the same card, this time trying to install without creating an additional data partition. Same issue, I've attached a screenshot of the error message

The BUILD-DATA file contains the following information (not quite sure what to make of it):
"Build-date: 2015-02-18
NOOBS Version: v1.4
NOOBS Git HEAD @ "be1862829eabda6c88856348920d545827b1e82b"
rpi-userland Git master @ c5341f09dc686c17966369485f7dd27f58dc081c
rpi-firmware Git master @ 8aca5762f984f6decbeda294cee8418966c3d8d3
rpi-linux Git rpi-3.18.y @ b630db9dcb5c73367050a672823047b0466b16b9"

(note: added quotes to prevent GitHub editor of shortening string "NOOBS Git HEAD @ etc")

I've used the SDFormatter tool v4.0 and performed a "Full (overwrite)" format (erase is not supported by the card, important info?) + did a size adjust to fill the entire card.

Let me know if I can provide additional info or test something to continue troubleshooting.

PS: I ended up in this thread after reading some people have issues with 8 GB cards that were resolved by using higher-size cards; my suspicion is that the issue is related to the card (not corruption or broken card but rather an incompatibility due to its age = 3 years). The issue #140 you refer to might indeed be more fitted for the issue I am experiencing.

[lurch]

Thanks for the screenshot :-) It shows that the "lowercase labels ..." message is just a harmless warning that can be safely ignored. The real error is "failed whilst writing reserved sector".
If even the official SDFormatter has 'problems' with the card, then it indeed might be that the card is somehow 'broken'? Perhaps the card has been used so much that the wear-levelling has worn out?
I don't think it would be 'incompatible' as the Pi itself has been around for 3 years (as already mentioned, this is the first time I've ever seen that particular error).

The good news is that SD cards are much cheaper now than they were 3 years ago... ;)

[crispcbk]

Hrmmm... had no issues with the card thusfar. Discovered that it is a "class 2" SD card so it might not be as fit for booting NOOBS as I had hoped :). Ordered a Samsung Pro 32 GB card (class 10) and will retry with that one.

[iamadeadpixel]

we tested several SD cards, seems sandisk stuff works best here.
got several time with various card that after a reboot we got masive midle finger work on (re)boot.
we play with the config settings, inc did a firmware upgrade.
looks like high speed card give some isues with it.