WelcomeWelcome | FAQFAQ | DownloadsDownloads | WikiWiki

Author Topic: Tiny Core not booting on some pi3a+  (Read 210 times)

Offline SteveatXitek

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Tiny Core not booting on some pi3a+
« on: August 01, 2025, 06:39:27 AM »
We have been using pi3a+'s with Tiny core for a while now but have a collection of pi3a+ that wont boot Tiny Core (keeps rebooting before anything reaches the monitor) so presumably the copy to ram is failing. The pi3a+'s boot Raspian fine. We have tried different cards / speeds and sizes . We have use some 300 pi3a+'s and have 20 that exhibit this issue. Any idea's as to whats going on / fix?
Steve

Offline Paul_123

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1427
Re: Tiny Core not booting on some pi3a+
« Reply #1 on: August 01, 2025, 11:05:56 AM »
Do you even see the rainbow screen?   But sounds like a weak power supply.

Tinycore runs the CPU in performance mode through the entire boot process(after boot, it drops back to powersave governor), which will tax a poor power supply.

Offline Rich

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12200
Re: Tiny Core not booting on some pi3a+
« Reply #2 on: August 01, 2025, 11:11:40 AM »
Hi SteveatXitek
Welcome to the forum.

... We have use some 300 pi3a+'s and have 20 that exhibit this issue. ...
Just to be clear, are those 300 pi3a+'s all running the same version of Tinycore, and
20 of them are stuck in this reboot loop?

That would suggest something is different about those 20 units:
different firmware
different chip part numbers on those boards
different chip part manufacturers on those boards
boards purchased from a different vendor
power supplies for those boards are not up to snuff
etc.

Offline gadget42

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 911
Re: Tiny Core not booting on some pi3a+
« Reply #3 on: August 02, 2025, 09:50:42 AM »
and to add to @Rich's list would be to acknowledge counterfeit components(yes, including the board-level stuff that takes magnification to even visually inspect)...sigh...
The fluctuation theorem has long been known for a sudden switch of the Hamiltonian of a classical system Z54 . For a quantum system with a Hamiltonian changing from... https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,25972.msg166580.html#msg166580

Offline SteveatXitek

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 2
Re: Tiny Core not booting on some pi3a+
« Reply #4 on: August 04, 2025, 05:49:03 AM »
Ref PI3A+sourcing : we purchased in two batches of 150 from the same supplier (Farnell)
Ref PSU : does the same running from a 30A bench PSU
reboots without displaying anything
all using the same iso for flashing the cards and the cards are 8gb all from same batch (have tried swapping and using high speed cards also on the "failing" Pi3a+
All these "failing" boards will fully boot and run the latest full Raspian desktop with wifi enabled an internet active
and its just 20 out of the 300 Pi3a+'s
Tried everything We can think of here, any further ideas?

Offline gadget42

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 911
Re: Tiny Core not booting on some pi3a+
« Reply #5 on: August 04, 2025, 06:27:47 AM »
are you able to determine if the failing 20 units all came from one "batch" from your purchases via farnell?

i wonder if we can determine a serial number range for the failing units so that it might be possible for others to determine if they have these failing units as well?
The fluctuation theorem has long been known for a sudden switch of the Hamiltonian of a classical system Z54 . For a quantum system with a Hamiltonian changing from... https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,25972.msg166580.html#msg166580

Offline Rich

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 12200
Re: Tiny Core not booting on some pi3a+
« Reply #6 on: August 04, 2025, 07:21:26 AM »
Hi SteveatXitek
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the boot loader
on these devices can be updated. Are those 20 boards using
the same boot loader as the other 280?

Offline gadget42

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 911
Re: Tiny Core not booting on some pi3a+
« Reply #7 on: August 04, 2025, 08:08:01 AM »
according to this post:

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=352778#p2114933

Quote
If it DOES boot when using bootcode.bin with the timeout file, then you may be able to get it working by setting another OTP bit that increases the wait time for the USB drive to become ready from the default 2 seconds to 5 seconds (this is a permanent change). To enable the additional wait time for USB drives, add "program_usb_boot_timeout=1" to config.txt on a Raspbian SD card and boot it once in the system. After that the system will wait up to 5 seconds for USB drives to become ready.

what if the ones that don't work properly with TCL maybe have this 2 second timeout and that isn't long enough for TCL?

(please read the whole post and probably the whole thread for the entire content/context)
The fluctuation theorem has long been known for a sudden switch of the Hamiltonian of a classical system Z54 . For a quantum system with a Hamiltonian changing from... https://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,25972.msg166580.html#msg166580

Offline Paul_123

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1427
Re: Tiny Core not booting on some pi3a+
« Reply #8 on: August 04, 2025, 12:27:18 PM »
1) The timeout only applies to drives connected to the USB port.  It does not affect /dev/mmcblk0
2) While you can manipulate the OTP, there is no upgradeable bootloader on the pi3* boards.  It is all files on the boot partition.
3) If you connect HDMI and sdcard image on the built in SD card.  You should at a very minimum see the rainbow square screen from the firmware.   If you do not see this, then you have some other hardware problem.

Quote
all using the same iso for flashing the cards

We do not supply iso's, they are img files.   Where specifically have you downloaded from?