Score:0

Ubuntu crashes on boot-up (Raspberry Pi 4)

cn flag

When I fire up my Pi, the LED lights look normal until the green LED starts blinking regularly non-stop approximately 40 seconds after I turn it on. I read this post and none of the flash codes matches my Pi.

I don't have an SD card and boot my Pi using an external portable HDD. It's running Ubuntu 20.04 on a headless setup. Prior to this happening, I wasn't able to SSH into my Pi so I pulled the plug on it to restart it. After that, I haven't been able to get back onto the OS.

I plugged my Pi onto my monitor with a HDMI cable and I see the red boot-up screen (with the Pi logo). Then it turns black, loses signal, signal comes back (but screen is still black), and loses signal again. It keeps repeating indefinitely.

uz flag
Jos
Could it be simply underpowered?
FishDetective avatar
cn flag
@Jos I don't think so as I've been using the official RPi power supply for many months. Although, I'm down to check it out. Do you know how I can check if it's getting enough power?
uz flag
Jos
I think the Pi 4 itself signals when it's underpowered during bootup. If it doesn't, replace it by some other form of USB power. Also, on a different system, check the HDD file system for errors (`fsck`).
waltinator avatar
it flag
"Pulling the plug" on the Pi has been known to corrupt the boot medium.
FishDetective avatar
cn flag
@waltinator Is there a way to deal with a Pi that's not responding to anything in this case that isn't pulling the plug? I wasn't able to SSH into it and none of the stuff I have on Docker (e.g. Jellyfin, Nextcloud) are functioning during this time.
FishDetective avatar
cn flag
@Jos I did fsck and I don't think there was anything wrong. But I think waltinator might be right. This has happened to me before and it's usually right after I pull the plug. The boot portion of my HDD might be corrupted.
Score:0
cn flag

I solved it. Apparently, I ran fsck on just the boot partition of my HDD but not the rest of it. The solution for me was to run fsck on the rest of the partition that isn't the boot partition.

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