New build no hotspot

I’m currently building a vcore4 500. Other than sourcing fasteners for the aluminum upgrades it has been very enjoyable. I’m trying to flash the RPI4 with ratos “2024-7-27-RatOS-2.1.0-RC2-raspberry-rpi32.img.xz” to 3 different Sandisk 64G A1 cards. Same results with each. No hotpot shows up and I get the same LED sequence as I get with no SD card installed. I had to use RUFUS as balenaetcher kept failing validation if that makes a difference. I’m not new to electronics but I am pretty ignorant on the raspberry pi world so I’m sure it’s something simple I’m not doing. Please advise.
13 Replies
TheTik
TheTik2mo ago
balena etcher 1.9 and beyond has issues, try 1.8 I'm not terribly familiar with Rufus but if it is like the raspi imager, make sure not to change any defaults like user/pass Also may want to try a smaller sd card? oh! Did you uncompress the file first?
beekeeper66
beekeeper66OP2mo ago
I tried it as downloaded and then extracted the .img file and tried flashing it. The green LED on the Pi flashes the same sequence with the SD card or without any card at all. Should I have flashed something to the Pi before trying to install anything. This is frustrating as the build has went so well to this point.
TheTik
TheTik2mo ago
no, the pi should just be able to get up and running with the SD card. If you had a spare I'd try it. Maybe doa really dumb question, but have you tried the sd card upside down?
beekeeper66
beekeeper66OP2mo ago
I’m also an FPV pilot so that is not a dumb question. It’s happened on my video transmitter. So I did check that. Or did you mean on purpose. It won’t slot in upside down. I just tried lol
TheTik
TheTik2mo ago
lol, okay good 🙂 Everything thing you've said seems to be the right way of doing it, really not sure try balena etcher on another machine, or try another pi?
beekeeper66
beekeeper66OP2mo ago
I actually bought a Pi before the printer because the docs said I needed to source it. Then they shipped one with the machine so I’ve tried 3 new cards in 2 different Pi units. I’m getting the same answers everywhere which is “don’t know”. Hope I didn’t buy an expensive cloths hanger lol.
TheTik
TheTik2mo ago
Did you get all 3 sd cards in the same batch? Can you verify they work to save normal files? grasping at straws here Did you try belena etcher 1.8 yet? re-reading through, doesn't seem you confirmed that
beekeeper66
beekeeper66OP2mo ago
Same rack but not a multi pack. I copied files to them after formatting and they all seemed functional. They are sandisk brand which I’m reading that Pi might not prefer so I’ll get another brand tomorrow.
TheTik
TheTik2mo ago
That seems the least expensive next thing to try, yeah
beekeeper66
beekeeper66OP2mo ago
And just to pile on. My rural internet is about to glitch out again so I’m standing outside to get enough cell signal to discord. Thanks for the help. I’m going in. I’ll post tomorrow if it works.
TheTik
TheTik2mo ago
Best of luck
beekeeper66
beekeeper66OP2mo ago
Good grief. Whats the first thing you swap when in doubt. The dang USB cable was the issue. I had a solid red light on the Pi so thought I was good on power but just had to try it as a last resort. DO NOT TRUST AN LED lol. New cable and booted up and hotspot appeared. Now I can sleep tonight and start updating tomorrow.
TheTik
TheTik2mo ago
hooooly cow! What a pain in the butt. Congrats on figuring it out!

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