SD Card not working

freedancer_bongo · February 8, 2024, 8:25pm

I bought an SD card, which was listed as working with CC3200 as of here: https://tonies-wiki.revvox.de/docs/wiki/cc3200/microsd-compatibility/ . It was the “128GB SanDisk Ultra microSDXC I 1 A1” purchase via Amazon: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0B7NTY2S6
I formatted the SD card on my Linux machine with FAT32 once via UI (Disk Utility that came with gnome) and once via command line (mkfs -t vfat <…>). Both times it did show up as LBA, which was not indicated with the original card. Both times I copied the original content from the original SD card over. Both times the Box did not play the welcome sound when starting up and started blinking red. After switching back to the original card everything worked fine again. Is there anything that I did wrong?

Wrong card?
Formatted the card with LBA even though I was not supposed to? (I dont really know what it is and I also dont know how to format it without)
Bad Luck?

Any indication would be nice as I plan to switch the SD card nevertheless.

All the best,
freedancer

Wurst420 · February 9, 2024, 10:34am

IIRC you need to set up the correct partition type before formatting.
give cfdisk a try. Not sure about this, I am not the deep dive Linux, only a fulltime user.

freedancer_bongo · February 9, 2024, 9:16pm

Ok. I’m also not that deep into this topics. Could you give me a hint what partition types are, which one to chose or where to get that kind of info?

OliKo · February 10, 2024, 10:18am

I use to clone a original sd Card to a new, bigger one using Win32DiskImager. (On Windows). After cloning, i extend the last volume to full size of SD Card.

think you can do the same on linux using dd and gparted or any other partitioning tool.

freedancer_bongo · February 10, 2024, 1:58pm

That’s a pretty clever idea. I will try it an let you know of my success or failure

OliKo · February 10, 2024, 2:38pm

If you fail i can try on linux and post a procedure here

freedancer_bongo · February 11, 2024, 5:40pm

Hey. I tried your suggestion with no success. First I created an image of the original sd card via sudo dd if=/dev/sdd of=~/toniebox_original.img bs=4M status=progress. Afterwards I copied the image onto the new sd card via sudo dd if=~/toniebox_original.img of=/dev/sdd bs=4M status=progress. Plugging the card into the toniebox and connecting it to power yielded the same result as before: no startup sound an a red blinking LED after some moments. Even after resizing the partition (I once tried the gnome disk utility and once gparted) did not change the behaviour.
Nevertheless I appreciate the input!

If you see anything I did wrong or have any further ideas, feel free to share them!

OliKo · February 15, 2024, 8:52am

Sorry for the delay, but unfortunately i run out of time…

I have now tried the following procedure on linux which worked for me. The new Card was accepted by Toniebox.

Check device

root@host~ # lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda           8:0    1 14,8G  0 disk                       <-- EXTERNAL SD-CARD == TARGET
├─sda1        8:1    1  256M  0 part                                        
└─sda2        8:2    1 14,6G  0 part
mmcblk0     179:0    0 59,5G  0 disk                       <-- INTERNAL SD-CARD. 
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0  512M  0 part /boot/firmware
└─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0   59G  0 part /

In my case, the SD Card is /dev/sda because i am on a PiOS. Be aware to adjust the device Name according to you setup!

Create a DUMP of original SD Card [8 GB]

# Create a backup of your SD-Card
dd if=/dev/sda of=<box-id>.img bs=1M status=progress

Restore DUMP

Option A) Restore DUMP on original SD Card

Write DUMP
SYNC: Clean buffers to ensure all data is written correctly

# Option A) Restore backup to new SD-Card of same size
dd if=<box-id>.img of=/dev/sda bs=1M status=progress
sync

Option B) Restore DUMP on new (bigger) SD Card [64 GB]

Write DUMP
Unmount SD Card, if mounted
Check free space
Increase partition size
Check filesystem
SYNC: Clean buffers to ensure all data is written correctly

# Option B) Restore backup to new SD-Card of bigger size, grow partition and resize filesystem
dd if=<box-id>.img of=/dev/sda bs=1M status=progress
umount /dev/sda1
parted /dev/sda print free
parted /dev/sda resizepart 1 100%
dosfsck -t -a -w /dev/sda1
sync

Hope it will also work for you. Good luck & do not hasitate to ask if you have still problems.

Hint: Additional information about partition tables can be found here:

Wurst420 · February 16, 2024, 8:34pm

Beware, it’s very unlikley the sdcard is /dev/sda, so watch out to really write onto the sdcard, not your hdd. my sdcards where something like /dev/mmcblk0p1, cause /dev/sd* holds SATA/SCSI drives, not sdcards or usbsticks.

freedancer_bongo · February 16, 2024, 10:30pm

Thanks for the hint. My SD card usually is under /dev/sdd, when inserted

OliKo · February 16, 2024, 11:06pm

@Wurst420 You are absolutes right. Thanks for the hint. I will update my procedure asap. I am very aware what i do, so sometime I cannot image some special steps must be described more detailed.
Sorry for that.

Wurst420 · February 17, 2024, 8:40am

I know this problem too good :).
And I can see, you are knowing what you’re talking about. But to be honest, I never stepped into a Linux mounting SD Cards on SCSI/SATA Device nodes.
Even mit piOS shows those:
/dev/mmcblk0p1 and /dev/mmcblk0p2 for /boot/firmware and /

Just beeing curios, what are you running? For me it’s:

raspinfo 
System Information
------------------

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="12"
VERSION="12 (bookworm)"

OliKo · February 17, 2024, 8:51am

You are right, is a little bit courious.

I use also PiOS:

root@host ~ # raspinfo
System Information
------------------

Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.5
PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="12"
VERSION="12 (bookworm)"

In my case mmcblk0 is the internal 64GB SD-Card running the PiOS.
I attach an externel SD-Card reader to dump the Toniebox SD Card which is sda:

root@host~ # lsblk
NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda           8:0    1 14,8G  0 disk
├─sda1        8:1    1  256M  0 part
└─sda2        8:2    1 14,6G  0 part
mmcblk0     179:0    0 59,5G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1 179:1    0  512M  0 part /boot/firmware
└─mmcblk0p2 179:2    0   59G  0 part /

root@host ~ # dmesg
[152415.803413] usb 1-1.2.2.2: new high-speed USB device number 6 using xhci_hcd
[152415.920635] usb 1-1.2.2.2: New USB device found, idVendor=14cd, idProduct=1212, bcdDevice= 1.00
[152415.920661] usb 1-1.2.2.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=3, SerialNumber=2
[152415.920675] usb 1-1.2.2.2: Product: Mass Storage Device
[152415.920687] usb 1-1.2.2.2: Manufacturer: Generic
[152415.920696] usb 1-1.2.2.2: SerialNumber: 121220160204
[152415.923236] usb-storage 1-1.2.2.2:1.0: USB Mass Storage device detected
[152415.924135] scsi host0: usb-storage 1-1.2.2.2:1.

I have tried to make it a little more clear in my post above. Can you please check and tell if i should add more details?

Wurst420 · February 17, 2024, 9:12am

The external reader may explain it, guess this one makes use of SATA.