I have deployed StartOS on RaspberryPi a few times. I have 3 PI’s. I downloaded latest img (hash good), flashed an SD card and when Pi powers up, I get “startmontools.service” failed and then a login page on the terminal.
I have checked my USB drive (exFAT or no partition), network (direct to router), flashed the SD again. Same error. I have swapped known good Pi hardware and same error. Checked here and only suggestion was to follow the procedure. I have. I have run StartOS on this hardware some time ago so I think the only difference is the img. Any suggestions?
Hi h0mer, thanks for replying. Unfortunately that didn’t work either. I took a video and have attached screenshots to assist with troubleshooting. I’m current trying the 3.5 img.
the above screenshots were from 3.5.1. Same for 3.5.
I have also done raspberryPi firmware update, wiped the 256GB USB thumb drive again and used a different SD card.
I’ve also used a RaspberryPi OS SD card and it worked.
Anything else I can try?
@StuPleb Your comments are not helpful.
As I have followed the Start9 process exactly, and I’ve demonstrated that the Pi hardware is working correctly, how is the Pi not booting from the Start9 SD card?
The first image mentions /dev/mmcblk0p2. This seems to indicate the the second partition on the Start9 SD is being accessed.
The second image shows “mounting embassyfs”.
I get the same responses from 3.5 and 3.5.1.
What steps should I take to identify and correct the issue you think is there?
I’m sorry you feel my comments are not helpful, but I’d refer back to them again and follow the guidance of disconnecting the monitor, which StartOS does not support on the Pi. You’d then follow the guides exactly and access the UI remotely from http://start.local.
If that results in anything of use or not, I can’t guarantee, but you mention swapping SD cards out into “known good hardware”. The only thing I don’t see mention of is using another known good SD card. Perhaps another avenue to explore.
@StuPleb I was disappointed in your response because you failed to explain why and where I might find the information I clearly needed.
As an example. I arrived at docs.start9.com. I have a number of choices but manually searching never appeals. So I did a search for “raspberrypi”. The search results only tell me how to flash the drive etc and what to do before the SD card is inserted into the Pi. All links eventually lead to Start9 | StartOS (Raspberry Pi).
There are no links to Start9 | Getting Started - Initial Setup and there is no mention of ‘not’ using a monitor on any of those pages. As I had an issue (apparently revealed by the monitor) I began troubleshooting eventually reaching out here as I didn’t know what to do next.
Your response was:
“Looks like you’re trying to plug a monitor into it. That’s not going to work.” - WHY
“Not sure if you’re booting from the microSD either, which you should be.” - HOW is that even possible with a single SD card inserted. WHAT should I do next to resolve this question?
Or even better, why not say “just checking you’ve read these pages”. That would have been awesome beacuse I didn’t even know they existed at that point.
All that said, I take full responsibilty for not communicating better. I should have been as clear as I have been here. I was a bit time poor and the stress was rising. My bad.
This is our first interaction. I’ll do my best to make it more productive next time.
