Problems with RevPi Core 3 after writing new image

[azranewbie]

Hello all,

I am currently having an issue with a RevPi Core 3. I have recently needed to update the image on the device. The old image was Stretch, and I was trying to write the RevPi Bookworm 64-Bit Lite image to the device. I followed the tutorial provided here:
https://revolutionpi.com/documentation/ ... -the-image
The only difference is I used balenaEtcher instead of Win32 Disk Imager.
Before trying to write the new image everything was working fine, I was able to work with the device and establish an ssh connection. But I did run into issues with the available storage space, I had to remove a few packages (that I previously installed). Anyway, since a more recent image is needed for the project I decided to write the new image to the device.

I was able to write a backup of the old image to a USB stick and writing the new image to the device also worked (balena said the writing was "completed"). However, now the device isn't booting with the new image. When I turn on the power supply, the power LED is on and green, but the A1 LED is a solid red. The LEDs next to the Ethernet port are on as they would be when an active Ethernet connection is established (when the cable is attached).

I have tried to find out what goes wrong during the booting process by attaching a monitor to the RevPi via HDMI, however the monitor does not get a video output from the RevPi (I have tried two different cables here).

I can still boot the RevPi as a drive though, using RPiboot and a Windows 11 Laptop. It boots as a drive called "rpi-fw", although I do get a system message saying there might be issues with the drive before the message disappears and the drive is opened in the file explorer.

I have a few ideas about what I could do next:
- rewrite the old image that I backed up
- rewrite the new image
- format the eMMC using this : https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/ (as I have seen suggested in a few other posts)

But I am not sure what I should try first, or what I better not do...
As you can probably tell from my username I am a complete newbie when it comes to this, it's my first time working with this kind of device...
I appreciate any and all help I can get!

- Azra

[tboehler]

Hi Azra,

I can't quite make out from your message if you unplugged the Micro-USB cable from the RevPi again after flashing. Make sure no Micro-USB cable is plugged into the RevPi when you're trying to boot it from the eMMC, otherwise the RevPi won't boot properly.

If your RevPi has 4GB or less of storage make sure to install a Lite image, not a Default image, as the Default image requires more than 4GB of storage to run.

Rewriting the image could help, it's not unheard of for errors to occur when writing an image, and this can happen for multiple reasons. You can, of course, also try writing your old image onto the device again and see if it boots properly. If the old image works this could indeed be an indication that something might be wrong with the new image for you.

Good luck!

--
Thomas

[azranewbie]

Hello Thomas,

Thank you for your quick reply! I'm sorry I didn't make it quite clear, but I did indeed remove the USB cable before booting, so that isn't the issue. I also made sure to write the Lite image to it, since I'm aware the default wouldn't fit. I'm going to try rewriting the image next to see if that fixes anything. I'll update once I have done so!

Edit:
I have now tried the following:

- Rewriting the Bookworm Lite image to the RevPi -> Again the writing process worked fine, balena told me the flash was completed. I did get a message from Windows when starting the flashing process saying that the drive needs to be formatted before Windows can access it, but I canceled that. However I do not think that was a problem because balena was already flashing the image in the background without any kind of error, as in the flashing process started before I canceled. Still, my issue persists and the RevPi would not boot afterwards.

- Writing the old image back onto the RevPi -> I tried using balena to write the old image (stretch) that I had backed up onto a USB stick onto the RevPi, but that didn't work. For some reason, the backup image was too large? I'm not sure how that's possible considering I got the backup from the same device, but apparently the backup is 4.04 GB and the available space on the RevPi is 3.91 GB

- formatting eMMC and then writing the image -> I used the SD card formatter mentioned in my first post to quick format the eMMC of the RevPi. That didn't change anything about the available space for the image on the device, so I tried writing the Bookworm Lite image to the RevPi again. And again, no errors whatsoever during the writing process, but the issue still isn't fixed.

I'm not sure what other options I have left or if there isn't something I've completely missed. Any ideas?
Thanks for your help!

- Azra

[RamiGspo]

Hi Azra!
I just tested the latest version of Balena Etcher (https://etcher.balena.io/#download-etcher) on a Windows PC (Windows 11) and had no problems flashing a RevPi Core 3 with 4GB.....

I have also tested this under Linux, and everything worked perfectly too.

I have tested everything with our last image: RevPi Bookworm 64-Bit Lite (04/2025): https://revolutionpi.com/fileadmin/down ... 4-lite.zip

Please, after flashing the RevPi follow the next steps:
1. Remove the power supply from the RevPi.
2. Remove the Mini-USB cable from the RevPi.
3. Reconnect the power supply to the RevPi.
4. Additionally if you want you can use an Ethernet cable and a mini HDMI cable with the RevPi. The mini-usb cable must NOT be connected to the RevPi. It is very important to remove the mini-usb cable BEFORE powering the RevPi again!
If you do this, you will not see the rpi-fw device on your pc (as the revpi is not connected via USB) and the RevPi will boot correctly and you will be able to use it normally.

If you still have problems, you can follow the documentation as Thomas said. Alternatively you can use raspi-imager (https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-imag ... -pi-imager) instead of balena Etcher... This also works fine with our devices!

Good luck!

[azranewbie]

Hello all!

I have good news! The RevPi is now up and running again! What ended up solving the problem for me was rewriting the image using a Linux machine rather than Windows. I followed this tutorial:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... odule-emmc

I connected the Revpi using RPi boot, flashed the image using the dd command, and then disconnected before rebooting, making sure to remove the micro-USB cable as I had done every time. I also attached the monitor again using the HDMI cable, to see what was going on. When I rebooted the RevPi after flashing the image it took a few minutes, but after a while I saw the terminal open on the monitor. I decided to attach a keyboard to the RevPi so I could do the first configuration directly, and it worked just fine! After rebooting again I can now log in just fine via ssh or the Cockpit web application.

Thank you all for your help!

- Azra

[RamiGspo]

Hi Azra!
Great to hear this worked out!

Enjoy your RevPi
RamiGspo.