broadcom port for raspberrypi4b often corrupts SDCard

[jerryneedell]

I am able to build and load CP to a raspberry pi4b but very often when I disconnect the USB port (and power)
the next time I try to power it up, the SDCard is corrupted .
The Green LED blinks 4 times and the Pi does not boot.
If I reflash CP to the SD Card, it boots OK.

With the current build, the CIRCUITPY drive does not mount so I can't "eject" it before unplugging.
Is this related? Is there something I should be doing before unplugging to prevent this?

It also happens when I power the 4B via a power only USB supply. It boots OK but after unplugging and replugging, the SDCard is corrupted.

[tannewt]

We discussed this a bit today in the meeting. It's still not working perfectly but progress was made by doing storage.erase_filesystem() from the REPL. The Raspberry Pi Imager usually won't erase the CIRCUITPY file system so it won't reset it if it is corrupt.

[dronecz]

I´m trying latest build and I can connect to REPL but I can not see CP drive. I´m on Windows 10.

If I try same what @jerryneedell posted at the Discord I do not see any files.

Adafruit CircuitPython 7.2.0-alpha.0-107-g05e073415 on 2021-12-12; Raspberry Pi 4B with bcm2711
>>> 
>>> import os
>>> os.listdir()
[]
>>> 

I wanted to try another SD card and when I put it in my SD card reader and fired up RPi Imager, I could see this poping up and hiding when I was selecting drive to flash. I´m using 16GB SD card in the Pi 4B.

First SD card was corrupted after unpluging RPi from power as I could not eject it.

Second SD card booted and showed me CP drive and I was able to read boot_out.txt as @jerryneedell did.

Adafruit CircuitPython 7.2.0-alpha.0-107-g05e073415 on 2021-12-12; Raspberry Pi 4B with bcm2711
>>> import os 
>>> os.listdir()
['.fseventsd', '.metadata_never_index', '.Trashes', 'code.py', 'lib', 'boot_out.txt', 'System Volume Information']
>>> f = open("boot_out.txt")
>>> f.readline()
'Adafruit CircuitPython 7.2.0-alpha.0-107-g05e073415 on 2021-12-12; Raspberry Pi 4B with bcm2711\r\n'
>>>  

I safely removed drive via Windows and when I boot up RPi again, I can connect to REPL but CP drive did not show up.

I tried to erase filesystem and after that REPL disconnected I was forced to unplug power for RPi. Filesystem survived, but after RPi booted I can again connect to REPL, but I can not see CP drive.

I looked at my drives and I can see this:

I hope this info will help.

[jerryneedell]

This is consistent with what I have been seeing. Sometimes I can see the file system via os.listdir() other times it is empty. Sometimes a Mass Storage device is reported by my host computer but it is not accessible.

I have not seen the SDCard corruption since running storage.erase_filesystem() but that does not restore the file system when I run os.listdir()

I have also tried booting CP from a USB drive and that works as far as getting the REPL but I have not seen any filesystem on the SDCArd. I have an 8Gb FAT card inserted when booting from USB. os.listdir() returns an empty list.

[tannewt]

106 TB disk seems to imply corruption of the partition table. The update to the partition table is here: https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython/blob/main/ports/broadcom/supervisor/internal_flash.c#L133

Is it possible that the SD card was formatted with GPT rather than MBR?

[dronecz]

I do not think so. I tried to format one SD card with RPi Imager and put second one in to the RPi, which was previously also flashed via RPi Imager. I checked what partiton it has before insert and It was FAT32, which is same as at this card with letter F.

[dronecz]

I do not know if there was some change in the code (I can not see any), but I can see some changes with last build.

Adafruit CircuitPython 7.2.0-alpha.0-120-gaee80d67b on 2021-12-14; Raspberry Pi 4B with bcm2711
>>> import os
>>> os.listdir()
['AdafruitCi', 'ha.0-120.-ga', '4;Raspb.err', '\nBoardI.d:r', '~1.MET', '.Trashes', 'code.py', 'lib', 'boot_out.txt', 'System Volume Information']
>>> f = open("boot_out.txt")
>>> f.readline()
''
>>>

I still can not open E: drive though.

I can eject this drive, but after I plug RPi to the power, i goes to wierd blinking loop with green LED (1 short, 1 long ).

SD card is corrupted when I try to read it in PC.

[tannewt]

I realized the EMMC code may not be protecting itself from crossed reads. I'll try adding some to the code and we can see if that improves things.

[tannewt]

I tried adding the memory barriers but still saw SD card timeouts (error 3) on Zero 2W. I've got a branch with SD card debugging on here: https://github.com/tannewt/circuitpython/tree/rpi_flash_dmb

If you can, please try that and post the error messages. Here is what I see:

found partition
start 524288 count 14997504
sending cmd slot=0 op=17 arg=80000 flags=1c50 data=0x201b98 blklen=512 datalen=512 timeout=1000
cmd response 00000900 00000000 00000000 00000000 err=0x0 state=4
sending cmd slot=0 op=13 arg=aaaa0000 flags=1c00 data=0x0 blklen=0 datalen=0 timeout=1000
cmd response 00000900 00000000 00000000 00000000 err=0x0 state=4
sending cmd slot=0 op=17 arg=80001 flags=1c50 data=0x201b98 blklen=512 datalen=512 timeout=1000
cmd response 00000900 00000000 00000000 00000000 err=0x0 state=4
sending cmd slot=0 op=13 arg=aaaa0000 flags=1c00 data=0x0 blklen=0 datalen=0 timeout=1000
cmd response 00000900 00000000 00000000 00000000 err=0x0 state=4
Adafruit CircuitPython 7.2.0-alpha.0-146-g190aee551-dirty on 2021-12-15; Raspberry Pi Zero 2W with bcm2837
Board ID:raspberrypi_zero2w
sending cmd slot=0 op=17 arg=80747 flags=1c50 data=0x201b98 blklen=512 datalen=512 timeout=1000
command timeout
cmd=17, sdmmc_req_run returned 0x3
sdmmc_read_sectors_dma: sdmmc_send_cmd returned 0x3
read sectors result 3 when reading block 526151 for 1
sending cmd slot=0 op=17 arg=80747 flags=1c50 data=0x201b98 blklen=512 datalen=512 timeout=1000

[dronecz]

Could you pls provide me with image for SD card ? I do not have build enviroment setuped so it would take some time before I can try that.

[tannewt]

@dronecz what boards do you need it for? I think artifacts will show up here: https://github.com/tannewt/circuitpython/actions/runs/1584919813

[dronecz]

I have RPi 4B . What artifacts do you mean?

[tannewt]

firmware.disk.img.zip

Here is a pi4b build.