Sorry but this is a Raspberry Pi question im hoping for a quick answer.

whiteoxe

Ive been up for two hours trying to get the Pi to work. I got the openoing screen but with a message I didnt have enough available space on the SD card so..

i put the card reader back in the PC and somehow even though id used the SD card formatter from the official site my 4gig card was registering as being less than two gig and the files needed are nearly 1.3 gig.

So i reformatted the SD card and pasted back the files and i saw now the card was 4gig and there was plenty of available room left.

I put the sd card back in the Pi and now it says o available bytes or memory. and it wont go any further. I tried a different SD card and got the same result.

The green light on the Pi flashes only for a sec when i power it up, is that right, or should it remain green while reading the sd card? It feels like my Pi is no longer reading the sd card. I formatted another sd card with NTFS 4gig free but the pi dosent like that but i got the same o bytes availablr. Really had enough of this pi unkless someone can offer any help ?

Dave Hein

Have you tried using google to search for the answer? I've never used a Raspberry PI, but googling "raspberry pi no space left on device" shows that other people have had this problem. Maybe you could try using an 8G SD card.

NWCCTV

Did you follow the instructions on this site to the letter? http://www.raspberrypi.org/help/noobs-setup/
?

Are you using an RCA Monitor or a HDMI Monitor? If RCA, you need to press the number 4 repeatedly when booting up to change the default video format. If you followed the instructions above to the letter it should work.

EDIT: The red power LED should be always on. The green LED only comes on when there is activity.

Duane Degn

whiteoxe wrote: »

So i reformatted the SD card and pasted back the files

I have a RPi but I haven't done more than burned an image to a SD card. From what I've read, you can't just "paste" the operating system back on the SD card, it needs to be properly "burned" or "mounted" or whatever the proper term is for the proper way of setting up the SD card image.

Edit: It looks like I'm wrong. According to the link Andy provided, you can just copy and paste the files to the SD card.

NWCCTV

you can just copy and paste the files to the SD card.

That is how I did it and it worked fine. I am using an 8 GB SD card also.

EDIT: Some GREAT info and links provided by ClockLoop: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/155117-Raspberry-Pi-Ideas?highlight=raspberry+pi

whiteoxe

yes to the letter and i get the screen of what to select to install. i thought i just might have damaged the sd card contacts so it didnt even know there was an sd card, but if there is no sd card then screen stays blank. im going to try different ways of formatting,

NWCCTV

IIRC, It will be blank and it does take some time to install. Are you using an RCA monitor? I know I keep asking but if you are you must set it as default so when it reboots it comes back up on that monitor. What I would do I you are unsure if it is installing is to start the install before you go to bed. When you get up, reboot an see what happens. If you are following the NOOBS to the letter it should all work fine. I think it took at least 30 minutes for my initial installation of Raspian. Another problem could be power. I originally was using a 5V EBay wall wart. It would boot up and then nothing. I then switched to my wife's 5V Samsung phone charging wall wart and it worked fine. I think it is 1 Amp. If you are using a non powered USB hub I would switch to a powered one. After you get it all set up and add a wireless adapter you can do away with the Keyboard, Mouse and monitor completely if you want. I have mine set up so I can control via my Tablet and Android phone.

prof_braino

Another option: http://elinux.org/RPi_Easy_SD_Card_Setup

As mentioned, check that you power supply is sufficient.

Notice that the SD formating is important. Once you get the card formatted, It come right up with the dos looking text based display. It that does not happen, you did not do something correctly.

Once it comes up, it will automatically reformat the SD card to use the whole thing, this is the point at which you leave it be for a while.

From your description, I guess that your power supply is too low or the card wasn't formatted correctly.

I too ahad a spot of trouble at first, but once you figure it out, it goes smoothly every time after that.

Dave Hein

Have you tried using google to search for the answer? I've never used a Raspberry PI, but googling "raspberry pi no space left on device" shows that other people have had this problem. Maybe you could try using an 8G SD card.

whiteoxe

hello, just to answer some questions its HDMI TV monitor that ive used for my pc ever since the sound died, or wou;d go on and off and it was just out of warranty. using a 6v battery pack. i have a 9v maybe ill try i dont remember now1 and i'll use linux sd card formatter and mabe end up even using the sugessted smaller image as youve let me knoe 4gig is too small for NOOBS these days, than you for all the tips. its still dark and cold so im sttaying in bed for a bit longer

no sorry using the 5 volt usb for power !

mindrobots

Raspberry Pi requires a REGULATED 5 volt supply if I recall. Anything more and BOOM! Same with the Beagles.

(Should be able to deliver at least 1A, also.)

whiteoxe

do you mean using 4AA batteries is not good !

sorry im all confused with the number of mc boards ive been playing with, im using the usb pc port with the pi

Bill Henning

Only use regulated 5V to supply your Pi.

6V (4x AA Alcaline) may damage it
9V WILL damage it

For my bots, I use those nice 5V "USB Battery Packs" people use to charge their phones. Works well.

whiteoxe wrote: »

do you mean using 4AA batteries is not good !

sorry im all confused with the number of mc boards ive been playing with, im using the usb pc port with the pi

whiteoxe

yesteday i cleaned up a powerboard, one device that was in the board connected to nothing was a 24volt power supply, scratching my head what i was using it for ?

NWCCTV

If you are using batteries I would guess that this might be the problem. Once you have it up and working correctly then you can experiment with battery packs, etc. Until then, I would use a wall wart. The one I m using is a Samsung phone charger that puts out 5V @ 1A. It works great. As I stated before, I bought one on EBay that was supposed to be made for he Pi and was 2A but it did not work worth as well as the Samsung one did.

whiteoxe

could not find "imagewriter" in ubuntu, found "startup disk creator" which i think will do the job.

Genetix

Whiteoxe,

Stick with one thing and stop jumping from one thing to another. I'm usually very tolerant but you are driving me crazy and I would smack you if I could.

What's wrong with Parallax products that you need to play with other stuff?
Parallax products are very easy to use and the technical support is the best I have ever seen.

I forget who said it, but stop wasting time with this other Smile and write some code!

NWCCTV

I forget who said it, but stop wasting time with this other Smile and write some code!

I know who said it but I will let him decide if he wants to divulge his identity. Nothing wrong with experimenting with other items but I agree somewhat about sticking with one thing. I myself tend to work on numerous projects at one time in order to cope with my ADD.

EDIT: I believe the OP is trying to figure out which board he wants to use to control his bot.

whiteoxe

Ive been thinking about this for a day or so and Im going to first get the Pi running, its not going to be used for my robot because its got no analoge pins. And yead, ive been writing code but doing little physical computing/making stuff happen. So today ill decide to concentrate on one controller.

whiteoxe

Genetix wrote: »

Whiteoxe,

Stick with one thing and stop jumping from one thing to another. I'm usually very tolerant but you are driving me crazy and I would smack you if I could.

Yeah, ok, i could turn that into a positve

PJAllen

Yes, I'm sure that it was meant in the good way.

whiteoxe

yeah, but im still not giving away my address

whiteoxe

Well the "MAKE START UP DISK" program failed ?

whiteoxe

I used Gparted to format my SD card. now im stuck as to what commands to use to intall noobs or rasperian ?

I think Ill just paste the files but that I think Ill try from windows.

becdause when i try to paste or copy the files in liux i get error its a read only file (my sd card)

NWCCTV

Keep using that Linux OS and follow the directions and it is bound to work sooner or later. Or, Just use a Windows system and follow the NOOBS instructions and see it work the first time you try.

whiteoxe

in the next ten minutes i'll know if it worked !

bomber

whiteoxe wrote: »

becdause when i try to paste or copy the files in liux i get error its a read only file (my sd card)

Most SD cards have a switch on the side that can lock the entire card into read-only mode. It may be an idea to make sure that switch is in the r/w position, it could be what's causing linux to think it's read-only.

whiteoxe

another fail, but i bought an 8gig sd card today so im about to try that !!!

Ive got enough sd cards now to become a serious photography buff, i spent over $600 on the sony cam with a couple of lenses, but i cant compete with some people i kow that make the most incrdible photographs, using lightwave and photoshop etc. That is ART !

whiteoxe

All my sd cards are saying they are set to read only. They are not, at least as far as the tab on the side. Even the brand new 8 gig i got yesterday afternoon and was going to use thast to finally get the raspberr pi going. Ive tried a couple of mint linux methods, same error, swithed to windows and used a couple of methods including the SDFormatter from the raspberry site.

I just dontknow... i just put the 8 gig sd in my camera and it formatted it, then i put it back into the SDFormatter on windows and it formatted fine ?? I never used to have so many things not work years ago. most things just did work every time !

Heater.

Whiteox,

I have no idea how you are getting into such a mess and having such a hard time. There are over two millions Pis out there and I don't see such horror stories coming up on the Raspberry Pi forums. Which by the way is the correct place to ask for help on this. I have a bunch of Pi's and different SD cards here that "just work".

Why don't you just download a Raspbian image from the Raspberry Pi site and follow the install instructions there? From your Ubuntu machine that is basically just using a single command to write the image onto the card. The "dd" command. The card does not need any formatting if you do that, the partitions are already formatted and populated in the image file.

As far as I know the write protect tab on the SD card is not actually detected by the Raspi, or many other systems that use SD cards. If the thing boots at all it may mount the Linux file system as read only if it thinks it has been corrupted in some way.

whiteoxe

Heater, I'm not making an effort to get you or anyone nettled or ruffled ,whatever it is! So there are two million Pi's nobody has had this much trouble to report ? I'm happy for the lot of them, I just tested the cards after that last comma in this over blown paragraph to make sure they were all still operating normally; I'm happy to say they are. I felt simply diagnostically destitute for awhile this morning. I thought someone must know but in the end its turned out well and I’ve no explanation nor do I care . By 'destitute' I only mean 'no idea' but I thoroughly‎enjoyed the day after that issued disappeared and learnt a few things today that just made getting back to it worthwhile ,rather than leaving all this stuff alone for a day or more as I'd intended by the time I went to bed last night. I even managed at one point to corrupt the bootloader on one drive buy using USB drives and SD cards to Live try out different distros, something I'd never attempted before. It was loads of fun and interesting, pity it ended up corrupting the startup but that was a risk and I took it. (that hard disk I used exclusively really )Once I would have decided that’s the end of those operating systems and everything I had setup but I'm thinking I can now fix that back to where it was. Gota go, I'm watching the British F1 and its pretty eventful and I'm sure you’ve got something better to do.