NOOBS won't boot on SDXC (256 & 512GB) cards

[ThomasFreedman]

NOOBS 3.0.0 - Used gparted 0.25,9 on Debian Linux (Stretch v 9.8, OS kernel v 4.14) to format the entire card with fat32. Copied all of the unzipped files downloaded from the Raspberry Pi website (https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/noobs/) to the root of the sd card. Booted in RPi3 (not +), but got an error on 256 stating it could not resize the fat32 partition. I answered that dialog and another progress bar appeared and never got beyond that.

On the 512GB sd card I just got a kernel panic and system froze.

This behavior was repeatable. Both sd cards were Samsung EVO. The 512GB card was green & white, class 3, write speed 90MB/s. The 256GB sd card is red and white, but had same specs. I had no difficulty using either of those cards with Raspbian Lite, installed with dd on a linux desktop. The cards are fine.

When I put the sd cards back in the Linux system and review their structure it appears to be the same as a 32GB sd card, except the root partition size is very big. Gparted shows no errors.

[maxnet]

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/bootmodes/msd.md

Documentation like that scares away users.

If you have a Pi 3+ it will already boot from USB by default if there is no SD card present. Prepare your USB device the same way as you would a SD card. If it is already formatted FAT32, all you need to do is copy the NOOBS files to it.

(Not suggesting the TS does that. Just reference for anybody else that has a need for high capacity storage and comes across this thread.)

[ThomasFreedman]

Thanks guys for the boot option link and info. I agree with @maxnet, it scares me away from trying to boot the Pi3 from USB if it permanently disables the ability to boot from the sd card, and it sounds like setting that bit (which is not a trivial matter to accomplish, especially for NOOBS level users) is irreversible.

[procount]

It does not disable the ability to boot from the SD card. It gives you more options by allowing you to boot from USB as well. But to do that you have to remove the SD card. If you have an SD card fitted, it should boot from that in preference. That bit is programmed in the 3B+ anyway, so no harm in programming it in the 3B to match. EDIT: It's just the documentation that's scary. 😄

[ThomasFreedman]

@procount OK, thx for the clarification. Good to know, but @maxnet is right, those docs are scary, and a quick read and the highlighted text gave me the distinct impression setting that bit disables booting from the sd card.

[lurch]

Documentation like that scares away users.

Pull Requests are always welcome... :wink:

[maxnet]

Pull Requests are always welcome...

Trust me. You do not want contributions by me written in Dunglish. ;)

But I do believe documentation is often too technical and detailed, and could use a simplified version, with only the instructions for the latest Pi model and not more background information than necessary.

[lurch]

only the instructions for the latest Pi model

Would that be the Model 3B+, the Model 3A+, the ZeroWH or the CM3+ ? :wink:

[JamesH65]

If there is a problem with docs, you can write up an issue on the github, or provide a PR. All issues and PR's are assessed and copy edited as necessary. So even bad English will be corrected if the change is deemed valid.

Reported issues will require more time, as I/someone have to find the time to write new docs.

[lurch]

I've just spotted https://github.com/raspberrypi/documentation/pull/1136 :smiley:

[ghost]

Please update this bug with some clarification of whether the current version of NOOBS can or cannot boot from a 256GB SD card.

The bug in the SoC boot ROM which Gordon referred to will prevent all but BCM2837B0-based Pi's from booting from SD cards larger than 256GB.

[Googulator]

It's a bit unclear what's limited to 256GB on older Pis:

• SD card physical capacity?
• Size of boot partition?
• Size of the largest partition?
• Total size of all partitions?

[ghost]

It's a bit unclear what's limited to 256GB on older Pis:

• Size of boot partition? It won't be this, otherwise nobody would have come across the bug.

Paging @ghollingworth

[ghost]

What Rasberry Pi model are you using?

[ThomasFreedman]

I tried it with the 3B & 3B+

I now have a Pi4, but have misplaced my 256GB SD card so haven't tested on the Pi4.

[ghost]

Is are they both SDXC type SD cards?

[lurch]

By definition, anything over 32GB is an SDXC card https://www.sdcard.org/developers/overview/capacity/

[ghost]

@lurch thanks for that 👍