20
votes
Accepted
Raspberry Pi Zero usable with fully free software?
No. The Pi Zero uses the BCM2835 system-on-a-chip, which combines a CPU and a VideoCore 4 GPU -- the same basic SoC as on the Pi A/B/+ models although with a faster clock speed (which does not ...
14
votes
Do I still need rpi-update if I am using the latest version of Raspbian?
Meanwhile the kernel is part of the raspberrypi-kernel-package in Raspbian.
So rpi-update is not needed anymore to update the kernel.
There are several kernels in the package, that means it works on ...
12
votes
Do I still need rpi-update if I am using the latest version of Raspbian?
The answer marked as correct is in fact outdated, and in a problematic way: rpi-update will update the firmware to the latest published version, which has to be considered "not stable". So following ...
12
votes
Accepted
How to revert from rpi-update to stable build
"In normal circumstances there is NEVER a need to run rpi-update as it always gets you to the leading edge firmware and kernel and because that may be a testing version it could leave your RPi ...
10
votes
Accepted
What is the minimum power required for an RPi 4 in `halt` or `shutdown`?
Q1: Is it possible to realize the claimed current draw of "about 3 mA" in any inactive state?
A1: No - at least not with the tools covered in the "Official Documentation".
To frame ...
8
votes
Accepted
Raspberry Pi 3 usable with fully free software?
NO.
The RPi3 is still based on the VC4, which requires the loading of the closed-source BLOB before the Linux kernel is ran.
But is this really any different from a low-level closed source BIOS that ...
7
votes
How can I determine the current firmware version number?
Steve's answer is correct, but here are some more details that may be of interest.
The firmware version seems to be identified by two pieces of information:
A release/commit date
A 160-bit hash value ...
7
votes
Accepted
Can I safely remove non-free software on a Raspberry Pi 2 running Raspbian?
You can remove all of that to satisfy vrms, if that's all it complains about. However, the real RMS would, I am certain, inform you that there is no way to make the pi truly free, since it requires ...
6
votes
Accepted
Pi 4 - How to be sure to order a model with usb fixed?
Yes - the RPi 4 has had some "controversies" (il dibattito?). One is related to a flawed USB-C interface design. The other is not a design flaw, but rather a thermal management issue. Here ...
5
votes
Accepted
Does Raspberry Pi count as firmware
I would say no, although the concept is I think abstract enough that depending on the specifics of the context it might be considered such -- why and when to use such a label may be more about ...
4
votes
Can I safely remove non-free software on a Raspberry Pi 2 running Raspbian?
Debian seems to think not: "The Raspberry Pi boots from its GPU and only non-free software is currently available for the GPU, even starting the machine requires a large (2MB) blob of non-free, ...
4
votes
What could be causing "over-current change" all the sudden?
NB: as noted in the comments below, max_usb_current=1 is deprecated and now has no effect. A lot has changed with the Raspberry Pi's firmware since this question was asked in 2016.
over-current change ...
4
votes
Accepted
Raspberry Pi-2 with mainline Linux kernel
While the Raspberry Pi 2 support is present in 4.5, you're also looking for a .config that will work. The changes for multi_v7_defconfig weren't ready for 4.5, so they're currently in linux-next. ...
4
votes
Do I need to upgrade any firmware on a new board to make it work and produce a video signal?
"Do I still need rpi-update if I am using the latest version of Raspbian?"
I don't know how often people need to be told, or why they ignore the warning if they do run it!
"In normal circumstances ...
4
votes
Accepted
What exact wireless chip does Pi 4 use?
You asked for the output of sudo journalctl -b | grep brcmfmac. Here is it:
Oct 25 14:42:57 raspberrypi kernel: brcmfmac: F1 signature read @0x18000000=0x15264345
Oct 25 14:42:57 raspberrypi kernel: ...
3
votes
Accepted
Raspberry Pi B+ Overclocking
Setting the governor to "performance" should mean the processor runs at the maximum frequency set in config.txt, or the default if there isn't one. Note that this is generally pointless except in ...
3
votes
Raspberry Pi Firmware - user updateable - which bits live on sd and which on the hardware
As far as I am aware there is no user upgradeable memory or firmware within the Pi. There are a few bits of One-Time Programmable (OTP) memory once used to record usage which invalidated the warranty....
3
votes
Accepted
Bare metal: Why does the CPU automatically read instructions from the SD card?
The ARM side of the SoC has quite a few hardware peripherals (e.g. UART, SPI, I2C, etc).
In particular it has an External Mass Media Controller (EMMC) SD card
interface.
See page 65 of BCM2835 ARM ...
3
votes
What does rpi-update do?
rpi-update updates the kernal and firmware of your Raspberry Pi to bleeding-edge. Eventually the kernal and firmware form bleeding-edge makes it to sudo apt-get upgrade. You should not need rpi-update ...
3
votes
What if I flash the ARM processor with some random firmware
No, that won't be possible. As such, ARM CPUs inside the Raspberry pi SoC are slaves to the videocore. They cannot even go out of reset until the videocore executes the right firmware which allows ...
3
votes
WiFi not working after installing openmediavault (OMV) 5 in RPi 4
I had the exact same issue after installing OMV 6 on a fresh install of Raspberyy Pi Lite (64-bit) OS, and I fixed it using omv-firstaid.
Here are the steps:
Connect to your Raspberry Pi using an ...
2
votes
Is it possible to flash the Pi's firmware live?
If you are doing remote updates, you can use a over-the-air updates tool built for this purpose to get more safety (e.g. rollback) and control (grouping, deployment status, etc).
For example, Mender ...
2
votes
Can I safely remove non-free software on a Raspberry Pi 2 running Raspbian?
You can delete all the packages you mentioned with the noted possible exception of the Realtek wired and wireless firmware.
Personally I'd just delete the Realtek firmware and take the unlikely hit ...
2
votes
Raspberry Pi 3 usable with fully free software?
Since it's still using the VideoCore IV, but with a higher frequency - 400 MHz instead of 250 MHz - it suffers the same problems regarding free/libre software that uses MPEG-2 and VC-1, just as Havnar ...
2
votes
Accepted
With Raspberry Pi is the Linux OS running in the firmware?
I do not understand the question.
The only firmware the Pi has is a bootloader which is responsible for reading the boot sector from the SD card.
All software (including Linux and applications ...
2
votes
Rainbow square and influences of disable_splash=1 (or: how to get rid of the colored square)
If you want to suppress the rainbow square (low power warning) you should edit config.txt:
sudo vi /boot/config.txt
And add the following entry
avoid_warnings=1
2
votes
Rainbow square and influences of disable_splash=1 (or: how to get rid of the colored square)
The upper right corner of the display shows a rainbow colored square, that's a sign of too little power. Get a power supply that delivers more current to RPi.
See these articles for some help:
...
2
votes
Raspberry Pi B+ Overclocking
The B+, Pi2 & Pi3 all have similar power circuitry, which is also more efficient than that in earlier models, but no more reliable.
The vast bulk of power issues are due to lousy power supplies ...
2
votes
Can my RPi3 running Raspbian be used to flash DD-WRT on to a compatible router
You can do this from any OS, you need just a file upload compatible browser (all existing browsers). Connect to your router (wi-fi, lan), open web browser, type IP address of your router, login, go to ...
2
votes
Accepted
Can my RPi3 running Raspbian be used to flash DD-WRT on to a compatible router
Since you don't specify the router, I'll give you the generic answer:
Assuming you're running a mainstream distribution (like Raspbian), a RasPi is for all intents and purposes a Linux PC (just ...
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
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