Borky shark: A deserted airport and a Raspberry Pi feeling poorly at baggage claim. Welcome to 2020
- Reference: 1585214113
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/03/26/pi_bork/
- Source link:
Today's computer behaving badly is of the fruity variety as a Raspberry Pi-powered digital sign had a crack at booting before succumbing to the deathly embrace of the bork.
Snapped at Portugal's Faro airport last month by Register reader Ken FitzGerald-Smith, the sign is a reminder of happier times, when all we had to worry about was whether our bag would arrive on the luggage carousel in one piece (or at all).
The Pi in question looks to be one of the originals, using a [1]Broadcom BCM2835 chip (judging by the hardware name) found in the Model A, B, B+, Zero and Compute Module. Since it's digital signage, we suspect the latter. The [2]Compute Module is a neat repackaging of the guts of a Pi on something that will happily fit onto a DDR2 SODIMM connector.
[3]
Click to enlarge
It was superseded by the altogether beefier (but still diminutive) [4]Compute Module 3+ last year , replete with more RAM and storage options. Because industry is less than keen on change, the original will remain in production until at least January 2026.
While originally envisioned as a tool for teaching (indeed during the current lockdown, the offspring of this vulture is happily crafting all manner of horror in Scratch on a handy Pi), the inexpensive multipurpose low-powered computer has attracted commercial eyes, and so here we are: looking at one being a bit poorly next to a Faro luggage carousel like a Brit holidaymaker who started the party a little too early.
As for the error, something has made Linux throw in the towel. Possibly a hardware issue or something amiss or corrupt in the storage department. Please use the comments below for your diagnosis of these spewings of a Pi in distress.
Otherwise, please enjoy the view of bork before baggage claim. It might be a while before some of us pass that way again. ®
[1] https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/hardware/raspberrypi/bcm2835/README.md
[2] https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/compute-module-1/
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/03/25/faro_bork_2.jpg
[4] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/01/28/compute_module_3_plus/
Re: Diagnosis...
Total CPU bewilderment and kernel panic just over 3 seconds into boot. Either hardware failure on the board somewhere, or more likely, a dodgy power supply or connection IMO.
"Merely an automatic system. Ancient computers ranged in the long caves deep ion the bowels of the planet tick away the dark millennia. I think they take the occasional pot shot to relieve the monotony."
('nuff said.)
Who knew a bowl of Petunias was sentient?
Forgiven
Completely forgiven because they are using an RPi.
[Icon -> been dying to use this one at some point!]
Well _this_ is news
A Pi has crashed. In a standalone game thingy. I'm supposing it doesn't get updates, so it doesn't change. What can possibly have brought it to its knees ?
Given that each CPU failed to launch (apparently it has two), the problem shouldn't have anything to do with associated hardware (like spinning rust that failed to respond). Looking at the messages, each CPU has a stack exception, and then fails to complete startup.
So the question is : what threw a stack exception ?
Re: Well _this_ is news
At least the Pi gives us a screen of useful diagnostics, and not just a bluescreen or "an error has occurred" type message. And we know it spent 3.88 seconds trying to get started, before it chilled and relaxed and ended its panic.
Long Live the Pi !
(I suspect a wobbly PSU - give it a cold hard restart and it may be happy once more)
Re: Well _this_ is news
Something filled a log file & ran out of space? SD card died (I've had two die so far)?
SD card gone bad probably. (I've mitigated this in the past by putting logs on a ramdisk.)
Not an old Pi
Definitely not a BCM2835 based early Pi. The 2835 only had one ARM core, so you'd only see one raspberry at boot time. That picture is showing four raspberries, so a BCM2836/7 Pi 2 or later.
Best wishes
Best wishes of good health to this vulture and his/her offspring !
( and for the rest of the vultures , as well )
It might be a while before some of us pass that way again
At least the system had been up and running. Just imagine what's going to happen when all the little systems that are down right now finally get started up again and wheeze reluctantly back to life. Licences expiring, automatic updates downloading : it will be a bonanza of bork. And we all know about the mysterious increased likelihood of systems breaking themselves the longer they remain untouched, even when no hardware component has failed............
But...but...but...Linux!
It NEVER fails!
/sacrasmoff
On a serious note, this is an ideal use for a PI.
Diagnosis...
Update supplied by Microsoft?