Spraying a boot error up the bathroom wall
- Reference: 1630925228
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/09/06/bork/
- Source link:
The example comes from longtime bork-spotter Alastair Craft and was snapped in what we suspect is the gentleman's private room within a Parisian café.
[1]
Click to enlarge
Rather than Windows disgracing itself on the neatly tiled wall, today's shame belongs to the Raspberry Pi, which has proven popular in recent years with those responsible for the digital signage inflicted on Joe Public.
Instead of having to choose between a poster showing a helpful reminder to wash one's hands, tips on where to secure the very best deals on car insurance or all manner of medical advice, using a digital sign means all three can be flashed via slide-show at an audience likely to be spending some quality time (depending on how much beer or coffee has been consumed beforehand) standing before the screen.
And yes, we do very much hope those are bolts at the top and bottom rather than webcams.
[2]
In this case the Pi behind the scenes is clearly not happy. Or, rather, the Operating System running atop the hardware is a bit distressed about its storage.
[3]
[4]
While we would not recommend turning one's head sideways to read the messages as one's, er, aim could be disrupted, it looks like something is amiss with the file system.
We've seen similar messages on our own collection of Pis. Usually it's a consequence of believing the claims from suppliers of suspiciously inexpensive SD cards that their wares will absolutely most definitely work with the Pi.
[5]
Other similar issues have been caused by voltage problems resulting in surprise writes to the SD card and an equally unexpected storage borkage.
In this instance, we'd recommend an optimistic reboot and, should that fail, simply popping in a freshly imaged memory card (or compute module.) After all, one of the joys of these device types is the inexpensive componentry compared to a full-on Windows install.
Still, even with the error sprayed up the wall of the facilities, it is at least reassuring to note that a nod to paper-based signage remains.
[6]
"NE PAS JETER DE PAPIERS DANS L'URINOIR"
Nobody wants a blockage as well as a borkage. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/09/03/bork_1.jpg
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YTY7Pp-g3mp08uefu7By6QAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YTY7Pp-g3mp08uefu7By6QAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YTY7Pp-g3mp08uefu7By6QAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YTY7Pp-g3mp08uefu7By6QAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/bootnotes&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YTY7Pp-g3mp08uefu7By6QAAAIY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Read Only
Great idea. I have seen way noo many cards borked, and not only on Pis, but essentially any device of that type.
Yup, we recommend a RO FS for this sort of thing, and a ram disk for log files if you need them. We've also done lots of tests of SD cards, and Sandisk, as long as they are genuine, seem to be exceptionally robust when it comes to unexpected power downs i.e No failures after thousands of random shutdowns.
If you use the Raspberry Pi OS, when you've finished setting up the SD card, open raspi-config and select Performance Options -> Overlay Filesystem
Enable that and the main partition will never be written to again (it'll be read only on next boot). All writes will be put into a ramdisk and discarded on reset / reboot.
Translated
For non french speakers like me, google translate says:
"NE PAS JETER DE PAPIERS DANS L'URINOIR"
=
"DO NOT THROW PAPER IN THE URINAL"
Re: Translated
"Please do not throw cigarette ends into the urinal".
"It makes them soggy and difficult to light".
Re: Translated
I once spotted a handwritten sign on the emergency exit doors of a restaurant in Montpellier:
Sortie Cuisine: Prière de ne pas uriner.
I ate elsewhere.
Raspberry Pipi?
Phuththththththththth
The sound of a Raspberry borking.
In France when the toilets are out of action, they generally just use the door. As the old wine advert used to say, Le Francais adore le pee at the door.
Generally for signage (actually many things involving a Pi), you want the entire OS to be read-only. No log files written, no cache, no disk maintenance. This way you can eliminate all wear on the SD and it can pretty much last forever and is 100% deterministic.
I do this for a few security systems and arcade-like public cabinets. I use OpenBSD mainly because I am more familiar with it. I blogged about it here if anyone is doing similar.
https://www.thamessoftware.co.uk/openbsd_readonly.html