New to Raspberry Pi as of November of last year and first time posting to the forum. ![:)]( "Smile")
My Pi 4 (8GB model) is in a case, connected to ethernet, and has been running Home Assistant from an SSD since early January.
Recently, I lost connectivity and believe, after much troubleshooting, that the ethernet port on the Pi is not working.
We noticed late one afternoon that our automations had not kicked in as they always had before. I chalked it up to a Home Assistant issue and said I would research on the following day. Next day I was busy.
RULING OUT HA
The following day, I realized I couldn't connect to HA so rebooted the Pi. The system appeared to boot properly but I wasn't getting activity lights on the network switch where the Pi 4 connects.
RULING OUT THE SWITCH
I connected a different device to the same port of the same switch, turned it on, and had activity on that device from the switch. Still, to be sure, tested the device and it was functioning as it should.
RULING OUT THE CASE
There is a very short wire inside the case coming from the ethernet port (external female) of the case to the Pi 4. I opened the case and connected the patch cable directly into the Pi 4 so as to bypass any data transfer through the case wires. There was still no activity reflected on either the Pi 4 or the switch.
RULING OUT THE PATCH CABLE
Assumed the patch cable was good but swapped that out with a known working cable and, again, bypassed the case by plugging the patch cable from the switch directly into the Pi 4. Still no activity on either end.
RULING OUT THE SSD
I would assume that, even if the system couldn't boot from the SSD, it would still reflect network connectivity if the system has power and there's a physical connection between the Pi 4 and the switch (not sure) but, to confirm the SSD wasn't failing a boot which might allow the ethernet to function properly, I removed the SSD. From my PC, I burned a new SD card with the (Boot to SD first, then to USB if no SD card is detected). I booted the Pi 4 with that card, left it running for approximately five minutes, and then shut it down again. I used a second SD card to burn the 64bit Pi OS. I inserted that card into the Pi and booted again. Waited approximately ten minutes or so, in case it was running some setup procedure, but at no time did I see activity on the switch. As is configured, and assuming I followed the process correctly, the system should be booting into the SD Card first and not getting hung up on the fact that the SSD is no longer installed. I also plugged the SSD into a drive reader on the PC and can see files/folders on it.
When operating (with either the SSD or SD Card), I can say that the red power light on the board is on and solid red. The activity light is green and flashing quickly at random intervals as if it is reading and/or writing to the drives. I saw a chart explaining how to read patterns of flashing lights which would indicate some issue (reference chart based on number of flashes), but I don't think the system is flashing in a manner that would indicate there is an issue or would signify that the counts could be matched to the "error chart". From what I can tell, it appears to be reflecting actual activity.
As a final attempt, I did use the Advanced Mode of the burner to configure an SD Card with the OS setup for access to my wifi. I installed that card, booted, and tried bypassing the ethernet port. This would not be ideal but could suffice...at least for now. But, even after booting with the SD Card configured with Pi OS setup with Wifi access, I'm still not seeing it hit my network so I can try to SSH into it to see what's going on. I've never used the Pi OS so guessing that, even though I've configured the box with Wifi access, you still have to be connected to the box (display, mouse, keyboard) to get it up and runninng?
I may have to buy a display cable to know what's happening but, at this point, it does appear to me that the ethernet port is no good.
Wondering if any of you can think of any other troubleshooting steps I could possibly take. My wife purchased for me through a vendor on Amazon back in November as a holiday gift and I've had no issues, until now, since I set it up back in January. It sits on a shelf and hasn't received any type of physical damage and the only person to access the system in any capacity is me so I know no one has tampered with this unit.
On a side note, I have been creating backups in Home Assistant but, stupidly, wasn't aware (I should have known to do this!!) that I needed to download those backups. I'm praying I can get the ethernet port working via software on an SD card and then tell the system to boot into the SSD without having to wipe that SSD so I don't loose the configurations for Home Assistant (devices, automations, third party connections, etc.).
Any advice you all may have will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
My Pi 4 (8GB model) is in a case, connected to ethernet, and has been running Home Assistant from an SSD since early January.
Recently, I lost connectivity and believe, after much troubleshooting, that the ethernet port on the Pi is not working.
We noticed late one afternoon that our automations had not kicked in as they always had before. I chalked it up to a Home Assistant issue and said I would research on the following day. Next day I was busy.
RULING OUT HA
The following day, I realized I couldn't connect to HA so rebooted the Pi. The system appeared to boot properly but I wasn't getting activity lights on the network switch where the Pi 4 connects.
RULING OUT THE SWITCH
I connected a different device to the same port of the same switch, turned it on, and had activity on that device from the switch. Still, to be sure, tested the device and it was functioning as it should.
RULING OUT THE CASE
There is a very short wire inside the case coming from the ethernet port (external female) of the case to the Pi 4. I opened the case and connected the patch cable directly into the Pi 4 so as to bypass any data transfer through the case wires. There was still no activity reflected on either the Pi 4 or the switch.
RULING OUT THE PATCH CABLE
Assumed the patch cable was good but swapped that out with a known working cable and, again, bypassed the case by plugging the patch cable from the switch directly into the Pi 4. Still no activity on either end.
RULING OUT THE SSD
I would assume that, even if the system couldn't boot from the SSD, it would still reflect network connectivity if the system has power and there's a physical connection between the Pi 4 and the switch (not sure) but, to confirm the SSD wasn't failing a boot which might allow the ethernet to function properly, I removed the SSD. From my PC, I burned a new SD card with the (Boot to SD first, then to USB if no SD card is detected). I booted the Pi 4 with that card, left it running for approximately five minutes, and then shut it down again. I used a second SD card to burn the 64bit Pi OS. I inserted that card into the Pi and booted again. Waited approximately ten minutes or so, in case it was running some setup procedure, but at no time did I see activity on the switch. As is configured, and assuming I followed the process correctly, the system should be booting into the SD Card first and not getting hung up on the fact that the SSD is no longer installed. I also plugged the SSD into a drive reader on the PC and can see files/folders on it.
When operating (with either the SSD or SD Card), I can say that the red power light on the board is on and solid red. The activity light is green and flashing quickly at random intervals as if it is reading and/or writing to the drives. I saw a chart explaining how to read patterns of flashing lights which would indicate some issue (reference chart based on number of flashes), but I don't think the system is flashing in a manner that would indicate there is an issue or would signify that the counts could be matched to the "error chart". From what I can tell, it appears to be reflecting actual activity.
As a final attempt, I did use the Advanced Mode of the burner to configure an SD Card with the OS setup for access to my wifi. I installed that card, booted, and tried bypassing the ethernet port. This would not be ideal but could suffice...at least for now. But, even after booting with the SD Card configured with Pi OS setup with Wifi access, I'm still not seeing it hit my network so I can try to SSH into it to see what's going on. I've never used the Pi OS so guessing that, even though I've configured the box with Wifi access, you still have to be connected to the box (display, mouse, keyboard) to get it up and runninng?
I may have to buy a display cable to know what's happening but, at this point, it does appear to me that the ethernet port is no good.
Wondering if any of you can think of any other troubleshooting steps I could possibly take. My wife purchased for me through a vendor on Amazon back in November as a holiday gift and I've had no issues, until now, since I set it up back in January. It sits on a shelf and hasn't received any type of physical damage and the only person to access the system in any capacity is me so I know no one has tampered with this unit.
On a side note, I have been creating backups in Home Assistant but, stupidly, wasn't aware (I should have known to do this!!) that I needed to download those backups. I'm praying I can get the ethernet port working via software on an SD card and then tell the system to boot into the SSD without having to wipe that SSD so I don't loose the configurations for Home Assistant (devices, automations, third party connections, etc.).
Any advice you all may have will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Statistics: Posted by magusbuckley — Thu May 23, 2024 11:34 pm