P2 Zero, Can not get boot, I have questions

#1

I have four P2 Zero boards that I’m having a very hard time with. I can not get any of them to boot, despite a range of os images, different SD cards, different power sources, etc. I chose these boards because I want a compact PoE rasPi-ish solution. I am ignorant of some Bpi details, and I’ve tried to read through the forums to no avail, so I’m reaching a point of frustration.

  1. Are the M2 and P2 essentially the same (can I use the same images)?
  2. Is there a central place to look for the actual latest known good images for the P2 board?
  3. I’ve assumed that I can set the device up headless, but it’s looking more and more like that’s not actually possible with the Bpi images. On Rpi I would burn an image, drop a wpa_supplicant.conf file and ssh file on the boot partition, then go.
  4. Is there a central guide to the LED boot codes on Bpi? The last one I tried has a double red flash, but I can’t find what this means. It’s not the power supply.

I’m on Apple MacOS and don’t have a PC. I’m using BalenaEtcher to image the SD cards.

#2

http://wiki.banana-pi.org/Getting_Started_with_P2-Zero

http://wiki.banana-pi.org/Banana_Pi_BPI-P2_Zero

#3

Thank you August, I had this information, but it doesn’t answer my questions. I can’t get any of these boards to boot anything, I’ve got a 2 red led flash sequence, and I’ve reviewed the documentation available with no answers quick to hand. I’m not a Banana Pi enthusiast interested in spending my time getting an OS to work, I’m looking for off-the-shelf hardware for my applications. At this point, I have to give up on Banana Pi, as I don’t believe these could be a reliable field deployment.

#4

The wiki already answered your questions, M2 and P2 are very different board, different soc, different hardware design, different source code, why did you this they should use same image? all images of P2 have published on the wiki, and if you flash image with Balena Etcher, that is the same as rpi. This board release about three years ago, no yesterday, so many developers and customers used it.

#5

I really wanted this to work because these boards are the perfect size. I don’t want my frustration to come across as rude, but I want to answer your questions honestly:

  • I’m confused about the boards because the P2 and M2 have a combined forum, where most other boards have their own. It’s hard to tell if images that people post should be usable on my boards, or if their questions even apply to my issues.

  • I’m a software guy looking for a turn-key solution. I spent two days on various combinations and haven’t gone past step one of the getting started guide.

  • There are a huge range of possible problems. Troubleshooting info is non-existent, and the support community is tiny.

  • The newest images are almost a year old and are shared in a google drive folder. This is not a good look for my security-conscious customers.

  • I thought Banana Pi was just a modified Raspberry Pi, but It’s not the same. FWIW, I can take a brand new Raspberry Pi out of the box, burn a brand new SD card, and be ready to deploy builds in 10 minutes or less.