{"id":637,"date":"2019-11-07T17:45:20","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T16:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/notiz.comanet.xyz\/?p=637"},"modified":"2019-11-07T17:46:43","modified_gmt":"2019-11-07T16:46:43","slug":"raspberry-pi-4-bootloader-firmware-updating-recovery-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/notiz.comanet.xyz\/?p=637","title":{"rendered":"Raspberry Pi 4 Bootloader Firmware Updating \/ Recovery Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Raspberry
Raspberry Pi 4 has an eeprom chip<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

All\n of the previous generations of Raspberry Pi contained all of their \nfirmware on the SD card. Starting with the Raspberry Pi 4 the device \nactually has onboard upgradable firmware stored on an EEPROM chip \nseparate from your storage. Updating this firmware is very important as\n one of the first released updates reduces power usage of the Pi by 30% \nwhich also reduces how hot it gets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this guide I\u2019ll show you \nhow to update the bootloader firmware (no, it\u2019s not apt-get upgrade, \nit\u2019s a new utility called rpi-eeprom!) and also show you how to make a \nrecovery SD card if your firmware gets corrupted and needs to be \nreflashed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upgrading the Bootloader Firmware<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Requirements<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To upgrade the firmware you should be running the latest Raspbian<\/strong>. Do not attempt this from another distribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to use another distribution afterward that is great! I personally use my 64-bit Ubuntu Server 18.04.3 image<\/a> most of the time, but not for this procedure!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since\n the Raspberry Pi bootloader firmware is stored on a chip on the device \nyou can update it to the latest with Raspbian and then go right back to \nusing whatever you want. I personally have a separate SD card just for \nRaspbian that I use to periodically plug in and update the firmware.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Install rpi-eeprom<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

First we need to install the new bootloader update utility. We can do this with the following commands:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

sudo apt update\nsudo apt upgrade\nsudo apt install rpi-eeprom<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Once the utility is installed\n Raspbian will check at boot whether there are any critical bootloader \nfirmware updates for your Pi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Checking for Updates Manually<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
If\n you are like me and don\u2019t want to wait around for Raspbian to decide \nwhether do these updates there is a command to check for updates \nmanually:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo rpi-eeprom-update<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
You will see output like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bootloader EEPROM is up to date\nCURRENT: Tue 10 Sep 10:41:50 UTC 2019 (1568112110)\n LATEST: Tue 10 Sep 10:41:50 UTC 2019 (1568112110)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
If the firmware isn\u2019t up to date it will look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
*** UPDATE REQUIRED ***<\/strong>\nCURRENT: Tue 10 Sep 10:41:50 UTC 2019 (1568112110)\n LATEST: Wed 25 Sep 10:40:05 UTC 2019 (1569408005)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
We now can see that there is updated firmware for our device.  To install this update we will use the -a switch:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo rpi-eeprom-update -a<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Your output should look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
CURRENT: Tue 10 Sep 10:41:50 UTC 2019 (1568112110)\n LATEST: Wed 25 Sep 10:40:05 UTC 2019 (1569408005)\n*** INSTALLING REQUIRED UPDATE ***\nBootloader EEPROM update pending. Please reboot to apply the update.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Reboot now by typing sudo reboot and then run sudo rpi-eeprom-update again.  This time it should tell you it is now up to date!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Changing rpi-eeprom\u2019s Release Channel<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
By\n default you will only receive updates from Raspbian\u2019s \u201ccritical\u201d \nchannel.  This is a very conservative firmware update channel that will \nonly give you very well tested firmware updates that are considered \ncritical fixes for the device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you want to get the latest \nfirmware updates and fixes you may want to try the \u201cbeta\u201d channel.  \nThese updates haven\u2019t been tested as long and could potentially break \nyour bootloader so Raspbian only recommends using it if you are \ncomfortable using the recovery tool to reflash your bootloader if \nsomething goes wrong.  Check out the recovery section below for \ninstructions on how to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To switch to the beta channel we are going to edit the file \/etc\/default\/rpi-eeprom-update:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo nano \/etc\/default\/rpi-eeprom-update<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Change the line FIRMWARE_RELEASE_STATUS=\u201dcritical\u201d to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FIRMWARE_RELEASE_STATUS=\"beta\"<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Now you can run sudo rpi-eeprom-update and you should see a new update available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
View Bootloader Firmware Patch Notes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The latest official patch notes for all versions and changes are available in the rpi-eeprom GitHub repository<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Disable Automatic Bootloader Firmware Updates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
If\n you want to control when the updates are applied instead of leaving it \nup to Raspbian the autoupdating service can be disabled with the \nfollowing command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo systemctl mask rpi-eeprom-update<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
The startup service has now been disabled and automatic bootloader firmware updates will only be applied if you do it manually.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To undo this and reenable the service we will use the unmask command:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
sudo systemctl unmask rpi-eeprom-update<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Now automatic firmware updates are enabled again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bootloader Recovery<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The downside of having an onboard bootloader is that if something breaks reformatting your SD card will not fix it<\/strong>.  In this section I will cover how to use the official tools to reflash and recover your Pi\u2019s bootloader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Requirements<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Raspbian has a special recovery bootloader available on their downloads page<\/a>.  Grab the latest version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You will also need a blank SD card formatted with FAT32 (the same type the \/boot partition uses on a imaged Pi SD card).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If your card is bigger than 32 GB<\/strong>\n you need to be very careful here because most operating systems will \ntry to format it as ex-FAT instead of regular FAT\/FAT32.  Windows won\u2019t \neven show you an option to format a card bigger than 32 GB as FAT.  If \nyou have a card 32 GB or smaller it would be ideal to choose that one to\n avoid this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Note: Do not try to cheat and use ex-FAT.  This is *not* the same as \u201cregular\u201d FAT (also known as FAT32) and will NOT WORK.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
When to Attempt Recovery<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
There\n is a simple procedure to tell if your bootloader is corrupt.  Turn off \nyour Pi completely and remove the SD card \/ all attached storage.  Now \nplug your Pi back in with no storage media in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If your Pi\u2019s \nbootloader is healthy you will see the green light blink a few times and\n then enter a pattern where it will blink 4 times and then have a long \npause.  It will repeat these 4 blinks \/ pause in an endless loop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If\n your Pi\u2019s bootloader is NOT healthy the green light will not blink.  If\n this is the case it is time to do a bootloader recovery!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Recovery Procedure<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Extract\n the files from the rpi-boot-eeprom-recovery zip file into a temporary \nfolder.  These files will be recovery.bin, pieeprom.bin and README.txt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now put those 3 files directly on the root of your blank FAT32 formatted SD card.  Your recovery card is now prepped and ready!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before\n powering up your device make sure that all USB devices are removed.  \nEven keyboards have been known to cause issues so make sure absolutely \neverything is unplugged!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now insert the SD card into the Pi and connect the power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If\n the bootloader recovery is successful the green activity light will \nstart blinking rapidly continuously (forever).  In this case you have \nsuccessfully recovered your bootloader!  You may now insert a normal \nfully imaged SD card and it will boot normally again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If anything other than a continuous rapidly blinking green light happens the recovery was not successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Recovery Doesn\u2019t Work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n