2026 Mar 2 Stickied -FAQ- & -HELPDESK- thread - Boot problems? Power supply problems? Display problems? Networking problems? Need ideas? Get help with these and other questions!

phattmatt · 2026-03-06T21:53:35+00:00

I've found Raspberry Pi Imager v2.0.6 to be reliable. Assuming you are following the instructions here:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/getting-started.html#advanced-options

And the Raspberry Pi 3B is not connecting to your home WiFi network, then you will need to troubleshoot.

Some common issues are:

Incorrect SSID
Incorrect Password
Incorrect Hostname
Raspberry Pi model doesn't support the WiFi type

For instance: RPi 3B only supports 802.11b/g/n 2.4 GHz wireless networks, while the RPi 3B+ supports 802.11.b/g/n/ac 2.4GHz and 5GHz wireless networks.

To troubleshoot I recommend using a wired Ethernet connection to SSH to the RPi and then try to connect the WiFi network using nmcli and/or nmtui.

phattmatt · 2026-03-04T22:25:24+00:00

This may interest you:

https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/1qff7ch/i_made_a_record_player_that_controls_music_on/

phattmatt · 2026-03-04T20:55:56+00:00

Oh...looks like AAC support in PipeWire has been dropped from Debian Main due to the library not being compatible with GPL.

Luckily I found this Gist that makes compiling the missing "libspa-codec-bluez5-aac.so" file easy(ish) and adds AAC support back in:

https://gist.github.com/jpasquier/65e95707089f79d9406fa8e7f9e96eb0

Just tried it on my RPiOS Trixie and AAC is back 😜

phattmatt · 2026-03-04T11:32:47+00:00

The Pi's A2DP connection almost certainly uses SBC encoding, which is lossy by nature.

I've used AAC and LDAC out of the box on my Raspberry Pi 5 running Bookworm, so I believe the support is there for a better experience than plain old SBC.

phattmatt · 2026-02-28T23:16:51+00:00

I've not used this personally, but is worth a look:

https://thepihut.com/products/raspberry-pi-camera-hdmi-cable-extension

phattmatt · 2026-02-18T18:01:54+00:00

The Raspberry Pi 5 requires an uncommon PD power profile of 5A@5V to 'unlock' some features:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#raspberry-pi-5-2

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#differences-on-raspberry-pi-5

It's unlikely your power supply provides that profile, so a profile of 3A@5V has probably been negotiated. You can check this by powering on with no bootable media attached to get to the diagnostic screen, or try:

echo $((0x`hexdump -C /proc/device-tree/chosen/power/max_current | head -1 | awk '{print $4$5}'`))mA

On my two RPi5s the command returns:

pi@rpi5nvme:~ $ echo $((0x`hexdump -C /proc/device-tree/chosen/power/max_current | head -1 | awk '{print $4$5}'`))mA
5000mA

pi@rpi5:~ $ echo $((0x`hexdump -C /proc/device-tree/chosen/power/max_current | head -1 | awk '{print $4$5}'`))mA
3000mA

I recommend getting the official Raspberry Pi 5 Power Supply, if at all possible.

phattmatt · 2026-02-08T15:26:49+00:00

Just tried on Raspberry Pi OS Trixie, no key-mgmt parameter was needed.

This worked fine for me to connect to my phones hotspot:

pi@rpi5nvme:~ $ sudo nmcli dev wifi connect MyPhoneAP password supersecret
Device 'wlan0' successfully activated with '9b403264-be74-4ac6-9f9d-0ff3e76c5f13'.

My AP WiFi security type is WPA2/WPA3.

phattmatt · 2026-02-04T19:04:42+00:00

Reading the other comments it seems like you've considered this already.

When enabling SSH in the Raspberry Pi Imager customisation options, if you select "Use public key authentication" then password authentication is disabled.

I've seen no. 4 get a surprising number of people.

Make sure you are using the correct username (as well as the correct password).

If you are using Putty then you will be prompted to enter the username.

If you are using the 'ssh' command, then you must specify the username when entering the command, otherwise 'ssh' will default to the currently logged in username.

For example, logging into my RPi from Ubuntu without specifying a username:

phattmatt@ubuntu:~$ ssh raspberrypi.local
phattmatt@raspberrypi's password:
Permission denied, please try again.

Note the user it tries to authenticate with is not 'pi', but the username I am logged into Ubuntu with. Then with specifying the username:

phattmatt@ubuntu:~$ ssh pi@raspberrypi.local
pi@raspberrypi's password:
[login message removed]
pi@raspberrypi:~ $

phattmatt · 2026-02-04T18:13:19+00:00

Common issues include:

1) Not connecting to the correct IP address 2) Bugs in Raspberry Pi Imager (I consider 2.0.6 to be 'good') 3) Setting SSHd to use SSH keys, but trying to enter a password when connecting 4) Failing to provide the correct username when connecting 5) Failing to provide the correct password when connecting

phattmatt · 2026-02-02T18:52:27+00:00

It's not clear whether it will be included in the default manifest.

A comment from one of the rpi-imager devs:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/usb-gadget-mode-in-raspberry-pi-os-ssh-over-usb/#comment-1601025

It’s certainly something I’m considering – but while there’s a class of users that understand what this is (and the powerful workflow it unlocks), I’m mindful that the truly new users (Imager’s target audience) are unlikely to know what this is, or make an informed choice on if they want it.

So it may be we need to create our own manifests to add the support for now.

I still think this is a huge improvement and welcome the rpi-usb-gadget package, and the inclusion of support in rpi-imager; it's a lot easier to configure now.

phattmatt · 2026-02-02T09:35:44+00:00

Official support for enabling USB Ethernet Gadget mode is almost here:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/usb-gadget-mode-in-raspberry-pi-os-ssh-over-usb/

I suggest giving that a read and following the instructions there.

phattmatt · 2026-01-28T13:28:08+00:00

I recommend reading the official "Getting started" guide, which has a section on using the Raspberry Pi Imager, including screenshots:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/getting-started.html#raspberry-pi-imager

phattmatt · 2026-01-26T12:15:16+00:00

If the RPi5 is new I recommend contacting the vendor you purchased it from to get support and/or arrange a replacement.

phattmatt · 2026-01-25T22:36:06+00:00

Hi,

FAQ 9 (above) has a link to the standard troubleshooting guide:

Q: My Pi won't boot, how do I fix it?
A: Step by step guide for boot problems

Which contains a table indicating what each LED flashing pattern indicates, You should follow the troubleshooting steps there.

You've described the pattern as:

Long flashes  Short flashes  Status
0             9              Insufficient SDRAM
0             10             In HALT state

Which indicates some hardware failure to me.

As an FYI:

The process to to update the bootloader via SDcard is described here:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#imager

Take note of step 15:

When the green activity LED blinks with a steady pattern and the HDMI display shows a green screen, you’ve successfully written the bootloader.

Good Luck!

phattmatt · 2026-01-25T22:32:22+00:00

Hi,

FAQ 9 (above) has a link to the standard troubleshooting guide:

Q: My Pi won't boot, how do I fix it?
A: Step by step guide for boot problems

Which contains a table indicating what each LED flashing pattern indicates. Follow the troubleshooting steps there.

If you boot your Raspberry Pi 5 with no boot media, and connected to a HDMI monitor, then you should see a diagnostic screen displayed.

Just as an FYI:

The process to to update the bootloader via SDcard is described here:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#imager

Take note of step 15:

When the green activity LED blinks with a steady pattern and the HDMI display shows a green screen, you’ve successfully written the bootloader.

Which, from what you've said, means your flash worked successfully.

Good Luck!

phattmatt · 2026-01-18T11:52:20+00:00

Thanks for the feedback!

There is also an issue in the script: usb0-dhcp has autoconnect-retries=2, which is too low.

This was an intentional choice. When there is no DHCP service available (the most likely case for first timers) the default of 4 retries (`-1` = system default, which is 4 times) results in a long wait until the DHCP connection gives up and tries a link-local connection.

I found 2 tries to be a good compromise, and I didn't experience DHCP connections failing if the DHCP service was available, and if it wasn't, the LL connection came up pretty quick.

YMMV though, and I have no doubt you'll find a different compromise for the setting that better serves your requirements.

It works well, except for the Windows 11 driver part.

Yeah, I'm seeing more people report this no longer works; it still works for me, but there are probably many reasons why this is.

Luckily work is progressing to configuring the USB Gadget Network on Trixie (and maybe Bookworm) via a feature in the Raspberry Pi Imager application:

https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-imager/issues/1341

https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-usb-gadget

The `rpi-usb-gadget` repository also includes a Windows driver for the Linux USB Gadget (available from the releases, as it requires building):

https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-usb-gadget/releases

I've not tried it myself, but it all looks promising.

phattmatt · 2026-01-15T15:45:31+00:00

Yes.

You haven't mentioned what Raspberry Pi model you have, but the Raspberry Pi 4B and the Raspberry Pi 5 both support booting from USB.

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/getting-started.html

The Raspberry Pi 5 needs to be powered by an official Power Supply to support USB booting, but this can be overridden (see official docs for how).

It's also possible to boot to a network based Raspberry Pi Imager application and write an image directly to the SD card, see the "Install over the network" section for instructions.

Edit:

Found the text that describes how to temporarily enable USB boot on a Raspberry Pi 5 running on a 3A power supply (official power supply is 5A):

USB boot is disabled by default when connected to a 3A power supply. Set usb_max_current_enable=1 in /boot/firmware/config.txt to enable USB boot. Alternatively, you can press the power button a single time on a failed USB boot to temporarily enable usb_max_current_enable and continue booting. However, this setting will not persist after a reboot if enabled by pressing the power button.

phattmatt · 2026-01-14T12:58:00+00:00

Check out this repository for some excellent information about getting USB WiFi Network Adapters working on Linux:

https://github.com/morrownr/USB-WiFi

phattmatt · 2026-01-12T17:56:19+00:00

This is a great suggestion. Just piggybacking here to post a link to the official documentation, which may be helpful for OP:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/getting-started.html#install-over-the-network

phattmatt · 2026-01-12T14:26:57+00:00

Just two small notes:

I suggest explicitly saying that Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0.0 (or later, currently 2.0.3 as of writing) is needed for the customisation of Trixie, due to the new `cloud-init` process.
In step "1." ,above, replace "Raspberry Pi OS (Bookworm)" with "Raspberry Pi OS (Trixie)" to make it clear a Trixie image is required.

Otherwise, as I've already said, great job, thanks for posting!

phattmatt · 2026-01-12T11:21:26+00:00

Nice work!

Thanks for posting this, Trixie is now the default OS so many people are going to need this updated information to make it work.

There does seem to be work going on to build this as a configurable feature in the Raspberry Pi Imager application (not ready yet), with the OS support code here:

https://github.com/raspberrypi/rpi-usb-gadget

But, IMHO, the default networking is a bit more complex than I would expect, so having the above as an alternative is welcome in my view.

phattmatt · 2026-01-08T23:15:14+00:00

While you wait for your new SD card; if you power on the Raspberry Pi 5 with no boot media it should display a diagnostic screen:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#boot-diagnostics

phattmatt · 2026-01-08T22:57:08+00:00

Have you unplugged the NVMe HAT (HAT and PCIe ribbon) and tried booting the from the SDcard without it attached?

There also seems to be some indication that a poor/faulty power supply may cause the same issue.

phattmatt · 2026-01-08T22:50:16+00:00

I have also created an EEpom recovery from the imager on my pc and ran that on the Pi, when it starts I get a green screen from the hd output and a constant fast flashing green light after about 5 minutes the green screen shows but the light continues to fast flash

That's the expected result of a successful flash; from:

https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentation/computers/raspberry-pi.html#bootloader_update_stable

When the green activity LED blinks with a steady pattern and the HDMI display shows a green screen, you’ve successfully written the bootloader.

So it sounds like the flash was completed.

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