Mark II won't boot

FWIW, I went overboard and am currently running with this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XL6BMFP?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

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I don’t know if this is useful information, in that it may not apply to the image that’s on the flash drives that are failing and there may not be a way for an end-user to fix it even if it does–

When I set up classic-core on a Raspberry Pi a while ago I initially noticed that the disk access LED was flickering non-stop, and running iostat showed that a mycroft process was going bonkers writing and reading data to something in the /tmp directory. I enabled the tmp.mount service (since I built it on an Ubuntu base image) which mounts /tmp as an in-memory tmpfs file system and the disk access LED turned off. If I hadn’t caught that I suspect my SD card wouldn’t have lasted very long either. Maybe it’s possible something similar is going on with the Mark II image that appears to be killing USB drives.

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I believe you are seeing the mic_level ipc, this is used for the cli client to show the mic meter in the terminal

this was flagged ages ago and something we fixed in ovos, i was under the impression the mk2 branch (pre dinkum) also disabled this feature, there should be a mycroft.conf for it, but not in mycroft-core dev branch, sandbox images dont use dev but a mk2 specific branch so no clue about those…

in mk1 and picroft images i believe this used a ramdisk, you can set the path for this in mycroft.conf

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Looks great to me! I assume you’ve received it by now, have you noticed any performance improvements?

Also, just going to tag some folks from this thread here, want to make sure everyone saw that they can get a new USB from us for free and got one ordered if they’d like that. Here’s a link to our original posted offer - Neon AI for Mark II for free @Rudism @wingzeroalchemist @Ion9509 @colin @ashmanskas @scott.werner.vt

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Same issue here - Sandisk flash drive failed within the first couple of weeks.
Replaced it with a Sandisk USB 3.0 micro ssd adapter and 64 GB U3 / A2 rated micro ssd - much faster now!

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Also confirmed the thumb drive failed as it does not mount in OSX or Arch. I switched to the free USB disk provided by NeonAI and now up and running.

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After about 3 days of use my NEON hung and fails to reboot.

I’m putting part of my email response here, for the benefit of anyone else who might need similar troubleshooting. However, if you do, please drop me an @ mention or even better an email. Thanks!

Thank you for the screenshot. Basic troubleshooting, which I expect you’ve already done, would be to make sure only the Neon boot drive is connected and is plugged into USB port 0 (the blue one on the left - Tips - NeonAI® Documentation).

If it’s plugged in to the correct port, with no other USBs plugged in, then it appears your USB has become corrupted. Are you technical enough to re-image the drive with these instructions? I know it’s a bit of work you were probably looking to avoid by ordering the USB. If you have the time, it would be valuable to us to know if this fixes your issue. You will need to download our OS from here or the link here on our webpage, and download a free imaging program if you don’t have one already. We suggest Raspberry Pi Imager or Balena Etcher

Installation Instructions:
Plug your blank USB drive into your computer (use the one that’s not working)
Open Imager (we suggest Raspberry Pi Imager or Balena Etcher)
Under ‘Operating System’, select ‘Use Custom’
Locate and select the Neon image you downloaded
Under ‘Storage’, select your USB drive
Click ‘Write’ and wait for the image to be written and verified
Remove the USB drive and plug it into your Mark II
Plug power into your Mark II
After starting up, you will be guided through connecting to WiFi

I’m also available to walk you through this process on a tech support video call, if that would be helpful.

I see your USB order from a few days ago. Thank you for trying out Neon and providing this valuable feedback. Please keep me posted on how things go so I can make sure you end up with a working copy of Neon again.

clary@neon.ai

What is the difference/function of the right hand USB3.0 port and the left one on the Mark 2?

No difference in function. However, on boot, the device checks first in the lefthand port for a boot drive, and then in the right. So, if you have a music USB plugged into the lefthand port, and your boot drive in the righthand one, it is likely it won’t boot successfully.

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Thank you so much for that…it clarifies things for me.

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Thanks for the tip! Fan was on, but screen was dead. Pulled the power then removed the USB stick and tested in my PC, it doesn’t even register as a USB device. Working on flashing a new drive now, fingers crossed…

UPDATE: after flashing Neon, ring lights activated, but screen was still blank. Opened the front panel and re-seated the screen ribbon-cable and all is working once again.

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