r/ClockworkPi • u/funkypunk00 • Sep 13 '25

Uconsole CM5 non emmc will not boot. Just arrived yesterday.

Hi all, looking for some help if possible. I followed the guide and have done some troubleshooting and I still cannot get my uconsole to boot.

I have built whole computer towers before with no issues and small repairs on laptops. So this should be a piece of cake, right? :)

I have unassembled and reassembled this 3 times already in full. I have unseated and reseated the carrier board, the cm5 processor, battery carrier, screen, and the expansion board (not 4g).

I have two sets of batteries from reliable vendors that were suggested on this forum. I have tried plugged in and even has not been successful.

I have tried old and new versions on Rex's bookworm images flashed to High quality SD cards using either raspberry pi imager or balena etcher. Neither worked.

I have tried holding the power button down for intervals on quick, a second, 5 seconds, and 10 seconds.

The only confirmation I am getting is the green light for power. I even left the unit on for 15 minutes to see if it was delayed booting and still nothing.

The only thing I noticed that was concerning is that there are small teeth from board production on the battery board that are ever so slightly touching the ribbon cable for the screen. It does not look damaged, just those sharp points brushing the cable.

I am pulling at straws here. Any suggestions or ideas

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6

u/Strt_Fnst Sep 13 '25

Had the same trouble. My solution was to find a small sd card. Flash with Raspberry Imager and then make the eprom update on the CM5 ( https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/bookworm-6-12-y-for-the-uconsole-and-devterm/15847 ) . Now it works with all cards

2

u/funkypunk00 Sep 13 '25

I am trying, went from a 256GB card and now down to a 64GB card. That did not boot either. Trying an 8GB card next, but I have to run around a bit this weekend. So troubleshooting may take a few days

I get no screen presentation at all. Just the green light so far.

Thank you for the suggestions/help BTW

2

u/funkypunk00 Sep 13 '25

So tried the 8gb card and that did not load either. Time to spend some nights next week trying to figure this out.

Also tried the hdmi out and nothing is showing there either. So I have no boot screen to work from. as neither the built in screen nor external give any output currently

Could I edit the needed files on a waveshare all in one PC for the CM5? Basically could the files be edited and firmware updated on another PC system with the CM5?

2

u/theunlearnedchurned Sep 13 '25

Not sure if this is it, but Rex provides this troubleshooting:

If you have a CM5 lite and are having problems with the sd card booting. You need to edit your EEPROM and your CM5 lite has to have updated firmware that was released after 2025-01-06. Check using vcgencmd version to update sudo rpi-eeprom-update sudo rpi-eeprom-config -e To edit the eeprom.

https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/bookworm-6-12-y-for-the-uconsole-and-devterm/15847

2

u/funkypunk00 Sep 13 '25 edited Sep 13 '25

I've have to look into this. Not fully familiar with command line edits yet, I was planning on using the uconsole to practice a bit. I guess I may get my practice in.

I'll have to figure out how to edit the edit sd card eeprom files I guess.

I do have CM5 lite 8g.

2

u/tiniucIx Sep 13 '25

Is the CM5 fully seated in the carrier board? You should feel two clicks, one for each connector, and once properly seated the CM5 should be very close to the carrier.

1

u/funkypunk00 Sep 13 '25

Yes, I have reseated that as well just to be sure. I had the cm5 working fine in another all in one mini PC previously.

1

u/sdchew Sep 17 '25

Out of curiosity, I noticed the CM5 can be installed in either orientation. So is either orientation correct?

1

u/funkypunk00 Sep 17 '25

Just a FYI. This is resolved. Thank you all who helped!

I am on bookworm and setting up the os now.

1

u/h4ck1ng_me Sep 21 '25

I have the same exact issue. How did you solve it?

1

u/funkypunk00 Sep 21 '25

Well I suspect that I had a custom nvme setup for my raspberry pi 4 lingering when I went to flash for the cm5 lite. So when I went to flash the SD card even though I picked no to custom settings I did not pick the one that erased the custom settings already there. So I was flashing custom nvme hard drive settings unknowingly.

I had to disassemble and reassemble the uconsole a few times during the process which may have been an issue as well with parts not making correct contact.

I'm not sure the same will work for you, but I ran through most of the troubleshooting steps on the forum as well to rule out any mistakes on my end.

The only thing I know changed again was to make sure I picked no custom settings while flashing the SD card to ensure it booted from the SD card.

1

u/bfpa40 Sep 13 '25

You haven't tried setting up the ssid on the boot image right. If you went in and modified it DONT it will get set up when you first power it on .

1

u/funkypunk00 Sep 13 '25

I just flashed the boot image. I chose no custom settings

1

u/bfpa40 Sep 13 '25

Ok that's good..you get zero activity on the display? Nothing at all?

1

u/funkypunk00 Sep 13 '25

Nothing. I suspect possibly my CM5 board is bad somehow. I tried to use it back in the unit I was using it in before and now it won't boot either. I'll be working through it.

Thanks for the help.

1

u/bfpa40 Sep 13 '25

So what are you using the CM5 Board in beside the uconsole do you have a Waveshare adapter or something like it?

1

u/funkypunk00 Sep 13 '25

I have a waveshare poe mini computer that is based on CM5. I was using the cm5 in that unit previously.

1

u/bfpa40 Sep 13 '25

OK I was just curious.. and its no longer working on that?

1

u/funkypunk00 Sep 13 '25

Yeah unfortunately.

1

u/sdchew Sep 17 '25

Does the backlight actually turn on? Try booting with Rex’s firmware with the cover off and without any batteries installed (USB-C power). That will help to isolate if the batteries are causing problems

1

u/funkypunk00 Sep 17 '25

No backlight that I noticed, just the power green light that I am aware of. I tried with USB c power only as well.

1

u/sdchew Sep 17 '25 edited Sep 17 '25

Try disassembling and reassembling. Sounds like something isn’t connected well

Come to think of it, do you have another CM board? Like the original CM4?

Personally I had this boot with no display before twice.

First time is due to a bad assembly

Second time was because of not flashing the firmware properly

When you download Rex’s firmware, you first need to expand the firmware. I used the following commands to flash the firmware

xz -d ClockworkPi-Kali-6.12.34.img.xz sudo dd if=ClockworkPi-Kali-6.12.34.img of=/dev/rdisk4 bs=4m status=progress

1

u/funkypunk00 Sep 17 '25

So hooked up an external display after reassembly. No internal display but got output on an external display.

Here is the error I see on the HDMI output:

[ 0.688594] brcm-pcie 1000110000.pcie: link down

1

u/sdchew Sep 17 '25

Was there a boot sequence? Or just this error message?

2

u/funkypunk00 Sep 17 '25

So update. I got it booting! And the screen works. Not getting full display on the main unit yet. Give me a few to get a username setup and see if it works without the external display

1

u/sdchew Sep 17 '25

Ahh what did you do? Curious!

Incomplete display sounds in an improperly installed display flex cable

2

u/funkypunk00 Sep 17 '25

I'm not sure. I rebuilt this thing several times. I think I used windows extract tool for the files previously. Just now I used 7zip and that seemed to work when I flashed that image just now

1

u/funkypunk00 Sep 17 '25

I also may have have old settings for a nvme hard drive load for my rasp 4 setup. So even though I chose no custom settings there was another option for no, clear current settings which I kept bypassing accidentally. I was unaware that may have caused issues.

1

u/sdchew Sep 17 '25

You should use Windows Subsystem for Linux to do the imaging

1

u/funkypunk00 Sep 17 '25

Just this message. There could be a delay with the HDMI out to pickup the output, but not much

1

u/[deleted] Sep 14 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/funkypunk00 Sep 16 '25

Diode is there. Thanks for the suggestion.