Thank you again for your help. Through this process of plugging and unplugging, I believe that I figured out what was going wrong, and it relates to the cable. Despite the external portable SSD being USB-C (with a USB-A / USB3 adapter), it appears that it only connects to that adapter in one orientation! There are small nubs on the adapter that fit in corresponding cutouts on the USB-C end - but which are only on one side of that connector. They're visibile in this high-res picture, which depicts a newer version of what I'm using, but mine fits the same way:
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The numbs on the adapter are easy to see in that picture; the cutouts on the cable are not.
I am 57 and do not have very good vision. It's corrected, but I have to wear readers with contacts, and this morning I have had on my progressive lenses. I simply missed this (and wasn't expecting the adapter to be directional as far as the USB-C end, since that's usually a symmetric oval connector).
By rotating the adapter 180 degrees, I found that I was able to seat it on the USB-C end 1-2mm further in than previously. The SSD booted the Pi 5 fine after that.
Isn't it strange how the connector was seated well enough to do rsync and editing the config.txt file, but not seated well enough to boot? If it was all-or-nothing, the connection issue might have been more apparent from the start.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The numbs on the adapter are easy to see in that picture; the cutouts on the cable are not.
I am 57 and do not have very good vision. It's corrected, but I have to wear readers with contacts, and this morning I have had on my progressive lenses. I simply missed this (and wasn't expecting the adapter to be directional as far as the USB-C end, since that's usually a symmetric oval connector).
By rotating the adapter 180 degrees, I found that I was able to seat it on the USB-C end 1-2mm further in than previously. The SSD booted the Pi 5 fine after that.
Isn't it strange how the connector was seated well enough to do rsync and editing the config.txt file, but not seated well enough to boot? If it was all-or-nothing, the connection issue might have been more apparent from the start.
Statistics: Posted by cspan — Thu Dec 19, 2024 7:01 pm
