Bootloader EEPROM on a Raspberry Pi 5: check, upgrade and lock¶

You have a Raspberry Pi 5 of the fleet (at welland, each Acorn sits on one) and want to know whether its bootloader is the fleet’s and locked, and to upgrade it if it is not. A Compute Module in a Compute Blade has its own page; nothing here is for one.

The bootloader and its settings are in a small flash chip on the board, the bootloader EEPROM. On a fleet Pi that chip is locked, so that nobody with root on the Pi can change how it boots; a new bootloader therefore cannot simply be installed. First check; upgrade only if the check says NOT DONE.

Check the Pi 5 (nothing is changed)¶

Check it: three reads on the running Pi say DONE or NOT DONE.

Upgrade a locked Raspberry Pi 5¶

What you need: the bench list, and the six steps.

Step 1: make the card, on a Linux computer; the Pi keeps running.

Step 2: network cable out: the Pi off and turned over.

Step 3: join the two FLASH WP pads, with solder, or get tweezers ready.

Step 4: card in, network cable in, wait 60 seconds: the Pi writes its new bootloader.

Step 5: cable out, card out, bridge off, cable in: the Pi back on its own port, two minutes alone.

Step 6: read it back: the three reads again, and what your result means.