Bug: [ReplayOS v1.3.0] (Pi 5 Only) - Storage resets to Internal SD card on reboot when set to an external USB flashdrive

[ShizCalev]

Describe the bug
Storage keeps resetting to internal SD card on reboot when I have it set to an external USB flashdrive.

This issue ONLY occurs with my Pi 5.
My Pi 3b does not experience the issue when using the same USB flashdrive + SD card.

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To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Set Storage to "External USB Drive" (a flashdrive)
2. Reboot ReplayOS

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Screenshots
Here's a video of the issue:
https://youtu.be/BIwro5DQ5oc

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Setup:

• Device: Raspberry Pi 5 2GB
• OS version: v1.3.0
• Storage: USB Flash Drive
• Power adapter: Raspberry Pi official

[rtomasa]

This is most likely caused by a USB failure or a bad sector. I’ve seen this before with low-quality drives and even with a SanDisk Nano USB.

I suggest reformatting the drive to exFAT (low level format if you can), run a full disk check with a verification tool, and if the issue continues, replace the drive.

[ShizCalev]

Er... if it is a USB failure, it's strange that it's only occurring with my Pi 5 and not my Pi 3b when using the exact same drive between both devices

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I've reproduced the issue on two different authentic Samsung flashdrives (128GB & 256GB), both exFAT, with all files on the drive confirmed good via sha1 hash.

A cheaper 256GB Philips drive that I have doesn't seem to have the issue strangely enough - perhaps a race condition? All drives are USB 3.0 & plugged into the Pi's 3.0 drive, although my Philips drive (the one that's working properly) is significantly slower than the Samsung drives.

[rtomasa]

Well, there are several hundreds of user using the system + USB drives and nobody is facing this issue. So I suggest you to check if your drives have any other additional or hidden partition making them to be read incorrectly. Otherwise, I suggest you to start the system using logging information to see why the mount is failing: https://www.replayos.com/loginfo/

[ShizCalev]

Well, there are several hundreds of user using the system + USB drives and nobody is facing this issue

There are additional users who reported the same issue in the ReplayOS telegram channel just a few days ago.
https://t.me/c/2119015472/4594

They did mention that their issue is also occurring with multiple Samsung flashdrives, perhaps it's a brand specific issue?

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Confirmed there's only one partition on the Samsung drives.

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The issue interesting does NOT occur when I run pkill replay -> cd /opt/replay -> ./replay as instructed by the logging info page, the Samsung USB flashdrive mounts correctly & shows up in the menu as intended.

It is specifically only occuring when I'm freshly powering on the device (either reconnecting the official power cable, or via the physical power button), and when rebooting via the ReplayOS menu.

Are the log files written anywhere so that I can pull them from a cold boot / when the issue actually occurs?

[RetroArcado]

Hi, I have two Samsung 32gb [exfat] USB flash drives and both of them log out after reboot. I have noticed this behavior since the first version 1.0 of Replayos was released, which I had available. However, I have noticed this behavior : after turning on the RPi5 and starting Replayos, the flash drive stays mounted, but after about 5 reboots in a row the flash is logged out and remains unmounted after the following reboots. Is it possible that the problem could only occur in connection with RPi5 and a SAMSUNG brand USB flash drive? Or could it be influenced by the operational warm-up of flash memory? I have not noticed this log out problem with the USB SSD drive. I will try another Flash drive and let you know. My setup RPI5 4GB, original RPi 45W PSU, ReplayOS 1.3

[RetroArcado]

I performed a new test with another 1-year-old USB flash drive:

Samsung USB 3.2 64GB Bar Plus Champagne silver (MUF-64BE3/APC)
File system format: EXFAT
USB port used: USB2.0
Setup: Raspberry Pi 5, 4GB, original RPi 45W PSU
OS version: ReplayOS 1.3.0.

1. After turning on the RPi5 for the first time, the flash drive mounted without any problems.
2. I turned on the stopwatch and rebooted ReplayOS every minute (no gaming, just rebooting).
3. The flash drive remained mounted for about 23 minutes, then failed to mount after repeated reboots.

It could be said that there is a rule that not every reboot successfully mounts a USB flash drive.
Since this is already the third USB flash drive tested I believe
that this is most likely a software bug.

[rtomasa]

I will include a retry system for the next version