raspberry pi won't boot after some bootcode.bin update

Question

After performing a system update a few days ago, my raspberry pi does not boot up anymore. The last thing I remember was a

 apt-get update
 apt-get upgrade

with an update of bootcode.bin.

After the next reboot (some days after the upgrade) The Raspberry Pi show only the red light and is not reachable anymore over IP. I readout the Boot Partition on a Laptop the partion was pretty empty only 4 files. No bootcode.bin file and a lot of other files where gone.

How can i fix the issue without reformating the 16 GByte SD Card?

Answer 1

Does apt-get update update bootcode.bin?

Anyway, the /boot partition is a FAT partition so you should be able to easily put the SD card into any Windows PC and update any file in the /boot partition. You can also mount the SD card on any Linux machine.

You can download the latest firmware from Github at this URL. There's a link on that page to Download ZIP. Once the ZIP file is downloaded you should be able to open it up and copy any or all of the files in the ZIP's /boot directory to your SD card's /boot directory.

I recommend that you back up the current SD card's /boot directory to some place where you can restore it if doing what I recommend makes things worse.

If this does enable your PI to boot, I recommend that you immediately perform a sudo rpi-update to fully update your PI's firmware and related software.

• Oliver G.: the procedure works instead of the sudo rpi-update buts its raspian not raspbmc
• ThN: This solution did not work for me, even thought I was certain it will help to recover my SD card. It goes so far and says [0]kdb>. Then, it stops forever.
• HeatfanJohn: Can you post a screen shot of exactly what is displayed on the console screen in a new question? The prompt you are getting implies that your PI is "falling into" the Kernel Debugger which means that your OS has paniced (UNIX panic).