As title suggests, does anyone know the best way to remotely debug my pi5? There's been the odd occasion where I've managed to bork my pi5 whilst remotely tinkering, to the point it won't boot, and so I would like to be able to read the pre-boot logs to get an idea of what I've done and what I'll need to do to fix once I get "on site" back home (Even when I am home, it's a real pain to try to connect to it via hdmi given the Pi5's location and connected peripherals).

My current thinking is to buy the https://www.raspberrypi.com/documentati ... probe.html to plug into the Pi5's dedicated 3-pin UART port, and then plug the Probe into an old Pi 3B I have lying around currently doing nothing. I would have the 3B headless, connected to my router via WiFi, and an SSH server running on it, and then when needed I could VPN into my LAN and then SSH into the 3B to then use screen or something similar to view the Pi5's UART output (layers upon layers of connections!).


So it would be [Remote Laptop] -> [VPN to LAN] -> [Rpi3B to USB] -> [Debug Probe to 3-pin UART] -> [Rpi5]


This does seem a little bit overly complicated to me, but it also seems like my best (and most economical) bet, given I already have a 3B lying around.

Obviously if the 3B also borks then I'm in the exact same situation I'm currently in, but I'm thinking that I would literally have nothing but an ssh server running on it and won't be actively tinkering like I do with my pi5, so chances of that going down are waaay smaller.


Would love some advice on whether my current idea would work / is any good, or suggestions for potentially better ways to achieve the same result. Cheers in advance!

How remote is remote?

You don't need a debug probe if you're using a 3B. Just a cable with female dupont connectors on one end and the matching connector for the debug socket on the other. You will need to make sure that the UART on the 3B is enabled, that a login on it is not enabled, and that your user is in the dialout group.

A further advantage of using the 3B is that with minimal electronics you could also control the Pi5's power button - the Pi5 has a two pin header in parallel with the button.

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All advice given is based on my experience. it worked for me, it may not work for you.
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