Home Assistant Yellow POE won't install to eMMC

Installation
1

I just got my Yellow yesterday and I am unable to flash the eMMC storage on my CM4 via USB. I had to buy my CM4 as part of a Seeed router, so I suspect it already had an OS installed or boot order modified to use the SD card on the Seeed router board. When I would plug in the USB drive with the installer and power on the Yellow the yellow light would not start blinking. I followed the instructions for how to reinstall the OS (Home Assistant Yellow Guide) using method 1 by holding the red and blue buttons. I was able to get the yellow light to start the “heart beat” flash but it would never finish, I left it all night. So I start reading method 2 and it says to jumper the JP2 (USB-C Rcvry) but my board doesn’t have jumpers it has a button. It also says to leave it jumpered till the flash utility is done, then remove the jumper. I am I supposed to hold the button till it is done? How long does the flash take? Going to be doing this using windows 10.

With CM4s being in short supply I suspect there will be many being pulled out of other systems instead of buying just the CM4 module new. If the home assistant team put together an install guide using a CM4 module that has already been setup to be used with some other systems and put it in the setup guide that would be great.

2

Yeah, I also thought buying the Yellow without a CM4 was a smart idea :joy:

This is what is meant:

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You don’t have it?

3

That is a button on my board. I can post picture when I get home. Unless it is not the button and it is the solder pads that are not populated right above it I will have to look. But know there is no header pins in that area.

I had to get the kit because I wanted the POE version. I wish it had an option to pick what board you got with the CM4.

4

Here are the pictures of the board. I have the POE version 1.3, the button is also labeled SW3 I can not even find JP2 on the board

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IMG202303191456221920Ă—863 197 KB

1 Like
5

Looks like the doc is behind the board revisions…
I suppose you might try by holding the button, then, as the label is still the same.

6

I was able to get it installed using rpiboot via windows. I did not need to hold the button down during install I only held it for about 5 seconds after powering on and released to see if it would still work and it did.

It was very simple and maybe should be included in the setup instruction. It may not be as easy as plugging a USB drive in but almost and the rpiboot is a more likely to work if you use a kit.