So far I cannot use my pi at all and I’ll probably need to request warranty as there’s no way this can be acceptable / expected behaviour.
I only intended on using it in headless mode but in order to set it up I’ve obviously connected it to a monitor (34" ultrawide – only one I have) to set it up with pi connect.
I can get to the desktop but then when I click on the pi connect login (which opens firefox) it takes a few minutes for a firefox window to appear, and then it’s just blank and nothing is responding. After a few more minutes the whole pi is unresponsive and I have to unplug it to restart it.
I’ve also managed to crash the whole desktop somehow when using task manager. It really is insanely slow – I’ve used faster computers with less specs than this pi 15+ years ago so I’m really surprised by the performance of this pi. Definitely doesn’t seem right.
I have a RasPi 3A+ working headless as a Rhasspy voice satellite.
The fact that your RasPi boots into the desktop suggests that it is not a hardware problem - more likely a configuration or software issue.
My first thought is that it may be struggling with memory, and indeed I see that the 3A+ model has “The Memory - 512MB LPDDR2 SDRAM” which really does sound pretty minimal, even for a linux, like Raspberry Pi OS. Conventional wisdom is that even a Raspberry Pi 5 with the minimum of 2GB memory is a bit light to run a GUI desktop. Your RasPi 3A+ has a quarter of that memory.
But that doesn’t mean your RasPi 3A is useless - far from it !
Note that there are basically 3 versions of RasPi OS, and each of these in 64-bit and 32-bit.
with the Desktop,
with Desktop and recommended apps, and
Lite (command line without desktop)
You say you are intending to run it headless (without screen or keyboard connected directly) - as I do - which means there will be no need for a graphical desktop since no-one will see it. In other words you should be using the Raspberry Pi Lite OS (32-bit).
You can still use your screen and keyboard connected to your RasPi; or enable SSH on your RasPi and on your PC run a remote desktop client or terminal emulation program which uses SSH (I use Remmina on my Ubuntu PC). The big difference is that you will have to type instructions at the command Line (CLI).
What is your application that requires a desktop OS on a headless computer ?
Maybe … but back then your expectations were a lot lower. You were used to the slow response time, the low resolution graphics, and minimal features in software. I remember my first IBM-compatible PC, and that it was replaced - not because it stopped doing what it was designed for - but because my expectations had grown and I wanted more RAM to run larger programs with more features, higher graphics resolution … and a faster CPU so that I didn’t notice how much extra it was doing.
Today the Raspberry Pi 3A+ is very much at the low end of Raspberry Pi range. It is not marketed as a full desktop PC - but it does allow programs to be developed in high-level languages and using features of a (mostly) full linux OS.
I have a Pi 3A+ recoding data from a weather station.
I currently access it via VNC, if I try to run web pages it will crash or will take forever to load.
Todays web pages are much larger and more complex than they used to be. To try and stop malicious attempts on web sites, Firefox, Google, and others have had to added a lot of security code to their browsers.
Then there is the Pi OS, it has increased in size and complexity from original Linux OS’s from years ago. Similar security issues.
On a Pi 5 2GB, the available memory drops to about 500MB or less when I am running programs and web access. On a Pi 5 8GB there is about 6.9GB available doing the same thing.
Pretty sure your Pi 3A+ is running out of memory.
Regards
Jim
EDIT: I setup the Ri 5 2GB with a AI board, the install needed to compile and it took forever and eventually failed. I swapped it to the 8GB Pi and it compiled in a few seconds. Again put in down to memory and a good indication the AI board needs a lot of memory.
Sorry to hear that you’re running into issues, I think @Donald23173 and @James46717 are on the ball with this being a RAM issue. What are you planning on using this Pi for?
Thanks all – I think the main thing I was after was clarifying the expectation here. Sounds like this model with 512mb RAM is expected to be used mainly without a desktop/GUI which is fine – I’ve since learned of the Raspberry Pi imager which so far seems to make it very easy to create a bootable SD card with whatever OS you’d like. So I didn’t need to buy a pre-imaged one after all (I even have an “ultra” 64GB SD card lying around in my draw…).
I’ve nearly finished imaging the OS lite 32 bit version, and have opted to setup wifi and basic auth SSH which is fine for my setup. Just need to set a static IP in my local range and will be good to go. Like I said I never planned on using the desktop/GUI anyway.
No problem Curtis. I remember finding it rather a shock after years of getting used to doing everything in Windows then Ubuntu linux, to be confronted with a command line again.
I found that using SSH on the RasPi (configurable in the RasPi Imager) and a terminal emulator on my PC gives the best of both. I can lookup websites (often to find out those cryptic linux commands) on my PC, then copy and paste into the terminal window - eliminating a lot of typos. Your chosen terminal program probably also also allows files to be copied to/from the RasPi, for when you download a file then realise you want it on the RasPi In fact I prefer to use terminal emulator and/or VNC on my RasPi desktop.
And I love that it is so easy to swap micro-SD cards to get a totally different customised setup, as well as for backups. I keep several on hand - though I recently bought up the last 16MB cards in Wollongong because 32K is overkill for most things I do.
In fact I prefer to use terminal emulator and/or VNC on my RasPi desktop.
