Flash Failed for microSD, error code "EVALIDATION"

balenaEtcher
1

Hello,
I am having trouble copying an image to my microSD card using the “Flash from URL” feature. Downloading and decompressing the file is correct, saving and verification is 100% error-free. But when verification is complete, the message “Flash Failed!” Is displayed and the error code “EVALIDATION” appears at the end of the console log. Below are the last relevant lines of the console log. I noticed the problem both on the newest version of balenaEtcher (1.7.7) and several earlier versions (1.5.x). BalenaEtcher runs as an administrator. I use several SanDisk 16GB Class 10 microSD cards for write tests, but each has the same problem. All tests were run on Windows 10 Pro 64-bit. I looked through a lot of Forum posts and tried to apply every rational idea, but to no avail.
Do any of you know how to solve this problem?
Regards,
Maciex
Last lines of console log:

gui.js:35 Verifying 1 device, 99% at 16.70 MB/s (total 16.70 MB/s) eta in 1s with 0 failed devices
gui.js:46 Fri Mar 11 2022 09:02:19 GMT+0100 (czas środkowoeuropejski standardowy) Validation error ({“image”:{“size”:15931522560,“compressedSize”:3318785699,“hasMBR”:true,“path”:“https://www.eutonomy.com/download/eulink/firmware/latest_euLINK_firmware.img.gz",“partitions”:[{“offset”:1048576,“size”:268435456,“type”:12,“index”:1},{“offset”:269484032,“size”:15662038528,“type”:131,“index”:2}],“isCompressed”:true,“name”:“latest_euLINK_firmware.img”,“isSizeEstimated”:true,“extension”:“gz”},“drives”:[{“size”:15931539456,“isVirtual”:false,“enumerator”:“USBSTOR”,“logicalBlockSize”:512,“raw”:"\\.\PhysicalDrive1",“error”:null,“isReadOnly”:false,“displayName”:“F:\”,“blockSize”:512,“isSCSI”:false,“isRemovable”:true,“device”:"\\.\PhysicalDrive1",“busVersion”:“2.0”,“isSystem”:false,“busType”:“USB”,“isCard”:false,“isUSB”:true,“devicePath”:null,“mountpoints”:[{“path”:“F:\”}],“description”:"Generic- SD/MMC USB Device”,“isUAS”:false,“partitionTableType”:“mbr”}],“driveCount”:1,“uuid”:“6153a00d-9e24-482c-a355-062f99f6cb97”,“flashInstanceUuid”:“6153a00d-9e24-482c-a355-062f99f6cb97”,“sample”:0.1,“applicationSessionUuid”:“c6c320e6-29c8-4150-8b72-534098384a9c”,“flashingWorkflowUuid”:“6ee03690-f84a-497f-b58e-b435431982d8”})
gui.js:35 Verifying 1 device, 100% at 18.10 MB/s (total 18.10 MB/s) eta in 0s with 0 failed devices
gui.js:46 Finish: 15931539456
gui.js:46 Terminating IPC server
gui.js:46 Flash results Object
gui.js:46 Fri Mar 11 2022 09:02:23 GMT+0100 (czas środkowoeuropejski standardowy) Done ({“image”:{“size”:15931522560,“compressedSize”:3318785699,“hasMBR”:true,“path”:“https://www.eutonomy.com/download/eulink/firmware/latest_euLINK_firmware.img.gz",“partitions”:[{“offset”:1048576,“size”:268435456,“type”:12,“index”:1},{“offset”:269484032,“size”:15662038528,“type”:131,“index”:2}],“isCompressed”:true,“name”:“latest_euLINK_firmware.img”,“isSizeEstimated”:true,“extension”:“gz”},“drives”:[{“size”:15931539456,“isVirtual”:false,“enumerator”:“USBSTOR”,“logicalBlockSize”:512,“raw”:"\\.\PhysicalDrive1",“error”:null,“isReadOnly”:false,“displayName”:“F:\”,“blockSize”:512,“isSCSI”:false,“isRemovable”:true,“device”:"\\.\PhysicalDrive1",“busVersion”:“2.0”,“isSystem”:false,“busType”:“USB”,“isCard”:false,“isUSB”:true,“devicePath”:null,“mountpoints”:[{“path”:“F:\”}],“description”:"Generic- SD/MMC USB Device”,“isUAS”:false,“partitionTableType”:“mbr”}],“driveCount”:1,“uuid”:“6153a00d-9e24-482c-a355-062f99f6cb97”,“status”:“finished”,“flashInstanceUuid”:“6153a00d-9e24-482c-a355-062f99f6cb97”,“errors”:[{“name”:“Error”,“description”:“Generic- SD/MMC USB Device”,“code”:“EVALIDATION”,“device”:"\\.\PhysicalDrive1"}],“devices”:{“failed”:1,“successful”:0},“bytesWritten”:15931539456,“sourceMetadata”:{“isCompressed”:true,“name”:“latest_euLINK_firmware.img”,“size”:15931539456,“compressedSize”:3318785699,“isSizeEstimated”:false},“sample”:0.1,“applicationSessionUuid”:“c6c320e6-29c8-4150-8b72-534098384a9c”,“flashingWorkflowUuid”:“6ee03690-f84a-497f-b58e-b435431982d8”})
gui.js:46 Fri Mar 11 2022 09:02:24 GMT+0100 (czas środkowoeuropejski standardowy) SafeWebview loaded ({“event”:{“id”:18,“url”:“https://www.balena.io/etcher/success-banner/?borderTop=false&darkBackground=true&etcher-version=1.7.7&api-version=2&optOutAnalytics=true",“method”:“GET”,“timestamp”:1646985744754.729,“resourceType”:“mainFrame”,“ip”:“18.159.128.50”,“fromCache”:false,“statusLine”:"HTTP/1.1 200”,“statusCode”:200,“responseHeaders”:{“age”:[“64556”],“cache-control”:[“public, max-age=0, must-revalidate”],“content-encoding”:[“br”],“content-length”:[“6201”],“content-type”:[“text/html; charset=UTF-8”],“date”:[“Thu, 10 Mar 2022 14:06:29 GMT”],“etag”:["“97c38960337dd1168c0dafb01646d061-ssl-df”"],“link”:["</webpack-runtime-089d98f9359977565314.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </styles-c4fa86dfd4ad05097eee.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </framework-004503f2df4bb68d43f8.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </50c25a04-a68e3217d6ce65727bd7.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </73ad3401-ecb0d3613fde52e78ca5.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </532a2f07-f1ad28da1825cfcce2c7.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </app-d3f2c796bc2e57a8750f.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </c943faba-f859f80ceb7f4f7eab31.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </af13d906-36fdbc23fc7dd2f2b2e7.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </ec1189df-4ae9e03f4545d4f1d61b.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </a9a7754c-29508ff4045f1f93a5f6.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </commons-cea6bfcc846ea7ff6166.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </c974efff6ac245e04f4a26711b42db767846e0e5-b1b7091203b51af325ff.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </component—src-pages-etcher-success-banner-js-98ac1a1084e1d2a478fa.js>; rel=preload; as=script, </page-data/app-data.json>; rel=preload; as=fetch; crossorigin, </page-data/etcher/success-banner/page-data.json>; rel=preload; as=fetch; crossorigin"],“referrer-policy”:[“strict-origin-when-cross-origin”],“server”:[“Netlify”],“strict-transport-security”:[“max-age=31536000”],“vary”:[“Accept-Encoding”],“x-content-type-options”:[“nosniff”],“x-frame-options”:[“DENY”],“x-nf-request-id”:[“01FXW005ABBJ9068HWGJM4Z07H”],“x-xss-protection”:[“1; mode=block”]},“referrer”:"",“error”:“net::OK”},“sample”:0.1,“applicationSessionUuid”:“c6c320e6-29c8-4150-8b72-534098384a9c”,“flashingWorkflowUuid”:“6ee03690-f84a-497f-b58e-b435431982d8”})
gui.js:46 Message from SafeWebview: Error: Not supported

2

Hi @maciex, let me first ask a very basic question…Even with the Validation failing, did you happen to try the resulting SD Card that was flashed in your EULink device? I am curious if it does indeed boot up and function normally.

In most situations for failing validation, what occurs is this: After the flash completes, Windows mounts the drive. As soon as it does that, it writes some small hidden files on the drive. If this process occurs before the Etcher validation has finished, then the checksum no longer matches. Etcher knows it wrote a certain hash, but the drive no longer matches that hash, so the validation fails. However, when speaking strictly about this scenario, the resulting output from the flash was indeed valid, and the data made it on to the drive properly…thus my question about trying to actually boot that device. Hope that helps, and thanks for using Etcher!

3

Hi @dtischler,
Thanks for the quick support. You are right, despite the message “Flash failed!” our device can be started from such a card. But the problem is with this message… Our device is sold with a built-in Raspberry Pi and a microSD card with our software. If, however, the microSD card is damaged, the user will find in our manual a link to the card’s IMG file and a link to the balenaEtcher program. If, after completing the save, balenaEtcher displays a message that the entire flash process is unsuccessful, then the normal user will not investigate - rather, he will decide that there is still no working microSD card and the problem remains unresolved. Maybe this “Flash failed!” could be less emphatic and inform that there may be some verification imperfection?
Regards
maciex

4

Hi @maciex, that’s not a bad idea, we could perhaps explain this better. I’ll open up a GitHub Issue and see if we can slightly alter the messaging to clarify this a bit. Thanks!