"Tilt from Arch"  wrote in message
news:rnclh2$1uqh$1@gioia.aioe.org...
> Hi all,
> I just assembled a raspberry-pi with these items:
> - pi4 board (4gb ram)
> - 16gb microsd card (with archlinux-arm 64bit on);
> - X832 board (to attach a 3.5 HDD);
> - 12V power supply (as needed by X832).
>
>
> The system started as soon as I plugged in the power adapter to the wall
> socket (red and blue lights blinking)
> This is a headless configuration (no monitor, no keyboard, no mouse),
> so I managed to ssh to the archlinux OS, configure pacman keyring and
> then was dinner time :)
>
> To shutdown the system I sent this command via ssh:
> systemctl poweroff
>
> The ssh connection was closed, but the raspberry had red lights still
> on, and I could hear a fan spinning.
>
> I waited 5 minutes without visible changes, then I pulled the plug off
> the socket.
>
> Can you please confirm I shuted down the system the proper way?
>
> Thanks in advance, bye!

The red LED beside the USB-C power socket on both a Pi3 and a Pi4 seems to
indicate that the Pi is connected to power, not that it is booted up. I've
often thought that it would be a good idea if the LED indicated (by going
out) that the Pi had shutdown and it was safe to pull the power lead out, as
for a Windows PC - but that's not the case. I tend to rely on a lack of
flickering of the green LED to indicate that the Pi is safely turned off.
It's difficult to be certain when the only way you communicate with the Pi
is by a network connection (eg VNC or SSH); at least with a monitor
connected to the HDMI, you can look for the monitor image disappearing when
the power is off. But even though the Pi is connected to a monitor (my TV),
it's a pain to have to turn the TV on and set it to the correct HDMI input
to verify when the Pi is off. (*)

I wonder if the CPU fan is powered directly from the USB-C input, and not by
the CPU being powered on, and that's why it stays on.

By the way, I see the other light, the one that flickers, as being green
rather than blue. But everyone's colour vision is different!



(*) Given that you are operating the Pi headless and haven't said that it
won't boot, I take it you've discovered the "hdmi_force_hotplug=1 # allow Pi
to boot with no monitor connected" line in /boot/config! Another useful line
is "hdmi_mode=82 # force 1920x1080x60 even though monitor can't be
auto-detected" if you intend to connect to the Pi by VNC: it makes sure that
the clietn which is viewing the Pi sees a full 1920x1080 desktop rather its
size defaulting to whatever it feels like.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05