How is Raspberry Pi supported?

Morgaine Dinova wrote:

 

My advice to RS and to Premier Farnell alike is to reduce the opportunity for problems at the customer end by supplying as many Pi boards as possible with a small pre-programmed SD card that you have validated yourselves.  If you get the price of the card low enough, almost everyone with a modicum of commonsense will buy the Pi+SDcard bundle.  This saves them trouble and reduces your support costs simultaneously.

That's a good idea in principle, but has some practical challenges.  First, the distros are changing and if you try to stock pre-programmed SD cards the distro could be out of date quickly.  Second, a cheap SD card may have poor performance, leading to different complaints.  When I was considering getting a FreeScale i.MX53 Quick Start board I was reading the community forum and found a number of people complaining about performance.  IIRC, someone said the first thing you should do is replace the supplied SD card with one having more class.

   That said, the RasPi Foundation did say at one time that their intention for the general release was to provide a turn-key package with SD card pre-programmed and ready to go.  So we should be seeing bundles at some point.

This product is obviously not for you. Sell it on Ebay and go out and get a BBC Micro since that meets your requirements. You would have saved yourself a lot of frustration if you read the literature on the web site before you ordered the raspberry pi. I know exactly what I am getting, and am actually glad it does not come preloaded with everything, because that is how you learn new things. Besides, for less technically adept people, it is stated that there are plans to offer a preloaded SD card with an OS as well as complete hardware peripheral bundles in the future.

It doesn't actually matter that the distros are changing though, and that a very old image is supplied as standard.

The sole purpose of a tiny, slow, antique and cheap-as-hell  bundled SD card would be to prove that the Pi boots and works, thus removing one important variable from the equation.  Currently it's a variable that is outside of RS+Farnell's hands, which is a really bad situation for them to be in since they are required to offer basic support over something that is outside of their control.  It's not good for business.

As a secondary purpose, they could provide documentation on the card, which again serves to reduce support calls.  Log in as "support" with no password and up pops some basic get-it-working documentation.  Every little bit of self-help that you can give to customers reduces the associated support costs, and helps to keep all parties happy.

@jc123:  You appear to be on the wrong forum.

This is a site where we try to help people with Raspberry Pi, not alienate them.

Morgaine,

Thanks for the support and understanding.  I think we're on the same wavelength here, and I completely agree with all of your comments in this thread.  It doesn't have to take a lot to offer good customer service, but it is quite crucial if the product is going to enjoy any longevity I think.  And one of the things I'm noticing is because the only public face of RPi that I can find seems to be unmoderated public forums, the consumer experience is a very bumpy one at best.  Rather than having any degree of customer service, one is faced with dealing with a very raw mix of experienced and rational people vs. those in denial who want to turn anyone away who isn't having a great experience with RPi.  The trouble is, the latter attitude will not help the development or image of the RPi, and is counter-productive.

For the information of anyone reading my posts, I am actually here to help.  And one of the ways I help is to identify problems, talk about them rather frankly, and encourage others to think about how the situation might be improved.  My philosophy is, if I think there's a problem, chances are other people will find the same problems.  So if we can solve these things together, then we're solving them for others too.  My message for pjc123 and others like them is: don't shoot the messenger!

By the way, I've noticed that those in the press who have been reviewing the RPi have also been shipped SD cards with a working OS on them, and some demo programs and games pre-loaded!  Funny that.

There are good signs that Element 14 / Premier Farnell are trying to be responsive to customers, in that Jenny is being  informative over in the RPF blog/forum and Nicole is similarly answering questions and providing information about delivery here.  Also their FAQ is regularly being updated with the latest state of play, and they have been sending out email notifications as promised.  It's a start.

Of course it's not enough.  Given that they have around a quarter of a million registered Pi customers, clearly two people, a FAQ and some emails is barely a token level of support.  Also, it's very important for us not to succumb to fanboism, no matter how much we like them. :-)

Farnell is definitely "Best of British" and a pillar of industry, but they are selling a product and that places a duty of customer care on them, not only to comply with consumer laws (which are minimal) but much more importantly to safeguard their very good reputation.  I'm certain that they're fully aware of this need.

That's why I was suggesting that a rock-bottom preloaded bundled SD card might help them by ensuring that the Pi will boot for virtually everyone out of the box. Booting would still not be guaranteed because applied power would still be out of their control, but it would certainly eliminate a bunch of "doesn't boot" support calls, and it would make life easier for many a beginner.

I agree with you entirely.

By the way, I fixed my original problems with a firmware update.  Details here: http://www.element14.com/community/message/51493?tstart=0#51493

Mark.

I'm wondering if this thread might have wandered down the wrong track.

From the OP's post it would seem that the Pi is booting to a point, and I'm not sure if the card were to be the main issue that would be happening. If the text is off screen then it might be getting as far as the prompt but the OP can't actually see it. Of course if he is seeing the 'Kernel Panic' message then at least we know the problem is probably OS related.

I have read that the config text file in the boot partition of the card can have information added to reduce any overscan that might be happening at the 'TV' end.  Is the OP able to use the RCA analogue signal output to the TV and get a better screen display whilst this is troubleshooted (new verb for 2012 ! ).

@Mark: Ah, good news!  That's one for the bookmarks.

Mark

While I can understand where you are coming from, reading the first post, didn't quite sound that way.

It is great you have rectified what was the cause of your issues, and posted the solution.

Having not been in the BBC or Sinclair camp so to speak, there are some points to note.

1.     The internet wasn't really around when it was released.

2.     Most people didn't have a computer so programming a card wasn't possible. (not to mention non existant)

3.     Printing wasn't quite the same or as easy as it is nowdays.

4.     The cost difference can be due to the raw goods, etc, but its still a very affordable device.

Morgaine has some good points.

An affordable SD card with proven working img files, card writing software, along with other documentation that gets copied off and then the card programmed would be a winner.

Mark