trouble with booting

> i thought it would only affect it if it was writing/using it (the sd).

The trouble is that your Linux installation most likely uses a swap file on the SD card. You cannot tell when it will decide to write to the SD card. There is therefore *no* safe time to eject the SD or pull the power while the Pi is running. You may get away with it for a while, but I promise that you *will* corrupt your SD card sooner or later.

Fortunately, it is very rare for the OS to crash to the point it cannot respond to basic commands like a shutdown request so it is highly unlikely you will ever get stuck. A total OS hang is the _only_ time it is OK to pull the power w/o having the OS shut down first.

I login to my Pi from another computer, so I use a terminal a lot. I always use the 'shutdown -hP now' command before I power off. To do the same from the graphical desk top, click on the red button on the bottom right hand corner then choose the Shutdown button (or similar, you have not told us which Linux distribution you're using).

Wait until all LED activity has stopped and you are left with a single, red PWR LED lit on the Pi. Only then is it safe to remove power. All this is no different than Linux on a regular desktop machine, or for that matter a Wintel box (except they pull their own power for you).

> i thought it would only affect it if it was writing/using it (the sd).

The trouble is that your Linux installation most likely uses a swap file on the SD card. You cannot tell when it will decide to write to the SD card. There is therefore *no* safe time to eject the SD or pull the power while the Pi is running. You may get away with it for a while, but I promise that you *will* corrupt your SD card sooner or later.

Fortunately, it is very rare for the OS to crash to the point it cannot respond to basic commands like a shutdown request so it is highly unlikely you will ever get stuck. A total OS hang is the _only_ time it is OK to pull the power w/o having the OS shut down first.

I login to my Pi from another computer, so I use a terminal a lot. I always use the 'shutdown -hP now' command before I power off. To do the same from the graphical desk top, click on the red button on the bottom right hand corner then choose the Shutdown button (or similar, you have not told us which Linux distribution you're using).

Wait until all LED activity has stopped and you are left with a single, red PWR LED lit on the Pi. Only then is it safe to remove power. All this is no different than Linux on a regular desktop machine, or for that matter a Wintel box (except they pull their own power for you).