Raspberry Pi and Debian Wheezy

So I started working with a BeagleBoard xM rev C and was interrupted by a chance to get one of the new Raspberry Pi 512 versions.  I was really excited to hook it up and get things going but there were problems.

First problem was the SD card with the pre-loaded Debian image that I got from Newark14 (where I bought the board)

http://www.element14.com/community/groups/raspberry-pi

On startup the board, when connected via Serial, just output "60" and nothing else.  I headed over to the Raspberry Pi page and followed the instructions there and managed to create a new SD with Debian "Wheezy" and get it booted.  The image is more commonly known as "Raspbian" and the home page is here

http://www.raspbian.org/

Well after a few minutes it became obvious there was a problem.  I was using a Logitech keyboard and laser mouse and the mouse started causing kernel panic messages about disconnects and reconnects.  After searching around the consensus was that there was a power issue.

The Raspberry Pi site states all USB devices should be rated 100mA or less for proper operation.  I checked both keyboard and mouse and they were both rated 100mA.  I then tried a different micro-USB power cord and still the panic messages continued.  My final step was hacking a micro-USB cord and attaching it to my BK Precision BK1621A power supply.  This supply is capable of 18V@5A and displays current during use.  The board was using less than .5A the entire time and I got really frustrated with the forum that helped NONE and the sad state of info available.  I just stuck the Pi on a shelf and started with other projects.

Well a couple of weeks pass by and I loaded the same version of Debian into the BeagleBoard and guess what?  The SAME kernel panic messages appeared.  I have used multiple distributions with the BeagleBoard and all have worked perfectly.  My take?  There is a problem with the mouse driver in the Debian Wheezy distribution that is caused not by power issues, but the driver and mouse.

For info, the particular mouse I was using was the Logitech M-0026 Laser Mouse.

The instructions I followed for building the SD card are here

http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu

I still havent found a mouse that works with the Pi but I have to say my level of disappointment with GOOD information about problems with the PI are rampant, including those found on the main website for the Raspberry Pi website forum.

I have done some other work with other Linux distributions and will report those results soon, at least with regard to the BeagleBoard xM.