Cannot reinstall any debian version on my Dockstar ...

Dear Doozan fans,

I follow this forum since years now, and have to thank you all so much for all your helps on how to install Debian on my lovely Seagate Dockstar, called "Docky" ;-)

Since two days, because of a dayly used USB stick since more than 4 years now, my "Docky" won't boot anymore ...

So I bought a new stick, larger and faster, and tried to reinstall the latest release of Debian using the scripts located at http://projects.doozan.com/debian/. But this installation ends with the following error : kernel is too old ... I then tried to use the oldest script after having first reinstalled the original bootloader. But the following error occurred : no /boot/uImage or any boot file can be found. It looks like that the installer did his job perfectly, but with an old kernel and a new bootloader : the newly installed bootloader looks for files that cannot be found ...

Would someone of you help me in order to reinstall the right bootloader, the right kernel files and a bootable system in order to have an alive "Docky" dockstar again ?

Many thanks in advance,
Best regards,
Jean

Jean BRUDER Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dear Doozan fans,
>
> I follow this forum since years now, and have to
> thank you all so much for all your helps on how to
> install Debian on my lovely Seagate Dockstar,
> called "Docky" ;-)
>
> Since two days, because of a dayly used USB stick
> since more than 4 years now, my "Docky" won't boot
> anymore ...
>
> So I bought a new stick, larger and faster, and
> tried to reinstall the latest release of Debian
> using the scripts located at
> http://projects.doozan.com/debian/. But this
> installation ends with the following error :
> kernel is too old ... I then tried to use the
> oldest script after having first reinstalled the
> original bootloader. But the following error
> occurred : no /boot/uImage or any boot file can be
> found. It looks like that the installer did his
> job perfectly, but with an old kernel and a new
> bootloader : the newly installed bootloader looks
> for files that cannot be found ...
>
> Would someone of you help me in order to reinstall
> the right bootloader, the right kernel files and a
> bootable system in order to have an alive "Docky"
> dockstar again ?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
> Best regards,
> Jean

Jean,

The first step is creating a new rootfs, use version 3.16 rootfs on my kernel thread. You want to do the same item 2 in this post:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,22995,22999#msg-22999

Boot with this new rootfs and then consider updating u-boot.

-bodhi
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Dear -bodhi,

The issue is not really related to the system stored on the NAND, as I can boot the dockstar and access it both using an old tty link and over the network, but more in the way that I cannot install Debian on my USB stick neither with the squeeze script installer nor with the wheezy script installer. As I described above, either the kernel booted from the nand seems to be too old to end the installation process or, at the beginning of the boot, the loader cannot access the boot files, because the 2.6.x kernel version has another file structure in /boot ...

Many thanks in advance for you help ...

Cheers !
Jean

Hi Jean,

Both the squeeze and wheezy scripts by Jeff were out of date (with respect to the Debian repo), so they are not working properly anymore. That's why I've released the rootfs mentioned above. This rootfs is a minimal Debian system, much like what you get after you ran one of these scripts. So currently this is the best way to get latest Debian kernel installed for the Dockstar.

-bodhi
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Ho -bodhi,

I understand now better your last response, sorry for that misunderstood on my side ...

Of course, I will also try to install your last rootfs and kernel. But what I really want to do is to install Debian on my new USB stick, so that I can have many more space for all the stuffs I need. What are the steps I need to follow in order to achieve a working installation of the latest Debian release on my Dockstar ?

If the scripts made by Jeff are outdated, maybe it would be a good idea to notice the user about that fact, and share some links to the forum in order to avoid confusion when using Jeff's script ?

More to read in some days, thanks for everything for now :-)
Cheers,
Jean

Jean,

> But what I really want to do is
> to install Debian on my new USB stick, so that I
> can have many more space for all the stuffs I
> need. What are the steps I need to follow in order
> to achieve a working installation of the latest
> Debian release on my Dockstar ?

The only thing you need to do is to create the USB rootfs following instruction for the version 3.16, like I posted above:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,23021,23028#msg-23028

This 3.16 rootfs is a full Debian system, and will boot most kirkwood boxes and u-boot version (even really old u-boot as far back as 2009).

-bodhi
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Dear -bodhi,

Following the thread http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096, I finally achieved in reinstalling my dockstar. But after following the steps to upgrade to the latest 4.1 kernel using the "a" option of the point 4, I got it broken again ...

I followed the rootfs upgrade, kernel upgrade and uboot upgrade, but now, the error is that the "flattened file system tree" is not found ... I can't figure what it means ...

May I ask again for some help ? Did I do a mistake by following the "a" steps when upgrading the kernel ?

Many thanks in advance,
Take care !
Jean

I'm using newer U-Boot un my two Dockstar devices, they are running fine

Jean BRUDER Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dear -bodhi,
>
> Following the thread
> http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096, I
> finally achieved in reinstalling my dockstar. But
> after following the steps to upgrade to the latest
> 4.1 kernel using the "a" option of the point 4, I
> got it broken again ...
>
> I followed the rootfs upgrade, kernel upgrade and
> uboot upgrade, but now, the error is that the
> "flattened file system tree" is not found ... I
> can't figure what it means ...
>
> May I ask again for some help ? Did I do a mistake
> by following the "a" steps when upgrading the
> kernel ?
>
> Many thanks in advance,
> Take care !
> Jean

Jean, use the instruction step 4b. You have older u-boot, so 4a will not work.

-bodhi
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bodhi Wrote:

> Jean, use the instruction step 4b. You have older
> u-boot, so 4a will not work.

Dear -bodhi,

Following your last instruction, I upgraded the u-boot too. I now use your last uboot, and it's working fine, thanks for that. Anyway, i'll try to do a full reinstall of the Dockstar soon. Can you please just confirm that nothing is now broken because of the modification of the FW environment ?

Many thanks for everythings,
Jean

Jean BRUDER Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bodhi Wrote:
>
> > Jean, use the instruction step 4b. You have
> older
> > u-boot, so 4a will not work.
>
> Dear -bodhi,
>
> Following your last instruction, I upgraded the
> u-boot too. I now use your last uboot, and it's
> working fine, thanks for that. Anyway, i'll try to
> do a full reinstall of the Dockstar soon. Can you
> please just confirm that nothing is now broken
> because of the modification of the FW environment
> ?
>
> Many thanks for everythings,
> Jean

Hi Jean,

Even with the new u-boot, the default envs that comes with it will boot only using step 4b. To boot with separate DTB (4a), more changes in envs are needed. So stick with 4b until you're more familiar with Flatten Device Tree (FDT) booting.

If you're confident changing envs to boot separate DTB, then do that. But remember to set up netconsole or serial console, before playing with u-boot envs.

-bodhi
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Jean,

> Can you
> please just confirm that nothing is now broken
> because of the modification of the FW environment

Not sure I understood this question?

-bodhi
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Dear -bodhi,

My last question was regarding the firmware parameters set when I installed the new kernel. After reading a bit arround that point, I think to have understood many of the firmware variable use. None of the one set were faulty. I follow then all the steps again to reinstall the boot loader, rootfs and kernel, and, thanks to You, my dockstar is now up'n running again !

Whereas this was a bad experience because of the downtime, I learned many things once again :-)

It was a pleasure to share with You,
Take care of You,
Cheers !