dockstar bricked?

I need help on my dockstar, seems it is bricked :(

Here is what I did:
1). power dockstar, after it booted with green LED, activated it online, enabled SSH.
2). disable my WAN on router, power off and on again on dockstar, find its IP and SSH to it.
3). killed hbwd process
4). comment line /etc/init.d/hbmgr.sh start in file /etc/init.d/rcS
5). run /sbin/halt
6). unplug the power, wait for a while, connect the power again. The dockstar green light flashed a while and keep yellow flashing forever.
7). find its IP in router, not able to SSH, putty popup "Network error: Connection refused". it still replies ping without problem.

How what I should do? Is there anyway to reset it back to original?

Thanks!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2011 08:08PM by fei3030.

connect a "ca-42" cable to the serial port of the dockstar.

Hello, speaking about serial console, I too have a problem.
I've just messed my Dockstar uboot configuration so that it does not boot neither from USB nor pogoplug, plus netconsole doesn't work.
The symptom is that I get green blinking led, then yellow blinking led, then reset, and the cycle starts again and again ...

I tried to connect the Dockstar serial port to my PC with the following adapter:
http://www.trendnet.com/products/proddetail.asp?prod=150_TU-S9&cat=49#

I connect as follow
Dockstar RX => USB/Serial adapter pin 3 (TX)
Dockstar TX => USB/Serial adapter pin 2 (RX)
Dockstar GND => USB/Serial adapter pin 5 (Signal Ground)

Informations taken from:
http://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/cable/RS-232.html
http://wejp.k.vu/dockstar/dockstar_repair_with_serial_cable

Then I run on my PC:
# screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

But what I get on the screen is only garbage (which appears while green blinking, no text at all during yellow blinking).
I tried various speeds (9600, 19200, etc ...) but I always get only garbage, no readable text.

What should I try next ? Should I buy the famous 'CA42' cable ? Is it different from my USB/Serial adapter ?

@PunisherHD

You may have fried your dockstar, didn't you read about the voltages in the article you linked?

This serial port is basically a standard RS232 serial port with the exception that it uses only 3.3 V instead of the up to 12 V of a normal serial port found on desktop computers.

If u-boot is messed up, you probably need JTAG access anyway - assuming the dockstar isn't damaged by the 12V - the datasheet of the Trendnet adapter didn't specify the voltages

Thanks for t he reply.
I hope my Dockstar is not fried since it continues to blink leds as usual ...

I suppose that any USB/Serial adapter delivers a maximum of 5V because it's the standard USB voltage. In my opinion it can not deliver 12V like a motherboard serial port would do.
I read the article and it says "either use 5 or 3.3 V where 3.3 V is becoming more and more common.". As I understood, the Dockstar uses 3.3V but could be 5V tolerant.

I suppose that my Uboot is not totally bricked. In fact, I'm pretty sure that my uboot environment variable "bootcmd" is wrong, because I've been playing with it recently.

I will order a CA42 cable since it's pretty cheap, and I can solve my problem with it.

Normal USB-to-serial adapters will fry the Dockstar (at least the serial port on the Dockstar). They use level shifters to create the -12V/12V for the standard serial port, and that's just too much for the Dockstar's 3.3V logic. There are "TTL-level" USB serial cables which are basically normal USB-to-serial adapters without the level shifter, so their output is at the TTL level (5V). These still exceed the specification of the serial port in the Marvell chip, which has an absolute maximum rating of 4V. The only safe bet is a USB-to-serial adapter with 3.3V on the serial side.

I recently ordered this adapter (yet to be delivered) -- http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350466560323

It says it works with both 5v and 3.3v target devices, so it should work fine with the Dockstar and GoFlex right? :)

varkey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I recently ordered this adapter (yet to be
> delivered) --
> http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item
> =350466560323
>
> It says it works with both 5v and 3.3v target
> devices, so it should work fine with the Dockstar
> and GoFlex right? :)

CP2102 works just fine with the dockstar. I recently designed a little PCB which features a independent CP2102. Works like a charm. The CP2102 itself uses 3.3V, but AFAIK, it is completely 5V tolerant on its inputs.
The adapter in the link probably just uses the 5V from the USB-bus directly on its output pin and the 3.3V line is directly generated by the CP2102. ;)

^ Great. Thanks for the confirmation! :)

Hello, I've received my CA42 cable.

I've found that my pinout is different from all those I've seen on the net ...
Black = GND (connect to Dockstar GND)
Green = RX (connect to Dockstar TX)
White = TX (connect to Dockstar RX)
Red = Useless ...

But after connecting it correctly I was able to modify my "bootcmd" command as I was expecting, and now my Dockstar is booting again.

I'm happy it was not fried after all :)

will a USB TTL PL2303 cable work?

@fei3030: Make sure it supports 3.3V.

@dpffan: I connected it to win 7, tested using a multimeter, one pair of pins measured around 3.5V, other two pairs measured 0, so I assume it is safe? actually in this link(http://wejp.k.vu/dockstar/dockstar_repair_with_serial_cable), seems the cable used is also PL2303.

unfortunately win 7 doesn't seems to able to find driver for it automatically, I might need to Google for the drivers before I can do the testing with dockstar.

I don't have an installed Linux now, will it work if I just boot those live linux distribution from DVD?

I am going to follow this guide http://bastel.dyndns.info/~dockstar/recover/guide/, if you know other better or more clear one, please let me know.

Thank you!

It looks like the USB TTL adapter is good to go. I don't think you'll need to follow the guide as you never got down to flashing anything on mtd0 based on your first post. You probably just need to look at the boot log from the serial console to figure out where things went wrong. More likely there's a typo in rcS. Responds to pings probably means pogoplug is still running somehow.

I boot Ubuntu 10.10 from live CD, connected the USB TTL cable to dockstar.

in terminal, command lsusb show the it detects the cable:

Bus 007 Device 004: ID 067b:2303 Prolific Technology, Inc. PL2303 Serial Port

use screen: screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

then plug the power to dockstar, however there is nothing show up in the screen.

reconnected cable, retry, same thing...

what to do next?

Obvious things first:
1. Check the RXD,TXD pinouts of the adapter and dockstar and make sure they are correct.
2. Are you sure it is at /dev/ttyUSB0 and not somewhere else?
2. Do a loopback test of the adapter (short RXD,TXD) without the dockstar and make sure you get back what you type.

Does dockstar still respond to pings?

seems cable problem, got a new cable and it works now. I uncommented line /etc/init.d/hbmgr.sh start in file /etc/init.d/rcS, reboot ok now.

according to here:http://bastel.dyndns.info/~dockstar/debian/, newer firmwares will also disble ssh once you disable the updater!! mine must be have newer firmware since I activated it online before...

I also captured the output of the screen when the dockstar was boot with cable, could you help to see if the dockstar is ok?

could you please point out the LATEST complete guide to install Debian? I plan to install asterisk 1.8 on it.

Thanks!

OK finally I installed Lenny on usb stick, reboot to lenny no problem. Then use "apt-get update" and "apt-get dist-upgrade" upgrade to Squeeze. Seem working fine.

couple more questions:

1) command fw_printenv is not in /sbin, /usr/sbin, I followed http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,2198,2207,quote=1 to manually installed. I tried to set up the netconsole, however in the server side I got no response when the dockstar is rebooted. what else I need to do?

2) There are not many posts in "Rescue System" sub forum, is it ready to use for people doesn't have many experience on Linux like me? If so which post has more up to date instructions?

3) The LED is not working anymore in Debian, any patch can get it work? or need to reinstall Debian with LED support?

4) I mount an USB hard drive, and tar the whole root into one tar file and put in USB hard drive. Is this sufficient as backup of the Debian system?

Thanks!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/11/2011 01:15PM by fei3030.