Howto: Create Debian rootfs image for your GoFlex/Dockstar via debootstrap on a Ubuntu/Debian PC

Could someone explain it a bit for a Netgear Stora?

Vlad, nice article, nice details, and very good use of all the resources... clear implementation, as well.

This was very useful just now since I'd just picked up a Zyxel NSA-320 (1.2GHz Kirkwood, 512MB SDRAM, 2 SATA bays) for really cheap. Since the neither the Debian netinstallers nor Jeff's scripts support it, this turned out to be the way to go.

The only change I made was to install the (very wide!) 3.3.2 kernel.deb that I'd rolled, which supports all mainline Kirkwoods, plug the GoFlex/Pogo's ... and of course, the NSA320.

I'd done it before w/ just the first stage, but using Qemu-static and executing the armel binaries is absolutely convenient.

=====================================================

• My Weather Station: (Pogoplug E02/Debianized 1-Wire Weather-Station/Cam)
• Linux 3.3.2 for Kirkwood Debian package
• Newer U-Boot for Pogoplug E01/E02, Dockstar, GoFlex Net/Home
• Rescue V2.8.1 for Pogoplug, Dockstar, GoFlex Net/Home, Zyxel NSA320 & many others
• Kirkwood Downloads (via my Dropbox public folder)
• davy's Github Repo's AFPDplug, SMBPlug, OWFSPlug, Cloudprint, Optware-DG, uBoot ...

Hi all,

thak you vlad for your detailed guides here in the forum!

I have a GoFlex Net with UBIT 0.6 installed (used the ArchLinux guide). I'm trying to switch to debian now.
I followed your debootstrap guide and I was able to install and boot varkeys kernel 2.6.38.8. The only problem is that I'm getting many "Bad eraseblock" messages at startup. Also, fw_printenv is not working when in debian.

Therefore I wanted to try a newer kernel. I've tried shyds 3.3.3 and davygravys 3.3.2 kernels, but they both do not boot, regardless what arcNumber I set in UBIT ("setenv arcNumber XXXX"). By the way, if I stop UBIT and type "printenv arcNumber" when performing a cold reboot, it says it is undefined?

I think this is the same problem as you described here.
Maybe it's something with UBIT, since shyd and davygravy only mention U-Boot as far as I can remember.
How did you handle this? Is there a current kernel which works fine with UBIT?

Another question I have: Is the UBIT 0.6 hack you mention in here ("If you have UBIT v0.6 you must hardcode the label...") mandatory when using other kernels? I mean, I did get varkeys kernel run without the hack. Also jeffs mods you mention here did work for me without the hack. So, when is the hack needed?

Would be very thankful for some answers!

Greets,
cyb

Hi cyb,

to start with, the last time I seriously tinkered around with my GF Net was probably still in 2011. I'm starting my PhD soon and currently workig hard to finish my thesis, such that I'm really not aware of all the development that happened around Marvell Kirkwood platform in 2012.

I've never encourted that "Bad eraseblock" messages you're talking about, so I really can't help you here.

The UBIT hack is needed only when you have SATA drives connected. As far no SATA hdds are attached the system should boot fine without the hack

AFAIK your kernel problems are related to the fact that never kernels (starting with 3.2) are not compatible to U-Boot / UBIT. Davygravy found a way to fix this by patching U-Boot and provided an instruction on installing his new U-Boot
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,6965,6965

I haven't done this myself yet, so I have no idea how difficult the whole thing is. Of course, if you have no idea of what you're doing, the risk to brick your device might be quite high, although IMHO a switch to a new U-Boot is really the cleanest solution. But also the most dangerous one.

One can avoid updating U-Boot by patching the kernel and and Kconfig accordingly, but that's a messy thing and iirc nobody really posted debs with such patched kernels. Once I posted some brief instructions on the changes one must do
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,6550,7040#msg-7040
so maybe this can somehow help you.

Thanks vlad for your detailed answer! I will give them a look and I will try my best not to brick my GoFlex ;-)

Wish you good luck with your PhD!

I finally managed to update my GoFlex Net with UBIT v0.6 to the newer U-Boot version. You can find my experiences here
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,6965,9111#msg-9111

Hi Vlad,

Thanks for sharing your experience! Which kernel version did you use before updating the UBIT?
Didn't you have any nand problems? When I'm trying to run fw_printenv, I'm getting "too few good blocks" as described here.
So, at the moment I'm trying to build or find a kernel, which does not cause this problem befor I'm gonna update to U-Boot.

Greets,
cyb

I'm using a self-compiled 3.0.0 kernel but AFAIK also 3.2.4 and even some 2.6.x kernels work fine. My last kernel howto should be this one
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,6010
However, some parts of the howto are probably outdated. I guess that mv_cesa got fixed in newer kernel versions and the rootfs hack probably shouldn't be needed anymore. And to get the old kernel source debs one probably will have to use
http://snapshot.debian.org/. At the moment I simply have no time to prepare a newer howto.

No nand problems (also never had any before).

Hello,

Thanks for this very well written tutorial.

After booting gently my goflex home won't let me in. I've read that some of you cannot login through ssh, but I haven't understood the proposed solution.

unfortunately /var/log/auth.log is empty (since I can not shutdown properly the system it might not be surprising) and I have no clue to solve this problem.

Any hints would be greatly appreciated (:

Thanks,
François.

I've forgotten to mention that ssh is up and running on the goflex home, hence I can try to login, but it will refuse my password any time. Needless to say, I've tried to change it several times using passwd, and create another account.

F.

François Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello,
>
> Thanks for this very well written tutorial.
>
> After booting gently my goflex home won't let me
> in. I've read that some of you cannot login
> through ssh, but I haven't understood the proposed
> solution.
>
> unfortunately /var/log/auth.log is empty
> (since I can not shutdown properly the system it
> might not be surprising) and I have no clue to
> solve this problem.
>
> Any hints would be greatly appreciated (:
>
> Thanks,
> François.

Using Syhd's custom kernel : http://dev.shyd.de/2012/01/kernel-3-1-10-ready-to-use/ has solved my problem. I can not login through ssh.

Vlad, thanks again for this very instructive, well written, tutorial

François Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've forgotten to mention that ssh is up and
> running on the goflex home, hence I can try to
> login, but it will refuse my password any time.
> Needless to say, I've tried to change it several
> times using passwd, and create another account.
>
> F.
>
> François Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Hello,
> >
> > Thanks for this very well written tutorial.
> >
> > After booting gently my goflex home won't let
> me
> > in. I've read that some of you cannot login
> > through ssh, but I haven't understood the
> proposed
> > solution.
> >
> > unfortunately /var/log/auth.log is empty
> > (since I can not shutdown properly the system
> it
> > might not be surprising) and I have no clue to
> > solve this problem.
> >
> > Any hints would be greatly appreciated (:
> >
> > Thanks,
> > François.

Thanks for this, a very detailed and helpful write-up :)

I'm using this guide to install Wheezy, as all other avenues have failed. However none of them has been quite so detailed, so I have high hopes :)

As an alternative, I'm using OpenWRT as the base system to install from. It's handy because it's running a 3.2 kernel and is already on the Dockstar. And rootfs+uImage only needs ~5mb.

No issues so far. About to generate uImage and uInitrd after the kernel finishes updating.