GoFlex Home Freeagent possible brick...

Hi Guys,

Hoping someone can help point me in the right direction...

Recenty tried to flash a new uboot to a GoFlex home device and since then it will not boot.
On power up the green light flashes for a couple of seconds, but then a constant orange.

Ive followed the instructions here: http://support.goflexhome.hipserv.com/en/reflash/index.html to put the device back to factory settings but its the same behavior as before and doesnt ever change to a white led to indicate its pushing the default firmware back to the device.

I have a Nokia CA-42 cable on order so i can connect via serial, but until then, is there anything else i can try to get the device to boot so i can get SSH access, or is there another method to flash back to factory?

Thanks all
Mark

markb,

> Recenty tried to flash a new uboot to a GoFlex
> home device and since then it will not boot.
> On power up the green light flashes for a couple
> of seconds, but then a constant orange.
>

What procedure did you use to flash new u-boot? and it's best if you can post the log of the installation!

-bodhi
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Hi bodhi,

I didnt get very far in terms of the procedure so it should be pretty obvious what ive done wrong!

I followed the intructions here to flash the new uboot: http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,13630
so after SSHing in as root to the device :

cd /tmp
wget http://projects.doozan.com/uboot/install_uboot_mtd0.sh
chmod +x install_uboot_mtd0.sh
./install_uboot_mtd0.sh
rebooted device, no boot

I expected the device to boot as normal once the uboot had been updated, but doesn't get very far.

markb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi bodhi,
>
> I didnt get very far in terms of the procedure so
> it should be pretty obvious what ive done wrong!
>
> I followed the intructions here to flash the new
> uboot: http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,13630
> so after SSHing in as root to the device :
>
> cd /tmp
> wget
> http://projects.doozan.com/uboot/install_uboot_mtd
> 0.sh
> chmod +x install_uboot_mtd0.sh
> ./install_uboot_mtd0.sh
> rebooted device, no boot
>
> I expected the device to boot as normal once the
> uboot had been updated, but doesn't get very far.

That's really not enough information to determine what went wrong, why it is not booting.

What system are you trying to boot? Which kenel, rootfs, version, or stock. It it is not stock , what device is the rootfs is on? USB, or HDD?

-bodhi
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Bodhi,

I was under the impression that despite "upgrading" the uboot, it would still boot from the stock OS from the NAND on reboot? Or is that not the case?
I did build a rootfs USB to attempt to boot from using these instructions: http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096 but after it refused to boot, i formatted to FAT32 to attempt to put back to stock, which also didnt work...

At the moment i think that something went wrong when flashing the uboot... which is why i attempted to go back to stock rather than try a different version of debian.

Mark

markb,

> I was under the impression that despite
> "upgrading" the uboot, it would still boot from
> the stock OS from the NAND on reboot? Or is that
> not the case?

Not true for most of u-boot versions, except with Jeff's installation for Dockstar and Pogo E02. For GoFlexHome it might not work.

> I did build a rootfs USB to attempt to boot from
> using these instructions:
> http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096 but after
> it refused to boot, i formatted to FAT32 to
> attempt to put back to stock, which also didnt
> work...

The correct rootfs to use in that thread is the 3.16 rootfs. Because the u-boot you've installed is quite old, and it does not support newer kernel (FDT).

>
> At the moment i think that something went wrong
> when flashing the uboot... which is why i
> attempted to go back to stock rather than try a
> different version of debian.
>

Now the good thing is the LED behavior indicated that u-boot is OK. The reason it stuck because it could not find the kernel files.

Try creating the 3.16 rootfs as recommened here, and boot with it:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,25511,25515#msg-25515

-bodhi
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bodhi,

Should i be using the Kernel 3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-3 package or tld-2?
Im at work for the next 7 hours but i'll give this a shot tonight.

Thankyou for your help with this! :)

Mark

markb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> bodhi,
>
> Should i be using the Kernel 3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-3
> package or tld-2?
> Im at work for the next 7 hours but i'll give this
> a shot tonight.
>
> Thankyou for your help with this! :)
>
> Mark

No. The rootfs is in the section:

Quote

Updated 02 Sept 2014 (rootfs):

Rootfs Debian-3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-2 was uploaded. This rootfs is to keep in sync with kernel Linux-3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-2 (and its new features).

You need the whole rootfs, not just the kernel.

-bodhi
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ok so ive created the USB stick with Debian-3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-2 rootfs.
tried with ext2 and ext3, both with the same result:

device powers up and flashes green for around 20 seconds, eventually the LED goes blank and nothing else happens....

markb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ok so ive created the USB stick with
> Debian-3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-2 rootfs.
> tried with ext2 and ext3, both with the same
> result:
>
> device powers up and flashes green for around 20
> seconds, eventually the LED goes blank and nothing
> else happens....

I thought you said the LED became orange?

-bodhi
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Without a USB stick with rootfs, it goes to orange, with the usb, it flashes green for a little while longer, then the LED goes off

Mark,

I guess it is time to see it in serial console.

But before you do that, you could post the log of how you have created the USB rootfs (every step from the formatting command to the last sync command), and I will verify that everything was done correctly, nothing was missing.

I'm not sure why the LED turned off with the stick (ususally that indicates that u-boot has crashed). The fact that it was flashing green and became orange during booting w/o the stick indicating that u-boot was flashed OK.

-bodhi
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2016 01:26AM by bodhi.

So.. creating the USB stick:

Using Ubuntu 14.04

using gparted, remove all previous partitions, create a new single ext3 partition with label rootfs
once complete, boot flag enabled (tried this with\without the flag, same thing)
mounted the ext partition as /meda/ubuntu/rootfs
extracted the content of Debian-3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-2-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2 with the command: tar -xjf Debian-3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-2-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2
/media/sdb1/etc/fstab entry for /dev/root already set to ext3, so this wasnt edited.

Ive had an email from the seller on ebay to say he has no stock of the cable ive ordered.... would this be sufficient? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/390601782656?limghlpsr=true&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=122&chn=ps&googleloc=1007000&poi=&campaignid=270621186&device=c&adgroupid=16885268106&rlsatarget=pla-146650292946&adtype=pla&crdt=0&ff3=1&ff11=ICEP3.0.0-L&ff12=67&ff13=80&ff14=122&ul_noapp=true

Mark

mark.

> So.. creating the USB stick:
>
> Using Ubuntu 14.04
>

Were you root user at this point?

> using gparted, remove all previous partitions,
> create a new single ext3 partition with label
> rootfs
> once complete, boot flag enabled (tried this
> with\without the flag, same thing)
> mounted the ext partition as /meda/ubuntu/rootfs
> extracted the content of
> Debian-3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-2-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2
> with the command: tar -xjf
> Debian-3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-2-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2
> /media/sdb1/etc/fstab entry for /dev/root already
> set to ext3, so this wasnt edited.
>

Were you still logged in as root when it's all done?

> Ive had an email from the seller on ebay to say he
> has no stock of the cable ive ordered.... would
> this be sufficient?

PL2303 is the right one. You can also look at this thread:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?8,13263

-bodhi
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/16/2016 04:37AM by bodhi.

I ran the terminal as root (sudo gnome-terminal) and ran the tar commands from there.
Gparted i just ran as normal, It completes successfully so i assumed that didnt need to run as root?


Really appreciate you helping me!!

Mark

Mark,

You need to be root user while you run tar command and the rest of the time until the sync. sudo will not work.

-bodhi
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I'll re-do the USB drive logged in as Root and report back.
Stuff for the serial connection is arriving this weekend.

Thanks again,
Mark

So... recreating the USB drive as root, rather than using a sudo launched terminal did the trick!
I also managed to update to a later uboot and boot from SATA rather than needing a USB stick plugged in all the time.

now set up serving files via DLNA (mediatomb) and some Samba shares to play nice with windows :)

Thanks again for your help!

Mark