GoFlex Home - netconsole showing nothing, sshd seems up but not able to ssh in - bricked?

I seem to have done something very foolish with my GoFlex Home (it is a refurbished base purchased as part of the $10 deal mentioned on these forums). I followed the instructions at Arch Linux ARM to connect to the new system, then installed Jeff's u-boot using the procedure here. The script completed and told me that an up to date uboot is already installed, would I like to reset the environment?

And, foolishly, I said 'yes.' Then since I had some confusions about using the mainline kernel, I ran "fw_setenv arcNumber" to the Dockstar arcNumber. I also ran the instructions to set up netconsole, as described here, with the correct IP addresses for my network. With everything set up, I ssh'ed into the GoFlex, shut it down, and then reset it with the power button.

Netconsole is coming up blank when run from a Debian Squeeze system with the command "nc -l -u -p 6666".

The GoFlex's front green LED blinks rapidly and continuously. The ethernet port at the back is also blinking quite a lot so something is going over the network. However, if I try to ssh in with my username as registered earlier I get "Connection closed by <ip address>." Oddly, though, if I try to ssh in as root I get asked for a password, so sshd seems to be up and running.

I tried reflashing the firmware as described here, but even if I'm pressing the reset button as described there, the sequence is still the same (green LED blinking rapidly etc.).

Have I bricked it? Any ideas on how to help? I've never used a serial cable or JTAG, though this might be a good time to start.

I should mention that nmap returns the following from a port scan:

Interesting ports on 10.10.10.101:
Not shown: 993 closed ports
PORT STATE SERVICE
21/tcp open ftp
22/tcp open ssh
139/tcp open netbios-ssn
445/tcp open microsoft-ds
6689/tcp open unknown
8200/tcp open unknown
49152/tcp open unknown

And a more detailed scan shows a name as "GOFLEX_HOME" on samba, etc. So Linux certainly seems to be running on the system, it's just inaccessible via ssh and netconsole.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/24/2012 01:34PM by shankargopal.

As I learned from another with the GoFlex Home.. you can go back to stock and start over.


http://support.goflexhome.hipserv.com/en/reflash/index.html

shankargopal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I should mention that nmap returns the following
> from a port scan:
>
> Interesting ports on 10.10.10.101:
> Not shown: 993 closed ports
> PORT STATE SERVICE
> 21/tcp open ftp
> 22/tcp open ssh
> 139/tcp open netbios-ssn
> 445/tcp open microsoft-ds
> 6689/tcp open unknown
> 8200/tcp open unknown
> 49152/tcp open unknown
>
> And a more detailed scan shows a name as
> "GOFLEX_HOME" on samba, etc. So Linux certainly
> seems to be running on the system, it's just
> inaccessible via ssh and netconsole

What you post above shows open Samba, SSH and FTP ports. That is an "up" box running Linux w/ at least 3 servers... Can't tell if they are configured correctly, but it looks like it is running.

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

• 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 ...

Thanks optim, but as mentioned in the original post, I tried reflashing but it does not seem to happen; nothing changes when I press the reset button and power up, as the instructions say to do. In fact, in general, the reset button has no visible effect at any time. May be this is controlled by the u boot environment?

Davygravy, yes, it certainly seems to be running, so I guess it's not bricked. But I have no way to get into it. The environment reset must have wiped out the pre-stored information on the system, so it no longer accepts logins as USERNAME_hipserv2_seagateplus_XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX because it doesn't know the XXXX part. And for some reason the web interface is not running either (as you can see port 80 is not open). When I try to access port 6689 from a browser, I get an "authenticate" request which says "webserver"; but again I have no username and password. So, without knowing the root password, and without netconsole, there seems to be no way to access the system.

Any other ideas come to mind? It seems like a complete mystery. When I get back to the machine in some time I'm thinking of trying these options:

1. If the script was correct and this is Jeff's u-boot, the reset environment should make it boot from USB, right? I tried a Squeezeplug rootfs that I downloaded (only rootfs I could find for download but I'm sure there are others out there), but no luck, it still booted into its black box state with same nmap results. But this may be the wrong rootfs. If I built one with debootstrap, might that work?

2. Netconsole does not work through a router (no firewalls though). Maybe it'll work if I just plug it as a direct cable connection between the GoFlex and the Debian system itself?

Thanks again

shankargopal Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks optim, but as mentioned in the original
> post, I tried reflashing but it does not seem to
> happen; nothing changes when I press the reset
> button and power up, as the instructions say to
> do. In fact, in general, the reset button has no
> visible effect at any time.

Shankargopal, yes I posted that info about reflash to stock. It worked in my case. Did you hold the reset pin for a long time? I found that on another try, the white light was not on, and the green light flashing, but I tried the web interface anyway and it worked (weird!). I reset the GH Home about 4 to 6 times, going back and forth between version 2.5, 2.5.3, and 2.6 in search of a certain bug in the stock FW that I wanted to know more about.

So try to hold the reset pin longer. Make sure you hold it long enough (more than 10 seconds), then wait at least 2 minutes before using the web interface. The FW reflash would wipe out the product key, IIRC, so you need to enter it again once you're there at the GFH wizard web page.

You were right, Bodhi - I pressed the reset button with a variety of different pins, pens, and other objects and pressed it down for varying lengths of time, and suddenly the white light started up, then green light, then steady light. But it still didn't connect via the web interface.

I finally wound up reflashing it three times (though this could have been due to a problem in my flash drive - I'm not sure), and on the third time, it's worked - web interface back up again.

It's midnight here and my brain is fried from a long day of other work, so I'm not going to try anything else now, just go to bed with the warm knowledge of a reflashed GoFlex Home to cheer my dreams...

Thanks a great deal for all the help, guys :)

NB: But, wait, for future reference - what should I do when Jeff's u-boot script claims that there is no need to update the u-boot? Should one run it with --no-uboot-check or should one simply try to proceed with a USB rootfs etc.?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2012 02:09PM by shankargopal.

Glad it works :-) I suspect that was just the USB flash drive, some are flaky. Jeff's UBoot script will not update UBoot because it is already there! I've even tried -no-uboot-check, it will simply ask if you want to reset the environment. Right now, I think the only way is to flash_erase mtd0, and then run Jeff's script immediately (i.e. if power goes down then we'll need JTAG to recover).

Or another way is to change Jeff's script to allow reflashing with another option (i.e. -force-reflash or something to that effect).



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/25/2012 04:24PM by bodhi.

Is this flashing method working on every circumstances ? I am trying it with my Goflex Home and nothing at all.

My goflex is flashing green then orange and appears to be not able to boot anything (probably a bad uboot configuration but I can't do anything to prove it before I get my hands on a USB serial adapter).

I flashed Uboot and tried to install the rescue system v2 (not 2.8)

Uboot should be functional and was (before trying to install rescue system) able to boot from USB with arcNumber 3089.

I don't know a lot about this flashing process. I don't know at all how it works, and if it's still available with the modified uboot.

As bodhi and others said, the flashing thing is erratic - it may work if you simply keep trying, holding down the reset button for longer, etc. In my case the key point that seems to have made the difference was using a different pen to press the reset button :).

Varkey supplied me with a great procedure for setting up the GoFlex Home - neglected to post it here but will do so shortly .