I have solved my problem that Debian does not start

Hello,

Please be aware that I have no idea about what is going on and why my Dockstar is finally booting Debian. I have tried this while being prepared to brick one of my machines.

I tried a lot of things to make my dockstar start Debian, when it is powered on, but all attempts have failed. Only pressing the reset button could make my Debian start. One of the things I tried resulted in a constant reboot of the machine after power on without any chance to SSH into it. I am not sure whether this might be important to my solution.

I thought back to the old Sheeva plug days, when one my them did not start as well and I tried the same solution: Duplicate the initialization command.

This is what I have done:
I have read my existing uboot "usb_init" string with fw_printenv. Then I have duplicated the "usb start;" part of the variable and overwrote usb_init:

fw_setenv usb_init 'usb start; usb start; if ext2load usb 0:1 0x800000 /boot/uImage; then setenv usb_device 0:1; setenv usb_root /dev/sda1; elif ext2load usb 1:1 0x800000 /boot/uImage; then setenv usb_device 1:1; setenv usb_root /dev/sdb1; elif ext2load usb 2:1 0x800000 /boot/uImage; then setenv usb_device 2:1; setenv usb_root /dev/sdc1; elif ext2load usb 3:1 0x800000 /boot/uImage; then setenv usb_device 3:1;setenv usb_root /dev/sdd1;fi;'

Please use the original content of your usb_init content before modifying it.

Now the system (finally?) starts into Debian after power on. I am not sure, whether it starts direcly or loops one or two times thru Pogo.

Not sure why you have so much difficulty to start your debian. After I installed Jeff's mtd0 uboot, I never had any problem to boot.

I have checked the second dockstar now and I have a similar problem that I can only boot into the rescue system now. Unfortunately "my trick" from the first posting does not work here. When power get up, it does not book my Debian from stick,

This is what happens during startup:
Second 0: blinking green LED, a lot of the time blinking together with my Toshiba 8 GB stick
Second193: Blinking orange
Second 200: Solid orange
Second 212: Blinking orage.
Second 215: Orange heartbeat on solid green.

At this time the rescue system is up.

I cannot find evidence of my USB stick under /proc/partitions:
31 0 1024 mtdblock0
31 1 4096 mtdblock1
31 2 32768 mtdblock2
31 3 224256 mtdblock3

Is there any other way to determine whether my stick is recognized? This way I could reboot the system.

After /sbin/reboot or reset, the system starts my debian from the stick.

Any ideas?

This is my env:

ethact=egiga0
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
stderr=serial
bootdelay=3
baudrate=115200
arcNumber=2097
mainlineLinux=yes
console=ttyS0,115200
led_init=green blinking
led_exit=green off
led_error=orange blinking
mtdparts=mtdparts=orion_nand:1M(u-boot),4M(uImage),32M(rootfs),-(data)
mtdids=nand0=orion_nand
partition=nand0,2
rescue_set_bootargs=setenv bootargs console=$console ubi.mtd=2 root=ubi0:rootfs ro rootfstype=ubifs $mtdparts $rescue_custom_params
rescue_bootcmd=if test $rescue_installed -eq 1; then run rescue_set_bootargs; nand read.e 0x800000 0x100000 0x400000; bootm 0x800000; else run pogo_bootcmd; fi
pogo_bootcmd=if fsload uboot-original-mtd0.kwb; then go 0x800200; fi
force_rescue=0
force_rescue_bootcmd=if test $force_rescue -eq 1 || ext2load usb 0:1 0x1700000 /rescueme 1 || fatload usb 0:1 0x1700000 /rescueme.txt 1; then run rescue_bootcmd; fi
ubifs_mtd=3
ubifs_set_bootargs=setenv bootargs console=$console ubi.mtd=$ubifs_mtd root=ubi0:rootfs rootfstype=ubifs $mtdparts $ubifs_custom_params
ubifs_bootcmd=run ubifs_set_bootargs; if ubi part data && ubifsmount rootfs && ubifsload 0x800000 /boot/uImage && ubifsload 0x1100000 /boot/uInitrd; then bootm 0x800000 0x1100000; fi
usb_device=0:1
usb_root=/dev/sda1
usb_rootfstype=ext2
usb_set_bootargs=setenv bootargs console=$console root=$usb_root rootdelay=$usb_rootdelay rootfstype=$usb_rootfstype $mtdparts $usb_custom_params
usb_bootcmd=run usb_init; run usb_set_bootargs; run usb_boot;
usb_boot=mw 0x800000 0 1; ext2load usb $usb_device 0x800000 /boot/uImage; if ext2load usb $usb_device 0x1100000 /boot/uInitrd; then bootm 0x800000 0x1100000; else bootm 0x800000; fi;
bootcmd=usb start; run force_rescue_bootcmd; run ubifs_bootcmd; run usb_bootcmd; usb stop; run rescue_bootcmd; run pogo_bootcmd; reset
ethaddr=00:10:75:1A:CF:34
usb_init=usb start; usb start; if ext2load usb 0:1 0x800000 /boot/uImage; then setenv usb_device 0:1; setenv usb_root /dev/sda1; elif ext2load usb 1:1 0x800000 /boot/uImage; then setenv usb_device 1:1; setenv usb_root /dev/sdb1; elif ext2load usb 2:1 0x800000 /boot/uImage; then setenv usb_device 2:1; setenv usb_root /dev/sdc1; elif ext2load usb 3:1 0x800000 /boot/uImage; then setenv usb_device 3:1;setenv usb_root /dev/sdd1;fi;
rescue_installed=1
usb_rootdelay=20

Were you install Debian using Jeff's script on the same Dockstar, which you want to start it up?

Yes. I have used Jeff's script to install the machine end of August. Tried to run the mtd0 fix, but it told me that it is already the latest version.

I don't know why then. I never had such problem, so far. You might want to backup your installation and reinstall again (or using another USB driver to reinstall). You might also want to install Lenny instead (Jeff's old script as pointed from his webpage). I always has better luck with Lenny for wifi, but either one should work fine for booting up.