Debian and U-boot on NSA325

Hello, I have 2 of these NSA325 devices and since metarepository went offline they are essentially dead weight. I am very interested in putting debian on them but I have reached an issue when following the U-boot flash tutorial. I am currently just doing a dry run and have not flashed anything yet.
1. So first of all, do I need to do this all over serial? I currently have telnet access since I was trying to avoid opening it up. (but this is not an issue, if needed I can hook up serial directly to the board)
2. Following the tutorial some things don't match up. First of all my mtds are as follows:
```
dev: size erasesize name
mtd0: 00100000 00020000 "uboot"
mtd1: 00080000 00020000 "uboot_env"
mtd2: 00080000 00020000 "key_store"
mtd3: 00080000 00020000 "info"
mtd4: 00a00000 00020000 "etc"
mtd5: 00a00000 00020000 "kernel_1"
mtd6: 02fc0000 00020000 "rootfs1"
mtd7: 00a00000 00020000 "kernel_2"
mtd8: 02fc0000 00020000 "rootfs2"
```
the primary difference to the tutorial is that I have a separate mtd1 that holds the u-boot envs as I understand it.
also my fw_env.config holds the following:
```
# Configuration file for fw_(printenv/saveenv) utility.
# Up to two entries are valid, in this case the redundand
# environment sector is assumed present.
# Notice, that the "Number of sectors" is ignored on NOR.

# MTD device name Device offset Env. size Flash sector size Number of sectors
# NAND example
/dev/mtd1 0x0000 0x20000 0x20000 4
```
Where in the tutorial /dev/mtd0 is defined as above.
So my confusion comes from how the tutorial tell me to erase mtd0 instead of mtd1 for the envs:
```
/usr/sbin/flash_erase /dev/mtd0 0xc0000 1
/usr/sbin/nandwrite -s 786432 /dev/mtd0 uboot.2016.05-tld-1.environment.img
```
shouldn't I erase and flash mtd0?

Also I have the following bad blocks:
```
Scanning device for bad blocks
Bad eraseblock 100 at 0x000000c80000
Bad eraseblock 200 at 0x000001900000
```

How should I proceed?

alex_barborica,


> 1. So first of all, do I need to do this all over
> serial? I currently have telnet access since I was
> trying to avoid opening it up. (but this is not an
> issue, if needed I can hook up serial directly to
> the board)

You can flash u-boot from stock OS. Serial console is recommended, but not need to flash u-boot.

> 2. Following the tutorial some things don't match
> up. First of all my mtds are as follows:
> the primary difference to the tutorial is that I
> have a separate mtd1 that holds the u-boot envs as
> I understand it.

That's stock envs. The new u-boot uses a new envs location inside mtd0.

> So my confusion comes from how the tutorial tell
> me to erase mtd0 instead of mtd1 for the envs:

The u-boot flashing instruction shows how to erase and flash u-boot image and u-boot envs image correctly. Also, the fw_env.config in the instruction contains the correct location for the envs in mtd0.

> Also I have the following bad blocks:
> ```
> Scanning device for bad blocks
> Bad eraseblock 100 at 0x000000c80000
> Bad eraseblock 200 at 0x000001900000

These bad blocks are OK. They are not in mtd0.

> How should I proceed?

Just follow the instruction as it was written. The mtd0 is the only one used for new u-boot.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
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bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> You can flash u-boot from stock OS. Serial console
> is recommended, but not need to flash u-boot.

Ok I will try over telnet first

> That's stock envs. The new u-boot uses a new envs
> location inside mtd0.

Oh ok now I understand.

> The u-boot flashing instruction shows how to erase
> and flash u-boot image and u-boot envs image
> correctly. Also, the fw_env.config in the
> instruction contains the correct location for the
> envs in mtd0.

Ok so then should I replace my fw_env.config with the one in the tutorial before i proceed?

> > Also I have the following bad blocks:
> > ```
> > Scanning device for bad blocks
> > Bad eraseblock 100 at 0x000000c80000
> > Bad eraseblock 200 at 0x000001900000
>
> These bad blocks are OK. They are not in mtd0.
>
> > How should I proceed?
>
> Just follow the instruction as it was written. The
> mtd0 is the only one used for new u-boot.

Ok thanks very much for your help. I will proceed with the tutorial and post back if I encounter problems.

I just wanted to post back and say that IT WORKED! I just followed the u-boot tutorial to the dot and everything worked out perfectly. The only problem I encountered up to now is that u-boot-utils no longer contains fw_setenv or fw_printenv. So I ended up having to hook up serial in order to change u-boot envs.

Anyway once u-boot was installed everything became very familiar as I worked with raspberry pis a lot. The only truly complicated part was indeed getting u-boot on the device.

Thank you so much for breathing new life into these old devices.

alex_barborica,

> The only problem
> I encountered up to now is that u-boot-utils no
> longer contains fw_setenv or fw_printenv. So I
> ended up having to hook up serial in order to
> change u-boot envs.

You've missed this release note:

Quote
https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096
Updated 26 Sept 2021:

Basic Debian bullseye Kirkwood rootfs for most Kirwood plugs:

- tarball size: 234M
- install size: 668M
- The init system used in this rootfs is sysvinit . To boot with systemd, see Notes below.
- Installed packages: nano, avahi, ntp, busybox-syslogd (log to RAM), htop, isc-dhcp-client, dialog, bzip2, nfs server/client, iperf, ethtool, sysvinit-core, sysvinit, sysvinit-utils, u-boot-tools, and mtd-utils.
- see LED controls examples in /etc/rc.local, and /etc/init.d/halt
- see some useful aliases in /root/.profile
- root password: root

Important Correction:

After releasing this rootfs,

1. I realized I've missed one package that needs to be installed in order to make fw_printenv and fw_setenv available (these binaries have been moved to package libubootenv-tool in bullseye) . So do this if you want to list or set envs in Debian.
apt-get install libubootenv-tool

>
> Anyway once u-boot was installed everything became
> very familiar as I worked with raspberry pis a
> lot. The only truly complicated part was indeed
> getting u-boot on the device.
>
> Thank you so much for breathing new life into
> these old devices.

Cool!

-bodhi
===========================
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Just a question here, the note on step 8. of the instruction says:
"if you can't set up your configuration to satisfy the following 4 requirements, then don't flash this defaut envs image"

Since the NSA325 has 2 x partitions for rootfs and 2 x partitions for kernel.

Q: Did you flash the default envs image?

PeterR,

> Since the NSA325 has 2 x partitions for rootfs and
> 2 x partitions for kernel.
>

That's stock FW, and has nothing to do with fashing new u-boot. The partitions refered to in the instruction are disk drive partitions, where we store Debian rootfs and kernel files.

The new u-boot is installed in the first NAND flash mtd0 partition, and the default envs for new u-boot are also in mtd0.

-bodhi
===========================
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