GoFlex home is now useless

Hello to everybody,

I got a goFlex home recently but now...

- the green light is blinking, forever
- I can't connect with ssh
On the router I can see ips in the DHCP table, just can't be reached.
- I tried to reset it to factory settings without any luck (as explained here: http://support.goflexhome.hipserv.com/en/reflash/index.html). I tried using a mac and a pc.
I wanted to know, the usb key stick is very very old. Could it be the problem ?

I had ArchLinux on it, I wanted to switch to Debian. I think I turned partitions into a hat with a rabbit inside.

Now as I'm not familiar with the vocabulary, I need help to know what's next to put life back in it.
- do I need to get it to factory settings first?
- do I need to make a bootable usb stick Debian wheezy, reach it first?
- should i go get a serial cable, would it be easier ?

Your help is appreciated,
Thanks!

peter

peteluck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello to everybody,
>
> I got a goFlex home recently but now...
>
> - the green light is blinking, forever
> - I can't connect with ssh
> On the router I can see ips in the DHCP table,
> just can't be reached.
> - I tried to reset it to factory settings without
> any luck (as explained here:
> http://support.goflexhome.hipserv.com/en/reflash/i
> ndex.html). I tried using a mac and a pc.
> I wanted to know, the usb key stick is very very
> old. Could it be the problem ?
>
> I had ArchLinux on it, I wanted to switch to
> Debian. I think I turned partitions into a hat
> with a rabbit inside.
>
> Now as I'm not familiar with the vocabulary, I
> need help to know what's next to put life back in
> it.
> - do I need to get it to factory settings first?
> - do I need to make a bootable usb stick Debian
> wheezy, reach it first?
> - should i go get a serial cable, would it be
> easier ?
>
> Your help is appreciated,
> Thanks!
>
> peter

- Since you've installed Arch, a new uBoot was installed, so it's no longer possible to restore to stock by Seagate procedure. There is a different manual procedure to do that, but it's not recommended unless you really have no choice.
- You can use Davy's NSA320 rootfs to create a USB stick to boot with. See this thread http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,7806
- no need for serial yet :) you should be able to boot with this rootfs. Once you are in Debian, should set up netconsole right away for future recovery purpose.

Hello bodhi,

As suggested, I made a usb stick with kirkwood-debian_rootfs.img on it.
When i try it, the green starts blinking, the led on the usb stick too .... it shows activity for approx a minute, then the final state, no light at all.

Any idea ?

peteluck,

Before resorting to serial console, I would try to run it with a fresh Arch rootfs on USB stick. See step 2 on the GoFlex Home installation at Arch site:
http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv5/seagate-goflex-home
Note that you should create Arch rootfs USB stick as a root user using another Linux box.

Usually, it's best to set up netconsole right away after the installation. It would be easy figure out if you can see uBoot activities. So if you can boot with Arch rootfs, then try to set that up the first thing.

As of right now, without net/serial console, the only things you can try are:

1. booting with different rootfs to see if one works, or
2. booting without the USB stick to see if it boots into stock OS.

Great,

I made a usb stick with the Arch rootfs on it and it's booting now.
The green blinking light turn to full (not blinkin) and i can access it with ssh.
This is when i boot it headless (without the HDD). If the HDD is on it, the green light is doing the same but it must get stuck somewhere.... I can't reach it.

So it must be the uBoot thing now. Is there a special procedure i should follow for netconsole setup ?

thanks again!

- To set up netconsole see Jeff's instruction: http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,14

Note that for second command (nc -u 192.168.1.100 6666), some of us have to change it slightly to make it work:
nc -up 6666 192.168.1.100 6666

Type control-j repeatedly at the uBoot countdown, and it will interrupt uBoot and drop to the uBoot prompt. To resume booting use boot command. To reboot and see the countdown again, use reset command.

- Booting with HDD attach: you will need to change uBoot envs, since the installation does not have that set up. While in Arch, use fw_printenv to list all uBoot envs, post it here and I will help.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2013 10:13PM by bodhi.

Well, I think I made a step back.
Booting with USB stick, the same happens with the leds.
The green light blinks, then goes solid but the device will never appear on the network.

I think I pressed enter with bad stuff in the command line. Now I'm stuck.
With the usb stick is it possible to force uBoot in some ways or force ip adress at boot?

peteluck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Well, I think I made a step back.
>
> I think I pressed enter with bad stuff in the
> command line. Now I'm stuck.

Which command line, netconsole uBoot or Linux? while at uBoot prompt, as long as you don't type saveenv, whatever changes you've made will be forgotten at the next boot. While at Linux command line, if you think you accidentally typed something to mess up the system, then recreate the Arch stick with a fresh rootfs to start at the beginning.