Pogo v4 no ethernet activity, latest rootfs

I've untar'd the latest rootfs to both MMC and USB devices (Debian-3.17.0-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2 from here) and my pogoplug v4 will boot to a solid green front led. However, after stabilizing, there is no activity on eth0. I have a steady amber link light, but the green activity light does not light up at all.

Background
I was initially trying to flash the internal memory, following a combination of Qui's guide, with the latest images from Bodhi, but I evidently screwed something up along the way. Without an MMC or USB plugged in, it seems to be boot-looping. It does a few seconds of flashing green, and then some flashing red led, and then repeat. While this happens, there is activity on eth0.

Any ideas on why there is no activity on eth0 when booted to the rootfs image? Obviously, with no network activity, I can't ssh or even nc.

Thanks in advance! I'm still trying to make my way through all of the knowledge on this site!

markgiannullo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've untar'd the latest rootfs to both MMC and USB
> devices
> (Debian-3.17.0-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2
> from
> here
> ) and my pogoplug v4 will boot to a solid
> green front led. However, after stabilizing, there
> is no activity on eth0. I have a steady amber link
> light, but the green activity light does not light
> up at all.
>
> Background
> I was initially trying to flash the internal
> memory, following a combination of Qui's guide,
> with the latest images from Bodhi, but I evidently
> screwed something up along the way. Without an MMC
> or USB plugged in, it seems to be boot-looping. It
> does a few seconds of flashing green, and then
> some flashing red led, and then repeat. While this
> happens, there is activity on eth0.
>
> Any ideas on why there is no activity on eth0 when
> booted to the rootfs image? Obviously, with no
> network activity, I can't ssh or even nc.
>
> Thanks in advance! I'm still trying to make my way
> through all of the knowledge on this site!

markgiannullo,

- Mixing instruction is not a good thing :) especially flashing u-boot.
- Solid green LED is a good sign (kernel has loaded). Now it it s just a matter of mounting the rootfs. If the rootfs was not mounted successfully, the network is not started.

If you had set up netconsole while installing u-boot, then it is easy to see the problem now. But it seems you did not. So just go through the instruction again to create a fresh rootfs for Debian-3.17.0-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2. Use a single Ext3 partition on USB drive.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2014 11:49PM by bodhi.

Bodhi, thank you for the reply.

Here's my cli history for the steps I've been taking. All of this was done as root. I included additional comments regarding fdisk:

: 1419956362:0;fdisk /dev/sdb #removed and recreated 1 primary partition on MMC
: 1419956399:0;mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1
: 1419956620:0;tune2fs -L rootfs /dev/sdb1
: 1419956631:0;mount /dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1
: 1419956707:0;cd /media/sdb1
: 1419956711:0;cp /home/mark/Downloads/Debian-3.17.0-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2 /media/sdb1
: 1419956722:0;tar -xjf Debian-3.17.0-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2
: 1419956859:0;cd boot
: 1419956865:0;cp -a zImage-3.17.0-kirkwood-tld-1  zImage.fdt
: 1419956878:0;cat dts/kirkwood-pogoplug_v4.dtb >> zImage.fdt
: 1419956883:0;mv uImage uImage.orig
: 1419956894:0;mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n Linux-3.17.0-kirkwood-tld-1 -d /media/sdb1/boot/zImage.fdt /media/sdb1/boot/uImage
: 1419956911:0;sync

Which gets me to the solid green LED, but no network activity. I've tried this on several different devices, including two different USB sticks and an MMC card. I've actually tried multiple different configurations of partition as well. Some as small as 2GB, all the way up to 16GB, and both ext2 and ext3. All with the steps quoted above. The device boots to the kernel, but does not seem to start the network card.

markgiannullo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bodhi, thank you for the reply.
>
> Here's my cli history for the steps I've been
> taking. All of this was done as root. I included
> additional comments regarding fdisk:
>
>

> : 1419956362:0;fdisk /dev/sdb #removed and
> recreated 1 primary partition on MMC
> : 1419956399:0;mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1
> : 1419956620:0;tune2fs -L rootfs /dev/sdb1
> : 1419956631:0;mount /dev/sdb1 /media/sdb1
> : 1419956707:0;cd /media/sdb1
> : 1419956711:0;cp
> /home/mark/Downloads/Debian-3.17.0-kirkwood-tld-1-
> rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2 /media/sdb1
> : 1419956722:0;tar -xjf
> Debian-3.17.0-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2
> : 1419956859:0;cd boot
> : 1419956865:0;cp -a zImage-3.17.0-kirkwood-tld-1 
> zImage.fdt
> : 1419956878:0;cat dts/kirkwood-pogoplug_v4.dtb >>
> zImage.fdt
> : 1419956883:0;mv uImage uImage.orig
> : 1419956894:0;mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel
> -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n
> Linux-3.17.0-kirkwood-tld-1 -d
> /media/sdb1/boot/zImage.fdt
> /media/sdb1/boot/uImage
> : 1419956911:0;sync
> 
>

>
> Which gets me to the solid green LED, but no
> network activity. I've tried this on several
> different devices, including two different USB
> sticks and an MMC card. I've actually tried
> multiple different configurations of partition as
> well. Some as small as 2GB, all the way up to
> 16GB, and both ext2 and ext3. All with the steps
> quoted above. The device boots to the kernel, but
> does not seem to start the network card.

Mark,

This is problem with mounting rootfs. It has 2 relevant parts: bootargs and rootfs partition. You've tried many different format with rootfs, so that should be OK. Bootargs env is what determine how the rootfs is mounted. So I think bootargs is most likely why the rootfs was not mounted. And the network card was initialized OK, too. But the actual ifconfig is not started until the rootfs has been mounted.

I think you should to try the rootfs 3.16:

Quote

Updated 02 Sept 2014:

Rootfs Debian-3.16.0-kirkwood-tld-2.

Without serial console, you can't get the listing of u-boot envs. So if 3.16 rootfs does not work, then you'll need to connect serial console to fix this.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

Actually, a new update. I now have activity and link lights! Still unable to SSH into the box at what should be the IP address. I'm currently connecting on an enterprise network, so I'm not able to check DHCP logs myself to see if the device is making a connection. Also, I am not able to connect via telnet to the address the device should be getting via DHCP. But, this seems to be progress.

I'll format another stick with the 3.16 image and see if that's any different. Thanks again for the suggestion!

OK, another update:

Tried two different sticks (MMC & USB) with the 3.16 rootfs and it's worse than before. It now boots to a solid amber LED, with network activity showing on the link and activity lights.

So, I put 3.17 rootfs back on the MMC and it's back to solid green, with link and activity lights lit. I'll wait until I'm back at home later tonight to do further network testing.

Success! I'm able to ssh in to debian on my home network. Strangely, it's not using the MAC address listed on the bottom of the device, which I'll have to investigate.

markgiannullo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Success! I'm able to ssh in to debian on my home
> network. Strangely, it's not using the MAC address
> listed on the bottom of the device, which I'll
> have to investigate.

If you have flashed my default env image, then the MAC address is defaulted to a randomly generated local MAC address. You can change it to the real one.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
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