Bodhi Debian and SanDisk ReadyCache

I started a separate thread since the original thread where I found it was getting into troubleshooting a specific user's problem. For the record, I found this issue here

I have a Pogo-E02 (pink). I have successfully run ALARM and (separately) bodhi's Debian from both USB sticks and USB-attached hard disks (WDC 320GB Black).

I wanted to try out the SanDisk 32G ReadyCache SSD that was on special at Newegg (USA) in mid-December 2013 since the price and capacity were acceptable to me. So I ordered a few to test.

The back of the SSD devices I received are marked with model "SDSSDRC-032G". The SSD has a unique serial number and WWN value. There is no apparent "date code" on the SSD. I have successfully used this type/model of SSD as a Linux boot/OS drive in a NanoPC running Debian "jessie".

I checked the SSD on a Linux box using "fdisk /dev/sdb" (in my case). No partition table was reported under Linux; an "fdisk 'w' command" was required to place one on the SSD. Just to be certain the SSD was "zeroed", I "blanked" the SSD using "dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1M" "/dev/sdb" in my case...YMMV).

Next, I pulled a POGO "out of production" for testing; it was "active" using a bodhi 3.12-tld image.

I configured my local DHCP server to serve it an address different that it's previous value. Then I booted the POGO without the drive attached. POGO came up and I logged in using "root" and "ceadmin" (default POGO values for SSH).

I downloaded the Doozan file as specified on ArchLinux ARM and ran it. There were no changes needed. Then I downloaded the Arch "mke2fs" binary. Then I connected the SSD to the POGO using a USB-SATA adaptor.

I created a single partition using "fdisk" (sda1 in this case). I formatted this partition using "mke2fs" and set the disk label to "ROOTFS". I mounted "sda1" to "/tmp/usb". Then I downloaded the "bodhi tld-1 rootfs tar.bz2" file to /dev/sda1 and extracted it. I sync'd the filesystem and rebooted.

SUCCESS!!! The POGO came up on "bodhi tld-1".

I made some changes to the system to suit my own preferences and rebooted. Success.

Next I downloaded the "bodhi tld-4" image files and extracted them. I followed the instructions in bodhi's thread (make a backup of the files in "/boot" before running "dkpg -i") and then rebooted.

SUCCESS!!! The POGO came up on "bodhi tld-4".

I continued to make my own changes to the system to suit my needs.

I cannot repeat any of the issues found in the other thread regarding this SSD. Perhaps my preparation method "cleans" the device of some hidden partition? I can definitely say that this device was pulled straight from the box and then "cleaned". I never made any attempt to use the SSD as a "cache drive" on a Windows machine. Perhaps that is a difference between my experience and the experiences of others?

Many thanks to bodhi for making this image available since it has saved me many many hours of trying to figure much of this stuff myself. Perhaps one day I will master the skills of "toolchains" and "cross compile" and building my own system images from scratch.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2013 07:28AM by notmine.

notmine & StephenR0,

Thanks notmine for a really good report! It is encouraging to hear that Pogo E02 works with this Readycache in USB mode. We know that now we can eliminate big part of the problem.

However, the problem StephenR0 saw still remain because it was with the GoFlex Net. And that was SATA connection problem. I've received the SSD yesterday and plugged it in the GoFlex Home SATA port, Debian recognized it fine, but uBoot did not! the same behavior that StephenR0 posted in the 2013.10 uBoot thread

So I think uBoot has some bug in the SATA driver, and that was triggered by some thing peculiar about the Readycahe SSD. I have some ideas to test it, but so far have not been successful!

-bodhi
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2013 02:35PM by bodhi.

Bodhi, I was thinking about experimenting with the dd command that notmine used to see if that affected the problem.

Notmine, so you're using some kind of sata to usb adapter to do this? I guess I'm not clear on the exact configuration. I've never used a Pogo-E02.

StephenR0 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bodhi, I was thinking about experimenting with the
> dd command that notmine used to see if that
> affected the problem.
>
> Notmine, so you're using some kind of sata to usb
> adapter to do this? I guess I'm not clear on the
> exact configuration. I've never used a Pogo-E02.

The Pogo E02 does not have SATA. But uBoot still recognized it through USB-SATA bridge. So must b some type of timing problem while uBoot reading the Sata info.

-bodhi
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bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

StephenR0 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Bodhi, I was thinking about experimenting with the
> dd command that notmine used to see if that
> affected the problem.
>
> Notmine, so you're using some kind of sata to usb
> adapter to do this? I guess I'm not clear on the
> exact configuration. I've never used a Pogo-E02.

The little dongle I use is basically for "troubleshooting". It plugs directly into a HDD, but it isn't "super secure", so something bumping the attached HDD or SSD might cause the cable/dongle shell to come loose from the drive. It is a SATA-to-USB 2.0 bridge device like bodhi has mentioned. It combines the SATA power and data connectors inside a small plastic shell. the shell has 2 visible micro LEDs, 1 is RED and 1 is BLUE. The RED LED indicates power when lit. The BLUE LED indicates data transfer when flashing. The dongle is USB-powered. It has a short cable with 2 USB ends, 1 for USB power & data and the other just for USB power. I have successfully used it with many types of 2.5 inch laptop HDD. It does not supply the proper power lines for 3.5 inch desktop HDD. I think I bought it at Newegg (USA).

POGO-E02 can be found in many places. I got mine from Newegg (USA) for about 30USD + shipping. The device has 4 external USB 2.0 (3 back, 1 front), a single 10/100/1000 Ethernet port (back), and a GREEN (or multi-color?) LED on the front. It is based on Marvell SoC and Marvell Ethernet. It has an onboard "AC to +5V" power supply so only an AC cord is needed (comes with unit). It does not have a fan and runs slightly warm. I have measured about 10 watts power draw when using an external USB-attached laptop HDD in a Rosewill (Newegg) enclosure. I use POGO for in-home DNS caching/resolution & DNS "blocking" (send a browser an IP of 127.0.0.1 rather than real IP for a site) using DNSMASQ (which also supports DHCP & TFTP). The DNSMASQ software works well and running it on POGO removes 1 more potential "security issue" from my firewall; "minimize the attack surface" concept.

bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> notmine & StephenR0,
>
> Thanks notmine for a really good report! It is
> encouraging to hear that Pogo E02 works with this
> Readycache in USB mode. We know that now we can
> eliminate big part of the problem.
>
> However, the problem StephenR0 saw still remain
> because it was with the GoFlex Net. And that was
> SATA connection problem. I've received the SSD
> yesterday and plugged it in the GoFlex Home SATA
> port, Debian recognized it fine, but uBoot did
> not! the same behavior that StephenR0 posted in
> the
> [url=http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381,1442
> 7#msg-14427]2013.10 uBoot thread[/url]
>
> So I think uBoot has some bug in the SATA driver,
> and that was triggered by some thing peculiar
> about the Readycahe SSD. I have some ideas to test
> it, but so far have not been successful!

Happy to help out where I can....

This is encouraging. On a whim, I plugged the Sandisk ReadyCache into the Pogo V4 booting with stock Marvell/ALARM U-Boot, and it recognized the disk and booted without problem!

U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jan 13 2012 - 22:33:21) Arch Linux ARM (PPV4 r1) PHYADDR=0

U-Boot code: 00600000 -> 0067FFF0  BSS: -> 006CFD60

Soc: 88F6192 A1 (DDR2)
CPU running @ 800Mhz L2 running @ 400Mhz
SysClock = 200Mhz , TClock = 166Mhz 

DRAM CAS Latency = 3 tRP = 3 tRAS = 8 tRCD=3
DRAM CS[0] base 0x00000000   size 128MB 
DRAM Total size 128MB  16bit width
Addresses 8M - 0M are saved for the U-Boot usage.
Mem malloc Initialization (8M - 7M): Done
NAND:128 MB
Flash:  0 kB

CPU : Marvell Feroceon (Rev 1)
CLOUD ENGINES BOARD: PPV4A3

Streaming disabled 
Write allocate disabled


USB 0: host mode
PEX 0: PCI Express Root Complex Interface
PEX interface detected Link X1
Net:   egiga0 [PRIME]
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0 
(Re)start USB...
USB:   scanning bus for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found
Waiting for storage device(s) to settle before scanning...
0 Storage Device(s) found

Reset IDE: 
Marvell Serial ATA Adapter
Integrated Sata device found
[0 0 0]: Enable DMA mode (6)
  Device 0 @ 0 0:
Model: SanDisk SDSSDRC032G                      Firm: 3.0.0    Ser#: 133xxxxxxxx        
            Type: Hard Disk
            Supports 48-bit addressing
            Capacity: 30533.8 MB = 29.8 GB (62533296 x 512)

** Can't read from device 0 **

** Unable to use usb 0:1 for fatls **

Partition Map for IDE device 0  --   Partition Type: DOS

Partition     Start Sector     Num Sectors     Type
    1		      2048	  62531248	83

2461416 bytes read

6362802 bytes read
## Booting image at 00800000 ...
   Image Name:   Linux-3.14.0-kirkwood-tld-1
   Created:      2014-04-06  20:44:27 UTC
   Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
   Data Size:    2461352 Bytes =  2.3 MB
   Load Address: 00008000
   Entry Point:  00008000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
OK
## Loading Ramdisk Image at 01100000 ...
   Image Name:   initramfs-3.14.0-kirkwood-tld-1
   Created:      2014-04-06  20:44:41 UTC
   Image Type:   ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
   Data Size:    6362738 Bytes =  6.1 MB
   Load Address: 00000000
   Entry Point:  00000000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK

Starting kernel ...

Now a little bad news. With ebbes's SATA patch for Pogo V4, the 2014.01 U-Boot does not read this disk read properly in ide reset. And with my 2014.01 patches for GoFlex Home/Net, U-Boot did not recognized the disk either.

However, once we booted into Debian, sata_mv driver does not have any problem with this disk or any other SATA drives.

Also note that this only applies to Sandisk Readycache disk. All other SATA drives have no problem with the new U-Boot.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/29/2014 03:51PM by bodhi.