Pogoplug Mobile Blinking Green

I have a Pogoplug Mobile that was flashed with Uboot 2017.07. It's running Debian 9 with the 5.8.3 kernel. I can boot it with no problem. Light goes solid green in under a minute, and can log in soon after.

So, I sent it to another guy who says it never goes past blinking green. I read a post that netconsole can cause this if serverip isn't active when it comes up, although it does have the updated preboot_nc which I thought fixed that problem, i.e. this

preboot_nc=setenv nc_ready 0; for pingstat in 1 2 3 4 5; do; sleep 1; if run if_netconsole; then setenv nc_ready 1; fi; done; if test $nc_ready -eq 1; then run start_netconsole; fi

But the strange thing is, he can boot it to solid green without Ethernet connected to his network. But when he then plugs in the Ethernet cable, it switches from solid green to blinking green, and he can't see it on his router. He checked the cable and Ethernet port on the router and they work fine with another device (PC), and he does have DHCP enabled on his router.

What condition would cause it to go blinking green when you plug in Ethernet? I'm thinking it's not netconsole because the box is already completely booted up, so well past preboot when Ethernet gets plugged in.

Any thoughts?

rsantag

rsantag,

> But the strange thing is, he can boot it to solid
> green without Ethernet connected to his network.
> But when he then plugs in the Ethernet cable, it
> switches from solid green to blinking green, and
> he can't see it on his router.

It's sounds like netconsole problem to me.

> He checked the
> cable and Ethernet port on the router and they
> work fine with another device (PC), and he does
> have DHCP enabled on his router.

With netconsole, it is required that you know the IP address in advance. So using static IP will solve all potential problems. Or at the minumun, DHCP reservation must be used in the router so the dynamic IP does not change.

-bodhi
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Interesting. I thought that if it came up with no network connection, the pings in if_netconsole would all fail, so start_netconsole wouldn't run. But there must be another piece of this after it's up and subsequently the network goes active that I'm missing.

I know serverip is set on the Pogo to 192.168.1.162, which is what I use for netconsole here, and he DOES have a device (phone) that is using that IP. I thought I had cleared preboot so it wouldn't run preboot_nc, but maybe I didn't. I'm going to have him try booting it up while wifi is disabled on the phone so it's not on his network to see what happens. I'll post again when I hear back.

rsantag

Update: He took his wife's phone off the network and the Pogoplug came right up. So you were right, Bodhi, it WAS netconsole. I would love to know where the netconsole hooks are that apparently tries to enable it after the box is already up. At least, I assume the box was up since light was solid green.

rsantag

rsantag,

The netconsole false positive was what make it blinking green. This will last at least 2-3 minutes, and eventually it will boot. It just seems that it is stuck forever, but reality it will time out. This is a normal behavior in the u-boot code.

If I have time to revisit u-boot (could be in a few months), I will fix this netconsole false positive problem in the code.

-bodhi
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Quote

I would love to know where the netconsole hooks are that apparently tries to enable it after the box is already up. At least, I assume the box was up since light was solid green.

Netconsole stopped at kernel booting, but we can also enable it in Debian this way:

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,9522

So check that to make sure you want it active or inactive after Debian has run.

-bodhi
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Thanks Bodhi. So, I'm curious. When it was powered up without network connected and light turned solid green, I assumed it was booted up. But was it instead really still in uboot, waiting for network? And when network was plugged in, it resumed uboot, resulting in the netconsole false positive and blinking green?

rsantag

bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Netconsole stopped at kernel booting, but we can
> also enable it in Debian this way:
>
> https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,9522
>
> So check that to make sure you want it active or
> inactive after Debian has run.

Thanks! (sorry, didn't see this reply before my last post)

rsantag

bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Netconsole stopped at kernel booting, but we can
> also enable it in Debian this way:
>

Oops, misread your reply. Was thinking you answered my last question.

So, do you know why it would go from solid green to blinking green after plugging in the Ethernet cable? Was it not really booted up when it was solid green after powering up without Ethernet? I don't have netconsole enabled in Debian.

rsantag,

> So, do you know why it would go from solid green
> to blinking green after plugging in the Ethernet
> cable?

It means that system has rebooted due to some errors indirectly cause by the network starting up when the link is active. Blinking green always mean that the box has starting to boot. So you're back to netconsole problem.


> Was it not really booted up when it was
> solid green after powering up without Ethernet?

It's easy to find out if you have serial consolle whether it was really booted into Debian. Solid green is still not a sure thing. The only thing you can be sure is the kernel has booted. If the rootfs was not mounted properly, then the LED will stay solid green. But you cannot login with SSH, because Debian is not running.

============

My suggestion: if the box is located at a non-technical person household, then don't activate netconsole at all.

So now you would have to be there (or taking the box back). Use netconsole server (nc), interrupt u-boot , and and then deactivate netconsole. After that, the LED will be the only indicator that you can tell where the box has booted successfully. And pinging the ipaddress to see if it responses. Or use Linux nmap or IOS Fing app to see the box in the network.

-bodhi
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bodhi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> My suggestion: if the box is located at a
> non-technical person household, then don't
> activate netconsole at all.

Yeah, it's at a non-technical person's house.
I told him he should log in and clear preboot
variable with fw_setenv.