Error reading superblock on volume 'ubi:rootfs'! - although installer-script seemed to have finished successfully

Hi Jeff and all other dockstar users,

after installing Debian-Squeeze using the installer script from http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/dockstar.debian-squeeze.sh, i've got the problem that my dockstar doesn''t boot into the installed system although everything seemed to have finished fine.

I modified the script a little bit to not create a swap partition and to use my local web server to fetch the needed files.
In detail I commented out the following lines:

Line: 247

#SWAP_DEV=/dev/sda2

Line: 298

#/sbin/mkswap $SWAP_DEV

Line: 391

#$SWAP_DEV      none            swap    sw                0       0

and replaced the URLs to Jeff's Homepage with the IP of my webserver.

As told before the script finished successfully not complaining about anything (see attached logfile copied from the terminal session).
Before I rebooted the dockstar by invoking "/sbin/reboot" I'vet set the env's and started netcat on my workstation.
During reboot the netcat window shows the boot process correctly besides an error saying:

UBIFS error (pid 0): ubifs_get_sb: cannot open "ubi:rootfs", error -19
Error reading superblock on volume 'ubi:rootfs'!

Finally, the boot process hangs after the message "Starting kernel ...".

Here is the complete bootlog:

U-Boot 2010.06-00695-gbd23130-dirty (Aug 30 2010 - 23:04:56)
Marvell-Dockstar/Pogoplug by Jeff Doozan
Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
(Re)start USB...
USB:   Register 10011 NbrPorts 1
USB EHCI 1.00
scanning bus for devices... 5 USB Device(s) found
       scanning bus for storage devices... 1 Storage Device(s) found
Loading file "/rescueme" from usb device 0:1 (usbda1)
** File not found /rescueme
reading /rescueme.txt

** Unable to read "/rescueme.txt" from usb 0:1 **
Creating 1 MTD partitions on "nand0":
0x000002500000-0x000010000000 : "mtd=3"
UBI: attaching mtd1 to ubi0
UBI: physical eraseblock size:   131072 bytes (128 KiB)
UBI: logical eraseblock size:    129024 bytes
UBI: smallest flash I/O unit:    2048
UBI: sub-page size:              512
UBI: VID header offset:          512 (aligned 512)
UBI: data offset:                2048
UBI: attached mtd1 to ubi0
UBI: MTD device name:            "mtd=3"
UBI: MTD device size:            219 MiB
UBI: number of good PEBs:        1752
UBI: number of bad PEBs:         0
UBI: max. allowed volumes:       128
UBI: wear-leveling threshold:    4096
UBI: number of internal volumes: 1
UBI: number of user volumes:     0
UBI: available PEBs:             1731
UBI: total number of reserved PEBs: 21
UBI: number of PEBs reserved for bad PEB handling: 17
UBI: max/mean erase counter: 1/1
UBIFS error (pid 0): ubifs_get_sb: cannot open "ubi:rootfs", error -19
Error reading superblock on volume 'ubi:rootfs'!
Loading file "/boot/uImage" from usb device 0:1 (usbda1)
1 bytes read
Found bootable drive on usb 0:1
Loading file "/boot/uImage" from usb device 0:1 (usbda1)
1431848 bytes read
Loading file "/boot/uInitrd" from usb device 0:1 (usbda1)
4714648 bytes read
## Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 00800000 ...
   Image Name:   Linux-2.6.32-5
   Image Type:   ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
   Data Size:    1431784 Bytes = 1.4 MiB
   Load Address: 00008000
   Entry Point:  00008000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 01100000 ...
   Image Name:   initramfs
   Image Type:   ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
   Data Size:    4714584 Bytes = 4.5 MiB
   Load Address: 00000000
   Entry Point:  00000000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
   Loading Kernel Image ... OK
OK

Starting kernel ...

A ping to the address of the dockstar also times out.

At least I've unplugged the Pendrive and checked it with fsck on my workstation without getting warnings about an unclean file system.

Does anybody have an idea what went wrong?
I fear to disconnect the power cord and loosing the netcat connection, because I can't find my RS-232<>TTL adapter right now!
How can I enter some commands during the boot process when the message appears "Hit any key to stop autoboot", I tried to attach a USB Keyboard to the device, but the dockstar does not recognize it?
Is it possible to install the rescue environment right now, what can I do without having to use a serial cable?

Hopefully anybody can help me or pint me to the right direction!!!

Regards,
Da5ID

P.S.: Sorry for my english, it's not my native language.

[UPDATE]
Ok, good news - I tried to boot the system without the Pendrive and it boots into the original PogoOS...
So, I gave it a try, unplugged the power supply for a few minutes and rebootet it, but same error again - no ping response, no SSH-Login.
To my surprise, the setenv command modified the bootloader so the settings remain after hard-reset/cold-boot and I'm still able to watch the output.
[/UPDATE]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/15/2010 09:43AM by Da5ID.

Your bootlog looks fine. The UBIFS error is just uBoot checking to see if you have a bootable system installed on mtd3. And the bootlog should stop with "Starting kernel ..." because that's the point when the kernel takes over and stops sending debug messages.

You should check your router logs to see if Debian is getting a different IP address.

-- Jeff

Hallo Jeff,

many thanks for your answer and that you took the time to watch my logs.
This was all I wanted to get, someone who is familiar with the uboot loader telling me what is normal output and what goes wrong...

After reading your post it took me some time to check everything again and I finally realized that the clue wasn't my dhcp or anything else in the network. It seemed that the ethernet interface of the dockstar was busy after installation and soft-resetting so it couldn't get an IP address from the server (although I had bound its MAC to a static IP in the dhcp settings of my router which is normally not OS dependent).
After I killed netcat once on the server to listen for incoming connections and rebooting the dockstar I can now flawlessly connect to it even if netcat is running on the server and logging again.
I think all of my confusion came down to the error that made me scared and I didn't understand.
The conclusion is, that after watching the uboot output on the first boot after installation I should have killed the netcat session and everything would have been fine.
Maybe this is something you could mention in your tutorials and hopefully this thread helps other people to understand how the output should normally look like.

Many thanks again and best regards,
Da5ID

Da5ID Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hallo Jeff,
>
> many thanks for your answer and that you took the
> time to watch my logs.
> This was all I wanted to get, someone who is
> familiar with the uboot loader telling me what is
> normal output and what goes wrong...
>
> After reading your post it took me some time to
> check everything again and I finally realized that
> the clue wasn't my dhcp or anything else in the
> network. It seemed that the ethernet interface of
> the dockstar was busy after installation and
> soft-resetting so it couldn't get an IP address
> from the server (although I had bound its MAC to a
> static IP in the dhcp settings of my router which
> is normally not OS dependent).
> After I killed netcat once on the server to listen
> for incoming connections and rebooting the
> dockstar I can now flawlessly connect to it even
> if netcat is running on the server and logging
> again.
> I think all of my confusion came down to the error
> that made me scared and I didn't understand.
> The conclusion is, that after watching the uboot
> output on the first boot after installation I
> should have killed the netcat session and
> everything would have been fine.
> Maybe this is something you could mention in your
> tutorials and hopefully this thread helps other
> people to understand how the output should
> normally look like.
>
> Many thanks again and best regards,
> Da5ID

Hi,

i have the same Problem with booting debian on my Pogoplug. Install Process was fine. Looking Boot with Netcat show me no errors (only same errors like Da5ID had) and it stops with "starting kernel" which should be fine. But there is no login possible, because no ip is given by my router. I use netcat for windows and i stop the server and restart the Pogoplug but i got same stuck, no login, no ip.

Something else i can do? Maybe i do not kill the Netcat server the right way (ctrl + c in commandline under Windows, nothing left in my Task Manager)?

I Tried every Installation Tutorial i found (for shure the last 5 hours), different USB Sticks and i have no ideas left :(