Goflex Net Installation Problems

First off a big thanks to Jeff and all the others who have put so much time and effort into this i am very appreciative.

Now for my problem,
I have followed the instructions and run the script on "http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/"; this went well and installed ok.
I then changed the arcNumber to the Goflex Net "fw_setenv arcNumber 3089"
Then restarted
When it restarts the led flashes green the goes off and there is no ip given to the device

From reading arround i found "http://plugapps.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=494&start=30";
where peaslaker says "The Debian 3.6.32-5-kirkwood kernel doesn't support the GoFlex Net machine ID"
which is the kernel used in the debian install.

So to fix this my plan is:
1. Get a serial cable
2. Change the arcNumber back to the dockstar one
3. Boot the goflex net and upgrade the kenrel to either one with support for the goflex net arcNumber or compile my own
4. Change the arcNumber back to the goflex net one
5. boot and finished


Some questions
1. Will my plan work? or is there a way to change the kernel without booting and just copying and pasting some files in the right places into the debian file system?
2. The goflex net is not chainloading pogo so can i change the arcNumber form in Uboot?
3. Is there a kenrel out there with support for the goflex net arcNumber?
4. Is there a better way?

I don't know about the GoFlex specifically but if it has a Pogoplug linux environment, and you can boot into that, you should be able to change the arcNumber from there. Both fw_printenv and fw_setenv should be available in /usr/bin. The u-boot installer puts them there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/2011 06:30PM by kraqh3d.

When i try and boot without the the pen drive containing debian pluged in it should chain load in to the Pogoplug linux environment, but it is not, all it is doing is coming up with the flashing green led then it starts flashing orrange and dosent boot,
and im a bit stuck at the moment as i dont have a serial cable or netconsole set up.

I don't have a GoFlex. I assume a blinking orange LED is bad? If so, and you're sure its not booted, then I think you have two choices... 1) build a console cable and change the arcNumber, or 2) build a custom kernel (or find one) and put it on your usb stick from another linux box.

Do you know how to achive option 2 ? (put a custom kernel on your usb stick from another linux box) i am struggling to find any info or howto's on this.

Yes the blinking orrang LED is bad, it means it is not booting anything, atleast if it was booting pogoplug then i could change the arcNumber back and be all fixed.

I'm sorry but I don't. Another option would be to contact someone else with one, and ask them to image their bootup partition for you.

I followed the same instructions and got myself into exactly the same situation. Not booting from the USB stick, flashing green, then off, then green, then off. Not booting from nand, flashing orange. Wonder if jimmyoo0 got this resolved and how.

Sorry for not following up sooner, what i did is i downloaded boot and modules form here
http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/goflex/v0.6/v2.6.37/
These are the kernels made by plugapps.com that have support for the Goflex Net ArcNumber.
Copy and replace the boot and modules on your flash drive and it will boot.
One thing to note there is stuff you want to keep in your existing modules file so don't overwrite it but overwrite your boot folder, but as always back up first.

This worked for me hope it fixes your problem too.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2011 05:15PM by jimmyoo0.

Yeah, thanks jimmyoo0. I figured this out and got my GoFlex Net booting 2.6.37-ubit-01715-g1e5cda0. What I can't figure out yet is
a) what happened that the unit does not boot Pogoplug linux when USB stick is not plugged and how to fix that
b) why switch_root to /dev/sda1 is not happening and when I ssh to the box, I am in ubit shell
Could this be the reason:

ubit0-6:~# fw_printenv
Warning: Bad CRC, using default environment

Many thanks jimmyoo0! This problem bit me, hard, and you pointed the way out.

For others who think they have this problem: the current Debian kernel does not understand arcNumber 3089 for the GoFlex Net. The behavior will be: the first time you power up or reboot your GoFlex Net after you change the arcNumber, the LED flashes green, then quickly begins flashing orange. If you sniff the network there is no DHCP request.

Following jimmyoo0's hint, I did the following:
- plugged my USB stick into another Linux box, mounted it
- downloaded boot.tar.gz and modules.tar.gz from http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/goflex/v0.6/v2.6.37/
- in the /boot directory of the USB stick, moved uImage to uImage.orig
- still in the /boot directory of the USB stick, unpacked boot.tar.gz
- in a temporary directory on the linux box, unpacked modules.tar.gz
- copied /lib/modules/2.6.37-ubit-01715-g1e5cda0 into /lib/modules of the USB stick
- cleanly unmounted the USB stick
- reinstall in GoFlex Net and reboot: all happy now