Debian on Dell Wyse T10 / T50

wildhem,

For Dell Wyse T10 / T50, everything should work, except the display.

Thanks for reminding, I forgot to add this box and HP T5335z to the the Installation list in the release thread..

> terminal but it probably has a blocked bios

Are you sure your box has a BIOS? this box uses U-Boot as loot loader. If it has a BIOS then it is a different Thin Client (Intel x86 base).

> is it possible to revive
> it somehow?

Yes, assuming you have the T10 / T50, connect serial console and it should be possible to install Debian on USB.

-bodhi
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Thank you for your work and instructions on how to do it.
However, I have a problem with the installation.
I connected the adapter on the ch340g chip and the only thing I get from the console are the following characters:

root@acab-VirtualBox:/media/acab/rootfs/boot# picocom -b 115200 /dev/ttyUSB0
picocom v3.1

port is        : /dev/ttyUSB0
flowcontrol    : none
baudrate is    : 115200
parity is      : none
databits are   : 8
stopbits are   : 1
escape is      : C-a
local echo is  : no
noinit is      : no
noreset is     : no
hangup is      : no
nolock is      : no
send_cmd is    : sz -vv
receive_cmd is : rz -vv -E
imap is        : 
omap is        : 
emap is        : crcrlf,delbs,
logfile is     : none
initstring     : none
exit_after is  : not set
exit is        : no

Type [C-a] [C-h] to see available commands
Terminal ready

123ABCcd
12345

Attempts to send commands in your hp t5335z manual do not bring any results despite the rootfs flash drive.

wildhem,

> Type [C-a] [C-h] to see available commands
> Terminal ready
>
> 123ABCcd
> 12345

It looks like your serial connection did not work. Check the GND wire. And try hitting the Enter/Return key several times to see if you get any output.

-bodhi
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Im sure of the good gnd connection and further the serial console is not working. I also tried to connect the gnd to a different place on the board and then the same.
Maybe there is some other installation method, such as read spi memory, edit and save with programmer?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2021 07:25AM by wildhem.

wildhem,

Usually when you see something garbage characters printed out like above, it might be the baud rate, or some partity settings are wrong.

Try specifying all paramaters explicitly like this:

picocom --b 115200 --f n --p n --d 8 /dev/ttyUSB0

-bodhi
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I bought CP2102 usb to uart and still same output (before i use ch340g)

hp@debian:~$ sudo picocom --b 115200 --f n --p n --d 8 /dev/ttyUSB0
[sudo] hasło użytkownika hp: 
picocom v3.1

port is        : /dev/ttyUSB0
flowcontrol    : none
baudrate is    : 115200
parity is      : none
databits are   : 8
stopbits are   : 1
escape is      : C-a
local echo is  : no
noinit is      : no
noreset is     : no
hangup is      : no
nolock is      : no
send_cmd is    : sz -vv
receive_cmd is : rz -vv -E
imap is        : 
omap is        : 
emap is        : crcrlf,delbs,
logfile is     : none
initstring     : none
exit_after is  : not set
exit is        : no

Type [C-a] [C-h] to see available commands
Terminal ready

123ABCcd
12345

But now something bad is happening to my device. after connecting the power, the orange led lights up for 4 seconds, the terminal spits out these garbage characters in the console, then the device goes out and I cannot turn it on, it does not respond to the power button. I have two of these terminals and it's the same on both.
I used to be able to run them both, but I needed desktop login credentials that I didn't have.

wildhem,

I hope you only connect 3 wires: GND, TX, and RX?

Let it sit unplugged for a while (hours) and try power up again.

-bodhi
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bodhi,
yes, I only connected these. I left the terminal disconnected from the power supply and took out the battery and the the device starts up.

It has the system version 8.1_027. Maybe there is some way to update the official system or restore factory settings and maybe then the terminal will start communicating?

wildhem,

> yes, I only connected these. I left the terminal
> disconnected from the power supply and took out
> the battery and the the device starts up.

So now it's booting normally again?

>
> It has the system version 8.1_027. Maybe there is
> some way to update the official system or restore
> factory settings and maybe then the terminal will
> start communicating?

I am not familiar with the restore procedure on this box. I had bought a used box a long time go, but have not tried to do any thing with it! all the testing was done by Koen.

-bodhi
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bodhi's corner

bodhi,
>
> So now it's booting normally again?
>

yes, it boots up the system but the console continues to show the same

> I am not familiar with the restore procedure on
> this box. I had bought a used box a long time go,
> but have not tried to do any thing with it! all
> the testing was done by Koen.

I have two such devices and I would like to use them. I would be grateful for any tips that may help me.

these are the basic versions without flash memory, the only memory I see are 2 spi memory chips, one of them (winbond 25q64fvsig) I made a dump with the ch341a programmer, the other (mxic) marked as "ec socket" is protected against reading from the outside.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/18/2021 05:05AM by wildhem.

wildhem,

> these are the basic versions without flash memory,
> the only memory I see are 2 spi memory chips, one
> of them (winbond 25q64fvsig) I made a dump with
> the ch341a programmer, the other (mxic) marked as
> "ec socket" is protected against reading from the
> outside.

Yes, this box has only SPI flash (no NAND). If you can log into stock, then post dmesg here. It shows which SPI chip driver was used. I'd expect it to be the same as Koen's box.

And regarding serial console, here is Koen's summary in this thread (booted successfully into Debian using Recovery method):

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,63499,63914#msg-63914

I have not reread the thread, but looks like Koen had the similar problem with serial console.

If Koen and you can only see output to the Display, but not serial console, then I'd say that this stock u-boot version intentionally turned it of. They probably want to avoid interruption so all the stdout and stderr only routed to the LCD.

-bodhi
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Finally, I was able to run the terminal with the admin account, the password for which I found in the spi memory dump file. Then I updated the system to the latest version by replacing the initial 7501 KB of the dump file with DOVE_boot.i2d from the OS_Web_v8.6_206_3010_T10_ENG package
However, I still can't start the serial console or ssh. The DEL and P keys at startup also have no effect.
I could probably edit the wloader.cfg file with a hex editor, there are boot commands for the device in it.

Probably the booted system is first unpacked to RAM and only started on the device. Below is the beginning of the event log from the ThinOS system:

System Start Date: 2021/08/24 Tuesday DST
System Version: 8.6_206
Characteristics: FilesystemSecurity
CPU Version: Marvell PJ4 v7 Processor-wmmx rev5 (v7l)
00: 00: 00.000 Embedded Controller Version: 3.04
17: 59: 05.000 CESA: driver register OK.
18: 59: 05.090 PKG: extracting rom.pkg V1.1 ...
18: 59: 05.348 rom.pkg: 280 files extracted

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/24/2021 04:15PM by wildhem.

Editing boot commands in the spi dump file had no effect.
I think if we compiled the uboot for this board and replaced it in the spi memory chip marked as EC, we would get a fully manageable device.
Currently, for the T10 model it is not possible to boot into debian.

Hello, I have some Tx0 terminals, I previously had a version of OS Citrix, I got a WYSE version on a Russian site, but the MAC address is in the file that goes in the 8mb SPI memory, causing network problems. I'm not a programmer, I just know a little bit of electronica, would I be able to change this address in the file??

ps: sorry for the english , made in google translate.

marcio,

> the MAC address is in the file
> that goes in the 8mb SPI memory, causing network
> problems.

I assume this Wyse Thin Client is an ARM box. There are some Wyse that are x86 base (in this case I cannot help you).

Usually, the MAC address can be modified using serial console. So connect serial console and see if you can interrupt u-boot. If this is an ARM box then there is a pretty good chance you can change the MAC address.

-bodhi
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I would still like to run debian on this terminal. Could someone send me a spi memory dump from a terminal that managed to run a different system than the official one?

Hello all.

I, like others in this thread, have acquired a number of T50s WYSE thin clients, and would like to run something more modern than their Ubuntu 10.04. I'm very grateful for the treasure trove of information in this thread, and the work done by others to try to support this hardware.

Unfortunately, I'm still having issues, and I fear that I'm missing a key piece somewhere that I haven't realized on my own. I'm going to share the steps that I'm currently using, in the hopes that bodhi or Koen can point me in the right direction (and also in order to document what I've tried for future readers).

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdb1
mkdir /mnt/sda2
mkdir /mnt/sdb1
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/sdb1
cd /mnt/sdb1

# This is the tar downloaded from the releases page
tar -xjf Debian-5.2.9-mvebu-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2

cd boot
cp -a zImage-5.2.9-mvebu-tld-1 zImage.fdt
cat dts/dove-wyse-t50.dtb >> zImage.fdt
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n Linux-5.2.9-mvebu-tld-1 -d zImage.fdt uImage

cp uImage /mnt/sda2
cp uInitrd /mnt/sda2

I then rebooted, entered WLoader, changed the recovery boot params to replace `root=/dev/ram0 rw ramdisk_size=136314880` with `root=/dev/sdb1` and add `clcd.lcd0_clk=3 clcd.lcd1_clk=1 vmalloc=384M` and remove `pm_disable titan`. (As had been mentioned working previously in this thread.) (I'm using the slightly older 5.2.9 rootfs in an attempt to minimize variables.)

Booting the machine then drops me to a black screen. Nothing appears on the connected monitor, ethernet doesn't appear to be working, I don't get anything over serial except for "Uncompressing Linux... done, booting the kernel." I suspect that there's some fundamental issue with my rootfs that is causing the boot to fail before transferring to Linux. But without any u-Boot output, and since I followed the commands posted here as closely as possible, I can't guess what the issue is.

Thanks for any suggestions for further debug steps.

MatthiasPortzel,

> I then rebooted, entered WLoader, changed the
> recovery boot params to replace `root=/dev/ram0 rw
> ramdisk_size=136314880` with `root=/dev/sdb1` and
> add `clcd.lcd0_clk=3 clcd.lcd1_clk=1 vmalloc=384M`
> and remove `pm_disable titan`. (As had been
> mentioned working previously in this thread.) (I'm
> using the slightly older 5.2.9 rootfs in an
> attempt to minimize variables.)
>
> Booting the machine then drops me to a black
> screen. Nothing appears on the connected monitor,

The new kernel does not have support for this display (at least not yet). You would have to rely on serial console.

> ethernet doesn't appear to be working, I don't get
> anything over serial except for "Uncompressing
> Linux... done, booting the kernel." I suspect that
> there's some fundamental issue with my rootfs that
> is causing the boot to fail before transferring to
> Linux. But without any u-Boot output, and since I
> followed the commands posted here as closely as
> possible, I can't guess what the issue is.

I recall there was some problem with serial console reported by Koen somewhere in this thread, but could not remember exactly.

I have not yet booted my Wyse T50. I bought a used box during Koen's testing, but since Koen did a great job, I did not bother try booting it myself.

I would suggest going back to the beginning of this thread and browse the posts to see if you can find this issue. If you cannot, I'd boot up my box when I have chance.

-bodhi
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Koen's post about booting successfiully starts here:

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,63499,63914#msg-63914

Now I realize that I forgot to add this to the main installation thread! Will do that shortly.

-bodhi
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Thanks for the reply. Yes, that post was one of my primary resources, and was extremely helpful. The commands I posted above are my attempted at implementing those steps. I was hoping you would be able to see an obvious deviation at the root of my problem.

While I have some experience as an admin of Linux servers, I'm new to tinkering with embedded Linux. So I have a couple of ideas, but without any error messages, no clear direction.

MatthiasPortzel,

> While I have some experience as an admin of Linux
> servers, I'm new to tinkering with embedded Linux.
> So I have a couple of ideas, but without any error
> messages, no clear direction.

Sure, just post the serial console log here. And we'll go from there, don't describe the problem, the best description is the log.

You already mentioned you have created the USB rootfs to trigger the Recovery process for this box, as Koen showed. So we know what's in the USB rootfs.

There is no input/output for serial console during u-boot booting, but there will be output during kernel booting. So wait a bit to see any output after the kernel is decompressed.

-bodhi
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The instruction given by Koen does not work for me on Wyse T10 - I can not enter the wloader settings or enable the root account.
There is no ubuntu in this device, but some wyse system that fits in 8 megabyte spi memory and probably unpacks to ram on boot, hence no possibility to get to the ssh console.
I also tried using the bootloader from the HP T5335z but the device won't boot.
The next thing I want to check is the barebox bootloader. It has solidrun cubox support for the dove platform. I have already done a test build for my wyse t10 but I am currently unable to program the spi chip.
The solution for me could also be a bootloader dump from wyse t50 from the spi memory chip.