Debian on a Pogoplug Pro (the easy way with ALARM kernel)

This is a thread to consolidate discussions in two other threads on this issue, which seems like it may (? - or not) be of wider interest.

This post and the associated thread has a great discussion on how to get Debian working on the Pogoplug Pro (for which Jeff's default setups won't work); Varkey's rootfs should make this very easy if you get Arch Linux ARM up on your system.

This thread has a discussion on what problems you might encounter when running a Debian install with an ALARM kernel.

So I had a few questions:
* The second thread implies that the basic problem occurs if you need to install additional modules. So, just to confirm, non-module packages should be fine and function as they do normally?
* Would the custom kernel running with Debian be stable normally?
* The second thread also mentionst hat you can make your own kernel and install it using apt. But wouldn't it have to be burned to the NAND on the Pro (which, if I'm not mistaken, is where the ALARM kernel is)?

Thanks again for all the help and work!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/23/2011 11:36PM by shankargopal.

Yes, for the time being, if not using a pure-sata boot, you would need to burn the kernel uImage it to NAND.

Ok, and given your frequent and apt warnings on this, I have no intention of doing that :). I think they may have been implying that one should do so in order ot make compiling modules easier (i.e. by having the source tree). But am rather confused on that myself, especially when it comes to installing new modules that are not in the ALARM /lib/modules directory (bluetooth is my current experiment).

I would say a serial cable and tftpboot would allow you to do all the testing you need to, without touching the NAND, until you are sure it is working.

I used the Squeezeplug method described here http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1730&start=20 and here http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=85285&page=62 on a Pogoplug B1 device. It works pretty well for me so far. Is there any advantage using Varkey's rootfs comparing to the Squeezeplug route?

> I would say a serial cable and tftpboot would
> allow you to do all the testing you need to,
> without touching the NAND, until you are sure it
> is working.

Sorry for taking so long to get back, I've been traveling. Yes, I could do that, but would it be necessary if I only want to compile modules?

twinclouds Wrote:
> I used the Squeezeplug method described here
> http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t
> =1730&start=20 and here
> http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=852
> 85&page=62 on a Pogoplug B1 device. It works
> pretty well for me so far. Is there any advantage
> using Varkey's rootfs comparing to the Squeezeplug
> route?

I didn't try the Squeezeplug route though I read through that. This route just seems much easier. The instructions at archlinuxarm.org tell you how to install Arch Linux ARM, and most of the important steps in that are done by WarheadSE's script. Then, to run Debian, just download Varkey's rootfs, untar it on to a flash drive, change the mac address and you're done (i.e. you power off your Pogoplug, plug in the flash drive and reboot). Nothing else is required. And of course after you've rebooted you need to regenerate your SSH keys as Varkey says.

The entire process could take you (excluding download time) under twenty minutes, and then one has an operational, normal Debian system on a Pogoplug Pro.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/01/2012 11:06PM by shankargopal.

You should always keep your ArchLinux USB stick/HDD up-to-date for the PogoPlug Pro. Prepare your modules on that (whether compiling new ones, or updating from ALARM distribution), and then copy them over the Debian USB stick/HDD. Isn't that simple?

Thanks to bodhi and shankargopal for your reply. I tried the Varkey's rootfs. It was pretty easy and works well. I have a couple of questions hope you can answer, though.
(1) It was requested that the usb drive should be formatted as ext3. As I know, ext3 has journal files. Will it reduce the life of the flash drive? Will ext2 work also?
(2) Once I installed Debian Linux, I don't need ArchLinux anymore, right? Then, why I need to install ArchLinux first and keep it up to date. Will simply plug in the USB drive with Varkey's FS work? If not, what is the function of the ArchLinux?

Twinclouds,

Of course there is really no need to maintain a separate ArchLinux USB boot drive. I was only suggesting that we should maintain a copy of the ALARM USB stick for:
- Just in case we need a fallback mechanism for booting back to ArchLinux.
- In the scenario where we'd need to compile new modules or updating modules from ALARM distribution. It seems the best way to to do that is keeping our ArchLinux drive up-to-date. And then copy the new/updated modules to the appropriate location on the Debian drive. It's really simple, no-thought process to do that.

I have not tried but EXT2 I think it should work with the rootf type variable changed to ext2 in UBoot envs.

Technically, you can remove the rootfstype entirely, and the kernel should try all the fstypes it knows.

bodhi:
Thanks for your clarification. Now I have the question that if the first step of install Archlinux is necessary at all? Can I simply burn the Varkey rootfs to a drive then plug it in?

Edit:
I tried to put Varkey's rootfs on an ext2 partion but it cannot boot (the lights always flashing). I am not sure why. I even edited the fstab from ext3 to ext2 but still couldn't make it boot.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/07/2012 01:00AM by twinclouds.

Twinclouds,

The ArchLinux installation must be done before before we can switch to the Debian roots. Because WarheadsSE kernel for OXNAS is installed in NAND, and that will boot whatever in the USB drive.

Make sure that the USB Debian drive is EXT3. Prepare the drive with Varkey's rootfs for Debian. And correct the MAC address on this Debian drive with your own box address. After that, remove the ArchLinux USB drive, and boot with this Debian USB drive. It should work without any problem.

I would go through this procedure first before attempting to change files system to EXT2.

As WarheadSE mentioned, the roots type variable could be removed and the kernel will find to correct one, but this should be done only if we have a serial connection ready to recover from unexpected problem.

Hi, bodhi:
I have already installed ArchLinux and also successfully running Debian using either Varkey's rootfs and the Squeezeplug one. Both works fine. I like the Squeezeplug image better because it has webmin and swap function installed. But both work fine.
As for ext2 and ext3 partition types, I verified only ext3 works. I even tried to disable the journal function of a working ext3 debian installation(tune2fs -O ^has_journal /dev/***), thus effectively became ext2. It stopped working. If I reenable journal(tune2fs -j /dev/***), it started working again. The journal function for some reason is necessary for this debian installation on Pogo Pro and alike.

any chance this ext2 vs ext3 issue is caused by/due to a setting for rootfstype in uBoot?

(I had the identical behavior on my units until I removed that setting... you can simply change it from ext2 to ext3, but I find that much more restrictive)

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

• davy's Github Repo's rescue-dg

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/08/2012 01:14PM by davygravy.

davygravy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> any chance this ext2 vs ext3 issue is caused
> by/due to a setting for rootfstype in uBoot?
>
> (I had the identical behavior on my units until I
> removed that setting... you can simply change it
> from ext2 to ext3, but I find that much more
> restrictive)
Hi, davygravy:
Indeed this is the case! I deleted the rootfstype in bootargs and now the ext2 drive works. Thanks for your observation and suggestion.

how do you change/delete bootargs in uboot?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/11/2012 05:00PM by funtoy1001.

funtoy1001 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> how do you change/delete bootargs in uboot?

bump

I used the serial connection with CA-42. Use envprint to see what is the currently setting and setenv and saveenv to modify and save.

I prefer net console. It's easier with if you can:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,14,14

No luck with net console. If I don't plug in my archlinux or debian usb stikc, the LED on the Pogoplug Pro just blinks. Can not talk to it via telnet or ssh.

@funtoy1001
There is no netconsole support on the oxnas uboot by default, and I have not changed that out in my installer.

Thanks.
Another newbie question. If I duplicate the USB stick on my DockStar and change the MAC address, will it work on the Pogoplug Pro?

No. They use different kernels & some platform specific initialization.

You need at least the kernel, as well as the gmac_copro_firmware && /etc/rc.d/set-oxnas-mac.

The lib modules of course, the firmware where it should be, and then editing rc.conf to run that script as a daemon, which relies on the contents of /usr/local/mac_addr

Hope this is not off-topic too much...
I have been using Varkey's rootfs on my pogoplug pro for couple of weeks now and notice one thing. It seems to generate more log files than my dockstar. For example, I see daemon.log, debug, kern.log, mail.log, messages... on my pogoplug pro but not on my dockstar. I forgot if I did something to the debian on my dockstar to stop these files or not. Can someone points me the way for me to do the same on my pogoplug?
Thanks.

EDIT: Found a solution - delete /etc/rsyslog.conf and most of the log files are no longer being generated.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/02/2012 02:45PM by funtoy1001.

Hi all.

I managed to install the varkey roots and the system works very well, but I found a problem: I wasn't able to make built-in wifi work (I have pogo pro with wifi)
Was anyone able to make it works??

Thanks in advance.

I've been trying too, without success either! here is my description of the problem (I posted this at the ArchLinux ARM site). Just to summarize my observation here:

I finally figured out what might have been the problem, but no idea how to solve it.

For some reason, these iwpriv commands were accepted by the driver, but not updated somehow (I have these commands in a script that executes after the system has started).

ifconfig ra0 up
sleep 3
iwpriv ra0 set WirelessMode=Managed
iwpriv ra0 set AuthMode=WPA2PSK
iwpriv ra0 set EncrypType=AES
iwpriv ra0 set SSID=xxx
iwpriv ra0 set WPAPSK=xxxxx

A few seconds later after executing these commands, I then executed iwconfig and it showed:

#iwconfig
lo        no wireless extensions.

ra0       Ralink STA  ESSID:""  Nickname:"RT2860STA"
          Mode:Auto  Frequency=2.417 GHz  Bit Rate:1 Mb/s   
          RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Link Quality=10/100  Signal level:-31 dBm  Noise level:-31 dBm
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:0   Missed beacon:0

eth0      no wireless extensions.

It seems like none of the commands were "taken"? On purpose, I've tried a iwpriv command with a wrong parameter name and it was rejected so the driver was accepting/rejecting private commands. There was an exception in dmesg from the wireless driver. WarheadsSE and others at the Arch Linux ARM site got it working using these commands (or close to that, depending on the encryption). So I'm stumped!

I got it working. Hope this will help others looking for a solution.

The real problem here was the WirelessMode. It was set to a default value of 9 (which is mixed g/b/n). My wireless network is n-only. So it was never get attached to the Access Point. Setting it to 6 (n only) got it running.

ifconfig ra0 up
sleep 3

#iwpriv ra0 set WirelessMode=Managed

iwpriv ra0 set AuthMode=WPA2PSK
iwpriv ra0 set EncrypType=AES
iwpriv ra0 set WPAPSK=xxx
iwpriv ra0 set SSID=xxx
iwpriv ra0 set WirelessMode=6

sleep 1
dhcpcd ra0

Observation:

1. The driver dat file in /etc/Wireless/RT3390STA/ (or RT2860STA, depending whether you're running Debian 2.6.3x or Arch) is relevant. If you change the default values in that file, they will be used the next time ra0 is started.

2. Using DHCP, after the iwpriv commands were executed, iwconfig will not show the real parameters. Only after dhcpcd has started and the wireless interface is connected, then iwconfig will show all parameters.

Thank you Bodhi, i got it work.

Another question, does anyone has found a pl2303 and usbserial working driver for Debian on Pogoplug Pro?
I tryed to get them from archlinux package, but i'm experiencing a strange behaviour of them.

Thank you again!

Hi there,

Just got my new Pogoplug POGO-B04 today to replaced my died Dockstar, what a surprise that I won't be able to replug my disk just after changing uboot.

I've installed the Arch distrib on a key following the instruction from http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/pogoplug-provideov3. But before going into kernel/module copy and other tweaks, I wonder if there is now a "clean" method to re-install Debian or to re-use my usb disk without data loss or if this method is still actual and nothing newer was raised lately.

Cheers,
-sb