Fixing DS411Slim - No uart output

I got a free DS411slim because "it wasn't working anymore". I already did a lot of troubleshooting and testing but I'm stuck atm. Maybe someone of you has an idea what I could try or whether this thing actually turned into a brick.

It didn't power up at all. Short blue blink then off. After some research online I did the following steps:

1. Disconnect every drive, disassemble the whole thing to get access to the MB.

2. Bridge the Q3 transistor with a multi meter: DS starts, fan spins, blue light of death flashing.

I will replace the transistor when the parts arrive. Strangely the DS now powers up by pressing the power button, no bridging necessary anymore *shrug* (still blue light of death tho)

3. I tried 2 other power supplies (all 12V 3A) - still blue light of death

4. New CMOS Battery

5. Connected a USB-to-TTL to:
- DS Pin 2 (GND) -> GND Adapter
- DS Pin 4 (TX) -> RX Adapter
- Baudrate 115200 as suggested in available resources online

However, I do not get any output from the uart console. Completely blank. Am I doing something wrong or is the device gone for good?

I appreciate any ideas or feedback. Thanks for reading.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/03/2023 04:46AM by elperry.

elperry,

> 2. Bridge the Q3 transistor with a multi meter: DS
> starts, fan spins, blue light of death flashing.

Very nice! how did you find out the Q3 transitor was blown? what is this transitor function?

> 5. Connected a USB-to-TTL to:
> - DS Pin 2 (GND) -> GND Adapter
> - DS Pin 4 (TX) -> RX Adapter
> - Baudrate 115200 as suggested in available
> resources online

You should connect DS RX with Adapter TX. In case the BootROM got stuck waiting for data from the UART port.

My suggestion is go ahead and connect all 3 pins. Power up and wait for a while (5 minutes). If nothing comes out of the console, power off.

Download my release for Zyxel NSA325 u-boot:

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,135222

Use the image uboot.2023.04-tld-1.nsa325.kwb to run kwboot with. See example:

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,51739,51919#msg-51919

If the box got stuck at UART, running kwboot hopefully will unstuck that.

Note that the NSA325 has the same SoC as the DS411Slim, but its u-boot runs with 512MB RAM, so I don't expect it to boot to the countdown, but if anything coming out of the console then we'll know it can be unbricked. And I can clone the NSA325 u-boot to a new u-boot for DS411Slim to run with 256MB RAM.

-bodhi
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Hi Bodhi!

I try to install latest debian (12, kernel 6.10) on my ds411slim.
The best solution would be to put u-boot+cfg + kernel+initRD on the FLASH and the rest on the USB/SATA.
I've already done it successfully on couple of qnap boxes.

Now; the stock NOR SPI M25P32 on ds411slim is 4MB only, it is too small to store so much data.
So I soldered a new M25P128, 16MB NOR SPI instead. That way the hardware is done.

But the software! The stock u-boot v 1.1.4 (Marvell 3.5.3) does not allow to either:
- boot from USB/SATA
- resize the partitions to match the some sensible layout like
"u-boot+config(1MB) + kernel(3MB)+initrd(12MB)"
- or even write the env to SPI. <-- I suspect it's due to locked/unimplemented options.


So I've downloaded couple of u-boot versions including your compilations and what I've noticed:
- the source of u-boot (https://source.denx.de/u-boot/u-boot.git) and compiled nsa325 from stratch; it loads OK, but no network, no sata, no usb, no spi.
- the source from github, version WIP/19aug2019, there are some parts of code... but still only some parts seem to work.
- your uboot.2017.07-tld-1.nsa325.motd0.kwb loads correctly over kwboot; network works, sata works, usb works, spi does not.
...
- your uboot.2023.04-tld-1.nsa325.kwb loads OK; no network, no sata, no usb, no spi.

Anyway I see a correlation: the newer the version - the less works.
I see some tendency within the years to adopt the new hardware, forgetting the old one.

The question now: what way seems to you the most reasonable?
1). still to search and maybe find the sources to compile from scratch?
I've found DTB file
http://archive.debian.org/debian/dists/stretch/main/installer-armel/current/images/kirkwood/device-tree/kirkwood-ds411slim.dtb
Will it be of any help for u-boot compilation?
2). leave u-boot v1.1.4/ Marvell v3.5.3 and hack or hex-edit the partitions with some tool accordingly to wanted layout?
3). somehow adopt old u-boot?
4). Or maybe I'm terribly, terribly wrong, and there is some other solution?

Do you know where can I get the source of relatively older u-boot for compiling NSA325 and tweaking it for ds411slim?


With best regards,
Franek.




How I've tested:
NSA325> flinfo
Unknown command 'flinfo' - try 'help'
--> means that there is no active flash module on basis of SPI

NSA325> fsinfo
Device nand0 not found!
--> no filesystem at all

NSA325> dhcp
Could not get PHY for ethernet-controller@72000: addr 1
phy_connect failed
--> shouldn't it be addr 8 (9)?

NSA325> mtdparts
Device nand0 not found!
--> it is NOR SPI chip there definitively, not the NAND - both, the old one and the new one.

teodolit,

> The best solution would be to put u-boot+cfg +
> kernel+initRD on the FLASH and the rest on the
> USB/SATA.

Not so for this box. SPI flash is too small.

> Now; the stock NOR SPI M25P32 on ds411slim is 4MB
> only, it is too small to store so much data.
> So I soldered a new M25P128, 16MB NOR SPI instead.
> That way the hardware is done.

OK so you need the right u-boot to activate that.

> - your uboot.2017.07-tld-1.nsa325.motd0.kwb loads
> correctly over kwboot; network works, sata works,
> usb works, spi does not.

That's good. Meaning you can already boot Debian from USB or SATA rootfs.

> - the source of u-boot
> (https://source.denx.de/u-boot/u-boot.git) and
> compiled nsa325 from stratch; it loads OK, but no
> network, no sata, no usb, no spi.

That's to be expect. The hardware is different.

> - your uboot.2023.04-tld-1.nsa325.kwb loads OK; no
> network, no sata, no usb, no spi.

It's almost identical as in the mainline tree. So yes, a lot of things are not applicable to this DS411slim.

> Anyway I see a correlation: the newer the version
> - the less works.
> I see some tendency within the years to adopt the
> new hardware, forgetting the old one.

Yes, since 2017.07, u-boot SW architecture has changed substantially. Things got more precise, and code were more specific to the hardware (because of the DTS). Back then, we did things more generic, so boxes that has same SoC like NSA325 and DS411Slim would have more compatibility.

> 3). somehow adopt old u-boot?

I could roll a new u-boot 2017.07 for the DS411Slim, and let you test it. But probably in another 5 to 6 wekks.


> Do you know where can I get the source of
> relatively older u-boot for compiling NSA325 and
> tweaking it for ds411slim?

As I've mentioned in the u-boot release thread, you can find my source code for NSA325 u-boot at

Quote

References:

1. U-Boot source code at GitHub (latest branch 2017.07-kirkwood-tld-1 and tag v2017.07-kirkwood-tld-1)

=======

What I would suggest is for now, booting from USB or SATA Debian rootfs using uboot.2017.07-tld-1.nsa325.mtd0.kwb using kwboot. And the kirkwood-ds411slim.dtb

I would not try to put kernel files on SPI, since you will have to store the rootfs on USB or SATA anyway, why not loading kernel files from the same place.

In the future, I could roll a new u-boot 2017.07 for the DS411Slim, and let you test it. I don't know what tech level you are at? As a policy, I don't want to spend my free time on kernel or u-boot building tutorials (because people can teach themselves with Google).

-bodhi
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