Trying to upgrade to 2017.07-2023.04 U-Boot

After many years (back in 2017 I guess), I wanted to assign some new job to my Pogoplug V4, however I lost the USB pen drive where I created the original rootfs. After connecting the Pogov4 through a usb-serial console from a Ubuntu desktop, I get this:

Pogov4> reset
resetting ...

U-Boot 2017.07-tld-1 (Sep 05 2017 - 00:34:01 -0700)
Pogoplug V4

SoC:   Kirkwood 88F6192_A1
DRAM:  128 MiB
WARNING: Caches not enabled
NAND:  128 MiB
MMC:   MVEBU_MMC: 0
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
Net:   egiga0
No link on egiga0
ping failed; host 192.168.0.100 is not alive

I wonder do I need rootfs created before I can update the newer 2017.07-2023.04 U-Boot? If yes, which version of rootfs I need to create? Also these instructions doesn't make any sense from my Ubuntu desktop screen session to Pogoplug. Essentially I forgot what I did and how I did everything back then. I'm trying to follow these instructions found here: https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381

1. uBoot envs config should be defined as followed in your /etc/fw_env.config

cat /etc/fw_env.config
 # MTD device name	Device offset	Env. size	Flash sector size	Number of sectors 
/dev/mtd0 0xc0000 0x20000 0x20000

- And your mtd partitions should be:

cat /proc/mtd
dev: size erasesize name 
mtd0: 00100000 00020000 "u-boot" 
mtd1: 00400000 00020000 "uImage" 
mtd2: 02000000 00020000 "rootfs" 
mtd3: 0db00000 00020000 "data"

Question 2: I prefer not to use a USB stick or SD card for booting the PogoPlug. Is it possible use a 2.5 inch SSD mounted on top to handle the boot process. I think SSD would be more reliable?

Thanks again.

> I wonder do I need rootfs created before I can
> update the newer 2017.07-2023.04 U-Boot?

No need to do that. Same rootfs would be fine.

> If yes,
> which version of rootfs I need to create? Also
> these instructions doesn't make any sense from my
> Ubuntu desktop screen session to Pogoplug.
> Essentially I forgot what I did and how I did
> everything back then. I'm trying to follow these
> instructions found here:
> https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381
>
>

> 1. uBoot envs config should be defined as followed
> in your /etc/fw_env.config
> 
> cat /etc/fw_env.config
>  # MTD device name	Device offset	Env. size	Flash
> sector size	Number of sectors 
> /dev/mtd0 0xc0000 0x20000 0x20000
> 
> - And your mtd partitions should be:
> 
> cat /proc/mtd
> dev: size erasesize name 
> mtd0: 00100000 00020000 "u-boot" 
> mtd1: 00400000 00020000 "uImage" 
> mtd2: 02000000 00020000 "rootfs" 
> mtd3: 0db00000 00020000 "data"
>

>

As long as the mtd0 is 1MB or greater, then it would be OK.

Quote
https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381

Note: for boxes such as Pogo V4 and Zyxel NSA3xx, the mtd partition definition are kept the same as stock definition, therefore is different from the one above.

> Question 2: I prefer not to use a USB stick or SD
> card for booting the PogoPlug. Is it possible use
> a 2.5 inch SSD mounted on top to handle the boot
> process. I think SSD would be more reliable?


Yes, SSD would be the best for the rootfs.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)

Like I said I lost the rootfs flash drive. Right now I only have access to the Pogoplug from another ubuntu system through USB-Serial console cable so how do I issue these commands?

Do I have to create a Debian rootfs or something? I forgot what did I do last time. In serial prompt I only have this prompt: Pogov4> which doesn't have cat, nanddump, flash_erase etc. commands available.

1. Setup fw_env.config

U-Boot envs config should be defined as followed in your /etc/fw_env.config

cat /etc/fw_env.config
 # MTD device name	Device offset	Env. size	Flash sector size	Number of sectors 
/dev/mtd0 0xc0000 0x20000 0x20000

If you don't have /etc/fw_env.config file in your system then go ahead and create this file:

echo "/dev/mtd0 0xc0000 0x20000 0x20000" > /etc/fw_env.config

- And your mtd partitions should be:

cat /proc/mtd
dev:    size   erasesize  name
mtd0: 00200000 00020000 "u-boot"
mtd1: 00300000 00020000 "uImage"
mtd2: 00300000 00020000 "uImage2"
mtd3: 00800000 00020000 "failsafe"
mtd4: 07000000 00020000 "root"

2. Backup mtd0 and envs

Save your current uBoot image and envs image in mtd0, and save your current u-boot envs with fw_printenv. Copy these 3 files to a persistent storage.

2.1 Dumping NAND mtd0:
nanddump --noecc --omitoob -l 0x80000 -f mtd0.pogo_v4 /dev/mtd0
nanddump --noecc --omitoob -f mtd0.pogo_v4.envs -s 786432 -l 131072 /dev/mtd0

2.2. Save envs:
fw_printenv > current_envs.txt

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2024 01:24PM by Tushar.

> Like I said I lost the rootfs flash drive.

Then you need to create the USB rootfs like you did during the first time installation.

https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096

Quote

Latest released kernel: linux-6.6.3-kirkwood-tld-1-bodhi.tar.bz2 (01 Dec 2023)
Latest released rootfs: Debian-6.5.7-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2 (01 Nov 2023)

Note: If this is your first time installation, then you only need rootfs Debian-6.5.7-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2 (this has kernel linux-6.5.7-kirkwood-tld-1 already installed). Please scroll down to 01 Nov 2023 section for download link and installation instruction.

And you already have installed u-boot 2017.07, that should boot the rootfs Debian-6.5.7-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2 without changing anything.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
bodhi's corner (buy bodhi a beer)