Pogoplug Series 4 green light keeps flashing

I started the process to hack Pogoplug v4, but ended up appeared to be in an infinite loop problem. The green light in the front keeps blinking. I don't know Linux that well. Please help.

I started with a new Pogoplug v4 and connected via serial console. SSH cannot be activated. I first tried to backup the uBoot image in mtd0 with the command "nanddump --noecc --omitoob -l 0x80000 -f mtd0 /dev/mtd0", but returned with something like nanddump not found in /bin/sh error. I copied the screen session, but accidentally pasted it and somehow executed the whole "session". Now I ended up with the infinite loop issue.

How can I recover from this?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

jasper,

Your stock OS is messed up. So at this point, I would just try to install new u-boot and run Debian on USB drive. Is that's your intention, to hack this and run Debian?

1. Boot with UART using kwboot

- Download new u-boot from this thread:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381

uboot.2016.05-tld-1.pogo_v4.bodhi.tar 
md5: 
0a16cbc707312d03b07094e4884be48b 
sha256: 
bb3b36527fdd76f3ddc130954d5aa47f53dc2f1b387ed623ddd15e33b0ef4c25

- Also download kwboot (from the same u-boot thread)

Quote

Important Note: If possible, try to test this boot image with UART booting before flashing to NAND. See davygravy's UART booting using kwboot instruction here in this thread. The latest u-boot image released here should be used for UART booting, if your box is the type that supports it (these do not: Dockstar, Pogo E02, iConnect).


To download ARM kwboot binary for UART booting at Dropbox

kwboot-2016.05.tar
md5:
76977c5a61544a5707dfa17ae832a3ad
sha256:
25ee4fa8a94372d2d398cac4704e9ee3ca87585c29e72e18323209b7f163209d

kwboot (this is an older version)
md5:
0efd011bdb244436e432a8de33e639a1

- And run UART booting using davygravy instruction (mentioned above), using uboot.2016.05-tld-1.pogo_v4.mtd0.kwb that you've download.

2. Create Debian rootfs on USB from this thread:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096

Quote

Updated 20 Feb 2016:

This Debian-4.4.0-kirkwood-tld-1-rootfs-bodhi.tar.bz2 is to keep in sync with kernel Linux-4.4.0-kirkwood-tld-1.

Basic minimal Debian Kirkwood rootfs for most Kirwood plugs:

- tarball size: 137M
- install size: 398M
- a basic jessie rootfs.
- The init system used in this rootfs is sysvinit . To boot with systemd, see note 2 below.
- Installed packages: nano, avahi, ntp, busybox-syslogd (log to RAM), htop, isc-dhcp-client, dialog, bzip2, nfs server/client, iperf, ethtool, sysvinit-core, sysvinit, and sysvinit-utils.
- see LED controls in /etc/rc.local, and /etc/init.d/halt
- see some useful aliases in /root/.profile
- root password: root

3. Boot UART as in step 1, while the Debian rootfs 4.4 on USB (created in step 2) is plugged in.

When you get to this step, I'll take a look at the boot log and help booting it further.

-bodhi
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Thank you bodhi
I will give it a try and get back to you.

Hi bodhi,

It took several tries and a long time to successfully send boot image once, but it stopped at the end, Ctrl-\+c to quit.
====
95 % [......................................................................]
97 % [......................................................................]
99 % [....................................]
[Type Ctrl-\ + c to quit]

====

The terminal then would not respond to any commands including Ctrl-\ + c.
What's the issue? Also how to successfully and repeatedly send the boot image to pogoplug?

Also just to check for your Step 2 above, is it done after booting into the device or can be done on any Linux computer?

Thanks,
jasper

jasper,

> Also just to check for your Step 2 above, is it
> done after booting into the device or can be done
> on any Linux computer?

Yes. Any Linux computer can be used to create Debian rootfs on USB.

> The terminal then would not respond to any
> commands including Ctrl-\ + c.
> What's the issue? Also how to successfully and
> repeatedly send the boot image to pogoplug?

The Pogo V4 is known to work with kwboot. This behvior indicated that perhaps you have sent a wrong image? Please post the log of the entire session how you run kwboot.

-bodhi
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bodhi,

Thank you for the quick reply.
Attached is the session log.

Thanks,
jasper

bodhi,

I also tried 2016 version of uboot with the same result.
Attached is the session log.


jasper

jasper,

Your box could have problem with serial console port.

If you plug in the USB rootfs, does it light up at all when kwboot finished loading the image?

-bodhi
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bodhi,

I haven't done the USB rootfs part. Will try that next.
Also I will buy another USB UART TTL dongle. Just to be sure it's not the problem.

jasper

jasper,

> I haven't done the USB rootfs part. Will try that
> next.

It is important in troubleshooting this problem. IOW, if it shows activity then we know the loaded u-boot image was running, and for whatever reason it does not output anything.

> Also I will buy another USB UART TTL dongle. Just
> to be sure it's not the problem.

You could test the current one partially it using loop back. Not connecting to the Pogo, but wire its RX to its TX, and type something to see it will echo back. If it does not, then you know its RX is faulty.

-bodhi
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Hi bodhi,

I finally got the pogoplug working using a dedicated Ubuntu PC. I was using VMWare to run Ubuntu on Windows 7. Apparently VMWare would time out the connections.

Attached is the session log. The log text file has been re-formatted for Windows. Pogoplug OS has been damaged as explained earlier. Please let me know how I should proceed next.

Thanks,
jasper



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/19/2018 11:04AM by jasper.

jasper,

> Attached is the session log. The log text file has
> been re-formatted for Windows. Pogoplug OS has
> been damaged as explained earlier. Please let me
> know how I should proceed next.

There are 2 things you need to do here.

1. You need to get flash new u-boot and its envs image after you logged into Debian. This is to make permanent.
https://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,12381

2. You rootfs has the set up to boot with stock u-boot. So you need to reverse step 4b before reboot.

Quote

4b. Boot with DTB file embedded in the kernel image (no U-Boot envs changes are needed if your system already booting on USB or HDD)

Again, please replace kirkwood-goflexnet.dtb below with the correct DTB name for your box.

Generate the uImage and uInitrd (the kernel files vmlinuz-4.18.4-kirkwood-tld-1 and initramfs-4.18.4-kirkwood-tld-1 were generated by dpkg in Step 3):
cd /boot
mv uImage uImage.orig
cp -a zImage-4.18.4-kirkwood-tld-1 zImage.fdt
cat dts/kirkwood-goflexnet.dtb >> zImage.fdt
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n Linux-4.18.4-kirkwood-tld-1 -d zImage.fdt uImage
mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C gzip -a 0x00000000 -e 0x00000000 -n initramfs-4.18.4-kirkwood-tld-1 -d initrd.img-4.18.4-kirkwood-tld-1 uInitrd

cd /boot
cp -a uImage uImage.dtb_embbedded
cp -a uImage.orig uImage

-bodhi
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