Bricked stick, aftee replacing it boots till powerless

Hello,
I installed my dockstar to boot from a USB stick. It worked well but unfortunately the usb stick got bricked so I had to replace it. I fdisked an formatted it, then I restored the backup with partimage. I put the stick back into the dockstar, but it didnt boot from it. So I found a manual how to use a new kernel ( http://dev.shyd.de/2011/03/dockstar-no-boot-self-compiled-kernel/ ) booted into the original dockstar kernel, put the stick into the usb port and typed following:

cd /tmp
wget http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/uboot/fw_printenv
chmod +x fw_printenv
ln -s fw_printenv fw_setenv
./fw_setenv arcNumber 2097

And it worked, the dockstar booted from the stick. But after switching the dockstar on off and on (disconnected from power for a short time), it wont boot, I have to do the same procedure like above.

How can I save the changes ?
Another site states, the arcnumber for the dockstar would be 2998 ( http://www.rudiswiki.de/wiki/DockStarKernelBuild ), but it works with 2097 as well ?

Greetings,
Peter

Using fw_setenv should save the changes. Do you have a correct /etc/fw_env.config file? That defines where the changes are supposed to be saved.

arcNumber 2097 is a generic number for Sheevaplug. It will boot, but the LED's won't work.
arcNumber 2998 is the correct one for Dockstar. The LED's will work with that number.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/13/2011 01:30PM by kraqh3d.

Oh no !

After having set the arcnumber to 2998 now it doesn´t boot at all, neither from usb or Plugos ...
First the LED is flashing green, then for a short while it flashes orange, then it is turned off and nothing happens, no network activity, even after switching it off and on again.

What can I do now ?

You need Uboot access. Build a serial cable.

kraqh3d Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You need Uboot access. Build a serial cable.

Not necessarily. According to this
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,4297,4312
it's just the Debian kernel that doesn't like 2998. Arch Linux Arm however
should support this archNumber. Here's the image
http://archlinuxarm.org/os/ArchLinuxARM-armv5te-latest.tar.gz

The stock Debian kernel also boots just fine with 2998 as well. I dunno. I think if you are constantly building and changing kernels, it is in your best interest to build a serial cable to have direct access to uBoot. At the very least, you had better keep a backup image of a known working stick.

Hello,

kraqh3d, I never stated i would build constantly new kernels. If You read my first post carefully, You will see the the usb boot stick got bricked. And, according to my first post, I already had a backup image.

Anyway, i tried vlads proposal, unfortunately the dockstar ignores my stick, though it is definitely bootable ...

After re-reading, it sounds like you have the cold boot problem and tried changing your kernel to see if it overcomes it. If you build a serial cable, I'm pretty sure you'll see errors that Uboot cant see your stick after a power cycle. (Please build a serial cable. You will not regret it. It's invaluable. At the very least please set up netconsole.)

There is a work around. You put uImage and uInitrd on /dev/mtd3 which is unused by Pogoplug. You format it as ubifs and then you can copy them there. You then change your uboot parameter to look for uImage and uInitrd there using ubifsload. You still leave your root filesystem on usb though. Look through the Working USB Sticks thread on the Debian page. Someone outlined it in detail there.

ptosch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello,
>
> kraqh3d, I never stated i would build constantly
> new kernels. If You read my first post carefully,
> You will see the the usb boot stick got bricked.
> And, according to my first post, I already had a
> backup image.
>
> Anyway, i tried vlads proposal, unfortunately the
> dockstar ignores my stick, though it is definitely
> bootable ...

In this case try Jeff's kernel and initrd
http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/goflex/v0.6/uInitrd
http://jeff.doozan.com/debian/goflex/v0.6/v2.6.37/boot.tar.gz
Extract boot.tar.gz. You will find uImage in inside 2.6.37-ubit-01715-g1e5cda0.
Take a working USB flash drive, and format it in a way that it has one ext3 primary partition. No other partitions. Mount the drive and create a folder called "boot" on it. Copy uImage and uInitrd to boot and to the root of the drive. This one should really boot and give you ssh access.