uBoot installation on Pogoplug Classic (POGO-P24) fails

Hi,
I got a new Pogoplug Classic (POGO-P24) and I am trying to install Debian Squeeze using Jeffs script.
Unfortunately, the uBoot installation fails due to unkown installed uBoot version (see below).
I read somewhere, that the POGO-P24 is just a renamed POGO-B01.

Is there any chance to get uBoot installed for usage with Debian? Shall I try the "no-uboot-check" option, or will it brick the device?

Regards,
Christian

# Validating existing uBoot...
Block size 131072, page size 2048, OOB size 64
Dumping data starting at 0x00000000 and ending at 0x00080000...
Connecting to jeff.doozan.com (69.163.187.226:80)
## Unknown uBoot detected on mtd0: 188602682dada4308e3d9945c3f6b6ed
##
## The installer could not detect the version of your current uBoot
## This may happen if you have installed a different uBoot on
## /dev/mtd0 or if you have bad blocks on /dev/mtd0
##
## If you have bad blocks on mtd0, you should not try to install uBoot.
##
## If you have installed a diffirent uBoot on mtd0, and understand the
## risks, you can re-run the installer with the --no-uboot-check parameter
##
## Installation cancelled.
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
490560 inodes, 1959924 blocks
97996 blocks (5%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=4194304
60 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8176 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632

If it's a B01 then see this thread:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,6336

Basically, you'll need to install AchLinux ARM first:
http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/pogoplug-provideov3

and then install Debian.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/17/2012 09:18PM by bodhi.

I still have some general understanding problems here. What I have understood so far:

1) First, I have to install ARM on a USB Stick. During the install, uBoot is applied with the oxnas-install-script. Afterwards I will be hopefully able to boot into ArchLinux ARM. But why should the uImage used here be working, while Jeffs uImage is not?

2) In the next step, I have to install Debian on a second stick. Can I do this using the debootstrap part from Jeffs script, or is there a more detailed instruction how to do this?

3) I guess I have to update uBoot afterwards, to get Debian booting? This is what it is described in the first link, right?

What happens, when i remove the ARM and/or Debian stick? Will the Pogoplug still be able to boot into standard OOTB operation system?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2012 05:52AM by Neitcom.

ok, I used Vlads instructions for step 2....

1. We have to use WarheadsSE kernel for OXNAS on the PogoPro (armV6), so we must instal Arch using his installation procedure first.

2. Or you can use varkey rootfs. It should work:
http://www.varkey.in/2011/06/boot-debian-from-sata-seagate-goflex-net/

3. After you've installed ArchLinux ARM, your UBoot has been updated to boot the ArchLinux ARM kernel. So just need to mount the Debian rootfs stick in and follow the steps to copy the OXNAS modules, and correct the MAC address,... to the Debian rootfs. After that, shutdown and cold boot with the Debian stick.

I don't think we can boot back to Pogo. But we can revert it back to stock, if needed, following the procedure on ArchLinux ARM website.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/18/2012 03:13PM by bodhi.

Thanks for your support. Finally I got it running using the superb information from your thread.
Just to mention, there should be made a improved step-by-step instruction from it (including all the useful annotations).

By the way:
The script from http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv6/pogoplug-provideov3 works fine for POGO-P24 (even when it is not mentioned in the list). But I was about to despair, because I got a lot of "uncorrectable bitflips" and a "MTD Erase failure: Input/output error" during flash erase. Also, I had some bad blocks.

Cool! I'm glad you did not give up because of those bad blocks. I think they have been emptying inventory, hence we have lot of pogo plugs with bad blocks show up lately :-) And you're right about the installation steps. I will try to edit the first post to annotate with appropriate information. The level of details is OK, I think.

Neitcom Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ok, I used Vlads instructions for step 2....

I'm trying to follow in your foot steps. I'm now trying to get debian on the system but I don't know what or where Vlads instructions are. If you have them or anyone else does please post them.

I don't think that the "uncorrectable bitflips" errors are actually real, I think that they're either deliberate or a bug.

On my P21 they occur every 2KB on every single block that has been written on the MTD boot partition. They don't occur at all on the MTD rootfs partition.

That suggests to me that either CE changed the RS ECC algorithm for the MTD tools, or maybe that there was a bug in their patches for the MTD tools, or even that there's a bug in the recent MTD tools, or more likely that the default setting for the ECC changed sometime in the last 5 years (CE is using a VERY old u-boot).

I believe that the Hynix flash chip that they're using is specified to maybe have a few bad blocks. The rootfs partitiion is 114MB and they're only using 11MB of that for files so there's plenty of room for bad blocks.

@gr0ck: Please check the first link posted by bohdi: There is another link to Vlad's instructions: http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,5986

Using Vlad's process when you got to the dockstar and goflex sections how did you proceed? Since mine is a pogoplug I'm a bit confused at this point.

I've read over this and Vlad's post but I can't make sense of this it at this point. Do I put the kernels from the archarm steps off the root of the /media/debian image file



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/29/2012 02:02AM by gr0ck.

As far as I remember, I followed the Dockstar instructions, skipped the GoFlex section and just copied the rootfs image to the USB flash drive (described below the GoFlex Section).
After that, I was already able to boot into Debian via the flashdrive.

So my attempt to build a debian usb disk plugged into my pogoplug to flash wildly and nothing more than that. :( I've followed the instructions to the T up through the dockstar section

The size of the rootfs should be about about 300-400MB

umount /media/debian/proc
umount /media/debian/dev/pts
du -sh /media/debian/

So we have a working rootfs image which we want to put on a USB flash drive. Connect your USB flash drive (Here I assume it to be /dev/sdb) and use gparted to create a primary ext3 partition (sdb1) and a primary swap partition (sdb2).
It's very important that the ext3 partition is the very first partition of your flash drive. Mount the newly created partition and copy rootfs onto it.

mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt
cp -a /media/debian/* /mnt

I will try again.

Search is your friend!

You need to follow in varkey's footsteps.

Step 1: Install ArchLinuxArm kernel into you Pogoplug's NAND flash memory.
Step 2: Modify the default Pogoplug u-boot environment variables to boot the new kernel and look for the rootfs on /dev/sda1

These first 2 steps are part of the basic ArchLinuxArm install instructions.

Step 3: Use varkey's Debian rootfs from http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,6336,6371#msg-6371
Step 4: Don't forget to modify /etc/network/interfaces with your Pogoplug's mac address. i.e. "hwaddress ether 00:25:xx:xx:xx:xx"

What you end up with is a non-debian kernel booting up from the Pogoplug's NAND, and a rootfs with an extra directory of non-debian Pogoplug-specific modules in /lib/modules.

There is currently no way to boot a debian or custom kernel from the USB drive itself.

If you open up the Pogoplug and use the SATA connection inside, then you can boot entirely from SATA, but there is NO debian kernel that understands the ox820 hardware inside the Pogoplug P01/P21/B01/P24.

YES! it works. After a lot of work. Turns out one of my usb drives is having problemos. This worked for pogo-p25.

5 days ago I did step 1: worked perfectly.
skipped other steps
1.2: ssh to alarm version and did an ifconfig to get the mac address. I saved that for later.
2: today I did step 3. I got the rootfs and installed. I did:
rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*
nano /etc/network/interfaces and changed the mac address there to the one I go from

Then I tried to use the usb drive, but it didn't work. The pogo green light flashed for a bit then the usb drive flashed and then the pogo light went solid green. I checked all devices on my network for port 22 open and no pogoplug showed up like before. I started to wonder if this has something to do with ssh keys. I couldn't do the steps at http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-regenerate-openssh-host-keys/ because I would have modified my keys not the ones for the usb drive

I used an ubuntu system for this and I had to plug in the usb stick then:
my step 3:

sudo -s
mkdir /media/temp
mount /dev/sdb1 /media/temp

apt-get install debootstrap binfmt-support qemu-kvm-extras-static
modprobe binfmt_misc

mount devpts /media/temp/dev/pts -t devpts
mount -t proc proc /media/temp/proc

chroot /media/temp/
/bin/rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*
dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server
apt-get install dhcp3-client
passwd 
exit
umount /media/temp/dev/pts
umount /media/temp/proc
umount /media/temp

after that I plugged in usb drive with debian and it worked!

thank you everyone for all the help. My 1st objective has been completed. 3 more to go. mysql apache2 php mono and a few others.

gr0ck, I'm having you EXACT same problem.

I did everything just like you did, but the network on the machine just won't come up.

root@amadea:/# /bin/rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*
root@amadea:/# dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server
/bin/sh: cannot create /dev/null: Permission denied
/bin/sh: cannot create /dev/null: Permission denied
Can't open /dev/null: Permission denied
root@amadea:/# apt-get install dhcp3-client
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
dhcp3-client is already the newest version.

Do you think this error might be the cause of the problem ? How can I correct or troubleshoot ?

Also posted in here : http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,6336,7500#msg-7500

I greatly appreciate any help, already have no idea of what to do with it ...

Wladston Viana Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> gr0ck, I'm having you EXACT same problem.
>
> I did everything just like you did, but the
> network on the machine just won't come up.
>
> root@amadea:/# /bin/rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*
> root@amadea:/# dpkg-reconfigure openssh-server
> /bin/sh: cannot create /dev/null: Permission
> denied
> /bin/sh: cannot create /dev/null: Permission
> denied
> Can't open /dev/null: Permission denied
> root@amadea:/# apt-get install dhcp3-client
> Reading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> dhcp3-client is already the newest version.
>
> Do you think this error might be the cause of the
> problem ? How can I correct or troubleshoot ?
>
> Also posted in here :
> http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,6336,7500#msg-7
> 500
>
> I greatly appreciate any help, already have no
> idea of what to do with it ...
Sorry I haven't been back here in so long.
Did you ever get your pogo going?

What model are you using?

gr0ck, I have my pogoplug running on debian. It's booting via attached hard disk, and I can't run using any vanilla kernel.

Quote
telzey
there is NO debian kernel that understands the ox820 hardware inside the Pogoplug P01/P21/B01/P24.