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Bootloader tips and tricks
Re: I can't ssh into nand but I can boot to stick how do I edit nand files - 14 years ago
1. You say you can't ssh into your Plug when booted from the NAND. What evidence do you have that it is even alive? Can you ping it? 2. What OS and what uBoot do you have on the NAND? Can you dump the uBoot's environment? 3. What is the output of "cat /proc/mtd" when running from your thumb drive?by restamp - Debian
Re: Once i activate swap file dockstar no longer will boot from usb stick if usb HD mounted - 14 years ago
Ian, when you say that with the HD attached the Dockstar won't boot, do you know whether the problem is with uBoot not finding the uImage, or is it later in the boot sequence after control is handed off to the kernel? It's hard to believe that a bad swap partition would kill the boot; it would just not mount it and move on. A more likely candidate, I'd suspect, is that the /dev &by restamp - Debian
Re: I can't ssh into nand but I can boot to stick how do I edit nand files - 14 years ago
I'm not familiar with the tonidoplug, but if you can boot to your USB stick, you should be able to mount the NAND as a file system and modify it. But, what file system is on the tonidoplug? JFFS2 or UBIFS? Also, without knowing what is wrong, how do you intend to fix it? To mount a jffs2 file system, you'll need to know the device associated with it. ("cat /proc/mtd")by restamp - Debian
Re: Allways boot from the USB-Stick not from a attached HD - 14 years ago
Have you actually noticed this happening, truehl? This is indeed a perplexing problem on the SheevaPlug, along with the closely related problem of which /dev entry each device gets. (Usually, the mapping is consistent on all warm boots and all cold boots, but if there is a problem, it is that warm boots are consistently different from cold boots.) I've attributed this to the fact that theby restamp - Debian
Re: Dockstar won't mount a nfs drive - 14 years ago
SteevO, I believe you want to attach an exported Ubuntu directory to your Dockstar. I needed to do the opposite, namely to export a directory on my Dockstar to other machines. I'm not sure what is the minimal subset of packages you need to install do do what you want to do, but I know after doing the above apt-get on the Dockstar, I am able to both use the Dockstar as an NFS server and NFSby restamp - Debian
Re: Dockstar won't mount a nfs drive - 14 years ago
I'm doing the opposite -- using the Dockstar to serve up NFS files. But, the NFS package isn't loaded by default. Try:Quote# apt-get install nfs-kernel-server nfs-common portmapby restamp - Debian
Re: No led, no boot = dead ? - 14 years ago
Perhaps the reset button got stuck in the depressed position? I'd try fiddling with it a bit. Good luck.by restamp - uBoot
Re: leaving uboot alone, just installing new debian on new usb drive - 14 years ago
sandbasser, you can of course use Jeff's script to create another USB stick with the base Debian load on it, but in your case, it would probably be better to backup your existing stick to another stick. You can do this a number of ways. First you should create the volume TOC (label) on the new stick, just like you did for the original before you ran the dockstar.debian-squeeze.sh command iby restamp - uBoot
Re: leaving uboot alone, just installing new debian on new usb drive - 14 years ago
Unfortunately, Jeff's script to populate Debian on a USB stick also automatically (re-)installs the uBoot. It shouldn't hurt to install it again, but if you'd rather not do so, after you download the "dockstar.debian-squeeze.sh" script, but before you execute it, edit it and comment out the line with "--noprompt" in it, so that it looks like this: Quoteecho &qby restamp - uBoot
Re: Use netconsole to troubleshoot uBoot without a serial cable - 14 years ago
Interesting. Thanks for the information, jasonp.by restamp - uBoot
Re: Reverting back NAND - 14 years ago
Jijo, I think what you disabled was not the ability to boot from the NAND, but rather, the specific program that causes the Pogoplug to phone home, download a software update, and disable its SSH access. If you want to boot into the original operating system on the NAND, but without running this program, just remove your USB stick and reboot. (It would be preferable if you shut the device dowby restamp - Debian
Re: Use netconsole to troubleshoot uBoot without a serial cable - 14 years ago
twinclouds, I'm not sure how you would use the console, hardware or netconsole, to install a new image directly. The purpose of the console is twofold: (1) it provides a vehicle by which you can see the OS boot sequence unfold, which is useful, especially if the boot is ultimately unsuccessful, and (2) it provides a way to log into the OS if for some reason ssh doesn't work. Once youby restamp - uBoot
Re: Working USB-Sticks - 14 years ago
I realize this thread pertains to USB sticks, but I want to make sure people are aware that it is possible to program the Dockstar to boot from USB pocket-drives (hard drives in a USB enclosure) as well. I recently ordered a Seagate FreeAgent Go 1 TB USB 2.0 Portable External Hard Drive from Amazon for a little over $100. It arrived today, and I have been playing with it. First, being a Freeby restamp - Debian
Re: SSH on new dockstar box - 14 years ago
Is your local LAN 192.168.190.XXX? What is the IP address of the machine you are trying to ssh from? Here's what I did to initially crack my Dockstars: I took a laptop, connected it directly to the Dockstar with an X/O ethernet cable, switched off WiFi using the mechanical switch on the laptop, and booted both. Without access to a DHCP server, the Dockstar will by default come up withby restamp - Debian
Re: Working USB-Sticks - 14 years ago
nigelhealy, what USB devices do you have plugged into your device, and on which ports? You do understand that some thumb drives cold boot and some don't, right? My experience seems to mimic Jeff's: I have a DataTraveler that warm boots, but doesn't cold boot. I have a Sandisk Cruzer that cold boots, warm boots, but won't boot after interrupting the uBoot and then manuallby restamp - Debian
Re: Use netconsole to troubleshoot uBoot without a serial cable - 14 years ago
Think of netconsole as an (incomplete) proxy for a hardware console (via a CA-42 cable). It basically allows you to see what is happening in the uBoot when things go astray. It also permits you, in most circumstances, to recover from saving a bad uBoot environment variable -- one that prevents the uBoot from booting the OS. Basically, as long as the uBoot can get itself to a point where it canby restamp - uBoot
Re: Working USB-Sticks - 14 years ago
Do you have netconsole working? If so, you probably can use it to break out of the uBoot boot sequence, change your 'bootcmd' to something sane, 'saveenv', and 'reset'. If you don't, then you're probably in need of a CA-42. A JTAG is really only necessary if the device is so bricked that even uBoot won't run -- i.e., you need to reload the uBoot -by restamp - Debian
Re: Use netconsole to troubleshoot uBoot without a serial cable - 14 years ago
@twinclouds: Follow Jeff's procedure in the first post of this thread to set up the uBoot variables to allow for netcontrol communications. Make sure you understand and follow the procedures very carefully, because mistakes can leave you with an unbootable device, requiring a hardwired console connection to resolve. On your desktop machine, it's anyone's guess what to do. Seeby restamp - uBoot
Why is Debian slower than Ubuntu? - 14 years ago
When I first got Debian Squeeze running on my Dockstar, I tried a quick CPU test just to see how the Dockstar compared with my SheevaPlug. I ran Quotefactor 9876543210123456781 which I find is a quick and dirty, but pretty good test of raw CPU horsepower. What I found sort of shocked me: The Dockstar was taking over 10 minutes to determine this was a prime number, while the SheevaPlug could dby restamp - Debian
Re: Use netconsole to troubleshoot uBoot without a serial cable - 14 years ago
After more experimentation and carefully reading the 'nc' man page, I am revising my earlier post here. The following single invocation of 'nc' works reliably for me, allowing me to communicate with a Dockstar uBoot from a Ubuntu 10.04 desktop: Quotenc -klu 6666 This invocation of 'nc' seems to consistently relay the uBoot's progress from its inception to theby restamp - uBoot
Re: Use netconsole to troubleshoot uBoot without a serial cable - 14 years ago
Unless I'm missing something, netconsole is not a package; it's simply some modifications you make to the uBoot environment to allow it to forward UDP packets via the ethernet port, the contents of which would normally be sent to the serial port, to a host machine instead. The primitives that handle this functionality are built into Jeff's uBoot and are part of, but are not used dby restamp - uBoot
Re: Use netconsole to troubleshoot uBoot without a serial cable - 14 years ago
I'm in a similar situation as Lallo: When I enabled netconsole, I am (typically) able to see only the first few lines of output... QuoteU-Boot 2010.09 (Oct 23 2010 - 11:49:22) Marvell-Dockstar/Pogoplug by Jeff Doozan and no more. Occasionally I will see the "Hit any key to stop autoboot" message, and very occasionally (I'm not sure what I did to allow it, or if it wereby restamp - uBoot
Re: Installer could not detect the version of your current uBoot - 14 years ago
Update: After an email conversation with Jeff, who determined my problem was due to a 1-byte (actually 1-bit) error in my original uBoot -- luckily, this error didn't appear to be in a critical leg of the code -- I went ahead and forced Jeff's latest uBoot onto my Dockstar. And, it installed with no problems, appearing to work as advertised. I'm now running Debian. Now, I just nby restamp - uBoot
Installer could not detect the version of your current uBoot - 14 years ago
Hello, I just tried Jeff's amazing script to populate a new Dockstar I received in the mail today with Debian, to allow it to boot off a thumb drive. The install seemed to work, but the uBoot installer failed with the following: Quote# Validating existing uBoot... Block size 131072, page size 2048, OOB size 64 Dumping data starting at 0x00000000 and ending at 0x00080000... Connectingby restamp - uBoot