Pogoplug E02, blinking ethernet port, did I brick it?

[phobiac]

A recent power outage brought down my pogoplug. Booting it up now just leads to the ethernet port blinking about 1 time per second. It does not read the flash drive plugged into it or boot from it. Previously, I had followed a guide to have the pogoplug boot from an attached flash drive.

The one on this website (I found this http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv5/pogoplug-v2-pinkgray) seemed very similar so I'm here asking for help. Right now the pogoplug turns on and the ONLY light to come on is the ethernet port which blinks every 1 second or so (both the green and orange). No front LED, and the attached flash drive never lights up as if it is being read. My router does not see the pogoplug. I've already tried rebooting both the router and the pogoplug, and I've tried clearing the list of connected devices in my router. I'm at a loss here and intensely worried I bricked this device.

[WarheadsSE]

Based on that:
- Have you tried without the USB attached, so that it boots from NAND?
- Do you have a serial console?

[phobiac]

I've tried without the USB flash drive plugged in, the same thing happens. I am admittedly unsure of what you mean by a serial console. I'm familiar with serial ports, I assume it has something to do with those? Is it a specific device? Sorry, I tried googling it and couldn't really get more information.

Edit: Is it just a computer monitor that can connect through the serial port? I didn't even know the Pogoplug had one.

[moonman]

It isn't a monitor that you connect. The console output from the pogoplug will be sent over a serial connection to your computer. http://www.hack247.co.uk/pogo-plug-pink ... onnection/

[phobiac]

Thank you for the guide, I'll get back to you if I manage to make this.

[phobiac]

I think I've got a working cable set up, it's really impossible for me to tell. I ran into a problem in that the CA-42 cable purchased seems to be a knockoff. It has only 3 wires and they are white, blue, and green. I found this blog post http://www.yourwarrantyisvoid.com/2010/07/21/seagate-dockstar-add-an-accessible-serial-port/ who seems to have a similar cable, so I followed his connection guide for the cable and the guide for the Arch Linux ARM install provided previously.

I had the first major pitfall of it being near impossible to find Windows 7 drivers for the cable, so I gave up and booted to linux. In linux the cable showed up as /dev/ttyUSB0. Turning the Arch Linux ARM install on led to the same response as previously (nothing but the blinking ethernet port). I found this guide on this forum http://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=1203 and used the provided command $this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200 8N1
') and got what seemed to be a connection, but nothing else happened. Just a blank terminal with a blinking cursor. I left it like this for around 10 minutes and still nothing.

Any advice?

[phobiac]

For anyone who runs into a similar issue with a knockoff CA-42 cable, and happens to be running windows 7 64 bit (or something newer, who knows), check if you have the same white, blue, and green wires. If you do the driver installation file you'll need is "pl2303_prolific_gps_allinone_1013.exe". I can provide you with this if you send a PM.

I've got the windows 7 driver, but still no response from the Arch Linux ARM install when the serial cable is plugged in. I'm still at a loss for what to do.

[phobiac]

Is there some way to just reflash UBoot onto the device using the serial cable? I'm more than fine with starting from scratch configuring my device and linux install if it means getting it working again.

[moonman]

Did you disassemble the USB connector part? make sure that RX from there goes into TX on the plug and TX from the USB dongle goes into RX on the plug

[moonman]

if your uBoot is dead, then you have to have serial to reflash. Try making a USB flash drive with archlinux arm on your linux pc. Though, if it doesn't boot into anything without any USB memory device inserted means there's something terribly wrong, most likely with uBoot