PogoPlug Basic B01 Serial TX works, but RX doesn't

[rpakdel]

I got a strange situation here: I bought a fairly new looking PogoPlug Basic B01 from Craigslist. Previous owner had tried to install Arch on it a long time ago, but decided he wanted a Pro with wifi.

Anyway, at first all I got was fast blinking LED, so I hooked up my CA-42 cable to see what's happening. Somehow the USB stick that the previous owner included with the PogoPlug wasn't being detected. I switched USB ports and it booted into Arch. The install was old enough that I was getting lots conflicts and errors from pacman. In the end, I got the latest rootfs and updated to latest kernel and it's running fairly smoothly now.

However, in all this, I noticed by CA-42 USB Serial cable isn't quite working. I can see the boot sequence, but at no point can I enter anything in the console. I tested the cable with my older Pink V2 model and it works fine, but on this Basic, while the TX pin seems to be working, the RX pin is not. I've tested the cable circuit and there is no breakage either. I verified TX <-> RX and RX <-> TX connections as well. I also tested with putty on Windows 7 and minicom/screen on Arch running on the PogoPlug V2 Again, I can see console messages, but I cannot send any.

Any help figuring this would be appreciated including a way to verify that it's a hardware issue.

Thanks in advance,

[WarheadsSE]

So the CA-42 now doesn't work, no matter which device you attach it to?

[rpakdel]

The cable is okay when attached to the PogoPlug Pink V2, but does not work fully when attached to PogoPlug Basic (B01).

- On the PogoPlug Pink V2, I see the boot messages and I can login to serial console as root. During early boot, I can press a key and stop autoboot when it prompts me to do so.

- On the PogoPlug Basic, I can see the boot messages. However, I cannot enter any commands or login to serial console. I modified inittab to login the serial console automatically which it does, but again, I cannot type anything. During early boot, I cannot stop autoboot by pressing a key when it prompts me to do so.

While the PogoPlug Basic is working, I'm just worried that one day I need to recover it via serial and I won't be able to.

FYI, this is the exact CA-42 cable: http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/128807- ... ntry884790

[WarheadsSE]

Yeah, I have one of the very first Pro's.. it has developed that problem from time to time. Generally I leave it unplugged for about a half hour and it starts working again.