ZyXEL NSA320 booted from USB...once!

[CharlesB]

I flashed my $30 PogoPlug fine, but I killed my $90 NSA-320 the first time I turned it on...
It looks like support for this device is very new (it doesn't show up in the platform drop-down menu, and the boot files are dated about a week ago), but I'm hoping for some guidance.

I followed the very simple install instructions here (put 4 boot files + rootfs.tgz on a FAT16 USB drive & boot it).

I turned the unit on, watched as all LEDs lit for a few seconds, then only the system LED, then obvious activity on the hard drive and the USB key for a while. Eventually everything calmed down, and we were back to just a solid system LED as the instructions suggest. I left it like that for about 20 minutes to make sure it wasn't going to do anything else.

My DHCP server showed no new leases. Thinking that the unit may need to reboot, I tried the power button (short, medium, long hold times) with no results. Eventually, I pulled the plug on it.

Now, every time I turn it on, after the initial POST (all LEDs on), I get a solid system LED and nothing else. Ever. It doesn't make a difference whether I have a USB drive plugged in or not.

I Yanked the hard drive and verified that it was still unpartitioned; it looks like it mangled the NAND and didn't do much else.

Suggestions?

If I'm understanding various things I've read, it's likely that this device may boot from the internal NAND (apparently no longer an option) or from a hard drive, but can't boot USB without a "helper" on one of the other two. Correct? What about directly preparing a hard drive? I suppose I ought to be able to use an ARM emulator (e.g. Qemu) to create a disk image that I can then move to the physical hard drive, but I don't know how closely I need to configure the virtual hardware to that of the real thing, or anything else. I'm 100% green when it comes to ARM, and am not much better when it comes to custom Linux builds (Been using Linux since '95, but am not a kernel hacker).

I also tore the device apart and noted serial header mentioned here, but I lack both experience and a device to connect to it, and don't know that it would even do me any good unless I can at least start the boot process. Yup, green there too. groan I already have too many projects started -- this one was supposed to go smoothly and save me time. 'Tis the risks...

Any advice would be appreciated. A working hard drive image would REALLY be appreciated!

[WarheadsSE]

Did you follow step 5?
"Place HDD in left slot, USB key into front USB port, power on the device."

You don't need to use a qemu to make a disk! It's just a linux filesystem. Ext2 16MB first partition, your choice for the second partition, ext3/4. Then copy the uImage to the first partition.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WarheadsSE', 'D')id you follow step 5?
"Place HDD in left slot, USB key into front USB port, power on the device."

[WarheadsSE]

Uboot doesn't support GPT, so you'd want to setup a Hybrid MBR to make uboot happy.

[CharlesB]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'U')boot doesn't support GPT

[WarheadsSE]

I don't think you need it replaced just yet ...

MBR or Hybrid MBR
1- Ext2, 16MB, /uImage must exist
2- Ext3/4 .. something built into the kernel, I'd suggest at least 2GB (in case you botch a config), rootfs extracted here.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WarheadsSE', 'I') don't think you need it replaced just yet ...

[WarheadsSE]

Nothing really sticks out, unless this uboot (the boot loader) doesn't like 4K sectors. And the lights stay on like that until it proceeds to leave uboot by booting the kernel. So, it's having an issue finding a kernel at this point.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('WarheadsSE', 't')he lights stay on like that until it proceeds to leave uboot by booting the kernel.

[WarheadsSE]

The board loads uboot from NAND, and it goes from there. Mind you, the method outlined on the page for it does not replace the uboot in NAND with a newer version of any kind, and merely points it at the 1st sata drive to look for /uImage on an ext2 partition.

If you are unable to get it to work, or to try a smaller disk (in the event the 4K sectors are messing with it) then you can very easily hook up to the board with a 3.3v TTL/RS232 serial. (that 3.3v is very important)