DockStar won’t boot while a 2.5TB HD is connected

[nurio]

Hi all,

For a while I’ve had a 2TB WB Elements hard drive connected to my Dockstar as file storage (the system installed on an external flash drive) and everything worked fine. I recently bought a 2.5TB WD Elements HD, but the Dockstar refuses to boot while the new drive is connected, but it can be mounted if it boots disconnected. I’ve tried multiple combinations of setups including removing all HDs but the 2.5TB (with the system on a flash drive) to no avail… Netconsole shows that it is stuck while scanning for USB devices.

The DS is up to date with the latest Arch linux kernel: 3.0-ARCH.

Has anyone been successful booting a Dockstar with an HD larger then 2TB drive?
Any idea what might be the problem?

Thanks

Btw, U-boot environment is:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'ethact=egiga0
bootdelay=3
baudrate=115200
mainlineLinux=yes
console=ttyS0,115200
led_init=green blinking
led_exit=green off
led_error=orange blinking
mtdparts=mtdparts=orion_nand:1M(u-boot),4M(uImage),32M(rootfs),-(data)
mtdids=nand0=orion_nand
partition=nand0,2
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
stderr=serial
rescue_installed=0
rescue_set_bootargs=setenv bootargs console=$console ubi.mtd=2 root=ubi0:rootfs ro rootfstype=ubifs $mtdparts $rescue_custom_params
rescue_bootcmd=if test $rescue_installed -eq 1; then run rescue_set_bootargs; nand read.e 0x800000 0x100000 0x400000; bootm 0x800000; else run pogo_bootcmd; fi
pogo_bootcmd=if fsload uboot-original-mtd0.kwb; then go 0x800200; fi
force_rescue=0
force_rescue_bootcmd=if test $force_rescue -eq 1 || ext2load usb 0:1 0x1700000 /rescueme 1 || fatload usb 0:1 0x1700000 /rescueme.txt 1; then run rescue_bootcmd; fi
ubifs_mtd=3
ubifs_set_bootargs=setenv bootargs console=$console ubi.mtd=$ubifs_mtd root=ubi0:rootfs rootfstype=ubifs $mtdparts $ubifs_custom_params
ubifs_bootcmd=run ubifs_set_bootargs; if ubi part data && ubifsmount rootfs && ubifsload 0x800000 /boot/uImage && ubifsload 0x1100000 /boot/uInitrd; then bootm 0x800000 0x1100000; fi
usb_scan=usb_scan_done=0;for scan in $usb_scan_list; do run usb_scan_$scan; if test $usb_scan_done -eq 0 && ext2load usb $usb 0x800000 /boot/uImage 1; then usb_scan_done=1; echo "Found bootable drive on usb $usb"; setenv usb_device $usb; setenv usb_root /dev/$dev; fi; done
usb_scan_list=1 2 3 4
usb_scan_1=usb=0:1 dev=sda1
usb_scan_2=usb=1:1 dev=sdb1
usb_scan_3=usb=2:1 dev=sdc1
usb_scan_4=usb=3:1 dev=sdd1
usb_init=run usb_scan
usb_device=0:1
usb_root=/dev/sda1
usb_rootfstype=ext2
usb_rootdelay=10
usb_set_bootargs=setenv bootargs console=$console root=$usb_root rootdelay=$usb_rootdelay rootfstype=$usb_rootfstype $mtdparts $usb_custom_params
usb_bootcmd=run usb_init; run usb_set_bootargs; run usb_boot
usb_boot=mw 0x800000 0 1; ext2load usb $usb_device 0x800000 /boot/uImage; if ext2load usb $usb_device 0x1100000 /boot/uInitrd; then bootm 0x800000 0x1100000; else bootm 0x800000; fi
bootcmd=usb start; run force_rescue_bootcmd; run ubifs_bootcmd; run usb_bootcmd; usb stop; run rescue_bootcmd; run pogo_bootcmd; reset
arcNumber=2097
ipaddr=192.168.0.80
serverip=192.168.0.50
if_netconsole=ping $serverip
start_netconsole=setenv ncip $serverip; setenv bootdelay 10; setenv stdin nc; setenv stdout nc; setenv stderr nc; version;
preboot=run if_netconsole start_netconsole
')

[hydro]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('nurio', 'I')’ve tried multiple combinations of setups including removing all HDs but the 2.5TB (with the system on a flash drive) to no avail… Netconsole shows that it is stuck while scanning for USB devices.

[WarheadsSE]

Unfortunately hydro, dockstars dont work that way. It seems more like uboot does not like the drive.

[pazos]

You can write the kernel in nand an avoid to boot from usb... There are some guides on the web...

[nurio]

Although I believe that WarheadsSE is right I’ll test the port boot order by the end of this week and also post the netconsole output.

@pazos I don’t feel completely comfortable writing the kernel on the nand and losing my Dockstar if it doesn’t boot, in the past year or so it became unbootable twice after a system update and I believe the updates included a kernel update. I haven’t gone through a lot of troubleshooting to figure out what exactly happened, but on both of times after the failure I couldn’t get the flash drive to mount on an different ubuntu system, it seemed like a corrupted file system (maybe due to too many writes?), so I just plugged a different flash drive and installed a new system… After the last failure I was planning to get it to boot from a dedicated partition on the new drive hoping that it will eliminate any possible write problems...

Is there a way to configure the u-boot not to do a full USB scan and boot from a dedicated drive or better yet skip a specific drive from a full discovery / boot check process?

[pazos]

I had the same problem that you and tried to modify the uboots variables from the prompt: Nothing to do. Uboot is very modular and don't start usb-subsystem if you don't go to use it. The first thing to boot from usb is 'usb start'. When uboots finds a dislikely hard-drive as the one you have gets collapsed and it cant' boot from usb drive...

The solution I found was write the kernel in the nand and then unistall the kernel package (before I backup /lib/modules). So don't worry about system upgrades. You need to upgrade manually if you'll find a good reason to