Pogoplug v4

[kem327]

I got a new Pogoplug v4 today (POGO-V4-A3-01) and followed the instructions at http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv5 ... g-series-4 exactly. I was greeted by the dreaded blinking green LED. I got another USB drive, installed ArchLinux from another Linux machine and tried again. Blinking green again. I formatted another USB drive to fat32 and made the 'revert' folder, but got the blinking green LED. So then I tried no USB drives. Blinking green LED. So then I debated scotch as my next move.

After lots of googling, sounds like I probably have to buy/make/solder a serial cable to get back at the console and try to fix this. Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be? I re-read the instructions for the 5th time and I certainly followed them exactly. I'm not exactly new to Linux so this all seemed pretty straightforward up to the point where I can't get around a blinking green LED. Can anyone help? Thanks!

[kem327]

Just talking to myself, but after googling the interwebs it seems like perhaps the brand of USB thumb drive matters to the Pogoplug. I believe I used a SanDisk then a Patriot drive, but sounds like the Pogoplug is fickle. I'll dig through my nerd drawer of drives and try to find one that's an acceptable color to the Pogoplug. Seems like a better alternative to soldering/serial terminal access.

[kem327]

Stardate 92258.75. I tried two other USB drives in the Pogoplug with the exact same outcome. These two were a Sandisk 2GB (black) and a Sandisk 512MB (blue). So that's 4 drives, with colors Black (w/ red), Orange, Black, and Blue that all ended up with the dreaded blinking green LED. "But colors of the USB drive don't matter at all!", said no one, as I talked to myself on the Internet. It's fine, I can go it alone.

Having exhausted USB drives, and my patience, and running critically low on single malt scotch, I'm going to have to admit losing the battle here and I'm going to order a USB/serial cable. I'm sure it'll take a few days to get here, and another few days for me to locate my soldering iron, remember how to solder, work up the willpower to open this Pogoplug, and actually solder it. So I guess this project is To Be Continued since I seem unable to pass the blinking green LED and nobody else on the planet has had this problem before. Thanks, Internet.

[kem327]

Another thing I noticed though, the USB drives only light up for a half a second, when I first connect the power to the Pogoplug.. otherwise they are dark, as if they aren't being powered. Hmm. Weird. Maybe my device is faulty? Tough choice between spending $4 for a cable to solder onto this, and spending $13 for a brand new box and I just throw this one away.

[bodhi]

Kirk,

Try to download Arch Armv5 latest rootfs (from the Pogo V4 installation page), extract it to a Sandisk thumb drive formatted as Ext3, and boot wih it. Blinking green LED is actually a good sign. It means there is intelligent lifeform here:) no green LED means no life form, just dead rocks.

[fanyangto]

I'd highly recommend to use the new procedure to boot from the SD card , than usb drives.

There are two benefits:

1. It saves one USB port for your data drive. This is all the more important for Pogo Mobile which has only one USB port.

2. There is less ambiguity and chances of bad booting since there is only one SD card slot (where there may be mutiple USBs).

Ihttp://blog.qnology.com/2014/07/hackin ... obile.html

I have followed this instruction to boot from the SD card. It was largely a copy & paste process that takes less than 10 minutes.
All my 3 devices (one Pogo Series 4 and 2 mobile) were successful without a glitch. I subsequently changed the booting sequence (re-run just a few commands) from USB>MMC>SATA>PogoOS, to MMC>SATA>USB>PogoOS.

Since I changed the booting sequence, booting has become extremely robust. Where before the change, since USB was tried first, and my 2TB desktop drives (West Digital) may not respond quick enough, the booting was slow the say the least, and sometimes not reliably.

Highly recommend this booting from SD card first approach!

[bodhi]

Yes, the Pogo V4 is much more reliable in booting with the new u-boot in general. However, IMO, between booting USB and SD, one should choose USB which is less likely for u-boot to have problem with.

[kem327]

@bodhi -- I tried that with the exact same outcome. Blinking green LED and the USB drive does not light up (only flashes for 1/2 second when power is first turned on)

@fanyangto -- That all sounds great, but first I need a working Pogoplug to ssh into in order to follow those instructions. At the moment I'm shut out. If/when I get back in, I will take a look at booting via the SD card instead of the USB drive. It couldn't be any worse, and does sound more stable in fact. Thanks for the suggestion.

[kem327]

I tried another two USB drives and I get the same thing. Doesn't matter if I use the kirkwood or the armv5 version. The thing that seems odd to me is that the light on the USB drives is never on. They flicker for a fraction of a second when power is first applied, then nothing. No wonder it hangs if it isn't reading the USB drive.

Should I be marking these partitions as bootable? I just once just for giggles and it didn't make a difference, but I wonder if I'm somehow formatting my USB drives wrong. First I'm using fdisk like:
At the fdisk prompt, delete old partitions and create a new one:
Type o. This will clear out any partitions on the drive.
Type p to list partitions. There should be no partitions left.
Now type n, then p for primary, 1 for the first partition on the drive, and then press ENTER, accepting default values.
Exit by typing w.

Then I'm running mke2fs -j /dev/sdc1 to make the filesystem. I mount the drive and expand the tar file to the root directory.

[bodhi]

kem327,

Recheck your steps: did you do all the installation as root user? did you plug the USB drive into the top USB 2.0 port (not the rear USB 3.0)? If the answer is yes to both, then your best bet now is serial console.