Arch Linux ARM won't boot on pogoplug pink v2

[scottdky]

I have tried installing & booting from two different USB flash drives. Both result in a solid "amber" light (no blinking at any time). I used net monitoring to check the process of uboot, and the last word from it was it was loading the kernel on my USB drive.

So it appears it is trying to load Arch Linux ARM, but hanging during the boot process. Any suggestions on what I can try next?

Thanks in advance.
Scott

[kmihelich]

With the v2, a solid amber light is fine. You should be able to SSH in. Check your router's DHCP logs to verify the IP.

[scottdky]

It does not show up in my network list - either the router's nor an nmap scan, so I don't think it is booting successfully. Should I try another OS? Any other ideas?

Thanks again.
Scott

[kmihelich]

Try using a different USB drive. If you're using a flash drive, those are most frequently the issue. YMMV.

Just go through the partitioning, ext2 formatting, downloading/extracting, umounting on a new drive. Be sure you're extracting the rootfs tarball as root on the Linux computer you're using. The tarball contains system files that require root privileges to get set up, and things won't go well if you don't do it as root.

[scottdky]

Well, I bought another 4G flash drive, and did get some different results this time, but it is still not working. Here is what I have now:

1) A "warm boot" if that is the right term for rebooting via ssh, results in a solid orange light as before. Nothing shows on the network.
2) A "cold boot" if that is the right term for unplugging the pwr cord to reboot results in the device boot back up into pogoplug original internal OS - the same as if the flash drive were not connected.

From what I have read, this latest flash drive (which is a PNY) I am guessing does have a compatibility problem. The other two flash drives - one an HP, the other a SanDisk, both had no problems cold booting - they just couldn't load the OS.

I saved my logs for this latest drive from a warm boot. If you tell me what to look for, or to snip and post, I'll be happy to do so if that would be of any help tracking this problem down.

Scott

[scottdky]

Well I tried installing Debian and it still won't boot successfully. Unless anyone has some ideas, I give up. I have a new problem however. While I can still boot up to the Pogoplug's native OS and I can see the pogoplug from their webpage, I cannot see any drives attached to it (via the pogoplug webpage). I suspect something got altered when installing the bootloader. Is there anyway to recover the original function? Or else get it running as a plain linux server?

[Socaltom]

I went through 3 USB sticks. The first one wouldnt work at all. The next would work intermittently, the last one a 4 gb cruzer from Sandisk worked consistently. YMMV. I'm now working on a 100g USB hard drive that is a former laptop drive in a AZIO case. It has worked flawlessly, and surprisingly it boots faster than the USB stick.
Tom