v4 inaccessibility after second reboot

[ashgill3]

Greetings.

I've followed the instructions on http://archlinuxarm.org/platforms/armv5 ... g-series-4 to install Arch Linux onto my Pogo-V4-A3-01 (using a Kingston USB flash drive in the top USB connector), and everything worked without problems. I was able to get my SATA bridge recognized through USB3, format drives, and install packages.

However, when I restarted the unit with "shutdown -h now", and power cycled the unit, it came back up with a blinking green light, and never attempts to get a DHCP address.

Creating the "revert" folder also doesn't seem to work.

After reading some of the forum posts, it looks like other people seem to have had the same problem.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3842&p=23915&hilit=blinking

I noticed that a common thread was that people used "shutdown -h now", so I tried again with a second unit that I had lying around, but used poweroff instead. Same result.

I've ordered a Nokia CA-42 cable to try to find out what the boot messages are, but while I wait for that to arrive, any suggestions on how to resurrect these boxes back to a functional state?

[moonman]

Try using a different flash drive or a usb hard drive.

[ashgill3]

I'll try the revert process with a different flash device.

I'll also try re-building the boot file system from my Linux system (on a different flash device), and see if it boots from that.

[pepedog]

And use poweroff instead of shutdown -h now

[ashgill3]

Revert worked correctly using a different brand flash stick.

It looks like the Kingston DTMicro flash drives were to blame here for the trouble.

[ashgill3]

No luck — I reinstalled ArchLinux back onto this other flash drive, and after the first reboot, when I used "poweroff" and reconnected power, I'm back to a forever blinking green light.

So, I don't think it is the brand of flash drive that is causing the problem. This sure looks like a software issue — something's broken...

Any other suggestions?

[ashgill3]

Just for kicks, I went through the same installation procedure with a Pogo 4 Mobile, with the same results...

My CA-42 cable cable arrived in the mail, so I'm going to solder that up tomorrow, and see what the boot messages are.

[ashgill3]

Still working on soldering up the serial cable.

An interesting observation:

If you install ArchLinux, reboot via /sbin/reboot, it will reboot successfully each time /sbin/reboot is run. However, as soon as you use poweroff, shutdown -h, or power cycle the unit, it won't boot again (forever blinking green).

When you recover by using the "revert" folder, all you need to do to get it booting again is to re-run /ppv4-install.sh and reboot. The image on the USB seems to be fine.

It's certainly very odd behaviour, and happens consistently on three different pogoplug v4 devices...

[winestock]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ashgill3', 'S')till working on soldering up the serial cable.

An interesting observation:

If you install ArchLinux, reboot via /sbin/reboot, it will reboot successfully each time /sbin/reboot is run. However, as soon as you use poweroff, shutdown -h, or power cycle the unit, it won't boot again (forever blinking green).

When you recover by using the "revert" folder, all you need to do to get it booting again is to re-run /ppv4-install.sh and reboot. The image on the USB seems to be fine.

It's certainly very odd behaviour, and happens consistently on three different pogoplug v4 devices...

[ashgill3]

It's been quite a struggle — Here's my latest update and questions...

Challenge 1: Soldering the cables to the Pogo board was _very difficult. I've been soldering for almost thirty years, and I've never had this much trouble... But, I finally was able to get everything connected in a very temporary way.

Challenge 2: It turns out that the CA-42 cable I purchased is a counterfeit. The manufacture of the genuine chipset (Prolific) has modified their Windows driver so that it doesn't work with these copies, so I had to find an older driver that doesn't perform this check.

The drivers that I was able to use to get it working is titled "PL2303_Prolific_GPS_AllInOne_1013.zip".

Challenge 3: It turns out that the wiring colours are different in my cable compared to most of the other CA-42 cables out there. For me, White is GND, Green is RX and Blue is TX.

When I short the RX and TX lines, I can get loopback text in HyperTerminal, so far, so good.

When I hook up my scope to the TX line, I see a nice 3V signal, and when the Pogo first boots, I see serial waveforms, so I know I have the right pins.

And, finally, I got a U-Boot log:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'U-Boot 1.1.4 (Oct 1 2011 - 12:06:06) Cloud Engines 1.1.2 (3.4.27) PHYADDR=0

U-Boot code: 00600000 -> 0067FFF0 BSS: -> 006918B4

Soc: 88F6192 A1 (DDR2)
CPU running @ 800Mhz L2 running @ 400Mhz
SysClock = 200Mhz , TClock = 166Mhz

DRAM CAS Latency = 3 tRP = 3 tRAS = 8 tRCD=3
DRAM CS[0] base 0x00000000 size 128MB
DRAM Total size 128MB 16bit width
Addresses 8M - 0M are saved for the U-Boot usage.
Mem malloc Initialization (8M - 7M): Done
NAND:128 MB
Flash: 0 kB

CPU : Marvell Feroceon (Rev 1)
CLOUD ENGINES BOARD: PPV4A3

Streaming disabled
Write allocate disabled


USB 0: host mode
PEX 0: PCI Express Root Complex Interface
PEX interface detected Link X1
Net: egiga
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
Unknown command 'usb' - try 'help'

NAND read: device 0 offset 0x100000, size 0x73d0c
474380 bytes read: OK
## Starting application at 0x00800000 ...


U-Boot 1.1.4 (Jan 13 2012 - 22:33:21) Arch Linux ARM (PPV4 r1) PHYADDR=0

U-Boot code: 00600000 -> 0067FFF0 BSS: -> 006CFD60

Soc: 88F6192 A1 (DDR2)
CPU running @ 800Mhz L2 running @ 400Mhz
SysClock = 200Mhz , TClock = 166Mhz

DRAM CAS Latency = 3 tRP = 3 tRAS = 8 tRCD=3
DRAM CS[0] base 0x00000000 size 128MB
DRAM Total size 128MB 16bit width
Addresses 8M - 0M are saved for the U-Boot usage.
Mem malloc Initialization (8M - 7M): Done
NAND:128 MB
Flash: 0 kB

CPU : Marvell Feroceon (Rev 1)
CLOUD ENGINES BOARD: PPV4A3

Streaming disabled
Write allocate disabled


USB 0: host mode
PEX 0: PCI Express Root Complex Interface
PEX interface detected Link X1
Net: egiga0 [PRIME]
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
(Re)start USB...
USB: scanning bus for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found
Waiting for storage device(s) to settle before scanning...
T')

And, yes, that's right... I just get a "T". (???)

If I disconnect my USB flash stick, I get:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'USB: scanning bus for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found
Waiting for storage device(s) to settle before scanning...
0 Storage Device(s) found

Reset IDE:
Marvell Serial ATA Adapter
Integrated Sata device found

** Can't read from device 0 **

** Unable to use usb 0:1 for fatls **

IDE device 0 not available
** Bad partition 1 **
ALARM>> ')

Does anyone know what the "T" means?

Doing some quick research pulls up that some people see "T Device NOT ready". But I don't get ANYTHING after the "T".