NSA325 unbricked but with corrupted UBoot environment

[moonman]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('psychokiller', '
')why do you say I should uncomment the "dockstar line" in /etc/fw_env.config? Does NSA325 has the same mtd scheme as dockstar?

[summers]

Looks like Zyxel has several ranges of MAC address - guess I shouldn't be surprised. [Actually yours is an NSA325, but mine a NSA325v2 - which probably explains the difference].

Only thing I not you have got wrong is:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'fw_setenv ethaddr C8:6C:87:xx:xx:xx')
As you are not taking it from a variable. Oh yes after writing, you can always check with $this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'fw_printenv') - now you seen the original uboot variables, you can check that the new ethadr looks the same.

Otherwise looks good - very close to solving the problem, and make the box with a successful upgrade to uboot. Oh yes, I guess trying to look at the env variables at 0xc0000 failed - as you had a CRC variable check sum failure?

[psychokiller]

OK, thanx to both summers and moonman my NSA325 box is running fine with current Arch Linux ARM and "U-Boot 2016.09.01-1 (Oct 10 2016 - 23:14:59 -0600) Arch Linux ARM" flashed to nand along with proper current environment.

Arch Linux ARM runs from a USB Key plugged into one of the rear ports and I am very happy with that, so now I can play with the couple of 2TB drives I have in main SATA slots to try btrfs raid vs mdadm raid.

I still have a few questions for you guys:
1) I would like to install a rescue system like described in https://archlinuxarm.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=8383&hilit=armv5+rescue#p44875 and I think I have all the prerequisite in place for that... or am I missing/risking something?
2) would like to make the USB key installation of ALARM resilient to a power outage and I think ext2 isn't so resilient (it isn't on a few Dockstars I have and it requires fsck every time power fails...): is UBoot 2016.09 able to boot from ext4? It seems to me it isnt... or am I wrong?

Thanx for your support again.
Paolo

[moonman]

Glad it's working.
1. Yes, it should work.
2. ext4 is supported.

[summers]

Yes as moonman says, 2016 can boot from ext4; also can cope with the /boot as a sub directory of root, e.g. doesn't need its own partition. ext4 will only help to a certain extent with random power off; a cow filesystems (such as btrfs) will be better - but still not immune. Best is making the root file system read only, and having directories that need to be written to as tmpfs filesystems - people do this at times, but its a hard nosed set up.

I never installed the rescue systems, as I wanted to keep the stock firware. As much as anything if the system goes ***** up, I just pull a hdd, and rewrite a root file system - and it should boot fine. uboot problems will usually need a uart to the box, but that also isn't hard (just many screws to take out).

Anyway good you have got arch with more modern uboot working.