Pogoplug v4 potentially bricked

[WarheadsSE]

My guess is actually that you won't need to write to NAND at all, and just tftp in the ramdisk like in those directions.

[FreaqyGeeq]

Hi there WarheadsSE, thanks for the reply.

I remember exactly what I did to kill my Pogoplug, preventing SSH access. I commented out this line:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '#/etc/init.d/hbmgr.sh start')

in my /etc/init.d/rcS file. As far as I understand, this is necessary as part of an ArchLinuxARM install, but I hadn't yet gotten to installing your kernal or producing a USB drive for this purpose yet—I did this during some stupid tinkering around. Now, when I start up the Pogoplug, the front LED just flashes forever. I can see it has connected to me network if I look in my router's IP table, but I can't SSH into it anymore, nor can my.pogoplug.com see it either.

If only there was a way I could simply uncomment this line during a serial session everything would be fine.

Do you think that TFTP'ing in the ramdisk will help in this situation? What does that actually do?

Thanks WarheadsSE, I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

[pepedog]

Watch it, got vodka in system
Can you mount and edit?
$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', 'mount -t jffs2 -o ro /dev/mtdblock2 rw')

[FreaqyGeeq]

Hi pepedog.

I can't SSH at all anymore, I've only got serial access now, so I can't perform any such commands.

So I actually went ahead and TFTP'd in the ramdisk, based on the instructions at viewtopic.php?t=1323. Rebooted the PPV3, and it didn't help—was still stuck forever on a flashing front LED.

So then, I went and followed the entire guide at viewtopic.php?t=1323, substituting the references to ce_kernel_redstone_v63.img and ce_ramdisk_v2.0b.img with ce_pogopro_kernel_r9 and ce_pogopro_ramdisk_r9 respectively.

When trying to write to NAND, I was getting a failure with the error:
nand_write_ecc: not page aligned data

I discovered that the sizes of the images are not multiples of 512, so I rounded them up, and this then worked.

All seemed to go okay. But now, when booting up the PPV3, I get no LED on the front whatsoever.

Here's the serial output I'm now getting:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')tage-1 Bootloader XCE_STAGE1: 1.1: Tue Feb 8 01:40:26 PST 2011
Attempting to set PLLA to 700MHz ...
plla_ctrl0 : 0x0000000A
plla_ctrl1 : 0x000E0000
plla_ctrl2 : 0x001C01A0
plla_ctrl3 : 0x00000016
PLLA Set

Setup memory, testing
Reading NAND, Image 0
Hdr len: 0x0001C030
Hdr CRC: 0x39F6D832
OK


U-Boot 1.1.2 (Jul 29 2010 - 19:36:07)

U-Boot code: 60D00000 -> 60D1C030 BSS: -> 60D21800
RAM Configuration:
Bank #0: 60000000 128 MB
SRAM Configuration:
64KB at 0x50000000
NAND:128 MiB
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
Setting Linux mem= boot arg value
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0

NAND read: device 0 offset 0x100000, size 0x300000
data abort
pc : [<60d0d61c>] lr : [<60d0cde4>]
sp : 60cbf470 ip : 00000000 fp : 60d1ea5c
r10: 00000100 r9 : 00000003 r8 : 60cbffdc
r7 : 00000007 r6 : 60cbf527 r5 : 000000ff r4 : 00000000
r3 : 00000000 r2 : 60cbf524 r1 : 00a00000 r0 : 00000000
Flags: nzCv IRQs off FIQs off Mode SVC_32
Resetting CPU ...

[WarheadsSE]

Oy. Too bad I was at dinner, I had a way for you to just fix that file (if it booted to a prompt untouched). And, it not a necessary requirement to disabled hbmgr.sh, since on a Pro/V3 it won't boot to stock

Anyways, since you are at this point, prep a USB stick with the latest oxnas rootfs, and grab the /boot/uImage.nopci from that to tftp in. Then, run a series of commands to get it to boot into ALARM, then we can fix your whole pile at once.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_code('', '
setenv bootargs 'root=/dev/sda1 rootwait ubi.mtd=2,512 console=ttyS0,115200 elevator=cfq mac_adr=0x00,0x30,0xe0,0x00,0x00,0x01 mem=128M poweroutage=yes'
tftpboot 60500000 uImage.nopci
bootm
')

That should get you booted into an ALARM install that we can work from.

[FreaqyGeeq]

Ah man... I'm on a wild ride here. Looks like I definitely didn't need to reflash anything.

When I've been connecting via serial, I've always kept hitting a key during the countdown to abort the startup. I didn't realise that, if you didn't abort the startup, that it would go through the normal startup procedure but end up with a regular prompt. How frustrating! I easily could have just fixed the rcS file and all would be fine.

But instead, now that I've reflashed it with the ce_pogopro_kernal_r9 file, I'm able to get through the startup, and I've been able to edit the rcS and fix it, I'm now getting a flashed green LED, and then it stops flashing and doesn't stay on. And I don't see it in the DHCP list in my router anymore. Oh dear...

[FreaqyGeeq]

...so, anyway... I have access to the unit, and have changed everything back to what it was before I tinkered with it. But now it's not appearing on my network at all. It's not appearing in the router's DHCP table, and it's certainly not appearing in my.pogoplug.com. If I do a printenv at the CE>> prompt, it tells me the IP is set to 192.168.1.122. But I get nothing if I ping it from another machine.

WarheadsSE, did you have any thoughts on how to proceed without starting on the ALARM journey just yet?

[FreaqyGeeq]

Looks like my unit is hosed. I can't mount USB drives now.

[FreaqyGeeq]

WarheadsSE... I have done exactly what you asked, and I am now at an alarm login prompt. Fantastic!

What do you want me to do now?

[WarheadsSE]

If you are now at a full ALARM login, you should be able to mount the rootfs in NAND (how-to is in the forums, search for `mount ubifs ubi0:rootfs`, and change what you need to get everything all the way back to stock. I'll have to look at stock to get any deeper for you though.