Idiocy Runs Rampant, Bricked GoFlex Home?

[Illydth]

I am a moron.

I wanted to start with that because after you read this, it's EXACTLY what you're going to be saying.

Just got a replacement GoFlex Home in form Segate (the original one never did work right), and decided I was more interested in running this thing more stand alone than what Seagate provides.

So I brought the drive online, got into the OS and proceeded to follow directions to get ArchLinux on my drive...

Or at least thought I had.

It seems I managed to miss a MINOR step...installing the entire ArchLinux distribution to the ^&)(*&) media. Yea, I managed to go through the entire installation process other than actually putting arch linux on the 20G partition it's supposed to boot off of.

Gee, could that be the reason why I'm getting nothing but a flashing green light when I boot? I wonder...*GRUMBLE*.

Of course this brings me to the problem where I have the uBoot installation on the base but nothing to boot off of on the disk...basically there's no OS here at all.

HELP! There's GOT to be something I can do to get the software onto the GoFlex disk so that I can get the base back operational. NC doesn't seem to give me anything at all on any IP when I try the following:

sudo ifconfig eth0:0 10.10.10.5
nc -lu 10.10.10.5 6666

I've tried making a USB key with Arch Linux on it and popping that into the back of the base, and upon boot the USB key is read and the light goes from flashing green to full green (no blue, but I assume that just means the disk isn't mounted), but my router isn't showing any attempt to DHCP an address...so I have NO idea how to access it if it is, in fact, on the network/booted up.

I"m guessing since uboot is there (and not the default firmware from Seagate) that I won't be able to flash to the Seagate firmware since, I guess, the reset button probably doesn't work at this point (Will try in a few minutes but I'm guessing that it won't work).

So, No SSH, No Firmware Flash, No NC information.

Someone PLEASE tell me how I'm going to get the software onto the bloody disk so I can make this work and NOT have lost a $200 drive.

--Douglas Wagner

[Illydth]

I do have another base, it just doesn't work at the moment. If I can get ahold of a version NOT 2.7.1 of the Seagate Firmware I can try to flash my OTHER (currently unworking) base and see if I can bring that online (allowing me to put data on the new harddrive).

If there's not a better way to get the data to the drive I'm happy to try this...I just need to know where to go to get ahold of a firmware version that's not 2.7.1.

[WarheadsSE]

The disk is just SATA, so you have a screwed up base and a currently not working hdd You can attach it to any SATA line and get access to it. When you made the USB with a rootfs on it, did you:
- make it ext3
- label partition 1 "rootfs"

[Illydth]

Yea, I followed the instructions there at least. It's an ext3 partition and it was made rootfs, I do know that. Is this thing capable of being hooked up to an extra sata controller on one of my PC's? Is it just normal power and such?

*ponders*

Wait do you mean the USB Key I tried to boot off of? It was EXT3 but I don't think I labeled the partition RootFS now that I think about it. I tagged it as bootable but maybe the partition wasn't labled rootfs.

I'll go back and try the USB Key trick again.

[WarheadsSE]

Indeed

[Illydth]

*mutter* no dice on the USB Key. This time I did the following:

1) Loaded the USB Key to my Linux box.
2) sudo fdisk /dev/sdc (USB Key Device)
3) Created a new Partition type 83 Linux of all drive space.
4) Make Partition Bootable (toggle boot flag)
5) mke2fs -j /dev/sdc1
6) mount -t ext3 /dev/sdc1 /tmp/alarm
7) cd /tmp/alarm
8) wget <Arch Linux Software>
9) tar -xzvf ArchLinux<snip>
10) Unmount /tmp/alarm
11) tune2fs "rootfs" /dev/sdc1

Pulled the USB key, popped it into my base, booted the base. Again USB Key flashes, green light goes from flashing green to solid green in about 10 - 15 seconds, but nothing. No DHCP requests, nothing registered on the DHCP Server for request, nothing coming up with the NC Commands above.

Other Ideas?

--Doug

[WarheadsSE]

Good news: solid green is good. There might be something with dhcp & your dhcp server &| the cable. Try setting a static IP via config since you have access via linux. Just remember to remove the symlink in /etc/systemd/ for dhcpcd@eth0.service & create one for netcfg@eth0.service (to netcfg@.service from /usr/lib/systemd/)

[Illydth]

Ok. The Saga continues.

So I managed to get the base harddrive attached to a linux ubuntu machine on my network...took some shaving of the sata cable and power connecter's plastic, but I got it in there.

Once connected to a proper 64 bit machine (32-bit machines don't like to play with 2T harddrives), I managed to re-create the partitions, create the 20G partition, and get Arch Linux ARM installed to it, and get the partition labeled as "rootfs" following the instructions this time (completed steps 10, 11, 12 and 19 for the harddrive).

Unplugged the harddrive and put it into the dock and PRESTO, I've got a solid green light on the Dock at this point...YAY!

That, however, is the extent of my success. Just like with the USB key, i've got the solid green light but I can't seem to DO anything with it. My DHCP server shows NOTHING from a request/send for DHCP, I can't find the MAC Address in either ARP or DHCP Leases, even after setting the MAC address on the base to the bottom sticker with what I did last night in step 17: (ethaddr uu:vv:ww:xx:yy:zz).

It's showing green light, but nothing on my network at all. Is there something I should be looking for? I've tried the following commands from a 192.168.100.* Ubuntu client on my network:

sudo ifconfig eth0:0 10.10.10.5
nc -lu 10.10.10.5 6666

But NC Just sits there...doesn't print anything. I've also tried the same thing with 10.10.10.4 to try to get kernel boot messages and that too just hangs without printing anything.

douglasw@mythrfr-vir:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr <snip>
inet addr:192.168.100.XX Bcast:192.168.100.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
inet6 addr: <Snip> Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:128 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:80 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:18810 (18.8 KB) TX bytes:19302 (19.3 KB)

eth0:0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr <snip, same as above>
inet addr:10.10.10.5 Bcast:10.255.255.255 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1

I'm setup on a 192.168.100.0/24 network. I've got a hardware router I'm going to stick this thing on and see what I can make it do, but I'm not sure that will work either.

What's the procedure for forcing a static IP address in arch linux? (I can look it up, just wondered if there was a quick "edit this" I could get?). I saw your last message but never could find either a dhcpd@eth0.service or netcfg@eth0.service and nothing akin to it in /usr/lib/systemd. I did find /etc/network.d with a wired.eth0 file (something like that), but wasn't sure if that was it or not.

Advice on forcing a proper network setup by Arch Linux itself so that it becomes a 192.168.100.X address with 192.168.100.254 as the default gateway?

Worst case scenario, I guess I could get rid of the base and put the disk direct attached in one of my network Linux boxes (would I guess amount to the same thing).

--Doug

[Illydth]

And more. So I booted the USB key earlier in the night that I'd tried to make Static to no avail. I now removed the harddrive from the slot and booted the USB key, and this time I'm connected to the GoFlex base through my stand-alone network configuration.

So why would the drive connected to the base force the system not to boot with the USB key in slot while the drive disconnected allows the USB key to boot?

What needs to be done to the drive now?

I'm noticing that the MAC Address is coming up COMPLETELY different from what is on the bottom sticker at this point. Where's the MAC being pulled from? Should I force set the uboot environment to the MAC on the sticker or what is coming up on ETH0 at this point?

Can I attach the drive at this point (with it powered on) to see it and maybe go back through the installation from step 1?

I have access to the base now, surely there's something I can do to be able to boot with the drive attached at this point.

Could I just format the harddrive as 1 big EXT3 partition removing the "rootfs" label and boot off of the USB Key since it seems to work?

--Doug

[Illydth]

Holy crap! It's ALIVE!

Ok, so I went into the harddrive and made the same changes as I did for the USB key to get it to boot (went into /etc/network.d and modified wired-eth0 to statically come up on my network instead of DHCP).

And, I'll be, it works! I'm in it now and it's fully booted from the Harddrive. Going through configuration now, but at least it works. Now, if it just stays together.

Thanks everyone for the help.

--Doug