CASE CLOSED - DESTROYED a SheevaPlug in few minutes - Help wanted

[NewIT_Marcus]

zentech -

All those mmc errors mean that your plug is trying to boot from SD card (and failing).

Do you have an SD card inserted and ready to boot? If so, what kind of a card is it? The one that was supplied with your plug, or the SqueezeBox Server image?

To boot from NAND, try these environment variable settings (these will only work if your plug has the UBIFS upgrade on the internal NAND, it does seem that there is a possibility that you have a wrong plug... see below):

Code:

arcNumber=2097
mtdpartitions=mtdparts=orion_nand:0x400000@0x100000(uImage),0x1fb00000@0x500000(rootfs)
bootargs_console=console=ttyS0,115200
bootargs_root=ubi.mtd=1 root=ubi0:rootfs rootfstype=ubifs
bootcmd=setenv bootargs $(bootargs_console) $(mtdpartitions) $(bootargs_root); nand read.e 0x00800000 0x00100000 0x00400000; bootm 0x00800000
console=console=ttyS0,115200 mtdparts=nand_mtd:0xc0000@0(uboot)ro,0x1ff00000@0x100000(root)
mainlineLinux=yes

Type saveenv after you have made changes, otherwise the changes do not persist.

According to what you wrote, you did not find an SD card in your package when you bought your Sheevaplug, and when you e-mailed Jason about he thought you were asking for an image of the SD card.

If you purchased a plug with SD card and did not receive the card please follow this up with Jason, and make sure that you both understand one another. Please describe to Jason any sticker that was present on the pink bubble wrap that contained the plug itself. The SD / multi-boot models should have a sticker and that should confirm that the plug was tested for NAND boot and SD card boot prior to despatch.

Meanwhile, please try the environment variables provided above to see if you can boot using the NAND. The easiest way to use the SD card images is with a plug that is booting from NAND, and with the SD cards that we supply. The images may not be suitable if you are using a card from a different manufacturer (because the capacity will most likely differ).

[truehl]

Hi Marcus,
thanks for Your replies and your work. Things are so important, because I don't wont to lead people using my wiki into trouble with their Plugs. And I think there are a lot of people bying Plugs and try to install a Squeezeboxserver.

To that I end, I would advise that you add a complete list of environment variables to your wiki page.

Good idea!

I have a text file with all the commands in it, ready for copy & paste - so it hardly takes any time).

May I get these files?

And one more question: Is it right, that the only possibility to overwrite environment variables is to do it by copy and paste each by each?

Greetings Thomas

[NewIT_Marcus]

Hi Marcus,
thanks for Your replies and your work. Things are so important, because I don't wont to lead people using my wiki into trouble with their Plugs. And I think there are a lot of people bying Plugs and try to install a Squeezeboxserver.

To that I end, I would advise that you add a complete list of environment variables to your wiki page.

Good idea!

I have a text file with all the commands in it, ready for copy & paste - so it hardly takes any time).

May I get these files?

And one more question: Is it right, that the only possibility to overwrite environment variables is to do it by copy and paste each by each?

Greetings Thomas

Thomas -

I've PM'ed you a copy of my text file, and it is attached here. (The filename refers to eSATA but the settings are the same as the non-eSATA version. The serverip and ipaddr settings are convenient for me, you may prefer different ones. And of course ethaddr should be different).

You could code an application to read / write from / to the console, there's a plug testing script that does this. The other method is to use openocd (ie the installer); the Meteohub software installation package is configured to be able to read and write environment variables, but I haven't investigated it to any great extent. An openocd solution that only wrote environment variables without making UBIFS / SD card changes would be useful.

[zentech]

Marcus, Thomas,

for your understanding this are the situation of the plug:

1) WHAT I BOUGHT: Product: Sheeva Bebian Squeeze 4Gb SD Multiboot Model: Debian Squeeze 4Gb SD (With SD card) Total: 114 Pounds
2) WHAT I RECEIVE: Globalscale box with USB cable, Ethernet Cable, CD Rom, Sheeva Plug. But NOT hre SD Card (that was mentione in the order ans in the shippin docs
3) TO JASON: We did have different exchange of eMails. He has all the detail of my produts. Already sent his all what he asked. I asked at list to have an Image of the SD card so that I can recreate locally rather than wait for a shipment. In my last eMail I asked if, in a desperate case we are not able to let Sheevaplug working, to exchage / RMA it.
4) From Jason I got the link to the image file that I have downloaded.

I have 2 SD cand that we are using (me and Thomas). Both are SanDisk SDHC Card. One is a 4Gb and the second is a 8Gb card.

BUt I do not know how to recreate the image of the card.
With the last modification now the Sheevaplug want to boot from the SD. If I'm able to rereate the image SD I should be able to "reset" "recreate" the original configuration and start from zero with a brand new Sheevaplug?
In this case can you support me into recreating this image SD? Which tools I need?

Thomas,
as promised once we will solve (I'm sure we will ) I'll use this experience to wrote an Italian version of your wiki to support also italian people that are willing to use your wiki.

Thanks for all your support.

Marco

[truehl]

Hi Marco,
did You read my mail?

Grettings Thomas

[NewIT_Marcus]

Marco -

I have spoken to Jason about your order. I understand that he is mailing you an SD card, and in the meantime you have downloaded an image.

There is PC software for burning SD images. Thomas has used such software. I have never been able to make the Windows software work.

There is still a question about the plug that was supplied to you. It was supposed to be a multi-boot model with SD card included. Normally there would be a sticker on the pink bag that contained the plug, and that sticker would give some information about the configuration (ie MAC address, serial number, and "multi boot".

If you didn't have that sticker, maybe you accidentally received a regular jffs2 plug. The multi-boot plug uses UBIFS and requires different environment variables to the jffs2 plug.

The fact that you have the recover1 and other similar variables in your U-Boot suggests to me that you do have a multi-boot plug.

There is a potential issue with the SD card images, which is:

The image file is an exact copy of every byte in the SD card. If you copy an image file to a larger SD card, it will fit, and everything should work (although the capacity will be reduced). If you copy that image to a smaller SD card, the image won't fit and the SD card may not perform correctly.

So I want you to try to reset the environment variables to those required for NAND booting. You'll find them on the multi-boot page on this forum.

This:

Code:

Error! cmd : 1, err : 0201
Error! cmd : 1, err : 0201
No MMC card found
** Bad partition 1 **
** Bad partition 1 **
## Booting image at 00400000 ...
Bad Magic Number
Marvell>>

means that your plug is trying to boot from SD card (but none is present, or it is not prepared in the expected way), and since there is no SD card it tries to load the NAND boot image to 00400000 (and fails).

Note that our multi-boot settings specify:

Code:

bootcmd_nand=setenv bootargs $(bootargs_console) $(mtdpartitions) $(bootargs_root_nand); nand read.e 0x00800000 0x00100000 0x00400000; bootm 0x00800000
bootcmd=run bootcmd_mmc; run bootcmd_nand

whereas you are using:

Code:

bootcmd=setenv bootargs $(bootargs_console) $(bootargs_root); run bootcmd_mmc; bootm 0x400000 0x0800000

Please set your variables back to those listed on the multi-boot page, then saveenv and try again.

[zentech]

Hello Marcus,
Hi Thomas,
and hello to the reader of this forum.

I need to drop few lines to inform you that, after several days of work we (I will not be able to succeed without the incredible support of Thomas and your - Marcus - suggestions) were able to fix and reset complitely my SheevaPlug and load on it my SBS. Now, finally, I can listen to music from my Squeezebox without the need of my computer.

I still do need some fine-tuning. Something is wrong with my DHCP but I'll fix it.

Quite difficult to highlight were the problem was, I did so many try that I got lost but, after long unsuccesfull try this was the one that solved the issue:

1) I followed this WIKI http://www.openplug.org/plugwiki/index.php/SheevaPlug_Installer and downloaded the tarball
      I did it many times but never succed. The following is how I located the file into my PC directory and into my USB key that were finally working
2) Into my HD I have created a directory named RESETSHEEVA where I put all the files as follow:
This is the structure of the directory tree. First 8 files are into the directory called RESETSHEEVA
the others into the relative sub-dir

³   initrd
³   modules.tar.gz
³   rootfs.tar.gz
³   runme.exe
³   runme.php
³   uboot.bin
³   ubuntu-sheevaplug.sh
³   uImage
³   
----installer
³       initrd
³       modules.tar.gz
³       rootfs.tar.gz
³       ubuntu-sheevaplug.sh
³       uImage
³       
----src
³       initrd.ext2_src
³       uboot-envtools-20080520.tar.gz
³       
----uboot
³   ³   uboot.bin
³   ³   
³   ----openocd
³   ³   ³   openocd
³   ³   ³   openocd.exe
³   ³   ³   
³   ³   ----config
³   ³       ----board
³   ³       ³       sheevaplug.cfg
³   ³       ³       
³   ³       ----interface
³   ³       ³       sheevaplug.cfg
³   ³       ³       
³   ³       ----target
³   ³               feroceon.cfg
³   ³               
³   ----uboot-env
³           fw_setenv
³           fw_setenv.exe
³           uboot-dflt.txt
³           uboot-mmc-custom.txt
³           uboot-nand-custom.txt
³           
----win32
        cygusb0.dll
        cygwin1.dll

3 ) Than I preparred my USB key where I put, into the root the following files:

Files I have on my USB key

474.596    uboot.bin
1.376.256    runme.exe
4.230       runme.php
3.331.626    initrd
3.561.533    modules.tar.gz
136.517.388 rootfs.tar.gz
2.620.504    uImage
2.768       ubuntu-sheevaplug.sh

The file uboot.bin into the HD and into the USB is NOT the one of the tarball file but the new one suggested by you both.

What else? Just a real big thank you for all the time you have dedicated to me.
Many thanks
Marco

[NewIT_Marcus]

Marco -

We're glad you solved it in the end. Using the installer is an extremely invasive procedure, so please ensure that you have adequate backups of your data in case you need to use it again.

And thank you Thomas for your help too.