Mailing List Archive

On Mon, 2011-02-28 at 10:32 -0600, ext Paul Hartman wrote:
...
> I know reflash of FIASCO image can most likely "fix" it by starting
> over, but I'm curious if there is anyway to find out why it's not
> progressing beyond the 5 dots. Is there a magic key to disable the 5
> dots or some way to see what's going on during the boot process? Like
> in a typical linux console during bootup. Maybe then, if I can see
> what the problem is, I can boot MeeGo from MicroSD card and edit the
> N900's rootfs and keep my customizations. :)

You can get the serial console if you manage to get hold of a
development "jig" --- a HW adapter that connects to the battery slot of
the N900 and provides a serial connector.

Another way would have been having some startup script that sets up the
USB networking (e.g. load g_nokia kernel module and do "ifup usb0") in
every boot --- if you'd have that, you could simply plug a USB cable and
connect over ssh.

-Kimmo

>
> Thanks
> Paul
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> maemo-users mailing list
> maemo-users@maemo.org
> https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-users

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On Tue, 2011-03-01 at 10:22 +0200, Hämäläinen Kimmo wrote:
> You can get the serial console if you manage to get hold of a
> development "jig" --- a HW adapter that connects to the battery slot
> of the N900 and provides a serial connector.

Anyone have any idea how to get one ?

--
Kaj-Michael Lang <milang@tal.org>

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2011/3/1 Hämäläinen Kimmo <kimmo.hamalainen@nokia.com>:
> On Mon, 2011-02-28 at 10:32 -0600, ext Paul Hartman wrote:
> ...
>> I know reflash of FIASCO image can most likely "fix" it by starting
>> over, but I'm curious if there is anyway to find out why it's not
>> progressing beyond the 5 dots. Is there a magic key to disable the 5
>> dots or some way to see what's going on during the boot process? Like
>> in a typical linux console during bootup. Maybe then, if I can see
>> what the problem is, I can boot MeeGo from MicroSD card and edit the
>> N900's rootfs and keep my customizations. :)
>
> You can get the serial console if you manage to get hold of a
> development "jig" --- a HW adapter that connects to the battery slot of
> the N900 and provides a serial connector.

Hi, thanks for this information. I did some searching based on it and
found this page:
http://wiki.maemo.org/N900_Hardware_Hacking#Debug_ports

So maybe it's possible to make my own adapter to connect to the serial
debug console. And there's this example output:
http://wiki.maemo.org/N900_Hardware_Hacking/serial_dump

If that only shows the kernel messages, if there is a configuration
error that's my own fault, like runscripts failing or wrong shell or
something stupid that I've done, maybe I should compile the kernel
with FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y so I can see what's happening? But maybe
that'll only last until the 5 dots animation is started.

If I can get into rootfs via MeeGo, maybe I can edit
/etc/init.d/fb-progress.sh to disable the 5 dots animation. I think
this is what I'll try next, after I buy a new microSD card.

> Another way would have been having some startup script that sets up the
> USB networking (e.g. load g_nokia kernel module and do "ifup usb0") in
> every boot --- if you'd have that, you could simply plug a USB cable and
> connect over ssh.

Now I have a lot of good ideas how to configure my N900 once I get it
working again. :)

Thanks for your help.
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On Tue, 2011-03-01 at 09:39 -0600, ext Paul Hartman wrote:
> 2011/3/1 Hämäläinen Kimmo <kimmo.hamalainen@nokia.com>:
> > On Mon, 2011-02-28 at 10:32 -0600, ext Paul Hartman wrote:
> > ...
> >> I know reflash of FIASCO image can most likely "fix" it by starting
> >> over, but I'm curious if there is anyway to find out why it's not
> >> progressing beyond the 5 dots. Is there a magic key to disable the 5
> >> dots or some way to see what's going on during the boot process? Like
> >> in a typical linux console during bootup. Maybe then, if I can see
> >> what the problem is, I can boot MeeGo from MicroSD card and edit the
> >> N900's rootfs and keep my customizations. :)
> >
> > You can get the serial console if you manage to get hold of a
> > development "jig" --- a HW adapter that connects to the battery slot of
> > the N900 and provides a serial connector.
>
> Hi, thanks for this information. I did some searching based on it and
> found this page:
> http://wiki.maemo.org/N900_Hardware_Hacking#Debug_ports
>
> So maybe it's possible to make my own adapter to connect to the serial
> debug console. And there's this example output:
> http://wiki.maemo.org/N900_Hardware_Hacking/serial_dump
>
> If that only shows the kernel messages, if there is a configuration
> error that's my own fault, like runscripts failing or wrong shell or
> something stupid that I've done, maybe I should compile the kernel
> with FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y so I can see what's happening? But maybe
> that'll only last until the 5 dots animation is started.

Did you set "serial-console" R&D flag with the flasher utility? That is
required to use the console, otherwise you see only few lines, but don't
forget to unset it or it will suck your battery fast (prevents full
sleep).

> If I can get into rootfs via MeeGo, maybe I can edit
> /etc/init.d/fb-progress.sh to disable the 5 dots animation. I think
> this is what I'll try next, after I buy a new microSD card.
>
> > Another way would have been having some startup script that sets up the
> > USB networking (e.g. load g_nokia kernel module and do "ifup usb0") in
> > every boot --- if you'd have that, you could simply plug a USB cable and
> > connect over ssh.
>
> Now I have a lot of good ideas how to configure my N900 once I get it
> working again. :)

Good luck!

-Kimmo

>
> Thanks for your help.
> _______________________________________________
> maemo-users mailing list
> maemo-users@maemo.org
> https://lists.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/maemo-users

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2011/3/1 Hämäläinen Kimmo <kimmo.hamalainen@nokia.com>:
> On Mon, 2011-02-28 at 10:32 -0600, ext Paul Hartman wrote:
> ...
>> I know reflash of FIASCO image can most likely "fix" it by starting
>> over, but I'm curious if there is anyway to find out why it's not
>> progressing beyond the 5 dots. Is there a magic key to disable the 5
>> dots or some way to see what's going on during the boot process? Like
>> in a typical linux console during bootup. Maybe then, if I can see
>> what the problem is, I can boot MeeGo from MicroSD card and edit the
>> N900's rootfs and keep my customizations. :)
>
> You can get the serial console if you manage to get hold of a
> development "jig" --- a HW adapter that connects to the battery slot of
> the N900 and provides a serial connector.
>
> Another way would have been having some startup script that sets up the
> USB networking (e.g. load g_nokia kernel module and do "ifup usb0") in
> every boot --- if you'd have that, you could simply plug a USB cable and
> connect over ssh.

Here's a log of my attempt so far:

- Using the MeeGo rescue initrd I was able to make a dd image of my
eMMC partitions over USB

- Booting MeeGo from microSD card, in the terminal I was able to make
an image of /dev/mtd5

- On my PC, I am able to mount the rootfs ubi image by way of nandsim. Woohoo :)

- That's good news, because I now have a copy of everything from my
N900 so I have no real worries about losing any files or settings
anymore. Unfortunately, I can't see any obvious problems with any of
it that might be causing it to stall during boot.

- I made the recommended changes to start USB networking, disable the
fb-progress animation, etc.

- I created a new rootfs ubi image based on the one I have mounted
(and edited) on my PC, following instructions at:
http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=403015&postcount=3

- Flashed my modified rootfs to the n900 and now my N900 won't get
past the NOKIA logo screen. I guess I did something wrong, or used the
wrong version of ubifs tools? No idea.

- I restored my backup rootfs image with flasher. Now the device boots
normally again (meaning it's still stuck on infinite 5 dots
animation).


Now I think I've hit a dead-end.

If someone knows the trick to create a working rootfs ubifs that I can
flash back to my N900, I'll be happy to learn it.

Other ideas I have but with no idea how to do it:
Can I create rootfs on SD partition and boot from it somehow?
(modified kernel maybe?)
Can I mount the ubi rootfs in Nitdroid, MeeGo, Mer, etc booting from SD?

I'll try for 2 more days before I give up and flash the fiasco image.
I'm still curious to know why it's not booting, though. Sunday will be
1 week since it last worked, I miss using my precious Maemo... :)

Thanks for reading,
Paul
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On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 6:58 AM, Paul Hartman
<paul.hartman+maemo@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'll try for 2 more days before I give up and flash the fiasco image.
> I'm still curious to know why it's not booting, though. Sunday will be
> 1 week since it last worked, I miss using my precious Maemo... :)

Flashing of fiasco (combined) image didn't fix it. Still have the 5
dots. I guess something in my home partition is the reason but I can't
tell what it could possibly be. So next I'll try flashing emmc+fiasco.
Surely that'll work...
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