Zyxel NSA325v2 - bumpy road to Debian (1 reply)

Hi all,

After much thought and some tests on the default NSA325v2 firmware I decided to flash bodhi's latest U-Boot and debian version on it. The end result should be an ownCloud instance on a Debian USB stick, having all files stored on RAID 1 SATA drives. Nothing more.

I did flash the new U-Boot but missed to flash the U-Boot env. Luckily I am not the only one screwing the U-boot env params up.

So I created an ext-3 rootfs on a 32Gb USB stick and placed the latest debian 4.12.1 on it, including uImage with the proper dbt embedded. I also added an uEnv.txt file in /boot inspired from the one in uboot.2016.05.tld-1.environment.bodhi.tar (see attached)

During boot the kernel panics:

[    6.017072] VFS: Cannot open root device "(null)" or unknown-block(0,0): error -6
[    6.024628] Please append a correct "root=" boot option; here are the available partitions:
6.033061] 1f00            1024 mtdblock0 
[    6.033065]  (driver?)
[    6.039660] 1f01             512 mtdblock1 
[    6.039664]  (driver?)
[    6.046229] 1f02             512 mtdblock2 
[    6.046232]  (driver?)
[    6.052814] 1f03             512 mtdblock3 
[    6.052817]  (driver?)
[    6.059406] usb 1-1: new high-speed USB device number 2 using orion-ehci
[    6.066230] 1f04           10240 mtdblock4 
[    6.066234]  (driver?)
[    6.072818] 1f05           10240 mtdblock5 
[    6.072822]  (driver?)
[    6.079416] 1f06           48896 mtdblock6 
[    6.079420]  (driver?)
[    6.085984] 1f07           10240 mtdblock7 
[    6.085987]  (driver?)
[    6.092568] 1f08           48896 mtdblock8 
[    6.092571]  (driver?)
[    6.099156] Kernel panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)
[    6.107453] CPU: 0 PID: 1 Comm: swapper Not tainted 4.12.1-kirkwood-tld-1 #1

I've been changing some of the env settings but to no avail (attached is the full log of the last 3 trials). Last one was:

NSA325> run bootcmd_uenv
starting USB...
USB0:   USB EHCI 1.00
scanning bus 0 for devices... 3 USB Device(s) found
       scanning usb for storage devices... 1 Storage Device(s) found

Partition Map for USB device 0  --   Partition Type: DOS

Part    Start Sector    Num Sectors     UUID            Type
  1     2048            61169728        00056e13-01     83 Boot
loading envs from usb 0 ...
2781 bytes read in 301 ms (8.8 KiB/s)
importing envs ...
## Warning: Input data exceeds 1048576 bytes - truncated
## Info: input data size = 1048578 = 0x100002
NSA325> setenv arcNumber 4495
NSA325> setenv machid
NSA325> setenv rootfstype
NSA325> setenv usb_root "LABEL=rootfs"
NSA325> setenv mtdparts "mtdparts=orion_nand:1M(u-boot),4M(uImage),32M(rootfs),-(data)"
NSA325> setenv partition "nand0,2"
NSA325> setenv bootcmd_exec "run load_uimage; if run load_initrd; then if run load_dtb; then bootm $load_uimage_addr $load_initrd_addr $load_dtb_addr; else bootm $load_uimage_addr $load_initrd_addr; fi; else if run load_dtb; then bootm $load_uimage_addr - $load_dtb_addr; else bootm $load_uimage_addr; fi; fi"
NSA325> setenv set_bootargs "setenv bootargs console=ttyS0,115200 root=LABEL=rootfs rootdelay=10 $mtdparts $custom_params"
NSA325> boot

I must mention that I have no SATA drive connected. I removed them (2 1Tb Seagates) until I will have a working debian on the device.

Now the most weirdness part: yesterday, printenv command in U-Boot displayed:

printenv
arcNumber=4495
baudrate=115200
bootcmd=run bootcmd_uenv; run bootcmd_usb; usb stop; run bootcmd_sata; reset
bootcmd_sata=run sata_init; run set_bootargs_sata; run sata_boot
bootcmd_uenv=run uenv_load; if test $uenv_loaded -eq 1; then run uenv_import; fi
bootcmd_usb=run usb_init; run set_bootargs_usb; run usb_boot
bootdelay=10
console=ttyS0,115200
device=0:1
ethact=egiga0
ethaddr=b6:d0:5e:0f:a1:17
led_error=orange blinking
led_exit=green off
led_init=green blinking
machid=118f
mainlineLinux=yes
mtdids=nand0=orion_nand
mtdparts=mtdparts=orion_nand:0x100000(uboot),0x80000(stock_uboot_env),0x80000(key_store),0x80000(info),0xA00000(etc),0xA00000(kernel_1),0x2FC0000(rootfs1),0xA00000(kernel_2),0x2FC0000(rootfs2)
partition=nand0,2
rootdelay=10
rootfstype=ext2
sata_boot=mw 0x800000 0 1; run sata_load_uimage; if run sata_load_uinitrd; then bootm 0x800000 0x1100000; else bootm 0x800000; fi
sata_init=ide reset
sata_load_uimage=ext2load ide $device 0x800000 /boot/uImage
sata_load_uinitrd=ext2load ide $device 0x1100000 /boot/uInitrd
sata_root=/dev/sda1
set_bootargs_sata=setenv bootargs console=$console root=$sata_root rootdelay=$rootdelay rootfstype=$rootfstype $mtdparts
set_bootargs_usb=setenv bootargs console=$console root=$usb_root rootdelay=$rootdelay rootfstype=$rootfstype $mtdparts
stderr=serial
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
uenv_import=echo importing envs ...; env import -t 0x810000
uenv_load=usb start; setenv uenv_loaded 0; for devtype in usb; do for disknum in 0; do run uenv_read_disk; done; done
uenv_read=echo loading envs from $devtype $disknum ...; if load $devtype $disknum:1 0x810000 /boot/uEnv.txt; then setenv uenv_loaded 1; fi
uenv_read_disk=if $devtype part $disknum; then run uenv_read; fi
usb_boot=mw 0x800000 0 1; run usb_load_uimage; if run usb_load_uinitrd; then bootm 0x800000 0x1100000; else bootm 0x800000; fi
usb_init=usb start
usb_load_uimage=ext2load usb $device 0x800000 /boot/uImage
usb_load_uinitrd=ext2load usb $device 0x1100000 /boot/uInitrd
usb_root=/dev/sda1

but today it just prints the attached image and never stops. I have to cut power down to the NAS.

Which is another thing that rubs me the wrong way: is there any other way of forcing the device to reboot/reset when using the serial connection except for this hard power-off? Yesterday the kernel failed to boot but it also did not return to U-Boot console and I had no way of reseting it except for plugging out the cord.