From: Jason C. M. <jas...@am...> - 2010-01-05 17:46:42
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I really wish Gumstix would have left in the DD images for the prebuild sources. It's so much easier just doing a DD (yes even on Windows) then dealing with formatting an microSD, and all the partitioning being done. That being said I'm really surprised you ran into all the issues you did under #3. I've been extremely happy using VMware because of how well it supports USB devices like my microSD reader. That along with really good snapshot support has been a lifesaver. So I'd download a 30 day demo of VMware and then use that to host a virtual copy of Ubuntu. If you're going to do any serious development with it than you need Ubuntu setup either on a standalone machine or on a Virtual machine (remembering that the Image can get quite big so the harddrive should be close to 75gig if not 100gig). I know that just sounds ridiculous, and it really is. Now if you run into an issue creating the microSD I would post the exact commands you are using to create it. I do remember one issue that was causing me to pull my hair out, but it was just because I was misinterpreting something ridiculously simple. From: Noel Stephens [mailto:no...@ni...] Sent: Monday, January 04, 2010 11:29 PM To: gum...@li... Subject: [Gumstix-users] Overo Fire with Tobi Expansion Board *issues* Hi all, I am very new to the embedded environment as well I have spent most of my time developing games for the Xbox 360, and as such most of my experience in the past 20 years of programming and "geeking" has been spent within either the windows environment =or= other console platforms. My linux experience used to be *fair*, and as of recently (due to my obsession with these little buggers) I have been stumbling my way through the most recent Ubuntu build (9.1 or so) and as such please forgive any seemingly novice questions/issues that follow: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Issue #1: Unable to determine your tty name...the Bad NAND CRC issue --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I first got the Overo Fire, I set it up based on the video instructions...all seemed good... connected the HDMI port to a mini-HD TV I have and sure enough it seemed to boot up and ended up at the login prompt---> "over login:" My initial reaction, being a neophyte, was to plug one of my mini-USB keyboards into the USB port, but after a bit of searching and digging I discovered that the USB port required a USB hub with its own power source. Not having a USB hub that met the specifications, I proceed to do more research and discovered the console mini-USB serial connection (refer to Issue #2). Upon finally getting the proper USB HUB I tried to login as "root" and found that it responded with: "Unable to determine your tty name" So at first I was like (?!?@?), and then after search for that term and digging through more forums I found out that other users had been having this same issue and that it was more than likely due to an improper install of linux and/or a corrupt NAND image. After more carefully inspecting the console boot log via the mini-USB serial connection (which has issues too), I determined that there was a bad CRC check at the beginning of the boot. So, after even more research through various forums and issues similar to this nature I determined that it was *sort of* common knowledge to just push a new NAND image out with the most recent build from the Gumstix site when you get a new Overo Stick and this would fix all of my issues...right? Not really... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Issue #2: USB-Serial Console session --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Being a Windows user and recently upgrading to Vista (going to 7 shortly), I had a bit of a time figuring out all of the *things* needed to connect via serial, and after getting Putty and a bit more time meddling with settings I was getting the boot log and able to see the process of the boot as well as the previously mentioned NAND CRC error. The one thing that struck me as odd, after reading even more forums/postings from users with similar issues, I realized that the reason I was not getting a login prompt through the console was more than likely due to a bad LINUX install from the factory (which is a bit disturbing as it stands) and that I should prepare a micro-sd card with the latest build, get that loading on the Overo, and after I deemed that working properly to flash the NAND. So, the console access is evidently *out* as it does seem that my Overo Fire has all the symptoms of a bad NAND image =OR= bad factory install. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Issue #3: Micro SD Drama, Headaches, and pains beyond belief... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, initially I was going to be "smart" about this whole Micro SD card thing, after several hours of figuring out that it is virtually impossible (to my knowledge and a few days of searching online for a windows software package that would allow me to create partitions to specifications from the Gumstix.com on making a bootable MMCSD card instructions) to make a bootable Micro SD card from Windows, and so (here is the seemingly smart but in the end not so smart approach) I decided to use VirtualBox and create a virtual session so I could access the Linux fdisk application and follow the instructions to a "T". Of course, this was another dead end as MMCSD support does not work in a virtualized Ubuntu box...so...after taking a day or two off from this upsetting series of events, I finally decided to format one of my older laptops with Ubuntu (latest build 9.10) and use that. So, initially I had a 4GB micro SD card, and after struggling through getting the heads, cylinders, and sectors issue sorted I finally was able to get both a FAT32 Partition (32MB) and a EXT3 Partition (the remainder of the 4GB). I quickly determined I had to rename the MMO, uImage, and u-Boot files by removing the additional time,date, and over tag on them, and as well finally got the console image extracted to the ext3 partition. Eager with anticipation I inserted my SD card, booted, and everything was going great until I got something to the effect of "Kernel Panic" and something about the =Init setting... and was a bit frustrated at this point.... Soo...after reading up *more* on MMCSD issues I came to realize that more than likely the OMAP3.5 was having issues reading SD cards over 2GB of size (DOH...wasted $$), and as such the next day I got a couple of 2GB SD cards to make sure I had at least one that would be "compatible". The 2GB SD Card was a completely different story as I have *yet* to this day been able to get the proper settings for the 2GB SD cards (bought two brands PNY and Kingston), as it seems they end up having IO Timeouts when trying to format to the EXT3 partition (FAT32 was always fine), and after researching even more found out that very likely there is some funky issue with Linux and MMXBLK0 devices and that this issue (specific to EXT3/4 partitions) is seemingly common? So, I tried running through the same settings with the 4GB Kingston SD to make sure that there wasn't something wrong with the laptop and was able to create the partitions and move the files to it with no problems...but then again the Overo, according to some postings found from the user wiki, very likely (not sure yet...) doesn't support SD cards over 2GB. Weird set of circumstances I found myself confronted with... So, here I am with a totally (seemingly cool) Overo Fire, Tobi Board, and a TI Pico projector...and wondering how anyone could have possibly gotten this working...unless my unit is just bad. Since there is no contact information, phone number, or the like for Gumstix to figure out if I needed to send it back or if I was just being 100% dumb...I am hoping that after having this thing for almost a month now someone could either confirm it as being a bad board (and provide contact information on getting a new one) =OR= if they have somehow/someway partitioned, formatted, and moved the files out to a 2GB SD card under windows and if so if you could post/reply with the possible steps to do this? My next and I guess final step is to pull out another HD and install it in my primary dev system and install Ubuntu on that...and see if it is just my laptop having issues with the Micro SD or if this is something that is truly in the current build of Ubuntu or what is up with that...lots of variables to this little bugger... Is there any windows based application that would be of assistance (tried using Paragon Partition Manager 2010 but even though it says it supports EXT3/4 partitions does not show up as an option to format the SD card or create a EXT3 partition...I found one posting that stated you must make it a FAT32 partition and the convert that to EXT3 once that was done...but that was a dead end as well)? The summary is that I cannot login using the standard USB keyboard because evidently the build on the Overo that was sent to me is hosed...which also kills any attempt at the console interface...which prevents me from just trying to "flash blind" without a SD card booting... I cannot, to the specifications from the Gumstix.com site, create a 2GB SD card using Ubuntu (only confirmed with my laptop will try the HD dev system thing probably later) without getting all sorts of IO Timeouts/DOS Magic errors (although the 4GB seems to work fine...but again evidently Overo does not support >2GB SD)...so at this point I am at a complete loss.... Help? <:) Thanks, -Noel |