ramdg
New Member
Posts: 11
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Post by ramdg on Dec 7, 2006 13:40:27 GMT 7
I've bought a second(hand) n2100 to switch backplanes and try again. I'll receive it today or tommorow. This time I won't solder anything accept the serial connector at the end, which I also bought a new one. If this is not gonna work I'm probably gonna learn my box to fly
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Post by dbridges on Dec 7, 2006 18:15:48 GMT 7
There's no need to solder anything Just poke the wires in
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ramdg
New Member
Posts: 11
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Post by ramdg on Dec 7, 2006 22:11:05 GMT 7
Ok I have received the second n2100. Swapped the backplane and voila both boxes show serial readout ... YES ...finally. Now I have to dive into what this all means. I'll have a look at another thread. For now thanks everybody for your help, especially dbridges for his idiotproof explaination on setting up a serial connection.
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Post by dbridges on Dec 8, 2006 4:26:45 GMT 7
Congrat's ;D So is your original backplane damaged? Hopefully it's just the serial port if that's the case and the sata connections are still functioning... From here you've got two choices. Attempt to restore the firmware back to the original thecus version or continue with the debian install. It's up to you. If it's the firmware you want to restore you need to obtain a full copy of your current firmware version and unpack it. svn.debian.org/wsvn/d-i/trunk/installer/doc/devel/hardware/arm/thecus/firmware?op=file&rev=0&sc=0Have a look around in the update code like the instructions say and you'll see a couple of instances where it's using /sbin/fcp to copy the firmware to the redboot. It's these files (except for redboot) that you need to isolate and move to your tftp server so that you can load them using redboot through the serial console. DO NOT FLASH YOUR REDBOOT!!! That would be bad... I should point out once again (i did at the start but i'll make it clearer) that i never had to do this so you're in somewhat uncharted territory here and i'm operating on theory. For the debian install you can just follow the instructions on the wiki but continue on into the install rather that access the command prompt. Good luck.
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ramdg
New Member
Posts: 11
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Post by ramdg on Dec 8, 2006 13:52:37 GMT 7
Thx! I will start with the new box. This one has already got debian installed and boots until it can't find file root system. It says: Begin: Waiting for root file system... ... Done. Check root= bootarg cat /proc/cmdline or missing modules, devices: cat /proc/modules ls /dev ALERT! /dev/sda2 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3-3) Built-in shell (ash) Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
/bin/sh: can't access tty; job control turned off (initramfs)
I know that Mike (the previous owner) has formatted the disks. sda2 doesn't exist means it doesn't see the satadisk.
What your idea?
ps. I'll start on the 2nd box after I got this one running
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Post by dbridges on Dec 8, 2006 16:45:29 GMT 7
Personally i'd be inclined to start the debian installer from scratch as it should step through the process of setting up the drives. Now that you've got console access set up you can do what you want. The files i linked to on the wiki are the ones for the debian installer so there is no reason that you cant use them. However. It's up to you where you go from here. Good luck
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ramdg
New Member
Posts: 11
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Post by ramdg on Dec 10, 2006 4:36:36 GMT 7
Still need a little help here. I'm looking at your page on onbeat (N2100 Recovering from a bad config change). I've set up my notebook to be the TFTP server using 192.168.1.2 When I want to load the image I get a timeout. I've put the installer and the kernel in /boot and set the right properties (chmod 777). Changed etc/inetd.conf to: tftp dgram udp wait nobody /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/sbin/in.tftpd /boot Still nothing happening. Do you have any idea? thx
RedBoot> ip -l 192.168.1.5 IP: 192.168.1.5/255.255.255.0, Gateway: 0.0.0.0 Default server: 0.0.0.0, DNS server IP: 0.0.0.0 RedBoot> ip -h 192.168.1.2 IP: 192.168.1.5/255.255.255.0, Gateway: 0.0.0.0 Default server: 192.168.1.2, DNS server IP: 0.0.0.0 RedBoot> load -r initrd -b 0x00800000 Using default protocol (TFTP) __udp_sendto: Can't find address of server Can't load 'initrd': some sort of network error
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