Noob situation: Alt-F not responding and out of ideas

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Talandir

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Sep 18, 2012, 3:51:16 PM9/18/12
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Hi all,

I flashed Alt-F around three weeks ago (RC2).  It worked properly and was able to set up the RAID on ext-4 hard disks.

Suddenly it stopped responding to the web page, shares and telnet.  The blue light is steady on, and it responds to the main button (to reset or power off).

I tried a reset, turning it off and on again... same result.  Waited for one whole day just in case it was performing an fsck or any other task (even when the blue light was steady).  Still no result.

Tried the 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 40 seconds reset just in case... the box resets itself but same situation.  No telnet on port 26 either.

A strange symptom.  When I try to access with Firefox it splits the screen in two and gives the message of "not responding" on both.  So at least I can be sure the address is right.  It is just not working.

The web code received is cut off, only the frames arrive:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html><head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>ALT-F Home Page</title>
</head>

<frameset cols="15%,*" FRAMEBORDER="NO" BORDER=0>
<frame name="nav" src="cgi-bin/index.cgi">
<frame name="content" src="cgi-bin/status.cgi">
</frameset>
</html>
And that is all.  

I haven't found anything similar in the forum.

Last thing I remember doing before this started (but many hours before) is to load the packages for both Alt-F and ffp.

So it is not completely bricked, but the closest thing next to that.  The only actions I can perform are reset and reboot.

Any ideas of what can I do?

Thank you in advance for any help.

Talandir

Joao Cardoso

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Sep 18, 2012, 5:04:18 PM9/18/12
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On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 8:51:16 PM UTC+1, Talandir wrote:
Hi all,

I flashed Alt-F around three weeks ago (RC2).  It worked properly and was able to set up the RAID on ext-4 hard disks.

Suddenly it stopped responding to the web page, shares and telnet.  The blue light is steady on, and it responds to the main button (to reset or power off).

So Alt-F is working.
 
I tried a reset, turning it off and on again... same result.  Waited for one whole day just in case it was performing an fsck or any other task (even when the blue light was steady).  Still no result.

Tried the 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 40 seconds reset just in case... the box resets itself but same situation.  No telnet on port 26 either.

Are your using a fixed or a dynamic (DHCP) IP? Have you checked your router DHCP server client lease? The box might have changed IP. Can you ping it?


A strange symptom.  When I try to access with Firefox it splits the screen in two and gives the message of "not responding" on both.  So at least I can be sure the address is right.  It is just not working.

I don't believe on browser "diagnostics". Try pinging the box to make sure that the IP that you are using is right.


The web code received is cut off, only the frames arrive:

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html><head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>ALT-F Home Page</title>
</head>

<frameset cols="15%,*" FRAMEBORDER="NO" BORDER=0>
<frame name="nav" src="cgi-bin/index.cgi">
<frame name="content" src="cgi-bin/status.cgi">
</frameset>
</html>
And that is all.  

I haven't found anything similar in the forum.

Last thing I remember doing before this started (but many hours before) is to load the packages for both Alt-F and ffp.

So it is not completely bricked, but the closest thing next to that.

A brick is a brick, is a brick, there is nothing close to it :-)

Talandir

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Sep 18, 2012, 6:50:57 PM9/18/12
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El martes, 18 de septiembre de 2012 23:04:18 UTC+2, Joao Cardoso escribió:


On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 8:51:16 PM UTC+1, Talandir wrote:
Hi all,

I flashed Alt-F around three weeks ago (RC2).  It worked properly and was able to set up the RAID on ext-4 hard disks.

Suddenly it stopped responding to the web page, shares and telnet.  The blue light is steady on, and it responds to the main button (to reset or power off).

So Alt-F is working.
 
I tried a reset, turning it off and on again... same result.  Waited for one whole day just in case it was performing an fsck or any other task (even when the blue light was steady).  Still no result.

Tried the 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 40 seconds reset just in case... the box resets itself but same situation.  No telnet on port 26 either.

Are your using a fixed or a dynamic (DHCP) IP? Have you checked your router DHCP server client lease? The box might have changed IP. Can you ping it?
 
Ping doesn't work.  I am using dynamic DHCP, with fixed address in the router.  The DHCP screen doesn't have anything that could be the box in any other address.
 
A strange symptom.  When I try to access with Firefox it splits the screen in two and gives the message of "not responding" on both.  So at least I can be sure the address is right.  It is just not working.

I don't believe on browser "diagnostics". Try pinging the box to make sure that the IP that you are using is right.
 
 No ping.  I also just checked the ARP table and the ethernet address of the DNS is not there either.  Actually this should mean that the response to the web request should just not be there... I'm puzzled.
 
By the way, thank for the firmware and the help.  This system is really great and have many things I was missing from the regular firmware.  I am just starting to fiddle with it.
 
Talandir

Joao Cardoso

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Sep 20, 2012, 10:47:48 AM9/20/12
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On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 11:50:57 PM UTC+1, Talandir wrote:

El martes, 18 de septiembre de 2012 23:04:18 UTC+2, Joao Cardoso escribió:


On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 8:51:16 PM UTC+1, Talandir wrote:
Hi all,

I flashed Alt-F around three weeks ago (RC2).  It worked properly and was able to set up the RAID on ext-4 hard disks.

Suddenly it stopped responding to the web page, shares and telnet.  The blue light is steady on, and it responds to the main button (to reset or power off).

So Alt-F is working.
 
I tried a reset, turning it off and on again... same result.  Waited for one whole day just in case it was performing an fsck or any other task (even when the blue light was steady).  Still no result.

Tried the 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 40 seconds reset just in case... the box resets itself but same situation.  No telnet on port 26 either.

Are your using a fixed or a dynamic (DHCP) IP? Have you checked your router DHCP server client lease? The box might have changed IP. Can you ping it?
 
Ping doesn't work.

So you are not using the right IP, as Alt-F itself is working (the front and back button works)
 
  I am using dynamic DHCP, with fixed address in the router.  The DHCP screen doesn't have anything that could be the box in any other address.

It looks like Alt-F is not getting an IP.
 
 
A strange symptom.  When I try to access with Firefox it splits the screen in two and gives the message of "not responding" on both.  So at least I can be sure the address is right.  It is just not working.

I don't believe on browser "diagnostics". Try pinging the box to make sure that the IP that you are using is right.
 
 No ping.  I also just checked the ARP table and the ethernet address of the DNS is not there either.  Actually this should mean that the response to the web request should just not be there... I'm puzzled.

As  I said, don't believe on browser "diagnostics" for this kind of situations.
You could use 'nmap' to discover all hosts on your network, but if your DHCP router doesn't list the 323, than it might not have an IP.

In order to get and IP, Alt-F uses:

# get an ip using the following priority:
# 1st, use kernel cmd line ip= (kexec or fonz reloaded/"on top")
# 2nd, use defaults stored in flash
# 3d, try to read vendor sib.conf (previous DLink IP, is static)
# 4th, try to use a dhcp server
# 5th, find and use a non-used ip address from 192.168.1.254 to 230 range

-As you have flashed Alt-F, then 1 don't apply.
-When you performed a hard-reset (pressing the back button for more than 20 seconds), all flash saved settings was erased, so 2 and 3 does not apply.
-As your DHCP server does not lists the box, than 4 don't apply.
-So the box must have  the 192.168.1.254 IP (or 192.168.1.252 if 192.168.1.254 is in  use, etc)

Of course, all this assumes a good network cable. Have you tried another one? I know, I know, you have not messed with it, but try another one first.

Talandir

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Sep 20, 2012, 6:29:56 PM9/20/12
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¡¡¡Done!!! Thank you very much.
I tried with another router and voilá!, started working.  It was that particular router port that stopped working, a HW fault.  Lights were on, but not flashing.  I should have suspected and try another port.
By the way, I did try with all those options IP before:  even the original default IP in a completely different range just in case.  A port scanner app can check really quickly.
 
Now I can continue investigating for a way to use ftp from the DNS to an external server.  ftp command is not working, and I don't see a download manager as the one in the original firmware.  I will check the packages and see if I find something..
 
Thank you again.  This is fun!
 
Talandir

Joao Sousa Cardoso

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Sep 20, 2012, 7:16:02 PM9/20/12
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On Thursday 20 September 2012 15:29:56 Talandir wrote:
...

> Now I can continue investigating for a way to use ftp from the DNS to an
> external server. ftp command is not working, and I don't see a download
> manager as the one in the original firmware. I will check the packages and
> see if I find something..

There is no ftp client in Alt-F, try 'wget' in the base firmware of 'curl'
from the libcurl Alt-F package.

PS: is a ftp client really needed in Alt-F? What do people think?

Rolf Larsson

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Sep 22, 2012, 2:25:57 PM9/22/12
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FWIW, I had a similar problem. Booted fine the first time. I shut down, removed the existing drives and popped in two new Seagate barracuda 3TB drives. Restarted - No IP. Subsequent reboots/restarts showed no issues.

I suspect it may have to do with settings not being saved? It complained about the flash space being full.

After pushing the hidden back button for 20+ seconds, it restarted and came back on the expected DHCP address (static assignment via DHCP).

Rob Barclay

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Sep 23, 2012, 6:13:54 PM9/23/12
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Been dealing with the same issue myself. Finally figured out I needed to reserve an address with dhcp using the mac written on the bottom and hit the button on the back for 20+ seconds. Finally came back.

On another note I've never been able to save configurations (always claimed not enough space). The reset apparently resolved that problem as well. Doing better than ever now ;).

Guillaume Jamet

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Sep 30, 2012, 9:39:54 AM9/30/12
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Hi all !

I had the same issue today and began to cry for my dead NAS before I read the "20 secs on reset pin" trick.

Damn... I'll never forget to "save settings" again ! Thanks for the lesson :)
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