beagleboard stopped booting after new image. Not booting from SD card

[netem...@gmail.com]

I have a rev D beagleboard which I have been using for more than a year. I was using the ubuntu release ubuntu-12.10-console-armhf-2013-03-28 and the board had been running fine. I decided to upgrade to a new release so that I could experiment some more. On a new kingston SD card I purchased,I installed  ubuntu-14.04-console-armhf-2014-06-05 and replaced the SD card but all I could see was the beagleboard orange logo. After trying it a few times , I tried to put the old SD card with the ubuntu-12.10 back but I saw the same thing. I suspected that somehow some configuration had been overwritten and so decided to use flasher (the mk_mmc script to replaced Uboot/env but nothing happened. I erased portions of NAND and then ended up erasing the NAND on the board completely.I then tried to create another flasher using the command

 sudo ./mk_mmc.sh --mmc /dev/mmcblk0 --uboot beagle_cx

using another new patriot card but all I see is the 40W message. Seems like its not reading from the SD card at all. I doubt if my board connection has gone bad all of a sudden. How do I debug/fix this. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

P.S: I tried to use fdisk on another card to create a linux disk image separately but then I could not figure out where to copy the latest MLO/Uboot from.

[Robert Nelson]

Sorry about that, i "should" be working again now.. This was a server
side change, i never know when i can fully "eol" something on the
server side.

Regards,

--
Robert Nelson
http://www.rcn-ee.com/

[netem...@gmail.com]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for the quick reply. I do not fully understand. What was broken in the server and what do I need to do to fix it ? Did I download an incorrect image/flasher ? Even in that case the image which I downloaded a year ago should work ? How do I unbrick the board with the latest MLO and UBoot now ?

[Robert Nelson]

On Sat, Jun 14, 2014 at 11:36 AM, <netem...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Robert,
>
> Thanks for the quick reply. I do not fully understand. What was broken in
> the server and what do I need to do to fix it ?

The script calls my server to download the correct bootloader for the
end device. This allows me to upgrade the bootloader when needed on
shipped images. About a year ago i changed the server side abi. With
the plan to eol the abi this month.. Which i did.. SO I just reverted
it, you should be able to re-run the "setup_sdcard.sh" script.. it'll
get the old bootloader once again.

BUT note, unless you are running something ancient (Debian Wheezy or
ubuntu 13.10 erra) there is known bugs in the setup_sdcard.sh shipped
from "ubuntu-12.10-console-armhf-2013-03-28" with newer userspace
tools fdisk/etc..

> Did I download an incorrect
> image/flasher ? Even in that case the image which I downloaded a year ago
> should work ? How do I unbrick the board with the latest MLO and UBoot now ?

It's not bricked. Just run "nand erase.chip" from u-boot over the
serial console.

By running the flasher you flashed a version of u-boot into nand that
only knows about device tree's, thus breaking the old 12.10 image.

I "know" video is broken on the beagle cx with my current releases..

[netem...@gmail.com]

Thanks again. I tried the new flasher but it was of no use.(mk_mmc.sh script). It is possibly not compatible with the new fdisk tools ? What solution do you recommend now in absence of mk_mmc.sh/ setup_sdcard.sh. Here is the the current state of my card. I already did nand erase and cannot get any prompt via the serial port/USB but the 40W message only if user button is pressed. Do I need to format the sdcard manually and use new MLO/Uboot images.
Where is the path to those. ?

Once I get to use UBoot, which stable release do you recommend with it. I do not care about the gui but just want to be able to get to a prompt.

[Robert Nelson]

On Sun, Jun 15, 2014 at 2:57 PM, <netem...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks again. I tried the new flasher but it was of no use.(mk_mmc.sh
> script). It is possibly not compatible with the new fdisk tools ? What
> solution do you recommend now in absence of mk_mmc.sh/ setup_sdcard.sh. Here
> is the the current state of my card. I already did nand erase and cannot get
> any prompt via the serial port/USB but the 40W message only if user button
> is pressed. Do I need to format the sdcard manually and use new MLO/Uboot
> images.
> Where is the path to those. ?

"40W" means the bootloader never got installed, or the partition was
not setup correct.

So retry: "ubuntu-12.10-console-armhf-2013-03-28" with setup_sdcard.sh

> Once I get to use UBoot, which stable release do you recommend with it. I do
> not care about the gui but just want to be able to get to a prompt.

Okay, if you don't care about a gui, just use this one:

http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#BeagleBoard_xM

It'll work just fine on the classic beagle.

[netem...@gmail.com]

I have tried both with new as well as existing cards but no change in behavior. All I see is a 40W. I only see one LED light up  on the board. Is there a way to get Uboot/MLO to the board through serial port perhaps without an SD card. I have even tried linux boot format using fdisk and then copying the files one by one. Thanks for your help again.

[Robert Nelson]

On Sun, Jun 15, 2014 at 6:03 PM, <netem...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have tried both with new as well as existing cards but no change in
> behavior. All I see is a 40W. I only see one LED light up on the board. Is
> there a way to get Uboot/MLO to the board through serial port perhaps
> without an SD card. I have even tried linux boot format using fdisk and then
> copying the files one by one. Thanks for your help again.

Really? Even with that last image i linked too? Or didn't you try the
"dd-able" *.img?

http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu#BeagleBoard_xM

[netem...@gmail.com]

I did try the de-able image as well. Would try again on another SD card just to be safe. It seems like somehow it is not able to change boot sequence even after the user button is pressed ? Is the board bad ? Is there a way to load MLO through serial port. ?