As this forum lacks "edit" I guess I will post back updates . I decided to take USB serial port BACK to the Raspberry Pi ... which was not working stable before.. but now .. with this firmware .. I get full console AND shell response after boot (unlike putty with Windows.. which I guess I will table that head scratcher for another day)
Once it boots up.. I followed posting and run "config" . This is with sd 128GB Drive installed (and I did clean mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1 mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda3) on it to clear out data:
#########
[ 13.283578] input: gpio-keys as /devices/platform/gpio-keys/input/input0
[ 13.325840] mtk_soc_eth 1e100000.ethernet eth0: configuring for fixed/rgmii link mode
[ 13.341830] mtk_soc_eth 1e100000.ethernet eth0: Link is Up - 1Gbps/Full - flow control rx/tx
[ 13.358689] IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
[ 13.568198] usb 1-2: new high-speed USB device number 2 using xhci-mtk
ip: SIOCGIFINDEX: No such device
[ 13.759849] hub 1-2:1.0: USB hub found
[ 13.767579] hub 1-2:1.0: 4 ports detected
/init: line 159: blkid: not found
/init: line 169: evtest: not found
[ 15.708217] Searching for partition GNUBEE-ROOT...
[ 15.717762] leds-gpio: probe of gpio-leds failed with error -16
/init: cd: line 10: can't cd to /sys/class/leds/gb-pc1:green:system: No such file or directory
findfs: unable to resolve 'PARTLABEL=GNUBEE-CRYPT-ROOT'
[ 18.563547] random: crng init done
findfs: unable to resolve 'LABEL=GNUBEE-ROOT'
/init: cd: line 10: can't cd to /sys/class/leds/gb-pc1:green:system: No such file or directory
/init: cd: line 10: can't cd to /sys/class/leds/gb-pc1:green:status: No such file or directory
BusyBox v1.30.1 (Debian 1:1.30.1-4) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.
/ # lsblk
sh: lsblk: not found
/ # ip ad
1: lo: <LOOPBACK> mtu 65536 qdisc noop qlen 1000
link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1504 qdisc pfifo_fast qlen 1000
link/ether 6a:0a:26:60:97:42 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
inet6 fe80::680a:26ff:fe60:9742/64 scope link
valid_lft forever preferred_lft forever
3: ethblack@eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop qlen 1000
link/ether 90:50:5a:55:3a:50 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
4: ethblue@eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop qlen 1000
link/ether 90:50:5a:55:3a:51 brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
/ # config
Choose hostname (default gnubee.gnubee): pandora
## Hostname set to pandora
grep: /etc/shadow: No such file or directory
## root password changed
Configure network (ethblack) [s]tatic [d]hcp or [m]anual? s
IP address (192.168.1.10)? 172.16.100.110
Netmask (255.255.255.0)?
Gateway (172.16.100.1)?
DNS server (8.8.8.8)?
## Hostname set to pandora
grep: /etc/shadow: No such file or directory
## root password changed
## network configured -
172.16.100.110/24./config: line 111: ntpdate: not found
## Hostname set to pandora
grep: /etc/shadow: No such file or directory
## root password changed
## network configured -
172.16.100.110/24./config: line 111: ntpdate: not found
## Hostname set to pandora
grep: /etc/shadow: No such file or directory
## root password changed
## network configured -
172.16.100.110/24./config: line 111: ntpdate: not found
<ctrl+c> to break ntp misconfiguration script .. as noted in other posting>
/ # ping 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from
8.8.8.8: seq=0 ttl=55 time=12.939 ms
64 bytes from
8.8.8.8: seq=1 ttl=55 time=14.233 ms
^C
--- 8.8.8.8 ping statistics ---
2 packets transmitted, 2 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max = 12.939/13.586/14.233 ms
/ # cat /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 8.8.8.8
/ # ping
www.google.comping: bad address '
www.google.com'
/ #
As such futher steps to load debian fail