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Helios4 Support


gprovost

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Hello Guys,
Happy Helios4, for some time, user here..

Mine is running 3 disks,

iddle ~7 watts,

working - 20 watts( with very very brief peaks of 50 watts initially.. when disks are in APM 0, and jump to APM 127..).

 

Does any one is running Helios4, with 4 disks in the raid setup?


thanks in advance,

regards

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Hello, I've been using the Helios4 for some time now and its working great. The only thing I'm missing is a soft shut down button, opposed to  using ssh.

 

I'm pretty new to this and struggling to find info on a solution. CAn anyone point me in the right direction for a shutdown button connected through the gpio pins?

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On 8/15/2019 at 9:48 AM, jimbolaya said:

I just received and set up my Helios4. I set it up with Buster and it seems to be working OK.

 

One thing that seems to be missing is the ch341 usb serial driver. I have this attached to an old APC UPS that has a serial port and a USB serial cable that uses the HL-340 serial chip.

 

I was unable to find the driver in /lib/modules. Will I need to compile the driver myself or am I missing a package?

 

If it wasn't included intentionally, is there a technical reason not to include the driver for this kernel?

 

@jimbolaya, I know it's quite late, ch341 driver would be included on next release. Refer to commit 14a0a54.

 

 

On 10/7/2019 at 6:00 PM, smith69085 said:

Hello, I've been using the Helios4 for some time now and its working great. The only thing I'm missing is a soft shut down button, opposed to  using ssh.

 

I'm pretty new to this and struggling to find info on a solution. CAn anyone point me in the right direction for a shutdown button connected through the gpio pins?

@smith69085, we have updated the wiki page how to use the GPIO  for button. You can take a look on

https://wiki.kobol.io/gpio/#use-gpio-with-device-tree-overlay

 

But currently the base dtb (armada-388-helios4.dtb) on Armbian 5.91 is still not compiled with overlay support.  You can download the attached dtb, rename and replace the dtb on your system.

 

 

lk4.14_armada-388-helios4.dtb is for Armbian Default (Stretch, Linux Kernel 4.14)

sudo cp lk4.14_armada-388-helios4.dtb /boot/dtb/armada-388-helios4.dtb

 

 

lk4.19_armada-388-helios4.dtb is for Armbian Next (Buster, Linux Kernel 4.19)

 

sudo cp lk4.19_armada-388-helios4.dtb /boot/dtb/armada-388-helios4.dtb

 

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9 hours ago, aprayoga said:

 

@smith69085, we have updated the wiki page how to use the GPIO  for button. You can take a look on

https://wiki.kobol.io/gpio/#use-gpio-with-device-tree-overlay

 

But currently the base dtb (armada-388-helios4.dtb) on Armbian 5.91 is still not compiled with overlay support.  You can download the attached dtb, rename and replace the dtb on your system.

 

 

lk4.14_armada-388-helios4.dtb is for Armbian Default (Stretch, Linux Kernel 4.14)


sudo cp lk4.14_armada-388-helios4.dtb /boot/dtb/armada-388-helios4.dtb

 

 

lk4.19_armada-388-helios4.dtb is for Armbian Next (Buster, Linux Kernel 4.19)

 


sudo cp lk4.19_armada-388-helios4.dtb /boot/dtb/armada-388-helios4.dtb

 

 

That looks perfect thank you for this.

 

I have followed through the wiki to set up the power-button.dtbo and double checked myself today, but I'm having a problem.

When booting the power button is not loading. It is looking for ' /boot/dtb/overlay/armada-388-helios4-fixup.scr' which is missing.

 

Applying user provided DT overlay power-button.dtbo

** File not found /boot/dtb/overlay/armada-388-helios4-fixup.scr **

The address of the fdt is 0x2040000

** Bad device specification 0:1 /boot/overlay-user/power-button **

** Bad device specification 0:1 /boot/overlay-user/power-button **

## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 02880000 ...

 

 

This may be unrelated / unimportant, but I had this come up when creating the dtbo

 

admin@helios4:~$ ./dtc -I dts -O dtb -o power-button.dtbo power-button.dts
power-button.dtbo: Warning (unit_address_vs_reg): Node /fragment@0 has a unit name, but no reg property
 

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I am running into a strange issue I can't seem to resolve. Recently I've noticed that some of my drives have stopped responding (I figured bad drives), but upon testing them in another system, they work just fine. I have wiped my system and made a new SD with the latest image, but cannot log in via the COM port (Windows 10). I have followed the instructions given on the Wiki to ensure I've done the right steps.

 

The device itself has a few lights (if it helps): (1) green light by the power port, (2) LED1 near the reset button, and (3) blinking yellow light on the LAN port.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This has been a good headache so far.

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On 10/26/2019 at 10:23 AM, lloyd094 said:

The device itself has a few lights (if it helps): (1) green light by the power port, (2) LED1 near the reset button, and (3) blinking yellow light on the LAN port.

 

Based on what you say it seems LED1 is ON, but do you see it blinking ?

If yes, then it means your system is up and running, therefore your issue is effectively on establishing the serial connection.

If no,  then it means something else is wrong and that could explain why you don't see anything on the serial console.

 

image.png.6f6facfc49a21d018b2fe006c59198ec.png

 

 

 

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On 10/28/2019 at 8:16 PM, gprovost said:

 

Based on what you say it seems LED1 is ON, but do you see it blinking ?

If yes, then it means your system is up and running, therefore your issue is effectively on establishing the serial connection.

If no,  then it means something else is wrong and that could explain why you don't see anything on the serial console.

 

image.png.6f6facfc49a21d018b2fe006c59198ec.png

 

 

 

 

LED1 is blinking, but I'm wondering if somehow the board is dying? It might explain why the hard drives started dropping like flies on the system itself, but when I tested them elsewhere they were fine. 

 

When it comes to the Com port connection, I set it up myself when I first got the device. Now it doesn't seem to want to communicate at all, and I've tried connecting with two different computers (both Win10). 

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2 hours ago, lloyd094 said:

LED1 is blinking, but I'm wondering if somehow the board is dying? It might explain why the hard drives started dropping like flies on the system itself, but when I tested them elsewhere they were fine. 

 

Do you have multimeter/voltmeter? Could you measure DC voltage on molex power connector shown on photo below?

 

Voltage_measurement_molex.thumb.jpg.bd600e6195da58950a1875b31dbb42ef.jpg

 

Expected measured value,

on 5V rail: 4.90 V - 5.20 V

on 12V rail: 11.90 V - 12.5 V

 

If 5V is outside that range, that mean the onboard regulator is faulty (board problem).

If 12V is outside that range, that mean the power supply is faulty.

 

 

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18 hours ago, gprovost said:

 

Do you have multimeter/voltmeter? Could you measure DC voltage on molex power connector shown on photo below?

 

Voltage_measurement_molex.thumb.jpg.bd600e6195da58950a1875b31dbb42ef.jpg

 

Expected measured value,

on 5V rail: 4.90 V - 5.20 V

on 12V rail: 11.90 V - 12.5 V

 

If 5V is outside that range, that mean the onboard regulator is faulty (board problem).

If 12V is outside that range, that mean the power supply is faulty.

 

 

 

Just tested - fortunately (or unfortunately), DC voltage on both molex connectors appear to be within the listed values above.

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13 minutes ago, lloyd094 said:

Just tested - fortunately (or unfortunately), DC voltage on both molex connectors appear to be within the listed values above.

 

Ok then it's time to share some logs in order to see what happen when the disks drop from the system. Start your system with the HDDs connected and run from the terminal armbianmonitor -u then post the generated url link here.

 

How long your system has been running without issue before you start realizing this issue with dropping HDD ?

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6 minutes ago, gprovost said:

 

Ok then it's time to share some logs in order to see what happen when the disks drop from the system. Start your system with the HDDs connected and run from the terminal armbianmonitor -u then post the generated url link here.

 

How long your system has been running without issue before you start realizing this issue with dropping HDD ?

Hey, so that's part of the problem - I can't seem to log in via the Com port. No matter what I do, or on what computer I've tried, I cannot get the com port to show up. 

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22 minutes ago, lloyd094 said:

Hey, so that's part of the problem - I can't seem to log in via the Com port. No matter what I do, or on what computer I've tried, I cannot get the com port to show up. 

 

Do you see under Windows device manager a device detected as something like 'USB Serial Port (COMxx)' ?

 

Are you able to connect via SSH ?

 

How do you know the HDDs drop if you can't connect to the console / terminal ?

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3 minutes ago, gprovost said:

 

Do you see under Windows device manager a device detected as something like 'USB Serial Port (COMxx)' ?

 

Are you able to connect via SSH ?

 

How do you know the HDDs drop if you can't connect to the console / terminal ?

 

Unfortunately, no - nothing as a COM port is shown, even with the drivers as instructed in the wiki. It simply doesn't show anything.

 

As for SSH and the HDD drop, I wiped the system when I was first troubleshooting because I thought it was the installation itself that got borked. So beforehand, I remember looking though via SSH seeing errors saying that the system could not find the HDDs as previously mentioned. At one point in troubleshooting it appeared that part of it could have been due to connections with the wiring, but it didn't seem to be the wires themselves - hence why I think the board possibly died.

So, the only option I can do to get into the device is through the COM port so I can finish setting up the new OS image.

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1 hour ago, lloyd094 said:

Unfortunately, no - nothing as a COM port is shown, even with the drivers as instructed in the wiki. It simply doesn't show anything.

 

Have you try with another usb cable ? I have already experienced more than once a usb cable with the microUSB side a bit quirky.

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31 minutes ago, gprovost said:

 

Have you try with another usb cable ? I have already experienced more than once a usb cable with the microUSB side a bit quirky.

 

Well, I went through probably 5 beforehand. Guess the sixth one worked. Unfortunately I can only get so far though, as i get a loop upon attempting to set password (I've reimaged the SD card a few times to be sure):

Debian Buster with Armbian Linux ttyS0

helios4 login: root
Password:
You are required to change your password immediately (administrator enforced)
Changing password for root.
Current password:

Authentication token manipulat
Debian Buster with Armbian Linux ttyS0

 

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13 minutes ago, gprovost said:

@lloyd094  Just to be sure, at the prompt 'Current password' you enter again 1234 ?

 

Wow. I feel incredibly stupid. Well, thanks for the help on that. I'll play with it tomorrow, and I'll see if it all goes smoothly. I hope the system was just borked instead of something going bad. 

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Okay, I finally got things up and going system-wise. The updated OS actually seems a good deal more stable than the image I originally had too!

 

However, I am still running into the issue of not getting all my drives detected. I have four 5TB HDDs in the system, though it only appears to detect two of them.

 

armbianmonitor -u

 

I appreciate the help so far!

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@lloyd094 Based on the logs effectively something is wrong with disks attached to SATA port 1 and port 2. Hard to guess what's the root cause.

[   11.593597] ata1: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   11.594024] ata2: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   21.593168] ata2: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   21.593809] ata1: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   56.593597] ata2: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   56.593600] ata2: limiting SATA link speed to 3.0 Gbps
[   56.594023] ata1: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   56.594026] ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 3.0 Gbps
[   61.805168] ata2: softreset failed (device not ready)
[   61.805171] ata2: reset failed, giving up
[   61.813167] ata1: softreset failed (device not ready)
[   61.813170] ata1: reset failed, giving up

You will have to do the following tests in the exact sequence in order to narrow down the issue.

1. Disconnect the disks connected to SATA port 3 and 4, and see after reboot if then suddenly SATA port 1 and 2 works. If it works, then maybe still an issue with the PSU.

2. Use the cables that was used for SATA port 3 and 4 for SATA port 1 and 2. If it works, then could be bad SATA cables.

3. Use the HDD that was connected to SATA port 3 and 4 with SATA port 1 and 2. If it works, then could be HDD issue, if it doesn't then can be a board issue.

 

I mean you see the logic, we need to narrow down the issue to understand the root cause.

 

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On 11/3/2019 at 6:56 PM, gprovost said:

@lloyd094 Based on the logs effectively something is wrong with disks attached to SATA port 1 and port 2. Hard to guess what's the root cause.


[   11.593597] ata1: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   11.594024] ata2: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   21.593168] ata2: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   21.593809] ata1: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   56.593597] ata2: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   56.593600] ata2: limiting SATA link speed to 3.0 Gbps
[   56.594023] ata1: softreset failed (1st FIS failed)
[   56.594026] ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 3.0 Gbps
[   61.805168] ata2: softreset failed (device not ready)
[   61.805171] ata2: reset failed, giving up
[   61.813167] ata1: softreset failed (device not ready)
[   61.813170] ata1: reset failed, giving up

You will have to do the following tests in the exact sequence in order to narrow down the issue.

1. Disconnect the disks connected to SATA port 3 and 4, and see after reboot if then suddenly SATA port 1 and 2 works. If it works, then maybe still an issue with the PSU.

2. Use the cables that was used for SATA port 3 and 4 for SATA port 1 and 2. If it works, then could be bad SATA cables.

3. Use the HDD that was connected to SATA port 3 and 4 with SATA port 1 and 2. If it works, then could be HDD issue, if it doesn't then can be a board issue.

 

I mean you see the logic, we need to narrow down the issue to understand the root cause.

 

 

Thanks for providing me with the instructions to follow for troubleshooting. I believe that it is indeed a board issue unfortunately:

Sequence 1 | Sequence 2 | Sequence 3

 

Let me know if there's something else I should try, and as always thanks for the help.

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9 minutes ago, lloyd094 said:

Thanks for providing me with the instructions to follow for troubleshooting. I believe that it is indeed a board issue unfortunately:

Sequence 1 | Sequence 2 | Sequence 3

 

Let me know if there's something else I should try, and as always thanks for the help.

 

Yeah something is really no quite right here. Actually in Test 2 one of the HDD is detected, so could still be a SATA cable/connection issue.

 

Any chance you have some spare SATA cable from somewhere else that you could try ?

 

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25 minutes ago, gprovost said:

 

Yeah something is really no quite right here. Actually in Test 2 one of the HDD is detected, so could still be a SATA cable/connection issue.

 

Any chance you have some spare SATA cable from somewhere else that you could try ?

 

 

Actually I do! I replaced them, but no luck :-/ http://ix.io/20Qt

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@lloyd094 Well based on your log now HDDs connected to port 1 and port 3 are detected... so there is no more logic here :/

Can you just test each port one by one with one the SATA cable we know work.

 

I don't know why but I still feel some is wrong either with SATA cable or the PSU.

 

I mean understand, if you sent us the board we are happy to test it and fix it if effectively there is an issue with it. It's just it would be a waste of time and shipping fees if we realize the issue is something else.

 

 

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48 minutes ago, gprovost said:

@lloyd094 Well based on your log now HDDs connected to port 1 and port 3 are detected... so there is no more logic here :/

Can you just test each port one by one with one the SATA cable we know work.

 

I don't know why but I still feel some is wrong either with SATA cable or the PSU.

 

I mean understand, if you sent us the board we are happy to test it and fix it if effectively there is an issue with it. It's just it would be a waste of time and shipping fees if we realize the issue is something else.

 

 

 

Okay - I have tested each drive twice: once on SATA_1 and once on SATA_4. Here's the results:

 

Alpha   

SATA_4 | http://ix.io/20Qx
SATA_1 | http://ix.io/20Qy
Beta 

SATA_4 | http://ix.io/20QB
SATA_1 | http://ix.io/20QA
Charlie

SATA_4 | http://ix.io/20QD
SATA_1 | http://ix.io/20QE
Delta     

SATA_4 | http://ix.io/20QH
SATA_1 | http://ix.io/20QG
(Delta has click of death - time to RMA this one)

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@lloyd094 When you did the test (drive by drive), all the other drives are disconnected even from the power yes ?

 

Effectively your 'delta' disk might have issue, but could also be a faulty power cable or sata cable.

Anyway I think it's better we stop the test here. The results don't make any sense and I don't think we are going to find out the real issue.

 

Please PM me in order to discuss the return of the board for us to test it and fix / replace it if necessary... or any other parts (PSU or cable) that could be the cause.

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