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single user mode ?


arhi

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Something happened to my armbian, I executed rather simple find --execute grep ... troughout the whole sd card, it froze and will not boot any more .. attached a hdmi display (orangepi one is the board in question) and I see it boots the kernel and then just "rebooting..." and reboots and does that in a loop...

 

on a normal linux running grub bootloader I'd stop the boot and add "single" to the kernel parameters, it will ignore all the boot scripts and after booting the kernel would drop me directly into shell as root so I can investigate wth is going on... anything similar I can do to armbian?

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install the u-boot tools (forgot the package name) and then mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr.. if you make changes to boot.cmd

 

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15 minutes ago, chwe said:

install the u-boot tools (forgot the package name) and then mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr.. if you make changes to boot.cmd

 

 

problem is I can't get the darn thing to boot ... can't install anything on it... can edit sd card outside on the regular x86 linux that's all

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u-boot tools should also work on x86 machines (in fact, during the build of images those boot.cmd 's are also compiled on a x86 machine). To my knowledge as long as you set the right flags this should work.

 

mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr

 

I don't play long with bootscripts, so make a backup of the boot.scr before you recompile it... You can easy mess things up there (and if you're not that experienced with it, it drives you nuts until you figure out what's wrong with it)...

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clear, so I should make new files on the build env I have, that makes sense ... anyhow I Was not changing boot.cmd, the url https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_Fine-Tuning/#how-to-toogle-verbose-boot said it's enough to change verbosity= line in /boot/armbianEnv.txt from 1 to higher number (7 is max) and touch /boot/.force-verbose so I did not touch /boot/boot.cmd (and boot.cmd is already set to "both" so both serial and hdmi are showing output) .. problem is nothing in output makes sense :(

 

lemme try to record it with hero as phone camera fails to properly focus

 

 

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not sure what *** Warning - bad CRC, using default environment

actually means .. is it reporting crc error in bootloader? sd card? what's "default env" in this context ?

 

looks like safest thing to do is reinstall the darn thing and restore backup from image

 

the weirdest thing, it was working great for a while, then I did "find / -type f -exec grep 101 {} \; " and after 5-6 minutes it crashed linux and wouldn't boot after that

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hmm I don't like videos, but yeah you don't have much other possibilities to show what's going on... 

 

First a USB-UART would help yo in case something is visible on uart but not on hdmi, second starting Kernel is normally the last message you get from u-boot before the kernel controls output.. So it seems that he is only shortly able to post something on your HDMI before it f*cks up (maybe he talks a bit more to you on console, might be interesting... )..  But a good thing.. boot.scr (that's where your bootscript lives, which gives u-boot the possibility to set bootargs for the kernel) seems to be loaded and executed properly.. so you can set 'debug commands'  for the kernel.. So there's still hope.. :) but I think you should record when possible on serial console rather than HDMI and hope that the kernel isn't that shy to talk to you.. :P  

cp boot.scr boot.scr.orig

edit boot.cmd with the arguments you want to send to the kernel from u-boot (sitting in bootargs=blablabla)

mkimage -C none -A arm -T script -d /boot/boot.cmd /boot/boot.scr

Cause you consider starting from plain again.. there's not much you can lose...  :)  

Edit: your u-boot talks much more to you that the one I'm currently working with.. Makes things easier..  :P 

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noone likes videos but at least I didn't enclose video in word document :D

 

I have bunch of usb/uart adapters around will attach one now but I doubt I'll see anything new since boot is already set to send data to both devices so I doubt I'll get more on uart but to be on the safe side - testing in few minutes :D

 

now I don't mind editing and compiling boot.cmd but any arts you think would be useful?

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well, hooking up serial was def a good idea... more info (useful info) there ..

Autoboot in 1 seconds, press <Space> to stop
switch to partitions #0, OK
mmc0 is current device
Scanning mmc 0:1...
Found U-Boot script /boot/boot.scr
3550 bytes read in 223 ms (14.6 KiB/s)
## Executing script at 43100000
U-boot loaded from SD
Boot script loaded from mmc
166 bytes read in 192 ms (0 Bytes/s)
4086840 bytes read in 526 ms (7.4 MiB/s)
5818864 bytes read in 595 ms (9.3 MiB/s)
Found mainline kernel configuration
26231 bytes read in 452 ms (56.6 KiB/s)
374 bytes read in 549 ms (0 Bytes/s)
Applying kernel provided DT overlay sun8i-h3-i2c0.dtbo
4179 bytes read in 407 ms (9.8 KiB/s)
Applying kernel provided DT fixup script (sun8i-h3-fixup.scr)
## Executing script at 44000000
## Loading init Ramdisk from Legacy Image at 43300000 ...
   Image Name:   uInitrd
   Image Type:   ARM Linux RAMDisk Image (gzip compressed)
   Data Size:    4086776 Bytes = 3.9 MiB
   Load Address: 00000000
   Entry Point:  00000000
   Verifying Checksum ... OK
## Flattened Device Tree blob at 43000000
   Booting using the fdt blob at 0x43000000
   Loading Ramdisk to 49c1a000, end 49fffbf8 ... OK
   reserving fdt memory region: addr=43000000 size=7000
   Loading Device Tree to 49c10000, end 49c19fff ... OK
                     
                                                                                
Starting kernel ...
                                                         
Uncompressing Linux... done, booting the kernel.
Loading, please wait...
Begin: Loading essential drivers ... done.
Begin: Running /scripts/init-premount ... done.
Begin: Mounting root file system ... Begin: Running /scripts/local-top ... done.
                                                                              
Begin: Running /scripts/local-premount ... Scanning for Btrfs filesystems
done.
Begin: Will now check root file system ... fsck from util-linux 2.25.2
[/sbin/fsck.ext4 (1) -- /dev/mmcblk0p1] fsck.ext4 -a -C0 /dev/mmcblk0p1 
/dev/mmcblk0p1: recovering journal
/dev/mmcblk0p1: Superblock needs_recovery flag is clear, but journal has data.
/dev/mmcblk0p1: Run journal anyway
                                                                                
/dev/mmcblk0p1: UNEXPECTED INCONSISTENCY; RUN fsck MANUALLY.
	       (i.e., without -a or -p options)
fsck exited with status code 4
done.
                                                                         
Failure: File system check of the root filesystem failed
The root filesystem on /dev/mmcblk0p1 requires a manual fsck
Rebooting automatically due to panic= boot argument
                   

weird fsck failure but I did a fsck of an image already and wrote the image on top of the SD already ... hm .. weird .. will have to put the card directly on to linux and do fsck of the card that might work..

 

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looks like a dead bloody card :( ... you write to it, it ignores writes ?!?!?!?! have not had this before .. wow .. well you learn something new every day :D thanks for help I'd probbly never put the serial on my own :D

 

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So I'll move this one two to the famous crappy SD-Card/PSU section as well (it was maybe not that crappy in the beginning but for sure.. now it is).... Just out of curiosity.. before you throw away the SD card... Can you format it with whatever you use.. and then let F3 or h2testw running and post the result you get here... It would enhance our collection of 'It's not a software problem - your SD card is crappy' (not to blame you for something, just to show people that those ideas of 'crappy/dead sd-cards' isn't only a myth.. otherwise people start to believe that SD-Cards life forever... :D). 

 

21 minutes ago, arhi said:

well you learn something new every day :D thanks for help I'd probbly never put the serial on my own :D

and to my shame.. I came up with UART a way to late.. It's normally the first recommendation... 

43 minutes ago, arhi said:

boot is already set to send data to both devices so I doubt I'll get more on uart but to be on the safe side

well... I quoted this just for fun... :P 

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29 minutes ago, chwe said:

So I'll move this one two to the famous crappy SD-Card/PSU section as well

 

PSU was the first thing I tested. Then I made IMG of the card (worked flawlesly), then loaded that img on linux, fsckd it and it had errors that were easily fixed and stored back into IMG. Then I dd img to the card and it went "ok" ... but nothing was solved .. running in circles, on and on and ... when you suggested serial it's when I seen the darn thing was not able to fsck the card...

This is no-name, made in corea, 8G class 6 SD card that came with one of the raspbery pi boards I think or with some other hardware... but it's bin working 24/7 for few years so I don't care if it died it was worth it :D and the way it died is actually interesting - it switched to read-only mode. What I do dislike is that it does not report ANY error for writing. Any write you execute is "ok", and of course you read it ok from cache so you think it's there. You remove the card and dang no changes made.

 

Quote

Can you format it with whatever you use.. and then let F3 or h2testw running and post the result you get here

 

nope, I dd /dev/zero to card and it shows that card is zeroed, I remove card, return it and the old content is there... no way to write anything to card, it's ignoring writes (silently) ...

 

Quote

well... I quoted this just for fun...

 

:D:D:D

the problem is my mini 7" hdmi screen was already there as I'm conteplating some project so I hooked the screen instead of uart and was expecting "same output" .. but looks like that "both" thing don't really work :(

 

Thanks again! now copying, resizing, copying, repairing... to move this to a higher quality kingstop 4G card :D

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27 minutes ago, arhi said:

 

Quote

Can you format it with whatever you use.. and then let F3 or h2testw running and post the result you get here

 

nope, I dd /dev/zero to card and it shows that card is zeroed, I remove card, return it and the old content is there... no way to write anything to card, it's ignoring writes (silently) ...

that confirms also that the crappy card is dead.. and that this can fool you cause 'everything looks fine'... Read only is mostly a clear sign that things gone wrong.. And your cheap card costs you in fact more if you count the time you wasted to debug it.. :P (but you learned something, this might be worth for the future)... 

 

27 minutes ago, arhi said:

the problem is my mini 7" hdmi screen was already there as I'm conteplating some project so I hooked the screen instead of uart and was expecting "same output" .. but looks like that "both" thing don't really work :(

It works to the point were everything works as expected... My personal opinion, everyone who deals with SBCs should spend 1-2$ for a USB-UART (IMO every board >20$ should be sent with a el cheapo USB-UART, but different story). Reporting kernel-output to UART works even with a 'near to death' kernel, whereas HDMI.... 

you figured it out by your own.. It struggles earlier..  All the HDMI port's on my SBCs are 'virgin' cause they are either running headless over Ethernet or connected via UART during troubleshooting. 

 

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I'v seen many dead SD cards, from camera's opi's, rpi's .. but never like this, that it lies to you that writes go trough but it's just silently ignoring them .. one more thing to check for in future :D

 

as for spending 1-2$ for usb-uart, I think I have more then a 100 of those around the house :D .. electronics is my passion and you need those non stop and everywhere :D I just trusted in hdmi (for the first time to be honest, the darn thing arrived few days ago and I was thinking if I might want to setup octoprint or some custom made system with some touch screen since I'm making a new enclosure for multiple printers with heated chambers, special part for all the electronics etc etc.. so the screen was "handy" :( .. well, one learn while one lives :D

 

usb-uart.jpg

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