Re: [Fwd: Upgrading kernel on Sheevaplug requires SD card to be removed and re-inserted]

[John Winters <john@sinodun.org.uk>]

Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> * John Winters <john@sinodun.org.uk> [2010-04-15 17:42]:
>> Exactly the same problem again - the new kernel won't boot with the boot
>> loader complaining about "Bad Magic Number".  This time however the
>> renaming trick didn't work.  I've gone backwards and forwards a few
>> times but it just won't boot with the new 2.6.32-2 uImage and uInitrd.
>> I've had to rename them out of the way and put the 2.6.30-2 ones back.
> 
> What's your version of u-boot?  (type "version" in u-boot to find
> out).

3.4.27, upgraded as per your instructions.

I think I may have worked out what the problem is.  As I mentioned in a
separate e-mail to you, my SD card has only two partitions instead of
the three recommended by your installation instructions, and I assumed
when I re-read the instructions earlier today that they must have changed.

However, perhaps they haven't changed - perhaps I just did it for some
demented reason back last year when I first set things up.  Without a
separate /boot partition it might be that the boot loader sometimes can
and sometimes can't load the kernel image files - just like the old days
of ancient BIOSes on PCs.  It would all depend on where on the disc they
happened to end up.

That explanation seems to fit all the observations, if we allow that the
"Bad Magic Number" message is just gibberish and doesn't mean what it
says at all.

I have a spare 8G SD card here so I think tomorrow I'll partition it
with 3 partitions, tar up my existing card and then untar onto the new 3
partition one and see whether that makes a difference.

Cheers,
John