Bug#851469: flash-kernel: ARM new boot.scr does not allow the device to boot

[permondes - sagen <sagen@permondes.de>]

Am Montag, den 16.01.2017, 00:14 +0100 schrieb Karsten Merker:
> On Sun, Jan 15, 2017 at 08:24:37PM +0100, permondes - sagen wrote:
> > Am Sonntag, den 15.01.2017, 12:39 +0100 schrieb Karsten Merker:
> > > On Sun, Jan 15, 2017 at 12:02:56PM +0100, permondes - sagen wrote:
> [...]
> 
> To make sure that we are talking about the same thing here: You
> wrote before that you have no way to access the u-boot prompt, so
> how do you know what your current u-boot environment looks like? 
> Is it perhaps possible that you mix up the u-boot environment and
> the Linux shell environment?  The boot.scr is not executed by a
> Linux shell; u-boot has its own internal bourne-shell-style
> scripting language and has its own shell environment, which is
> completely separate from any Linux shell environment.

You are right, I have been talking about the Linux shell not the u-boot
environment. Sorry, my mistake.

> 
> > My understanding is, that this strange behavior is due to a transition
> > that happened in the Freedombox project. So I will ask them to provide
> > updated live images to start with a fresh and correct system instead of
> > wasting time and trying to solve this particular case. 
> 
> Could you (after making an image backup of your SD card so that
> you can easily restore the previous setup) please try the
> following procedure on the LIME:
> 
> $ sudo apt-get install u-boot-sunxi
> $ sudo dd if=/usr/lib/u-boot/A20-OLinuXino-Lime/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1k seek=8
> $ sudo dd if=/dev/zero bs=1k count=128 seek=544 of=/dev/mmcblk0
> $ sudo flash-kernel
> $ sync
> $ sudo reboot
> 
> This should (at least in theory) provide you with a booting
> system, unless there is some freedombox-specific mechanism
> that modifies the boot.scr behind flash-kernel's back.
> 
> Regards,
> Karsten

Hi Karsten,
I followed your instructions to the letter:

> $ sudo apt-get install u-boot-sunxi
> u-boot-sunxi ist schon die neueste Version (2016.11+dfsg1-3).
> 0 aktualisiert, 0 neu installiert, 0 zu entfernen und 0 nicht aktualisiert.
> 
> $ sudo dd if=/usr/lib/u-boot/A20-OLinuXino-Lime/u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1k seek=8
> 471+1 Datensätze ein
> 471+1 Datensätze aus
> 482846 Bytes (483 kB, 472 KiB) kopiert, 0,0468861 s, 10,3 MB/s
> 
> $ sudo dd if=/dev/zero bs=1k count=128 seek=544 of=/dev/mmcblk0
> 128+0 Datensätze ein
> 128+0 Datensätze aus
> 131072 Bytes (131 kB, 128 KiB) kopiert, 0,0190237 s, 6,9 MB/s
> 
> $ sudo flash-kernel
> DTB: sun7i-a20-olinuxino-lime.dtb
> Installing /usr/lib/linux-image-4.8.0-2-armmp-lpae/sun7i-a20-olinuxino-lime.dtb into /boot/dtbs/4.8.0-2-armmp-lpae/sun7i-a20-olinuxino-lime.dtb
> Taking backup of sun7i-a20-olinuxino-lime.dtb.
> Installing new sun7i-a20-olinuxino-lime.dtb.
> flash-kernel: installing version 4.8.0-2-armmp-lpae
> Generating boot script u-boot image... done.
> Taking backup of boot.scr.
> Installing new boot.scr.
> 
> $ sync
> 
> $ sudo reboot
> Connection to ... closed by remote host.
> Connection to ... closed.

As I could not ssh into it even after 5 minutes (usually it booted in 1-2 mins.), I tried with

> nmap -p 80 --open -sV <IPadress>/24

but the device was not shown. Also the router web interface did not show it. 

I reverted to the old (Freedombox) boot.scr and it re-appeared. 

We can give up any time. I have a work around for the moment and can ask the Freedombox people to generate a new image with the current u-boot environment.

Thanks,
Dietmar