beaglebone + emergency boot

GoogleGroups
1

I am using the beaglebone and have effectively generated 3 types of SD card.

a) Angstrom OS as original but uses a fixed IP address, Samba installed + used Swot to share contents on a Windows network + USB stick read/write capabilities.
b) as (a) but uses Debian Wheezy distribution. (as detailed http://elinux.org/BeagleBoarddebian)
c) as (a) but uses Ubuntu distribution (as detailed http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardUbuntu)

Everything initially seems fine BUT after a time period of non-use (days), or perhaps just a time period, some odd things seem to happen - and this has now happened more than once so is not just chance!.

(b) seems to be fine, boots up as expected and places itself on the network etc…

Both (a) + © however refuse to boot as normal and enter an emergency mode - hence no network etc. Sometimes however © seems to boot better and sets up the expected network (you can see it when scanning) but NO open ports as expected!

(a)
U-Boot SPL 2011.09-00000-gf63b270-dirty (Apr 24 2012 - 09:51:01)
Texas Instruments Revision detection unimplemented
No AC power, disabling frequency switch
OMAP SD/MMC: 0
reading u-boot.img
reading u-boot.img

U-Boot 2011.09-00000-gf63b270-dirty (Apr 24 2012 - 09:51:01)

I2C: ready
DRAM: 256 MiB
No daughter card present
NAND: HW ECC Hamming Code selected
No NAND device found!!!
0 MiB
MMC: OMAP SD/MMC: 0
*** Warning - readenv() failed, using default environment

Net: cpsw
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
SD/MMC found on device 0
reading uEnv.txt

33 bytes read
Loaded environment from uEnv.txt
Importing environment from mmc …
Loading file “/boot/uImage” from mmc device 0:2 xxa2
3319064 bytes read

Booting kernel from Legacy Image at 80007fc0 …

Image Name: Angstrom/3.2.23/beaglebone
Image Type: ARM Linux Kernel Image (uncompressed)
Data Size: 3319000 Bytes = 3.2 MiB
Load Address: 80008000
Entry Point: 80008000
Verifying Checksum … OK
XIP Kernel Image … OK
OK

Starting kernel …

Uncompressing Linux… done, booting the kernel.
systemd-fsck[51]: Angstrom: clean, 50148/218592 files, 321822/873534 blocks

©
always starts but later depends upon whether network bit part working:

U-Boot SPL 2011.09-dirty (Feb 27 2012 - 10:01:37)
Texas Instruments Revision detection unimplemented
No AC power, disabling frequency switch
OMAP SD/MMC: 0
reading u-boot.img
reading u-boot.img

U-Boot 2011.09-dirty (Feb 27 2012 - 10:01:37)

I2C: ready
DRAM: 256 MiB
No daughter card present
NAND: HW ECC Hamming Code selected
No NAND device found!!!
0 MiB
MMC: OMAP SD/MMC: 0
*** Warning - readenv() failed, using default environment

I have tried going back into my history and it almost looks as if Swot might have something to do with things, but have yet to prove this + why is Debian OK but the other 2 not + why the long time delay before things go wrong?

Any ideas please?

2

I am trying to see where/what is happening abd

*** Warning - readenv() failed, using default environment

is probably a red herring as still present on one that works OK

3

The Ununtu one is consistantly failing without entering an emergency mode @ the moment. Always seems to get stuck:
[ 4.479064] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): write access will be enabled during recovery
[ 5.225006] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): recovery complete
[ 5.235382] EXT4-fs (mmcblk0p2): mounted filesystem with ordered data mode. Opts: (null)
Begin: Running /scripts/local-bottom … done.
done.
Begin: Running /scripts/init-bottom … done.
[ 5.843231] init: ureadahead main process (180) terminated with status 5

whatever that means - whereas Angstom indicates it is in an emergency mode

Uncompressing Linux… done, booting the kernel.
systemd-fsck[51]: Angstrom: clean, 50148/218592 files, 321823/873534 blocks

LONG wait here

Welcome to emergency mode. Use “systemctl default” or ^D to enter default mode.

4

Well - I might be getting closer.

Initially I generated a copy of the Ubuntu one and then edited /etc/fstab on a linux machine and it seemed to have cured it - BUT low and behold TODAY both are working fine again anyway. The long wait + terminated with status 5 is common to both good + bad Ubuntu boots too!

Is it likely to be the supply? Up until now I have been running the Beaglebone via its USB connection with my PC - the USB power source being from an external USB powered HUB not the PC . I have seen similar sorts of failure (but not these supposed symptoms) on a Raspberry Pi with PSU orientated problems - getting stuck etc…

All of this 1st came to light about a week ago when I built a custom cape board that included a remote power source; on trying it I initially had problems of some sort and then went back to the original mode to check all was OK - but then both these 2 (but not the Debian) failed. Now I will go back to the cape + external supply whick look fine so far and see waht happens over a long time period!