Problem booting snapshot builds (Utilite)

[yoshiMember]

I’m actually not sure if its a GeeXBoX issue or not.
I’m hooked up with the serial port and Utilite stops at a random point booting (no additional output to console, no kernel panic).
(Sometimes after the “Welcome to GeeXBoX…” message, sometimes after a service was started “[ OK ] Created slice system…” and sometimes even before the welcome message).

This happens to me with all the recent snapshot builds, but does not happen with GeeXBoX 3.1 (which boots each time)

I’ve tried several SDs to make sure there wasn’t something faulty there,
I’m not sure its a software or hardware, but I’m lost at how should I debug this issue.

Thanks

[tomlohaveModerator]

with your report, it seems a problem with recent snapshot
I can test myself, can you point me one snapshot in particular ?
(maybe a problem with our toolchain, we have changed gcc’s version recently)

[yoshiMember]

Actually I’m not that confident its the snapshot and not some hardware issue, but I would very appreciate if you could test it too.

I’ve tried the latest http://download.geexbox.org/snapshots/geexbox-xbmc-imx6-utilite/latest/binaries.utilite/geexbox-devel-20140616-r72f5a68.utilite.img.xz

And also geexbox-devel-20140613-r9098ab8.utilite.img, geexbox-devel-20140610-r02a0320.utilite.img

(I have to confess that geexbox-devel-20140603-r9e7b8a9.utilite.img did work for me consistently for a couple of days and then stopped working at all, and I was unable to recover it (meaning that it showed the same symptoms of “hanging” near the welcome message (that’s also when I’ve tried the newer snapshots…)

And also, but more rarely, kernel panics do appear (I remember seeing something related to udevd)
Thats why I’m not confident it is not a hardware issue.

EDIT:
Nevertheless I do want to point out that GeeXBoX 3.1 seems STABLE which reinforces that it is a software issue.

[tomlohaveModerator]

humm, only img file ?
can you test one snapshot without this suffix ?
using our makesdcard script in place
wonder if the problem doe not come with the script that enlarge the sdcard at frist boot
or retest an img file and be patient until it reboots

[yoshiMember]

I did try it with the make-sdcard script and it seems to have the same problems.. (I’m not sure if with all the images, but at least with the latest one I tried it).

The “hang” happens on a random output to the console, but usually in the same area.. I think there is a specific action done asynchronously (maybe when the kernel loads a specific module) which causes the hang.

[yoshiMember]

So I’ve tried again.. Now with the make-sdcard script and the latest snapshot (geexbox-devel-20140616-r72f5a68.utilite.tar.xz) and I got something a little different.
The kernel constantly crashes.. here are the last 3 crashes:

FEC Ethernet Driver
Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000041a
pgd = c0004000
[0000041a] *pgd=00000000
***********************
FEC Ethernet Driver
Unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address feffddfc
***********************
Unable to handle kernel paging request at virפual address 0cdd3000
pgd = c0004000
[0cdd3000] *pgd=00000000
Internal error: Oops: 5 [#1] SMP
Modules linked in:
CPU: 0 Not tainted (3.0.35 #1)
PC is at tick_program_event+0x2c/0x4c

I’ll trying playing with other snapshots to see whats up.

[Warped RudiModerator]

Does the utilite kernel have the memset patches (ARM 7670/1, ARM 7668/1 or so) ?

[tomlohaveModerator]

@rudi if you are talking about https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commits/master/arch/arm/lib/memset.S and the latest one, it’s yes

@yoshi : I have tested latest snapshot on sdcard and it boots fine, no problem (http://download.geexbox.org/snapshots/geexbox-xbmc-imx6-utilite/latest/binaries.utilite/geexbox-devel-20140616-r72f5a68.utilite.tar.xz)

[tomlohaveModerator]

https://github.com/wolfgar/utilite/commit/2c2cc06b142c3c89dd633c370a8045d4ef87fa4a

[yoshiMember]

@rudi I haven’t compiled the kernel myself. only used the tarballs / images in the snapshots – So I guess they have the patches (as tomlohave said).

I’ve started a related thread in Compulab’s forum, regarding the Ubuntu images, which doesn’t seem to work either: http://utilite-computer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=1891

@tomlohave The fact that it works for you reinforces the possibility that it is some specific hardware issue (or maybe an issue with the specific U-Boot version installed on my Utilite). It is very weird though, that GeeXBoX 3.1 works.

[tomlohaveModerator]

@yoshi : my version of u-boot : U-Boot 2009.08-cm-fx6-0.87+tools (Oct 06 2013 – 13:46:27)

[yoshiMember]

So I’m clueless to what the problem is, and how to debug it.
I guess I could try and boot up a kernel with a debugger, but:
1. Replacing the kernel could result in a successful boot or in additional non-related failures.
2. I’m not sure exactly how to do that (where to get / how to compile the kernel and upload it to the SD, and how to change the bootargs to allow the debugging).

[yoshiMember]

News!

I’ve managed to boot Compulab’s Ubuntu images – the problem was I forgot to apply the kernel update procedure (as specified here: http://www.utilite-computer.com/wiki/index.php/Utilite_Linux_Installation_and_Update )

Since the symptoms were very similar in both cases (Ubuntu and the geexbox snapshots), I think it is a combination of the kernel with my U-boot (@tomlohave – you said you have an older U-Boot)…

So all is left now is to identify the changes between the kernels and pinpoint the exact problem (and apply the patches).

[yoshiMember]

@tomlohave – Is it possible for you to confirm that with a newer U-Boot the snapshots do not work?
I would also love to actively try to find and patch the problem, but I’m not sure where to start (especially since there is no consistent crash I can trace back to)

[tomlohaveModerator]

hum, I don’t want to use new u-boot if I can’t boot anymore
On geexbox , we use the same kernel as wolfgar’s one (branch devel)
I’m merging utilite and wolfgar’s kernels.
and if everything is fine building a new image i can send to you

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