Solved Re: Unablle ot install the firmware.

andhy · Post by **andhy** » 30 Jan 2014, 11:39

I yesterday received 2 B3 units, which I bought via Ibood .
The units were delivered as mentioned without a hard disk drive.
So I installed in each two, a new 2TB Green WD20EZRX 3,5" HDD according to the instructions
mentioned on the the enclosed leaflet "Hard Drive Mounting Instructions"
To install the firmware, there is only mentioned:
Download.....b3-install-2.4.1.1.zip
Unzip the downloaded file on a Fat32 formatted USB-stick.
Insert the USB-stick into B3.
Press and hold the power button.
Insert the power cable.
Release button when the LED is green.
When the led is blue the B3 is ready to use.

Now here I run in problems!The front LED keeps on blinking colour purpel.
For each trial I waited 2 hours and was not able to shut it down in a proper way
(holding the power button 5 sec and waiting 60 sec)
I tried 2 other USB-sticks (Fat32)
I tried the B3 connected to the DSL modem
It tried the B3 as a stand-alone unit
Is an internet connection required for installing the downloaded zip file ?
What do I wrong??
Please I need some help.

Note: I used gparted in Ubuntu 13.10 to format the USB-sticks to Fat32 can this
have an influence?

Post by **johannes** » 31 Jan 2014, 05:51

It sounds like you did things correctly. Did you unzip the file to the root of the usb stick (not in any subfolders)? Also make sure you did not edit any of the files on the stick before installing (not even opening and re-saving), could this be it?

andhy · Post by **andhy** » 31 Jan 2014, 06:58

thank you for your answer.
Yes I opened the files (without saving anything). I will start all-over downloading and direct on a fat32 formated
USB-stick.
I presume an internet connection is not required for installing the firmware. Please confirm

Thanks

Andhy

Post by **johannes** » 31 Jan 2014, 10:35

andhy wrote: I presume an internet connection is not required for installing the firmware. Please confirm

Sorry, missed that question, correct, internet is not required. Some more details on how stuff should happen, to help you pinpoint if it fails again:

1: When starting the B3 with the button pressed, the LED should go green
2: In a few seconds you should see activity on the USB drive (if it has a LED)
3: In another few seconds, the HDD should start formatting. You can see HDD activity when peaking in through the Kensington hole, there is a red HD activity led inside
4: This formatting should take appr. 20 minutes per terabyte, and after this it will copy files from the USB stick to the disk, another few minutes where you will see USB activity
5: When done, it will reboot (purple during boot) and when done, front LED will turn blue

Hope it works out.

kvs · Post by **kvs** » 31 Jan 2014, 16:26

Dear,

Please ignore my 2 previous posts.
I finally managed to install the B3 firmware from the USB drive, thanks to two details:
1) the proper directory structure on the USB drive is USB:\\install\payload (as shown in very small print on the page-5 screen dumps on the white instruction sheet. Pretty cryptic I must say. I'm glad I found that.)
2) I unplugged the LAN cable (Apparently, the unit doesn't like a LAN connection during firmware upload from USB).

May I suggest not to publish my 2 previous posts, but mention the above two details?
It could come handy for other users.

Kind regards....

/kvs

gmdehaas · Post by **gmdehaas** » 01 Feb 2014, 03:43

same or similar issue here!
I tried 2 USB sticks and a USB harddrive.
The B3 just refuses to install anything.
The harddrive I installed spins up, but after that, no activity.
When I boot up from a USB stick, the LED stays green
When I boot up from a USB harddrive, I see som activity on the USB harddrive, but not on the installed drive. the LED stays green and then flashes purple

I'm now in my 3rd day in trying to get it to work, so please help me out here!!
and oh: the installed harddrive is 100% working perfect in a PC.
It's a 2TB disk. I removed all partitions before installing.

Post by **DanielM** » 01 Feb 2014, 04:07

kvs wrote:May I suggest not to publish my 2 previous posts, but mention the above two details?
It could come handy for other users.

I first accepted all your posts and then I read the above sentence, so the other two posts are now deleted. Hope thats fine with you

/Daniel

gmdehaas · Post by **gmdehaas** » 01 Feb 2014, 07:42

Unfortunally that's not ,y issue.
The install folder is in the root

I managed to create a bootable USB stick by making is a Ubuntu boot USB.
Then I removed ubuntu and places the instal folder in the root

Now the USB stick is behaving the same as booting from a USB harddrive: first green, than purple blinking
My SATA drive is a 300GBit sata, if that matters. Any suggestions?

andhy · Post by **andhy** » 01 Feb 2014, 09:58

At last after 4 days trying I finally succeeded in 2 hours to set-up the firmware on my 2 B3's.
I think this made it happens
I formatted an other USB-Stick with LED (brand Kruidvat 4GB)
I deleted the partitions on my 2 TB HDD's
I released the power button after +- 5 seconds after powering up.
Thanks Johannes for your support.

Post by **johannes** » 02 Feb 2014, 08:43

gmdehaas wrote:Unfortunally that's not ,y issue.
The install folder is in the root

I managed to create a bootable USB stick by making is a Ubuntu boot USB.
Then I removed ubuntu and places the instal folder in the root

Now the USB stick is behaving the same as booting from a USB harddrive: first green, than purple blinking
My SATA drive is a 300GBit sata, if that matters. Any suggestions?

Well, do not fiddle with the USB stick, use a plain FAT formatted stick - as they are when you buy them. They do not have to be "bootable". Just unzip to the USB stick, done.

gmdehaas · Post by **gmdehaas** » 02 Feb 2014, 08:48

Johannus,
That's af cource how I started. No results.
Now what?

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