Debian bookworm (12) image 1.0 released for B3

[MouettE]

yes, CONFIG_DM_THIN_PROVISIONING is the one!

Version 6.1.35-2 is pushed with the configuration change.

[MouettE]

It's killed my B3, it won't reboot... Stays at the purple light, although lots of disk activity beforehand whilst attempting to boot.

Any ideas ? As much as I love my ancient B3, I am not sure how much energy I have to try and fix it....

It's pingable, but I am not able to ssh into it....

If the b3 answers to ping, it's probably fixable. What did you do exactly ? An upgrade or a fresh install ?

[Clive]

I just performed the upgrade as listed at the top of the page. My previous B3 install was pretty much vanilla, so I am not sure why it failed.

I will look into the rescue option, but currently rebuilding my VPN's on a spare server, I will get to it.


[EDIT] And as the VPN throughput is so much poorer on my RaspberryPI VPN's compared to the B3, I will get to this sooner, rather than later..

[Clive]

..also, just to check, your rescue USB doesn't automatically reformat and re-install the B3 ? I just want to get in there to see what has gone wrong.

[MouettE]

..also, just to check, your rescue USB doesn't automatically reformat and re-install the B3 ? I just want to get in there to see what has gone wrong.

You need to edit the install.ini file and remove the image parameter. Then the system will switch to rescue mode

[MouettE]

I ran the update track from the previous version and it all went smoothly except for the kernel package where apt believes 1:5.10.xyz is newer than 6.1, so has to force a "downgrade" to 6.1.

I've updated the upgrade instructions in the first post with a manual upgrade of the kernel.

[MouettE]

I just performed the upgrade as listed at the top of the page. My previous B3 install was pretty much vanilla, so I am not sure why it failed.

I did test the upgrade from a vanilla bullseye install and had no issue. Let us know if you find something !

[Clive]

Hmm, trying to build the rescue image, I get this error at the end of 'make'

make[2]: *** [Makefile all] Error 2
make[1]: *** [package/pkg-generic.mk:293: /home/clive/b3rescue/buildroot/output/build/host-binutils-2.38/.stamp_built] Error 2
make: *** [Makefile:82: _all] Error 2

Any ideas ? Or better still has anyone got a compiled image already ?

[MouettE]

It's much easier to download the bookworm image and remove the image parameter in the install.ini file

[Clive]

Thanks ! Yeah...I am not having much luck tonight, I even found an old USB stick with the Stretch rescue image I had used before, but no luck in getting it to boot into rescue.

I will try again tomorrow. But thanks for your support !

[Clive]

"So long, and thanks for all the fish..."

After an intensive effort to get my B3 to boot from the rescue image, I gave up. I walked into Webhallen and bought a Raspberry Pi 4. The tinkering and troubleshooting I enjoyed years ago has been replaced with a "I just want it to work !" attitude. My website, storage, VPN's and my home network has been hosted on my B3 for the past 10+ years but I finally realized I needed a replacement.

Thank you all for all the support you have given over the years to keep the Excito B3 relevant. It is (was) an amazing product which filled a niche in the market well before things like the Raspberry Pi existed, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if Eben Upton had the idea for the RPI by seeing what products Excito were producing. There was nothing else like it in the early 2010's.

So thanks again ! My B3 may not be totally dead and I am sure I will get some inspiration at some point to get it working again.

[beaufils]

Again, thank's a lot for you very precious work.

Even if everything seems to be slower since some months, my b3 is still running good and continously since...2011...and now with the stable Debian release since today (I didn't find the time to upgrade before today).

Thank's to your work.

Once again a big thank you ! ! !

The b3 was definitively a very niece piece of device (a part for the power plug which has always been sloppy). I never changed a thing on it (apart for the power supply). It's a shame we are not able to find such quality device today.

[guidol]

@MouettE
Also from me many thanks to you for the actual bookworm-image for the excito B3.
Fresh New-Installation did work fine

BUT

the LED-controll for
bubba3:blue:active
bubba3:green:programming
bubba3:red:error
in /sys/class/leds doesnt support anymore 'heartbeat' or 'mmc0' or other drive-parameters
only the following is useable as trigger
[none] phy0rx phy0tx phy0assoc phy0radio phy0tpt

excito B3 bookworm-boot

excito_B3_bookworm.jpg (59.63 KiB) Viewed 161236 times

[beaufils]

My hard drive is dead.

I had to reinstall the whole box.

I change the 2TB disk with a 4TB one, used the following install.ini file

Code: Select all

[wan]
proto = static
ipaddr = 192.168.42.1
netmask = 255.255.255.0
gateway = 192.168.42.253
nameservers = 80.67.169.12

[general]
image = bookworm/bookworm-image-1.0-20230611-1733.tar.xz
wipe = true
size = 20
swap = 2048

After being green, at some point the led start flashing red.

I got the following instal.log file.

Code: Select all

2034-04-28 11:47:11.340 - INFO - Running Excito installer version 2.2 daemon process with pid 95
2034-04-28 11:47:11.358 - INFO - Checking image file /mnt/usb/install/bookworm/bookworm-image-1.0-20230611-1733.tar.xz
2034-04-28 11:47:11.367 - INFO - Checking /dev/sdb
2034-04-28 11:47:11.369 - INFO - Running 'fdisk -l /dev/sdb'
2034-04-28 11:47:11.438 - INFO - Running 'sgdisk -p /dev/sdb'
2034-04-28 11:47:11.512 - INFO - Running 'blkid /dev/sdb1'
2034-04-28 11:47:11.607 - INFO - Running 'blkid /dev/sdb2'
2034-04-28 11:47:11.710 - INFO - Running 'sgdisk -i 1 /dev/sdb'
2034-04-28 11:47:11.746 - INFO - Running 'sgdisk -i 2 /dev/sdb'
2034-04-28 11:47:11.784 - INFO - Destination disk: sdb (3.6 TiB, gpt)
2034-04-28 11:47:11.785 - INFO - Wiping existing partition label on sdb
2034-04-28 11:47:11.786 - INFO - Running 'sgdisk -Z /dev/sdb'
2034-04-28 11:47:11.820 - ERROR - [sgdisk] Warning! Unable to generate a proper UUID! Creating an improper one as a last
2034-04-28 11:47:11.821 - ERROR - [sgdisk] resort! Windows 7 may crash if you save this partition table!
2034-04-28 11:47:14.243 - INFO - [sgdisk] GPT data structures destroyed! You may now partition the disk using fdisk or
2034-04-28 11:47:14.244 - INFO - [sgdisk] other utilities.
2034-04-28 11:47:14.248 - INFO - Creating GPT label, system 20.0 GiB size partition and swap 2048.0 MiB size on sdb
2034-04-28 11:47:14.249 - INFO - Running 'sfdisk /dev/sdb' with this input: label: gpt|,20.0GiB,L|,2048.0MiB,S|
2034-04-28 11:47:14.392 - INFO - [sfdisk] Checking that no-one is using this disk right now ... OK
2034-04-28 11:47:14.393 - INFO - [sfdisk] 
2034-04-28 11:47:14.394 - INFO - [sfdisk] Disk /dev/sdb: 3.64 TiB, 4000787030016 bytes, 7814037168 sectors
2034-04-28 11:47:14.395 - INFO - [sfdisk] Disk model: WDC WD40EFPX-68C
2034-04-28 11:47:14.396 - INFO - [sfdisk] Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
2034-04-28 11:47:14.397 - INFO - [sfdisk] Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
2034-04-28 11:47:14.398 - INFO - [sfdisk] I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
2034-04-28 11:47:14.399 - INFO - [sfdisk] 
2034-04-28 11:47:14.400 - INFO - [sfdisk] >>> Script header accepted.
2034-04-28 11:47:14.405 - INFO - [sfdisk] >>> Created a new GPT disklabel (GUID: 6A91CD43-FC3D-774E-9482-6004406C24CA).
2034-04-28 11:47:14.409 - INFO - [sfdisk] /dev/sdb1: Created a new partition 1 of type 'Linux filesystem' and of size 20 GiB.
2034-04-28 11:47:14.408 - ERROR - [sfdisk] Partition #1 contains a ext3 signature.
2034-04-28 11:47:14.429 - ERROR - [sfdisk] Partition #2 contains a swap signature.
2034-04-28 11:47:14.431 - INFO - [sfdisk] /dev/sdb2: Created a new partition 2 of type 'Linux swap' and of size 2 GiB.
2034-04-28 11:47:14.926 - INFO - [sfdisk] /dev/sdb3: Done.
2034-04-28 11:47:14.927 - INFO - [sfdisk] 
2034-04-28 11:47:14.928 - INFO - [sfdisk] New situation:
2034-04-28 11:47:14.929 - INFO - [sfdisk] Disklabel type: gpt
2034-04-28 11:47:14.930 - INFO - [sfdisk] Disk identifier: 6A91CD43-FC3D-774E-9482-6004406C24CA
2034-04-28 11:47:14.933 - INFO - [sfdisk] 
2034-04-28 11:47:14.934 - INFO - [sfdisk] Device        Start      End  Sectors Size Type
2034-04-28 11:47:14.935 - INFO - [sfdisk] /dev/sdb1      2048 41945087 41943040  20G Linux filesystem
2034-04-28 11:47:14.936 - INFO - [sfdisk] /dev/sdb2  41945088 46139391  4194304   2G Linux swap
2034-04-28 11:47:14.937 - INFO - [sfdisk] 
2034-04-28 11:47:14.938 - INFO - [sfdisk] The partition table has been altered.
2034-04-28 11:47:14.939 - INFO - [sfdisk] Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
2034-04-28 11:47:14.940 - INFO - [sfdisk] Syncing disks.
2034-04-28 11:47:14.942 - INFO - Disk looking good, proceed with formatting
2034-04-28 11:47:14.943 - INFO - Formatting system partition
2034-04-28 11:47:14.944 - INFO - Running 'mkfs.ext3 -Fq /dev/sdb1'
2034-04-28 11:47:20.407 - INFO - Formatting swap partition
2034-04-28 11:47:20.409 - INFO - Running 'mkswap -f /dev/sdb2'
2034-04-28 11:47:20.440 - INFO - [mkswap] mkswap: /dev/sdb2: warning: wiping old swap signature.
2034-04-28 11:47:20.511 - INFO - [mkswap] Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 2 GiB (2147479552 bytes)
2034-04-28 11:47:20.513 - INFO - [mkswap] no label, UUID=a3641f97-91e9-445b-9c32-29a87f103fc0
2034-04-28 11:47:20.515 - INFO - Mounting system partition
2034-04-28 11:47:20.516 - INFO - Running 'mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/target'
2034-04-28 11:47:20.630 - INFO - Extracting image file to target
2034-04-28 11:47:20.631 - INFO - Running 'tar -xf /mnt/usb/install/bookworm/bookworm-image-1.0-20230611-1733.tar.xz -C /mnt/target'
2034-04-28 11:48:43.877 - INFO - Generating network settings to target with image-supplied template
2034-04-28 11:48:43.884 - INFO - Umounting system partition
2034-04-28 11:48:43.885 - INFO - Running 'umount /mnt/target'
2034-04-28 11:48:45.174 - INFO - System successfully installed
2034-04-28 11:48:45.175 - INFO - install done; rebooting system
2034-04-28 11:48:45.207 - ERROR - Error while running excito installer
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/opt/excito/installer", line 258, in <module>
    sys.exit(0)
SystemExit: 0

Any idea what went wrong?

[beaufils]

I found the trouble and the fix, which was in one of @Mouett post: I needed to update UBoot so that it supports big (more than 2TB) disks.

The procedure is on the: wiki.