Serious problems after failed upgrade

Brian bneil at rochester.rr.com
Thu Mar 18 04:26:44 CET 2010


> > On Wed, 2010-03-17 at 08:28 -0800, vancel35 wrote:
> > > Unfortunately I cannot get into the boot menu, and my desktop
> > > computers don't see the FR.  Not only that, but last night I tried
> > > the 1 amp wall charger to see if the higher output would get it to
> > > recognize the USB/power cable, and it didn't.
> > > 

This is probably a stupid question but have you tried removing the
battery and leaving the FR unplugged for ~15 minutes and then see if
you can get the NOR boot menu? I only ask because I've had a similar
issue and this solved my problem.

As far as the desktops not seeing the device via USB do you get any
useful info from doing an lsusb or lsusb -vv as superuser ? What does
ifconfig say ? I recommend trying this on both the FR and your
desktop. Perhaps the device name is different from what it normally is.
I use the following on my desktop to get networking up:

ip addr add 192.168.0.200/24 dev eth4;iptables -A POSTROUTING -t nat -j MASQUERADE -s 192.168.0.0/24;sysctl -w net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Your device may vary in the above example the FR is eth4. 

> > > The interesting thing about the USB port is that if I plug the
> > > adapter into the FR while it's turned off, it recognizes the
> > > connection and boots (as expected) but somewhere along the way the
> > > USB port is completely disabled. I don't know if it's a mokonnect
> > > failure or what, but something is completely hosed.  So much that
> > > I used to be able to take the battery out as long as it was
> > > connected to the charger, but now it turns off as if it wasn't.
> > > 

It sounds like the USB port is okay but since Qi doesn't initialize
USB you have to rely on the kernel to do it and it sounds like your
install isn't.
 
> > > Would I be able to fix it if I had a debug board?
> > > 

I don't see how NOR could be broken since this is an FR we're talking
about.

> > > I also need the buzz fix done on my phone, so if there were a US
> > > company that I could send the phone to that would do that work,
> > > maybe they could reinstall the bootloader so that I could at least
> > > get to the boot menu. That's really all I need is to get to the
> > > boot menu and I can do the rest from there.
> > > 

I hope you get the issue resolved I have an A5 without the buzzfix and
so far I haven't had any buzzfix related issues. Just some minor tweaks
to the mic volume have sorted out the noise issues on SHR for me.

> > > The FreeRunner was my first smart phone, and I've gotten used to
> > > it.  I don't want to tether myself to either Apple or Google, and
> > > I definitely don't want a Microsoft smart phone, so that leaves
> > > the FR, or some other smart phone that I haven't found yet.

There's always the Nokia N900 which is really pricey but a very nice toy
indeed. I'm a cheapskate but the friends I know that own the N900 are
pretty happy with it so far. 

Good luck Laura ;-)

Brian

On Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:55:34 +0800
William Kenworthy <billk at iinet.net.au> wrote:

> Why dont you reflash? (you do know that the FR has two boot options
> for flashing - one being read only so it cant be easily trashed? -
> see the wiki)
> 

She can't reflash according to the original post. She hasn't been able
to get the NOR boot menu to come up while pressing AUX.

> Your description implies that the upgrade left you with a missmatched
> kernel and modules, or no modules - can you flash your original kernel
> back (you do keep backups/versions? :)
> 

She apparently can boot into SHR but the only app that works is the
terminal app. Since the USB device doesn't see either a charger or a
USB cable connected to it she doesn't have too many options.

> Put a distro on an SD card, boot and install the matching modules
> package.
> 

Trying an SD card install probably isn't a bad idea. I haven't
successfully tried an SD card install myself but from what I've read Qi
polls the SD card for a kernel first and this kernel can be skipped by
holding AUX in to boot from the NAND install correct?

> Just depends how much you lose with whats on the phone - easier just
> to reflash and start again if nothing valuable.
> 
> BillK
> 




More information about the community mailing list