I/O problems with SD card

[Evgeny Karyakin]

From: "arne anka" <openmoko at ginguppin.de>

>>like writing past memory available, I guess it's because broken
>>environment.
> hardly. i'd rather think you try to flash the wrong partition.
> what exactly did you do and what exactly did dfu-util or the fr report?

   I already flashed Freerunner several times before with

dfu-util -a u-boot -R -D uImage-XXXXXX.bin

   with no troubles, last time I tried
uImage-2.6.24+r10+gitr6e2a723ef54ee2e739c34786981b2c508db803c1-r10-om-gta02.bin
which is 1895768 bytes long so there shouldn't be a problem here.
dfu-util now can't even locate GTA02 when it's in NOR menu state.
dfu-util -l says nothing, and dmesg has this:

[20575.933963] usb 3-1.4: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and
address 36
[20582.407633] usb 3-1.4: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and
address 37
[20588.431796] usb 3-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[20595.195357] usb 3-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[20595.335909] usb 3-1.4: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and
address 38
[20601.865524] usb 3-1.4: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and
address 39
[20608.656191] usb 3-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[20616.763672] usb 3-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[20616.838742] usb 3-1.4: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and
address 40
[20623.245361] usb 3-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[24031.580522] usb 3-1.4: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and
address 41
[24038.054249] usb 3-1.4: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and
address 42
[24044.080009] usb 3-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[24050.142505] usb 3-1.4: device descriptor read/64, error -110
[24050.214373] usb 3-1.4: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and
address 43
[24066.486002] usb 3-1.4: new full speed USB device using ehci_hcd and
address 44

   and many other lines related to it, so I'm sure I'm bricked. DFU
functionality disappeared right after I tried to take a snapshot of
u-boot environment with

dfu-util -a u-boot_env -R -U env.bin

From: Andy Green <andy at openmoko.com>

> If it's a Freerunner, just hold down that corner "AUX" button when you
> power on, you should get into a backup "NOR" copy of U-Boot and can DFU
> new stuff in from there.  If you still get errors, post your dfu-util
> commandline.

   I'm in NOR menu already (see above) and dfu-util says that it
writes u-boot piece past memory. Now thanks God all I have is working
FSO m4 from where I can do something with this situation.

> For the original problem, actually my first suspect would be physical
> connectivity to the fingers in the uSD connector.  A guy before found he
> had to add some paper on top of the SIM to push down enough to make
> reliable contact.
> Recent kernels have a workaround in that starts the card at slower clock
> until the first bulk transfer completed successfully when it is cranked
> up to 16MHz, that seemed to make the previous problems with some cards
> pretty much go away.

   I'm glad to hear it. It may be a good idea to have a backup
rock-solid bare copy of working firmware somewhere inside Neo to
restore it in such cases, although that tempting "Factory reset"
option may be exactly what I'm talking about.