andrewthecoder Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 Hi guys, only been playing with my new pineapple for a few days and I've already managed to brick it, by the looks of things. This video shows the boot sequence with nothing connected but my USB flash drive with swap partition on (there is no difference with it unplugged). Reset button doesn't seem to do anything, though I have used it in the past for completely wiping my changes and starting afresh. This happened while using wpa_supplicant to connect my external USB wifi adapter in client mode - the pineapple froze and my SSH session was dropped, so I unplugged it and powered it on again. It doesn't get any further than the stage at the end of this video (three solid lights, or just two if I unplug the USB) - I left it for 10 minutes just in case. Doesn't respond to ping or SSH when I connect to it with a static IP of 172.16.42.42, and doesn't issue DHCP IP address if I don't. Any suggestions for anything I could try before looking for a 3.3V USB-UART on eBay? Any guesses what could cause this? Thanks a bunch, Andrew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alextrebek Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 looks like it booted up fine get the cable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewthecoder Posted September 29, 2012 Author Share Posted September 29, 2012 Yeah, got a cable on the way, I guess I'll just clean flash it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreidiv Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 can you connect to it via wifi? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anton Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 yea boot looks good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewthecoder Posted September 29, 2012 Author Share Posted September 29, 2012 It's not broadcasting any wifi network unfortunately, and not accepting incoming connections on port 22. Anything else I could try? My UART cable arrived today anyway so I'll just clean flash it but I'd love to see if there's any other way to diagnose what went wrong first! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewthecoder Posted September 29, 2012 Author Share Posted September 29, 2012 That's weird, I just noticed the DHCP server is still functioning on it when "booted" - connected via ethernet to the PoE port without static IP, I just got an IP 172.16.42.211. So, what does that tell? I'm in the process of trying to do a clean flash via serial, but I really want to try and figure out what could cause the boot sequence to get stuck at a certain stage where DHCP is functioning but no SSH server is listening on port 22 and no AP is being broadcast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewthecoder Posted September 29, 2012 Author Share Posted September 29, 2012 Now I have no idea what to try - can't get a serial output from it at all. Tried using minicom in linux, figured I might be doing something wrong so booted into windows and did exactly the same as shown in MrProtocol's youtube video. When I plug in the power to my board, nothing happens in my serial terminal, it just "boots" as shown in my video above. What else can I try? Do you reckon the hakshop would accept a return? (only want to do that as a last resort, shipping is pricey) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewthecoder Posted September 29, 2012 Author Share Posted September 29, 2012 Please could anyone confirm I have my UART connected correctly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loozr Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 Looking at the video by Mr-Protocol it seems that you also should connect VDD. And as far as I can recall this should be connected to 3v on your console board. But I will strongly suggest that you make sure you are doing this correctly, I will take no responsibility for possible damage. And I have never done this myself before. Just take a close look on the video and you might see what you are missing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreidiv Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 (edited) Looking at the video by Mr-Protocol it seems that you also should connect VDD. And as far as I can recall this should be connected to 3v on your console board. But I will strongly suggest that you make sure you are doing this correctly, I will take no responsibility for possible damage. And I have never done this myself before. Just take a close look on the video and you might see what you are missing. Sorry not to correct you but do not power the device with both the ac adapter and the Uart device it will fry both i learned this the hard way. so do not hook up the 5vt 3vt and rst. and use the ac adapter for power. Edited September 29, 2012 by mreidiv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr-Protocol Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 Looking at the video by Mr-Protocol it seems that you also should connect VDD. And as far as I can recall this should be connected to 3v on your console board. But I will strongly suggest that you make sure you are doing this correctly, I will take no responsibility for possible damage. And I have never done this myself before. Just take a close look on the video and you might see what you are missing. I only had my VDD hooked up because I have the official Alfa console board. If you do not have an Alfa console board, only connect TX, RX, GND. Please read: http://cloud.wifipineapple.com/wiki/doku.php?id=guidecleanflashserial#attention Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loozr Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 Ok, I stand corrected! :) Sorry for my faulty post! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewthecoder Posted September 29, 2012 Author Share Posted September 29, 2012 Thanks for the clarification, but I haven't connected either of the voltage rails at any point, and I am using mains power to power the hornet... Mr Protocol, do you reckon I might be able to fix this if I get the alfa console board? What sorta advantage does it give you over a standard USB UART adapter for debugging? Do you have any in-depth knowledge of U-Boot or any suggestions for how I might be able to stop the boot sequence and get it into serial mode? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr-Protocol Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 Thanks for the clarification, but I haven't connected either of the voltage rails at any point, and I am using mains power to power the hornet... Mr Protocol, do you reckon I might be able to fix this if I get the alfa console board? What sorta advantage does it give you over a standard USB UART adapter for debugging? Do you have any in-depth knowledge of U-Boot or any suggestions for how I might be able to stop the boot sequence and get it into serial mode? You don't need the alfa board, it is more of a "This is known working" with the hornet. You have about 3 seconds to chose how you want to boot. Currently at derbycon but if you hit me up in the next 10 minutes on skype I can try to explain. I'll PM my skype. Edit: you have about 10 minutes to hit me up on skype before a talk. Or you will have to read the wiki instructions on setup of the RX, TX, GND pins for your non-alfa console board and how to set things up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewthecoder Posted September 29, 2012 Author Share Posted September 29, 2012 Chatted on Skype, the suggestion that my USB-UART adapter had it's TX/RX pins labels swapped turned out to be true, I now own a fully working, usable pineapple again! Thanks a bunch mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr-Protocol Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 Chatted on Skype, the suggestion that my USB-UART adapter had it's TX/RX pins labels swapped turned out to be true, I now own a fully working, usable pineapple again! Thanks a bunch mate. No problem, like I said. It depends on the perspective on how they labeled their TX and RX. Glad you caught me before the talk happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrewthecoder Posted September 29, 2012 Author Share Posted September 29, 2012 Just as a follow-up, I ended up soldering on the connections to my USB-UART adapter and sticking it (with a big mess of kapton tape, shamefully) on the top of the AP121U casing - this way I always have easy access to the U-Boot serial interface if needed, and access to the openwrt/pineapple console without needing dropbear running, assuming I'm in a situation where I can connect using USB. Here's a photo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.