System hangs, defekt file system ?
 

[ N810 , diablo 43-7 , also cloned ]

Just in case someone can guess ...

Running from flash,
I guess I must have accidentally messed the file system up.

I used emelfm2 to edit and install a startup script in /etc/init.d/ .
OK after REBOOT,
and the thus as /mnt/storage mounted ext2-partition
was visible in the File Manager.
Then I linked: ln -s /mnt/storage/seq /home/user/.seqretary ,
and tried to make Seqretary work from there.

>> The result :
After a REBOOT the tablet shows the Nokia hands,
and then hangs looking like the photo.
The menu from the power button is accessible.

From there :
Switching off by the power button menu and powering on
brings the hung system up again.
or :
Powering off by a long press of the power button and powering on again
brings the flash system up looking OK.

Again, from OK system,
any of these or a reboot (through the boot menu)
brings up the (same) hung system.


Is this possible to diagnose?
( Just trying to learn something.)


The startup script in /etc/init.d/ :
insmod /mnt/initfs/lib/modules/2.6.21-omap1/mbcache.ko
insmod /mnt/initfs/lib/modules/2.6.21-omap1/ext2.ko
mount /dev/mmcblk0p4 /mnt/storage

Initiated by :
ln -s /etc/init.d/my_script /etc/rc2.d/S15my_script

( following the wiki http://wiki.maemo.org/Moving_system_...o_a_flash_card ,
and having found in the forum that rc2.d (?) would suffice )



EDIT :

I managed to recreate the same-looking hung system in a simpler way,
now running from a clone in int. mmc.

1) In X Terminal as user :
mkdir /mnt/storage ,
2) as root :
mount /dev/mmcblk0p4 /mnt/storage .
3) Moved /home/user/.seqretary to /mnt/storage (with emelfm2) .
4) In X Terminal as user :
/bin/ln -s /dev/mmcblk0p4/.seqretary /mnt/storage/.seqretary .
>> Seqretary worked.

5) Rebooted, and so broke the mount and the link.
>> Same-looking hung system with the same symptoms.


Is this a maemo or a Seqretary problem ?
It seems a bit weird, that a broken link in an application should have such consequences ?

Re: System hangs, defekt file system ?
 

Hi Kristian,

This seems sort of like my problem. My N810 crashes after boot, and keeps doing it until I force shutdown. When running, the screen is similar to yours - white, with a colored band down the left side.

I think what has happened is that the flash itself was damaged somehow by the battery being used up at a bad time. From root, I try:

% dd if=/dev/mtdblock4 of=/dev/null

I get: dd: /dev/mtdblock4: Input/output error

This should not happen!

I think what we need to do is to re-write the flash itself (not the file system, the underlying part), and then re-format and re-load the contents. After backing up the contents first, of course. For me, the bad spot seems to be in an unused sector, so I have been able to create a backup tar of the contents without error. (I guess the system dies on the first write after boot.) But, how to create another jffs2 file system? THAT part, I do not know. Maybe do this on a Desktop PC and transfer it? How big (in exact number of bytes) is the 256mb device?

Any other ideas?

Greg.

Re: System hangs, defekt file system ?
 

@ gregd

Hi Greg!

Do you mean beyond what a standard reflash replaces ?
( That would be beyond my knowledge of computers.)

And how does your theory explain that the white screen does NOT appear,
if I repeat the same procedure of breaking a symlink with an other app, e.g. Yellownotes applet ?
I did that comparison a couple of times.

Also, note the different behaviour depending on by what method I shutdown / reboot.
Maybe that might fit with you Ideas.

Kristian

Re: System hangs, defekt file system ?
 

Hi Kristian,

Well, it's just a hunch. The changes you made with symlinks and such might be changing how the file system is accessed. If you have checked the underlaying media (doing a "dd" of it to /dev/null) and found no errors, then our issues are almost certainly different.

Good luck,

Greg.