Recommended setup for "new" Joggler

[sixedup]

I've been using a Joggler as my home-office music player for several years now. It's currently running the Version 30300 firmware, and then has Roobarb's Squeezeplay added to the native OS using PnP III (I think!). I feed audio out into a Class T amp with an inbuilt USB DAC. And all works perfectly. But over time the other apps have all steadily died off. Most I didn't care about, but I did like having the BBC TV app, which has also stopped working. So it's all a bit clunky, for "just" Squeezeplayer. But it does work, which counts for a lot.

But this last week I acquired a pair of new (to me) Jogglers, so I have the option of trying a few other software loads, without breaking my currently working system. However, I'm woefully out of date with what the options are. To my amazement Jogglers still have a good following, and this place is still pretty active. So, help me out! What should I be looking at installing, and how do I go about it?

I absolutely need Squeezeplayer, and audio has to be routed to the USB interface. I have squeezeserver on another server so don't need that.
Due to the USB audio I need to run from the system flash (though I see some interesting comments about ZIF connected SSD's in the hardware hacking section)
I'd also like TV (live BBC/ITV would be fine, catch-up would be even better).
I'd like some kind of notifications system that I can hook into from home-written services that run in the background (I'm thinking about a console for some simple home automation etc)
A slick / minimalist GUI would be preferred
I'm most familiar with Linux - it's my normal OS of choice for bigger devices - but I'm still a bit of an embedded systems novice

Any suggestions?
Thanks
Richard

[hawsey]

Hi Richard ,
your requirement to run from flash would limit you to SQplay OS which you are already familiar with or BuZz Ubuntu Base image which it is based on , you could then add a basic GUI in Linux .

Why would you need to use the internal flash ? Usb hubs will work well or failing that if you are going to connect with Ethernet you could unplug the internal wireless USB and plug in your Os of Choice in to that port , leaving the side one free .

BuZz 's Xubuntu builds ( too big for internal ) come with Squeezeplay and Kodi build in and would be a great way to go , Kodi has a wealth of Tv/ catch up available and even XSqueeze which allows use of Squeezeplay from within Kodi .

Other more recent options would be to convert one of the Jogglers to CoreBoot/SeaBios which lets you boot like a standard PC , working systems so far are W8 , W10 , OSx Snow Leapoard , XP .

Have Fun

[sixedup]

Interesting. I didn't expect a hub to support USB audio, but on thinking about it a bit more, I'm not entirely sure why I thought that

As it happens though, I don't need a wireless connection, so (now I know it exists!) I could use the internal "wifi" USB connector to boot from. So, sounds like BuZz's xubuntu could be a good solution. I know Ubuntu pretty well, and as I already use Kodi (on RPi) I'm pretty comfortable with that too.

I don't want to run Windows or MacOS on it, but I'm interested in the whole CoreBoot/SeaBios thing: I'll do some reading

Thanks
Richard

[hawsey]

Let us know how you get on Richard

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[sixedup]

I felt like I needed to post an update. Of the two Jogglers, one seems to work really well, the other is possibly bricked

The "good" one is running the 26635.S3 software, with a few apps added to it (possibly manually rather than via PNP etc). The hardware is in pristine condition. I'm going to try running BuZz's xubuntu on it from a USB key via a USB hub and keeping the currently working internal flash ASIS for now.

The "brick" won't boot beyond the O2 screen. Trying to boot from a USB key results in the access LED flashing on the USB key a few times, and then sticking on solidly. The Joggler never gets any further than that. No OpenPeak splash screen, nothing. The display is initially not right anyway, with the black background I would have expected on the O2 screen showing up as a moire-effect grey, with some flickering horizontal lines etc. If I leave it on long enough (10 min or so), the screen eventually settles down, and I end up with a very clear white O2 on a perfect black background (same as I get straight away on the good Joggler).

I suspect a hardware issue here - maybe a poor connection somewhere that gets better as the system warms up. But nothing I've tried (including all the old blind-typing tricks) gets me anywhere near booting. At the moment I'm open to suggestions on this one, but my default next action is to disassemble it and see if there are any loose connectors / boards / wires etc. Given that the hardware does get as far as showing the O2 boot screen, does that mean the EFI bios chip is OK, or do I need to check that too?

[hawsey]

The funny screen thing happens on all my Jogglers so don't worry about that .
When you say " trying to boot from a USB key " what is on the USB ? Xubuntu ?

I think you will be able to rescue it , all of mine stuck on O2 screen I have been able to rescue with the blind typing method ( sometimes the keyboard type matters ) .
First try with Xubuntu on a USB stick then if that fails let us know exactly what you are doing on the blind boot method .

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[sixedup]

On the basis that Joggler wasn't booting I've built Roobarbs Reflash on an 8GB USB key (can't get small ones any more!), with the final OpenPeak/O2 v30300 software, intending to reflash the Joggler to a known state before trying anything more adventurous.

The Reflash image and the OpenPeak/O2 image were both pulled from Roobarbs site, and the checksums verified. I can also plug the resulting USB Key into my laptop and see that the partitions are valid, and that what's in them all looks good. If I look at the reflash directory I can see the of1_30300_openpeak.img.gz image file and it's matching md5 file. The image matches the md5 checksum.

When I start up the Joggler with the USB Key, I see an initial flicker from the USB access LED, then a pause, then another flicker, then it goes solid on - which would normally indicate that the USB key has at least been recognised/enumerated, and then is no longer being accessed.

Regarding the blind typing, I attached a simple USB2 hub, plugged the reflash USB Key and a keyboard into it, and then followed these instructions: http://www.jogglerwiki.com/forum/viewto ... f=2&t=2095. The keyboard appears to be initialised, and I get to the point where I can toggle the capslock (etc) LEDs ok. I tried all the obvious variants of fs0:boot and fs0: & boot.nsh separately etc. Tried 0 through 3 ... nothing made any difference.

I guess the fact the keyboard is apparently responding to keystrokes is hopeful, but I don't know where to go next with this. Help appreciated

[hawsey]

OK , first try to burn Xubuntu to a stick , see if that boots first on your dodgy Joggler then on the one that is OK if that doesn't work .It won't harm your Joggler as it's just booting off the stick .

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[hawsey]

The keyboard that wouldn't work for me was a keyboard tablet case combined , the one that works OK is a wired PC one however I did have issues once when i had number lock on .

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[sixedup]

OK , first try to burn Xubuntu to a stick , see if that boots first on your dodgy Joggler then on the one that is OK if that doesn't work .It won't harm your Joggler as it's just booting off the stick .

Result is pretty much as expected. The "good" Joggler boots into xubuntu. The "bad" Joggler sits at the O2 splash screen.

On the "good" Joggler the LED on the USB Key comes on, flickers briefly, then pauses (lit) for a second or so, then flickers again, then pauses (lit) for another second or two, then flickers steadily during the Joggler boot before finally remaining steady on.

On the "bad" Joggler the LED on the USB Key comes on, flickers briefly, then pauses for a second or so, then flickers again, then remains steady on.

[hawsey]

Xubuntu can boot go back to the bad Joggler and repeat the process of blind typing .
Have everything plugged in ready .
Hit escape like a demon , does the numb lock / caps light come on and of ( if there is one )
Type fs0:boot
fs1:boot
No spaces , try 0 to say 5
I'm not sure if you have to power off and on after each attempt so try both ways .
Make sure your good Joggler can boot using the same USB hub you are using on the other one .
Maybe try the bootfs:0 etc thing on the good Joggler and it will boot Xubuntu when you get to the right one .
Then you know it works .
Good luck
Don't give up .

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[sixedup]

Ok, this is really strange. USB keyboard and Xubuntu USB Key plugged into a USB 2.0 Hub, with that plugged into Joggler.

Power on -> ESC repeatedly until keyboard recognised and breaks into boot (can toggle numlock etc).
fs0:boot -> about 5 seconds wait with nothing happening -> fs1:boot
Grub screen comes up and Xubuntu boots.

If I ignore the fs0:boot and 5 second delay (or leave it much longer or shorter than about 5 seconds) I can't get it to boot. Honestly. I kid you not.

If I swap the Xubuntu USB Key for Roobarbs Reflash USB Key, it doesn't boot reliably using this method, and when it does I get errors about the root partition not being mounted before it then tries (and fails) to automatically reboot again.

I'm really suspicious of what boot parameters the Joggler is trying to follow. I'm guessing this stuff is all buried in the EFI partition somewhere? Can I get at that from Xubuntu to at least see (not change) what it's trying to do on startup?

[hawsey]

Sorry I can't help you with that
Woo hoo so at least the dead Joggler lives ( sort of )

OK so from what I've found over the Joggler years the issues you are having could be
1 .Your USB stick is just not fast enough ( read speeds are important as well as write )
2 What program are you using to write the image to the USB stick ? Try the one on here win32disc0.7
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/f2792g7f1e2k ... 97kQa?dl=0
3 .Your hub is slowing things down ( try another )

I'm sure that by using a combination of the above you will have success in re flashing your dodgy Joggler
Have fun

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[sixedup]

Yes, it looks like there is some sort of life. But more to do to properly fix it.

1. Could be. I'll try putting Roobarbs reflasher onto the currently working USB stick that correctly runs xubuntu and see if that helps.
2. I'm using 'dd' - I don't have any Windows computers, just Linux and Mac.
3. I don't think this can be it, as the Reflash doesn't use a hub - you just attach the USB stick directly to the Joggler.

A bit of poking around in Xubuntu reveals that the USB stick is attached as /dev/uba? and the internal flash memory as /dev/mmcblk0p? so it's easy to mount the internal flash partitions and take a look. The interesting one seems to be /dev/mmcblk0p1 which appears to be an EFI boot partition. It only contains 5 files:

boot.efi
initrd
startup.nsh
sum0
vmlinux0

boot.efi is correctly identified as an EFI BIOS. initrd will be a Linux ram disk, and vmlinux0 the bootable Linux kernel. I have no idea what startup.nsh and sum0 are. Neither appear to be readily readable. I need to do a little investigation, but I'm starting to wonder if transferring these files from my "known good" Joggler may get me going again. Time to boot xubuntu on the "good" Joggler and do some poking around on its internal flash partitions too.

[sixedup]

OK, from a quick look on my "good" joggler, the sum0 file should be a text file with the Linux kernel boot parameters in it. The startup.nsh file looks like it tells the EFI BIOS where to look for the bootable system. The "good" one has two lines in it:
fs1:boot
fs0:boot

So it looks like there is corruption in this partition on my "bricked" joggler. The boot.efi files on both Jogglers checksummed to the same hash, so I'm happy that they're OK. The Linux images and the kernel parameters are all different between the two Jogglers, with the working one not even having a ram disk image. So, I replaced everything on the bricked Joggler with the contents of the good joggler, and removed the initrd file from the bricked joggler partition.

The Joggler wouldn't boot to its internal flash in that state, but it did boot the external USB Key with Roobarbs reflasher on it (no need for blind typing or anything). So I reflashed the entire internal storage of the bricked Joggler with the last OpenPeak / O2 software (v30300).

When I tried to then boot from internal flash, it just hangs at the O2 prompt again. But, if I attach the Xubuntu USB Key, it will happily boot from that (again, no blind typing required). So there is SOME improvement here. However, I now apparently can't boot from Roobarbs reflasher USB key again. *sigh*

So next step was to take a look at what Roobarbs Reflash utility had done to the Joggler, and work out if there was something strange going on there. This time the EFI partition on the internal flash looks OK. I can cat the boot.nsh and sum0 files. No obvious signs of corruption. Darn thing just isn't quite playing ball.

At this point, I'm open to suggestions again.

[hawsey]

Well if you can get Xubuntu to boot on the dodgy Joggler i would keep trying the reflash image and see if you can get it to boot , maybe try a quicker or different usb stick and the usb hub , have you got a spare lying around , ohh and also the port 4 of the hub thing is also worth a shot, it works for me sometime when all else fails n.
Is it possible to reflash the Joggler from within the Xubuntu you can get to boot , i have no experience of this though .
I have never had a Joggler i wasnt able to get back up and running but sometimes it does take patience , re writing sticks and trying again .
Good Luck