Lines/haze on Openpeak screen - gets no further - FIXED!

[offbeatdave]

Hi, after 16 months content hacking/tinkering with the Joggler it has gone wrong and it was nothing I'd done (I think!)
Basically, I unplugged it (it was working), took it off the shelf to clean the shelf, put it back, switched it on and now the screen is stuck on the OpenPeak logo with random white bars/haze across it! Is this likely to be a coincidental hardware issue (e.g. screen fail) or is it worth trying the classic restore procedure. It is as if moving it has disturbed something hardware-wise. Any thoughts? Clearly I've tried switching it off and on, leaving it etc. No joy.

[offbeatdave]

Hmm. The lines/haze have disappeared now when I switch it on but still stuck on OpenPeak logo. Is a restore in order?

[dwl99]

yep!

[offbeatdave]

OK, got my Ubuntu booted up and followed the classic fix using the ratx files, but I'm getting a Not enough free space message when restoring p2, p3 or p4. Do I need to clear something first before doing the procedure to free up some space. All files downloaded fine through Terminal. Should I have done the process one partition at a time?

[dwl99]

Have a look at the Joggler's internal partitions with gparted & check that they are all there - they should be 61.05, 244.19, 244.19 and 431.06MB in size respectively. The total size of the internal memory should be 980.5MB. Then you need to flash but do them one at a time.

[offbeatdave]

Thanks for the help so far...

Two questions:

1) Do I have to delete anything first before doing the restore?

2) How do I go about using gparted on the Joggler?

[dwl99]

1. No
2. Boot into Ubuntu via a USB stick, install gparted on it using Synaptic Package Manager (if not already installed). There are plenty of tutorials online for using gparted but let us know if you get stuck

[offbeatdave]

Thanks ever so much. Sussed out how to install gparted via Terminal and had a quick look at a tutorial so will have a play and see what happens! All partitions were gone!!

[dwl99]

In that case you'll need to do this:

First, use boot into Ubuntu from a USB stick and use gparted to check that you have exactly 980.5MB of unallocated space on the Joggler's internal memory. Anything less than this and you have a fault with the internal memory. Next, close gparted, open terminal & enter the following lines one at a time:

sudo mkdir /backup
sudo chmod a+rwx /backup
cd /backup
sudo wget http://files.exotica.org.uk/?file=joggler/files/mmcblk0.img.gz
gzip -cd mmcblk0.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=1M

After you're done, close down Ubuntu, pull the power supply for a minute then reboot into Joggler OS. If that doesn't work then there is probably a fault with the internal memory.

[roobarb!]

If that doesn't work then there is probably a fault with the internal memory.

Even if you get problems at this point, all is not necessarily lost. I've had issues where a complete rewrite of a known good mmcblk0 image has not got my Joggler working again. As a blank slate, I ran this nice command from Ubuntu:

Code: Select all

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mmcblk0 bs=10M

This overwrites everything on the internal memory with zeros. I then flashed my backup mmcblk0 file onto the internal memory using the method mentioned by dwl99 and all was well.

I've had to do this when messing about with Ubuntu images on an old HDD too. Took three rewrites with zeros before that drive would behave again. I wouldn't recommend doing this often to the internal flash, mind. Sure fire way to wear it out.

[offbeatdave]

SUCCESS!

THANK YOU SO MUCH for all the quick advice!

Unfortunately I began the rebuild before seeing the previous two posts so...

Once I'd got gparted on Ubuntu, I followed the instructions http://www.joggler.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1142 to re-establish the partitions. I then did the partition-by-partition restore from http://www.joggler.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1160 (although on my little Ubuntu stick I had to delete each one before moving onto the next). I had the noted issue when restoring partition 4 that it wasn't quite big enough but it still works!

It was a little odd seeing the classic O2 icons again as I'd replaced all of them!

Here we go tinkering again!

[dwl99]

Well done! The Joggler's internal memory can be a bit ropy - I've personally had 2 Jogglers die because of this. You might want to consider running Ubuntu off a USB stick instead of the internal OS to preserve your Joggler. You can use Opera Mobile & Squeezeplay on Ubuntu & it's reasonably finger-friendly.

[BuZz]

dwl99 - btw the image you uploaded is on our ftp now so you can reference it from there if you like.

http://files.exotica.org.uk/?file=joggl ... lk0.img.gz (will redirect to a random mirror . fast mirrors in uk, sweden and germany, and a slower one in the uk run at my house )

or just choose a specific mirror.

ftp://malus.exotica.org.uk/pub/joggler/ ... lk0.img.gz is the main server.

[dwl99]

If you want to recreate the internal partitions & restore each partition individually (e.g. if you have limited space on your USB stick) I've uploaded the partition table for the joggler to http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1107587/part_table

To restore the partition structure, do this:

sudo mkdir /backup
sudo chmod a+rwx /backup
sudo wget http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1107587/part_table
cat part_table | sudo sfdisk /dev/mmcblk0

You can then restore each partition as previously described.

[dwl99]

dwl99 - btw the image you uploaded is on our ftp now so you can reference it from there if you like.

http://files.exotica.org.uk/?file=joggl ... lk0.img.gz (will redirect to a random mirror . fast mirrors in uk, sweden and germany, and a slower one in the uk run at my house )

or just choose a specific mirror.

ftp://malus.exotica.org.uk/pub/joggler/ ... lk0.img.gz is the main server.

Thanks BuZz - I'll take down my Dropbox file & edit my previous posts to link to your file. Can you unparse the url's for me?

[BuZz]

not sure what you mean ? just copy and paste the url destination (Doesnt matter that the forum has abbreviated them - they link to the right place)

[moso]

The easiest way to fix this stupid problem, enjoy!

http://birdslikewires.co.uk/articles/jogglerflash

[roobarb!]

The easiest way to fix this stupid problem, enjoy!

http://birdslikewires.co.uk/articles/jogglerflash

Hehe, I don't think I'd written it when this thread was going. In fact, it may have been this thread that prompted me to do it.

[Mevi]

Hi Roobarb, so the reflash tool is yours? Thanks! Yes, it's been very useful to be able to reflash my Jogglers, if only to rule out problems with the stock OS and one Joggler whose NIC won't start in XP.

Anyway, I'm in danger of hijacking the thread so I'll keep short. If I were t change references to the mmc in the script to that of a USB stick mounted internally, could your reflash tool be used to easily reflash a new OS?

Thanks again

[roobarb!]

Hi Roobarb, so the reflash tool is yours? Thanks! Yes, it's been very useful to be able to reflash my Jogglers, if only to rule out problems with the stock OS and one Joggler whose NIC won't start in XP.

Yup, it's me. Guilty.

Anyway, I'm in danger of hijacking the thread so I'll keep short. If I were t change references to the mmc in the script to that of a USB stick mounted internally, could your reflash tool be used to easily reflash a new OS?

Yes, it could. The destination really doesn't matter; you'd just have to change the references, make sure your partitions and the fstab are right and off you go.