Bubba 2 not booting, and not starting with a rescue USB img

[john]

My bubba 2 suddenly stopped booting after being turned off a week during my hollidays.
It now only blinks slowly with the booting / closing down blinking pattern. If I press the reset button it turns off, but it does not request an IP address on the WAN port and I am not able to access it in any way (ping, ssh)

I downloaded the install/rescue .zip file and have tried two usb sticks to see if I could get a rescue image going.

With the first usb stick I did not observe any change, i.e. no fast blinking, and the slow blinking continued 'for ever'.

With the second USB stick I get the fast blinking after a while, but the box still does not request an address from my dhcp server, so I am unable to login to the machine. After the period of fast blinking, it start with the slow blinking, and again it is 'for ever'.

The recipe for starting from USB is also not 100% clear.
Am I supposed to hold the reset button all the way from power-up and then 5 seconds after the fast blinking?
Or shall I hold it for how long during power-up? (Or until the LED has blinked x times, or ...)
And how accurately do I need to hold the reset button 5 seconds? I would prefer some visual feedback that I have held it long enough

Any other ideas?

[ovemh]

Hey, I do not know if this is a too late reply, but I also wanted to post this instruction for those with problems making the USB Rescue Stick.

Many are apparently struggling because the USB sticks are quite different regarding to the hardware in use and they all have different file systems. The USB stick must have a partition table, and a FAT32 system.

Well how to do that if you are not well experienced?
I myself tried several times, both with the gparted and fdisk at my linux system. I'm actually an experienced linux user (!), but still didnt make it to work. But by chance I suddenly realised I had the USB installation disk for Ubuntu by hand. Thats how I came on to make this detour, which, rather than several try-and-failures for the unexperienced, might be just as fast.

The big problem seems to be creating the partition table. And make it bootable. By following theese steps you will be sure you do it more than right.

1)
Make sure you have a USB stick at least 1 GB, 2 GB will be good as well.

2)
Now: Go to the Ubuntu website, download the Ubuntu installation image. (The *.iso file)
http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop/get-ubuntu/download

On the web-site over, follow the step 2 as well. It is a guide on how to make a USB boot disk for installing the Ubuntu-system on different platforms, Windows, Ubuntu, Mac, etc.. Its a good guide we can borrow for this purpose.

3)
Now following theese steps, we are 100% sure that we have a usb stick with the partition table, the right file-system, and even a bootable system on it, right?

4)
Well, we can not install Ubuntu on Bubba, it will not work. Don't even try it!! Therefore:
Insert the USB stick with the ubuntu boot-system on it in your PC (well not boot your PC on the stick, just put it into your system when you are up and running reading this). Use your file-system-browser, delete everything at the usb-stick's root directory. Delete everything except the install-directory. But delete everything under the install-directory.

Here is an important thing:
It might be that your USB stick is out of space, since you actually have a full Ubuntu Linux installation CD there. Well, if you are using a 2GB stick, there is no problem. And you strictly telling, only need to delete all the files directly under the root directory, and everything under the install directory. You might have to remove the USB stick a few times, making your operating system warn you to empty the trash folder, if you have it on your system.

Empty the trash folder, delete as much as possible, except the install-directory, but delete everything under the install directory. Make sure there are enough space at your stick, delete all files under the root at the stick, thats the point!

5)
Now, with a clean usb-stick: Go to
http://update.excito.net/install/latest/bubba-two/
Download file: b2-install-2.0.zip

As you will see when you open the zip-file, it has a particular structure with its own folders. When I unpacked the zip, all files ended up in a single directory at my system, no different directories. Frustrating? Why dont Excito maka an *.iso-file like Ubuntu? Well, I did not bother to check what worked placing the files in different directories, and ended up with the following structure:

Code: Select all

.
| - 8313E21.itb
| - Bubba.cfg
| - Bubba root-100414-1504.tar.gz
| - Install [DIRECTORY]
| | - 8313E21.itb
| | - Bubba.cfg
| | - Bubba root-100414-1504.tar.gz
| | - Install.itb
| | - Payload [DIRECTORY]
| | `- Bubba root-100414-1504.tar.gz
| `- U-boot (2). Bin
| - Install.itb
`- U-boot (2). Bin

As you see, I made sure that all files were everywhere, so I was sure it somehow would boot and be installed, when i was placing the stick in my bubba. Notice: This Is Very Space-Consuming At The Stick! Note that Bubba.cfg is actually two places.  If you do the same thing as I did, Make sure they both are configured same way. Both in the root directory and the install directory.

I hope someone will read this post, and tell the right structure. (?)

Anyway:
Now you can follow the instructions under "Installing & Reinstalling Software":
http://download.excito.net/web/BubbaTwo ... index.html #

It worked for me. Good luck!

[lukas]

I still can't get it working. I made the USB bootable, and copied the file structure as mentioned in the post.
I have connected it to a DHCP-enabled router on the WAN port. I edited bubba.cfg so it is "DO_INSTALL=0". I keep the power button pressed when I plug in the power line and for additional five seconds. The led flashes at 2hz for ~37 seconds, and then very fast for approx two seconds, and then it flashes at 1hz forever.

When I try to hammer the refresh button on the router's DHCP client list in the web interface, I can sometimes see a new client there for a few seconds, possible appearing just before the led switch from 2hz to rapid blinking, and disappear when it switch to 1hz. I haven't managed to ssh to that client during the tiny time window.

[jesperw]

I am stuck with the same problem. Have googled everything, but to no avail. Getting desperate.