Blinking Bubba2 after power loss

[andersa]

Hi,

2 weeks ago we had a power outage at home and after that my Bubba 2 wont start, the blue led is just blinking, I guess the system wants to do an fsck at the start. But since it's not possible to connect a monitor etc it's a little hard to do. Is there any trick to solve this or do I need to try a rescue?

I have a bubba 2 with an extra bubba disk, connected with RAID1. And I have saved a lot of photos on the disk so a reinstall is not an option(I need those photos).

So would a rescue work(guess it's the same procedure as for B3, http://wiki.excito.org/wiki/index.php/Rescue_System) or is there any other way to do this?

[Cheeseboy]

Hi,

Yes it sounds like a reinstall is in order, but it doesn't mean you have to lose your precious photos Leon.
Get the B2, not the B3 image from:
http://update.excito.net/install/latest ... ll-2.0.zip

Make sure you change bubba.cfg as follows:

Code: Select all

PARTITION=0
FORMAT=0

Good luck!

Cheeseboy

PS.
Get an UPS, they are cheep now days, and the bubbas will last forever on even the smallest model

[andersa]

Thanks, guess I need to set DO_INSTALL=0 as well

[Cheeseboy]

Well, depends if you want your system to be reinstalled or not.
If you do that, you will just get a temporary boot image.

[eagle_rainbow]

Hi Andersa,

how fit are you with command console linux? If it's just the fsck which is hanging, then you should be able to start the recovery from USB and do the fsck manually.
Alternatively, I don't know how this is with the Bubba2 (I only have a Bubba3), but if this is "just" a problem with the RAID1, then you could try manually assembling the raid array via

Code: Select all

mdadm --assemble

For details on how this works please see

Code: Select all

mdadm --assemble --help

In any case "cold-mounting r/o-mounting" the /dev/sda1 and looking into the /var/log/syslog and/or /var/log/dmesg could also show the root cause for your trouble...

Just my $0.02 here, because I had a similar problem when I installed by B3 here...
Hope it helps!

[andersa]

Hi, thanks. I would lik to try to fix the problem before I do a reinstall and I have some experience using console.

I have:
created a USB stick containing the files
changed the bubba.cfg-file
inserted the USB stick to bubba
held the power button pressed while inserting the power cord

But the only thing that happens is that bubba starts blinking in the doubble speed(twice per second), it can't be found on the network. Have I missed something? (the wiki page is for Bubba3, is there anything else I should do with Bubba2?)

If I do a reinstall like Cheeseboy mentioned, is it a good idea to remove the extra disk, just in case... It can always be added again and added to a new raid1

[Cheeseboy]

Unfortunately, the bubbas seem to be a wee bit sensitive about the USB sticks used.
I went through 5 of them at the first time before I got it right.

Have a look at this:
http://wiki.excito.org/wiki/index.php/Usbstick

If you haven't got a Linux machine to do it with, I suggest you try it with a USB hard-drive instead.
That was the only way I could get it to work the first time on Bubba2.

EDIT:
I should add that there has been much speculation about what works and what doesn't during the years, and my advice above is only just that: speculation from personal experience.

[andersa]

ok, thanks, I'm using Mac.
But i'll try with another stick.

[ryz]

You should also read the section

"Installing & Reinstalling Software"->"Rescue system" in the Bubba 2 Manual found here http://download.excito.net/web/BubbaTwo ... /index.htm. Since the network setup will be different when you using the rescue stick from what you had before. You should for instant connect to the Bubba 2 WAN port and not LAN port.

[andersa]

I tried to reinstall it but the light starts blinking at 16Hz. The weird part is that I connected the HD to another computer an could access all the files. So the disk doesn't seem to be broken.

[Cheeseboy]

I have never seen any of my bubbas blink that fast.
Perhaps you should contact support@excito.com?

[Ubi]

how can anyone observe (let alone count) blinking at 16Hz?

[johannes]

From the Bubba 2 users manual:

Code: Select all

Front LED information

During rescue procedure the front LED has a different blink frequencies to give information about current status.
If the installer is instructed to not install anything, i.e. just to be used as an rescue device, then the LED will blink at 1Hz.
If the installer is instructed to install, but no payload is found, the LED will blink at 16Hz.
If the installer is instructed to partition disc, but no disc found, the LED will blink at 16Hz.
If the installer is instructed to install but not to reboot, the LED will blink at 2Hz when installation is done.
 
When no hard drive is found the LED will repeatedly blink in the following pattern: on 3s, off 1s, on 1s, off 0.2s.

Does this help? If not contact support and we'll take it in for lubrication.

[kitofr]

I have the exact same issue... did you get this resolved?

[andersa]

Yes, contacted excito and got it replaced, motherboard seems to been broken or something.