[How to] Install OMV on Pogoplug Classic (POGO-E02)

Thanks for your patience on this, Kochin!
I have tried 3 separate USB sticks, all with same results: same "additional required dependencies" errors (?) on installing; then booting only into the Pogoplug NAND (evidenced by "Pogoplug:~$"), not the USB drive.

The dependencies issue seems more of a debian/doozan problem than my USB drive. But the refusal to boot from the USB drive is a puzzle. Your fdisk setup instructions did not specify setting the sd1 partition as bootable, but I did this anyway just because it seemed a good idea in face of my bootup issues. (BTW, that setup section could use more fleshing out for newbies to linux such as myself, IMO).

So my distilled question: is the unresolved dependencies during the installation a real show stopper, or can I safely ignore this and proceed to focus on forcing a boot to USB? Or maybe installing Debian on NAND?

Alright, I'm probably over looking something but I can't seem to get the initial OS install to boot. I'm using a POGO-E02, with a 8GB USB (seagate CF installed inside) that I created a 6.5Gb primary partition and a remaining 750mb swap partition. /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2

So after about three attempts to install the base OS (must have had some internet ISP issues) it finally finished and prompted for a reboot.

Now I did not remove power for a cold start, but after the reboot it loaded up the pogoplug software, hence the "Pogoplug:~$" prompt.

Issuing a "uname -a" returns "Linux Pogoplug 2.6.22.18 #81 Tue Oct 19 16:05:00 PDT 2010 armv5tejl unknown" so it's still booting of the NAND.

I went to the /tmp for a listing and did not find a debian folder. So I created one and mounted /dev/sda1 to /tmp/debian.

I then went to the /tmp/debian/boot folder and do see the following files listed:
System.map-2.6.32-5-kirkwood config-2.6.32-5-kirkwood initrd.img-2.6.32-5-kirkwood vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-kirkwood

So, Debian did install but I'm having the same problem.

How exactly do I get this to boot off the connected USB drive? What did I do wrong?

Any help would be appreciated

Thanks for the reply, but just to clarify I mis-spoke earlier. Actually I tried a USB Hard drive which is a Memorex 8gb with a spinning Seagate microdrive installed in it.

Then I tried a Sandisk Cruzer Professional 8gb USB Flash drive (I know it's not recommended) but got the exact same results as before.

Both times debian is installed and written to the first USB partition, but it's just not booting off of it.

Is there anything that I can do to check, verify, set, whatever as to why uboot just isn't booting off the usb?

I will try a full size 2.5" or 3.5" usb hard drive, but something just doesn't seem right?

Same problem - after a clean install, cannot boot (warm or cold) into the USB drive. Have used several SD cards, including the current Sandisk micro 4gb, vetted by the above referenced site.

I used fw_setenv to bump up the bootdelay and usb_rootdelay both to 15, to no effect. here's the output of fw_printenv:

Pogoplug:~$ /usr/sbin/fw_printenv
ethact=egiga0
baudrate=115200
mainlineLinux=yes
console=ttyS0,115200
led_init=green blinking
led_exit=green off
led_error=orange blinking
mtdparts=mtdparts=orion_nand:1M(u-boot),4M(uImage),32M(rootfs),-(data)
mtdids=nand0=orion_nand
partition=nand0,2
stdin=serial
stdout=serial
stderr=serial
rescue_installed=0
rescue_set_bootargs=setenv bootargs console=$console ubi.mtd=2 root=ubi0:rootfs ro rootfstype=ubifs $mtdparts $rescue_custom_params
rescue_bootcmd=if test $rescue_installed -eq 1; then run rescue_set_bootargs; nand read.e 0x800000 0x100000 0x400000; bootm 0x800000; else run pogo_bootcmd; fi
pogo_bootcmd=if fsload uboot-original-mtd0.kwb; then go 0x800200; fi
force_rescue=0
force_rescue_bootcmd=if test $force_rescue -eq 1 ext2load usb 0:1 0x1700000 /rescueme 1 fatload usb 0:1 0x1700000 /rescueme.txt 1; then run rescue_bootcmd; fi
ubifs_mtd=3
ubifs_set_bootargs=setenv bootargs console=$console ubi.mtd=$ubifs_mtd root=ubi0:rootfs rootfstype=ubifs $mtdparts $ubifs_custom_params
ubifs_bootcmd=run ubifs_set_bootargs; if ubi part data && ubifsmount rootfs && ubifsload 0x800000 /boot/uImage && ubifsload 0x1100000 /boot/uInitrd; then bootm 0x800000 0x1100000; fi
usb_scan=usb_scan_done=0;for scan in $usb_scan_list; do run usb_scan_$scan; if test $usb_scan_done -eq 0 && ext2load usb $usb 0x800000 /boot/uImage 1; then usb_scan_done=1; echo "Found bootable drive on usb $usb"; setenv usb_device $usb; setenv usb_root /dev/$dev; fi; done
usb_scan_list=1 2 3 4
usb_scan_1=usb=0:1 dev=sda1
usb_scan_2=usb=1:1 dev=sdb1
usb_scan_3=usb=2:1 dev=sdc1
usb_scan_4=usb=3:1 dev=sdd1
usb_init=run usb_scan
usb_device=0:1
usb_root=/dev/sda1
usb_rootfstype=ext2
usb_set_bootargs=setenv bootargs console=$console root=$usb_root rootdelay=$usb_rootdelay rootfstype=$usb_rootfstype $mtdparts $usb_custom_params
usb_bootcmd=run usb_init; run usb_set_bootargs; run usb_boot
usb_boot=mw 0x800000 0 1; ext2load usb $usb_device 0x800000 /boot/uImage; if ext2load usb $usb_device 0x1100000 /boot/uInitrd; then bootm 0x800000 0x1100000; else bootm 0x800000; fi
bootcmd=usb start; run force_rescue_bootcmd; run ubifs_bootcmd; run usb_bootcmd; usb stop; run rescue_bootcmd; run pogo_bootcmd; reset
ethaddr=00:25:31:02:E6:99
arcNumber=2097
usb_rootdelay=15
bootdelay=15
Pogoplug:~$

Also, as previously suggested by kochin, I tried to mount the sd card, but got this instead:

Pogoplug:~$ mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/debian
mount: mounting /dev/sda1 on /tmp/debian failed: No such file or directory
Pogoplug:~$

But when I mounted just the /tmp node, it worked. And then discovered that there was no /tmp/debian directory (sic!) So even though the installation seemed successful, it wasn't !!! :o

Update: I re-ran kochin's script, but this time replacing (export PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH) with the "export" command from the doozan.com/debian site (export PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin:/sbin). This time the installation completed clean again, AND this time I could mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/debian. All the debian directories and files were there, including the boot files. I thought YIPEE!! success. However :cry: upon rebooting (warm and cold) neither debian (USB drive) nor Pogoplug (NAND) booted up. The green light was solid, but I could not ssh into the IP address. Ouch!

Conclusion: changing the export command allowed for a clean debian install, including an overwrite of the NAND bootcmd - finally!. But somehow the system still could not boot the USB drive (4GB Sandisk micro SD card), probably a uBoot/bootloader problem. Oh well, two steps forward, one step back... :? Before rebooting, I ran fw_printenv, blparam, dmesg, but not sure if these point to the problem. Maybe??

Alright, I really hope someone here can advise as to what exactly my problem is trying to get debian squeeze to boot. I'm using a Pogo Plug E02 with a usb hard drive in a dock, followed the instructions as usual, but only boots into the pogoplug environment.

I know that debian installed fine to /dev/sda1, because if I create /tmp/debain and mount it there I can see all of the files.

I have increased bootdelay to 15, and usbrootdelay to 15; no differences. The output of my fw_printenv is almost identical to what 1coyote1 posted above.

I have setup netconsole and can provide the following output during boot up?

Here is the output shown by netconsole during boot (both cold and warm) didn't change a thing...

U-Boot 2011.12 (Feb 20 2012 - 21:21:59)
Pogoplug E02
arm-none-linux-gnueabi-gcc (Sourcery G++ Lite 2009q3-67) 4.4.1
GNU ld (Sourcery G++ Lite 2009q3-67) 2.19.51.20090709
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 0
(Re)start USB...
USB: Register 10011 NbrPorts 1
USB EHCI 1.00
scanning bus for devices... 3 USB Device(s) found
scanning bus for storage devices... 1 Storage Device(s) found
Loading file "/rescueme" from usb device 0:1 (usbda1)
** File not found /rescueme
reading /rescueme.txt

** Unable to read "/rescueme.txt" from usb 0:1 **
Creating 1 MTD partitions on "nand0":
0x000002500000-0x000008000000 : "mtd=3"
UBI: attaching mtd1 to ubi0
UBI: physical eraseblock size: 131072 bytes (128 KiB)
UBI: logical eraseblock size: 129024 bytes
UBI: smallest flash I/O unit: 2048
UBI: sub-page size: 512
UBI: VID header offset: 512 (aligned 512)
UBI: data offset: 2048
UBI: attached mtd1 to ubi0
UBI: MTD device name: "mtd=3"
UBI: MTD device size: 91 MiB
UBI: number of good PEBs: 727
UBI: number of bad PEBs: 1
UBI: max. allowed volumes: 128
UBI: wear-leveling threshold: 4096
UBI: number of internal volumes: 1
UBI: number of user volumes: 0
UBI: available PEBs: 716
UBI: total number of reserved PEBs: 11
UBI: number of PEBs reserved for bad PEB handling: 7
UBI: max/mean erase counter: 1/1
UBIFS error (pid 0): ubifs_get_sb: cannot open "ubi:rootfs", error -19
Error reading superblock on volume 'ubi:rootfs'!
Loading file "/boot/uImage" from usb device 0:1 (usbda1)
** File not found /boot/uImage
** Block device usb 1 not supported
** Block device usb 2 not supported
** Block device usb 3 not supported
Loading file "/boot/uImage" from usb device 0:1 (usbda1)
** File not found /boot/uImage
Loading file "/boot/uInitrd" from usb device 0:1 (usbda1)
** File not found /boot/uInitrd
Wrong Image Format for bootm command
ERROR: can't get kernel image!
stopping USB..
### JFFS2 loading 'uboot-original-mtd0.kwb' to 0x800000
Scanning JFFS2 FS: .......... done.
### JFFS2 load complete: 524288 bytes loaded to 0x800000
## Starting application at 0x00800200 ...

Then I get the green light, and I'm back at the pogoplug prompt.

Anyone?

Alright, anyone that has had trouble just installing Debian on a POGO-E02 Pogoplug like I have, I've found a solution after A LOT of searching and time.

To recap I tried multiple USB sticks, even a 2.5" laptop drive in a USB dock, nothing ultimately worked, but each time I could see and verify that debian did install to the USB device during the installation script, but after rebooting the Pogoplug it never seemed to boot off the USB and would always boot off the Pogoplug software.

Just to clarify, I followed this page for the Debian Squeeze.
http://projects.doozan.com/debian/

But in order to actually get Debain to boot off USB, I had to do the following in addition.

After Jeff's script finishes running and asks you to reboot, choose NO.

mount the /dev/sda1 partition (the first partition that Debian installed to) to the /tmp/debian folder

mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/debian

cd /tmp/debian/usr/bin

issue these commands

./mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel  -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n Linux-2.6.32-5-kirkwood -d ../../boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-kirkwood ../../boot/uImage
./mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C gzip -a 0x00000000 -e 0x00000000 -n initramfs-2.6.32-5-kirkwood -d ../../boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-kirkwood ../../boot/uInitrd

Lastly I un-mounted the USB by...

cd /tmp

umount /dev/sda1

reboot

After reboot, I saw that the Pogoplug associated with a different IP address, so check your DHCP server.
SSH to the new IP, login is root and password is root
issue a uname -a to verify your kernel.

Note, with this POGO-E02 on this version of kernel, the "status" light will remain orange, but that is normal.

For reference and credit, I found this information at the links below.
Your mileage may vary but this worked for me...

Originally, Okigan's post on this thread
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,11396

And David's help on this thread
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12061

Cadre, and kochin,
Thanks for your relentless detective work. I was heading toward the same solution, but you got there first and confirmed it worked. I repeated your steps and the installation went through clean. However, I could not ssh into a reboot (hot or cold) on the debian USB, even though I have the Pogoplug's IP set static. While it shows active on the network at that IP address, I cannot access it. Although I can ssh into the Pogoplug NAND when the USB thumbdrive (Verbatim Store-n-Go) is removed.

Closer, but no cigar...

1coyote1, I would say that you really need to setup netconsole and see what is being displayed.
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,14,14

Also, if you're using putty.exe for SSH, depending on your DHCP scope or even your prior history; I would clear out all of your old SSHhostkeys from the registry.
Look in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\SshHostKeys and delete those entries.

Also to note, that while I have finally been able to install Debian Squeeze and successfully connect and configure this, I still have not been able to actually install OMV to it and login to it's webgui with default login credentials.

Between the xmlstarlet, and collectd erroring out, and some file permissions not being applied properly; I'm still working on that.

I think this has been solved in this thread.
http://forums.openmediavault.o…83&p=5902&hilit=ARM#p5902

Thanks for all these tips, cadre. The link at the bottom of your above post related to logging into OMV, not the PP itself. I had previously cleared out the windows registry keys, to no avail. Running netconsole seems like a good thing to do, but when I install the windows version of it - netcat - the screen disappears each time I enter a command. Perhaps everyone that can use netconsole successfully has a linux desktop, don't know. But I can't get windows to work for me.

It's a mystery why we have such a problem, first just booting into the USB drive with debian installed - although you have at least gotten this far - and then installing OMV. Kochin is the only one I know for certain who has gone all the way. I can't imagine that your and my experience is so exceptional. "Perseverance furthers" - up to a point! :roll:

Pogoplug POGO-E02 Debian / Openmediavault install notes

I had multiple problems trying to install Debian (and OpenMediaVault) on my pogoplug and couldn't find all of the answers in one place, so this is my attempt to try and consolidate all of my steps that I took to accomplish this.

I realize that some, if not most of these commands are not needed for the more veteran people, but this is geared towards the noobs...so bare with me.

Preparing the drive

I'm using an 8gb Sandisk Cruzer Professional usb drive, but I'll create partitions that would fit on a 4gb drive because I'll plan to use USB Image Tool to create "device" backups that I can compress (hopefully without data loss) and restore on other available USB drives if needed. Before I plugged it into the pogoplug, I put into a Win7 machine and started up diskpart to completely "clean" and erase the drive before use.

Note: Realize what you're doing here, DON'T select the wrong drive to clean, or you'll be sorry!

Start, Run, diskpart

list disk

select disk # (# = your usb drive)

clean

exit

the usb drive is now completely erased and empty

Installing Debian Squeeze

Main project page is here
http://projects.doozan.com/debian/

Now, SSH to the pogoplug. Default login is root and default password is ceadmin

just in case, kill all pogoplug call-home software with:

killall hbwd

plug in the usb drive into the usb port closest to the network port.

We need to create partitions on the usb drive for debian.

cd /tmp

fdisk /dev/sda

Create the primary Debian install partition

n = new
p = primary
1 = 1st partition
1 = 1st cylinder
+2500M (your choice, I choose to create 2500Mb partition for Debain install)

Create the swap file partition

n = new
p = primary
2 = 2nd partition
enter = choose default (continuing from the end of the 1st partition)
+1000M = (your choice, I choose to create a 1000M partition for swap)

change partition type for primary
t = type
1 = 1st partition
83 = Linux
change partition type for swap
t = type
2 = 2nd partition
82 = Linux swap

Set 1st partition to active for booting
a = boot flag
1 = 1st partition

print partition tables to verify

writes changes and exit Fdisk
w

Continue following Jeff's install for Debian Squeeze
make sure you are in the /tmp folder, this is the only folder with read write access.

cd /tmp

wget http://projects.doozan.com/debian/dockstar.debian-squeeze.sh

chmod +x dockstar.debian-squeeze.sh

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin:/sbin

./dockstar.debian-squeeze.sh

After the install script finishes, it will ask if you want to Reboot now?

Choose NO

For whatever reason the install script doesn't seem to properly create the boot images needed to work properly so we have to manually create them.

We need to mount the 1st partition (where Debian was installed) to the /tmp/debian folder.

mount /dev/sda1 /tmp/debian

Now we need to change directory to the /tmp/debian/usr/bin folder because that's where the executables files are.

cd /tmp/debian/usr/bin

Now issue these two commands to manually create the images needed to boot properly

./mkimage -A arm -O linux -T kernel  -C none -a 0x00008000 -e 0x00008000 -n Linux-2.6.32-5-kirkwood -d ../../boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-5-kirkwood ../../boot/uImage

./mkimage -A arm -O linux -T ramdisk -C gzip -a 0x00000000 -e 0x00000000 -n initramfs-2.6.32-5-kirkwood -d ../../boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-5-kirkwood ../../boot/uInitrd

You should have seen the Linux-2.6-32-5-kirkwood image created after the first command, and initramfs-2.6.32-5-kirkwood image created after the second command.

We now should un-mount the usb drive before restarting

cd /tmp

umount /dev/sda1

Setting up NetConsole
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?3,14,14

Before rebooting the pogoplug, you might want to setup Netconsole to review the boot-up process in case trouleshooting is needed.
This is not required at all, but optional.

Configuring the pogoplug for your network with Netconsole

on the pogoplug, change to the /usr/sbin directory where the fw_setenv and fw_printevn files reside

From Jeff's post, you'll see we need to add 5 lines or variables, but substitute the "serverip" with your netconsole "server" or station to view the pogoplug boot process, and the "ipaddr" with the IP address that you'll assign to the pogoplug. Don't use an IP address that is currently in use or part of a DHCP pool for the pogoplug.

My netconsole "server" IP will be 192.168.0.25, and I choose 192.168.0.90 for the pogoplug, so one line at a time, I entered the following.

fw_setenv serverip 192.168.0.25
fw_setenv ipaddr 192.168.0.90
fw_setenv if_netconsole 'ping $serverip'
fw_setenv start_netconsole 'setenv ncip $serverip; setenv bootdelay 10; setenv stdin nc; setenv stdout nc; setenv stderr nc; version;'
fw_setenv preboot 'run if_netconsole start_netconsole'

I'm using Windows so I downloaded the windows port.
http://www.rodneybeede.com/Com…_Windows_using_MinGW.html

I downloaded and extracted the file to a folder I created in the root of my system drive, just for quicker access from a command prompt.
If your using Vista or Win 7, be sure to right click Command Prompt and choose "Run as administrator"
change directory to where you extracted the files

issue this command within the command prompt window
nc -l -u -p 6666

Expand the command prompt to cover the full height of your desktop

Now on the pogoplug, we'll finally issue the reboot command.

reboot

Watch the netconsole window for the boot process.

Finally, if the last line reads "Starting kernel..." then Debian squeeze sucessfully booted!

*See attached picture*

In my experience, the pogoplug plug booting and running Debian never uses the same IP address as before, so check you DHCP server to see what IP address was taken. Also, don’t worry about the status LED being orange, that’s normal for this version of kernel on the pogoplug.

SSH to the new IP address.
default login is root
default passwor is root

Note, if you can't SSH to it ( but know that Debian booted) then you may have to clear old SSHhostkeys from your computer.

after logging in, check your kernel with

uname -a

Now at this point you're done with Debian Squeeze, and can install just about any packages you want to; but if you want to continue with installing Openmediavault read on....

This is another area where I had many, many problems actually getting OMV to install and work, and again I could not find all of the answers in the same place.
I know this is a little verbose for some, but this works for me...

I'll be jumping straight to the current version of OMV which in currently the .4.x branch

Update everything...

apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

since this updates the kernel, I'll reboot here.

reboot

SSH back to the pogoplug

Since the OMV .4.x branch has some dependencies we'll install those first, along with some other things...

apt-get update
apt-get install nano
apt-get install sudo
apt-get install lm-sensors
apt-get install xmlstarlet
wget http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/x/xmlstarlet/xmlstarlet_1.4.2-1_armel.deb
dpkg -i xmlstarlet_1.4.2-1_armel.deb
apt-get install postfix

(during postfix installation I choose "no configuration")

there are some things that we need to configure before and after installing OpenMediaVault to avoid errors during the install process, which I believe may apply to any existing Debian system?
Anyway, during the OMV install, collectd will fail if it can't resolve the host name, so we need to add the current pogoplug IP address and host name to the /etc/hosts file

currently my pogoplug is using IP 192.168.0.31 with a host name of debian, so I'll added a line of:
192.168.0.31 debian to the /etc/hosts file

nano /etc/hosts

add line:
192.168.0.31 debian
after the "local host" entry

Ctrl+O
enter, to save changes
Ctrl+X, to exit

Also, since the default "user" account that OMV expects is admin which currently doesn't exist, we need to create it...

adduser admin

*note* whatever password that you give user "admin" this will also be the password for admin when logging into OMV web-interface after installation!

Now we will reboot before installing OMV

reboot

SSH back to the pogoplug
Now we'll add the OMV repository and perform the install

We need to create /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openmediavault.list file

nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/openmediavault.list

in the blank file, add...

deb http://packages.openmediavault.org/public fedaykin main

save and exit

apt-get update
apt-get install openmediavault-keyring
apt-get update
apt-get install openmediavault

Configuring mdadm
MD arrays needed for root file system, entered = none
ProFTPd run from inetd
Samba Server, input whatever your workgroup name is, or default

after OMV finishes installing, we need to cleanup and configure some more things.

we installed sudo earlier, but need to add user 'admin'

visudo

at the end of the file, add...

admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

save and exit

we also need to add user 'admin' to the openmediavault group

adduser admin openmediavault

next, we need to give group openmediavalut permission to the /etc/shawdow file, for web authentication to work.

first verify current permissions

ls -la /etc/shadow

if it reads
-rw-r----- 1 root root, then we need to change it.

chown root:openmediavault /etc/shadow

verify the change with...

ls -la /etc/shadow

should include openmediavault now

since we've changed some permissions around, we are going to re-initialize omv and restart apache

omv-initsystem

service apache2 restart

pull up a web brower at the pogoplug IP address

login = admin
password = (the password you gave user admin during creation earlier)

once logged in to OMV, first enable SSH, then let's set or change the system time, time zone, and configure Primary DNS under network, DNS Server tab

after verifying that SSH is enabled, we'll reboot the system

I don't believe that I've left anything out, but you should be all done now.

I didn't solve any of these problems, but just couldn't all the solutions in the same place, so anyone trying to install debian squeeze or OpenMediaVault on a Pogoplug POGO-E02 I hope this can be your guide.

hi-

Cadre thanks for posting a really clear and helpful guide. I have done hackintosh installs before but this is kinda new to me

2 questions for anyone to answer:
1) I am installing on a 16Gb USB Sandisk stick...I notice Cadre says to make a SWAP partition, but isn't that bad for USB drives?
2) should it be ext2 / ext3 - does it matter? I recall reading the ARCH linux said to use ext3? I a am a linux newb so jsut wanted to check
3) Open media vault 0.5 is now out - does it matter which I install?

thanks!

Hmm ...

got as far as the debian-squeez.sh runnign until it stopped and said debootstrap failed:
"# Starting debootstrap installation
E: unrecognized or invalid option --no-check-gpg
debootstrap failed.
See /tmp/debian/debootstrap/debootstrap.log for more information." but this log does not exist? debootstrap folder is there though.

Hi battez,

welcome to the forums.
As you're new here you may not noticed that is it not recommend to install OMV on an USB Stick. Get rid of that solution or OMV will take of it and will get rid of the USB Stick itself - which means even if it runs for several weeks, it will toast your USB Stick!

Greetings
David