PE Hardware serial console - Page 5

inbred.farmer · 10-02-2011, 04:19 AM

I couldn't get the serial connection to recognize anything I sent to it. In fact, both of the non-ground pins seemed to be sending the same data. Wouldn't it suck if there were two outputs and no input? I also happen to not know what I am doing, so hopefully I am just wrong. Otherwise, serial recovery might not be an option.

EnvO · 10-05-2011, 07:33 AM

Here is how it works - it been given to me by Entourageedge support, and I promissed to not share that, but now - once they do not exist anymore - it might be helpful for all.

================
The pin out from DB-9 -> 3-pin connector is:

Pin 2 -> Pin 1
Pin 5 -> Pin 2
Pin 3 -> Pin 3

This is a common pin-out for many console interfaces so most likely your cable should work.

We can use any terminal software for the PC such as Procomm or Hyperterm for a Windows system or Minicom on Linux. Our communications settings are:

115200
Odd parity
1 stop bit
hardware flow control off
software flow control off

The 3 pins come out of the board but are bent to face the top edge of the device in the same direction as the mini-USB port. Pin 1 will be the leftmost pin but the serial connection will not be damaged if you accidentally plug the serial cable in the wrong orientation.
====================

And short procedure to repair Edge bricked during update (I don't know if it works with PE):

=====================
Reconnect AC power to the eDGe and press the power button. Check to see if any text is displayed in your terminal software. If you do see text you should see a prompt to 'hit any key to stop autoboot'. Press any key to drop into the boot prompt.

From here we can enter the following two commands:

>> setenv reboot_cmd
>> saveenv

At this point we can power off the eDGe and it should start normally at the next boot.

vicinc · 10-05-2011, 10:56 AM

are those commands restoring the edge to a previous (default) firmware?
any luck any of those will allow creation of proper recovery procedure?

ktwombley · 10-05-2011, 11:18 AM

I think that will just restore the bootloader to boot the default android partition. So if you were stuck in the reboot loop, that'd get you out.

If you're bricked beyond that, you'll have to upload a good ROM image via u-boot and flash it.

tekknogenius · 10-05-2011, 11:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EnvO

Here is how it works - it been given to me by Entourageedge support, and I promissed to not share that, but now - once they do not exist anymore - it might be helpful for all.

Thanks for the data. Do you have any other tidbits of information you'd like to share? Might be helpful for others in the future.

Thank you again

EnvO · 10-05-2011, 02:06 PM

Like ktwombley said - it's just to restore the bootloader to boot the default partition. So if you were stuck in the reboot loop, that'd get you out.

And no - thats all I had from them. No more tricks. All my problem was in update.

vicinc · 10-05-2011, 03:55 PM

envo> mine boot fine android but the eink does not work and also the golden update or menu /rotate.
any idea on how to write an image via serial interface?

ATFmac · 10-08-2011, 03:05 AM

I don't know if they're already posted somewhere, but found a photo dump of inside the PE.

http://s280.photobucket.com/albums/k...Pocket%20eDGe/

nikkie · 10-08-2011, 08:36 PM

Hey Envo, I've got my edge set up as you discussed, and I'm using termite, since I don't see any legit downloads of procomm or hyperterm that work on Windows 7. (I wasn't able to find drivers for the USB-rs232 cable for OSX that work).

When I use termite and boot the edge, a lot of text scrolls by, but it's all garbage text. It *looks* like the baudrate is wrong, but I've tried several others with no luck. Any ideas?

Thanks!

toyz · 10-09-2011, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nikkie

When I use termite and boot the edge, a lot of text scrolls by, but it's all garbage text. It *looks* like the baudrate is wrong, but I've tried several others with no luck. Any ideas?
Thanks!

nikkie,

I had the same issue (but on linux/gtkterm). On the fly (during PE boot) a quick flip of parity to NONE cleared up my text. I'm pretty sure parity=Odd is wrong.

115200, 8N1

Others,

I can verify that a serial port wired like EnvO says will work. Some purchased cables don't map DB9 to 3pin in this way. Just for clarity, wire it without a null modem in the middle.

To clarify EnvO's post further...
DB9 Pin 2 (RX) -- Pin 1 (TX)
DB9 Pin 5 (Gnd) -- Pin 2 (Gnd)
DB9 Pin 3 (TX) -- Pin 3 (RX)

ptsenter · 10-09-2011, 02:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toyz

nikkie,

I had the same issue (but on linux/gtkterm). On the fly (during PE boot) a quick flip of parity to NONE cleared up my text. I'm pretty sure parity=Odd is wrong.

115200, 8N1

Others,

I can verify that a serial port wired like EnvO says will work. Some purchased cables don't map DB9 to 3pin in this way. Just for clarity, wire it without a null modem in the middle.

Have you seen the message 'hit any key to stop autoboot'?

toyz · 10-09-2011, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ptsenter

Have you seen the message 'hit any key to stop autoboot'?

Why yes, I have. I have two PE. One borked with EE firmware. So I can use the good one for reference.

I ended up getting cabling setup with the good PE, so I had a known good configuration. Hit any key to stop autoboot shows up and works. I played in the u-boot prompt a bit, lots of options. Lots of fun in our futures I can see.

With the bad PE (with EE firmware)... it also has the prompt, but will NOT accept any keystrokes and goes ahead a tries to boot.

I plan on posting a few pictures and maybe a pastebin of my log.

Update!
I was able to break into u-boot with my borked PE. I used "moserial" app and probably sent characters before the prompt.

toyz · 10-09-2011, 03:50 PM

I've attached 3 pictures of opening the PE and finding the serial connector.

toyz · 10-09-2011, 04:03 PM

I've attached full captures of the serial console on the working PE and the broken PE with EE firmware. (note the "Edge>" prompt on the broken one vs the "EdgeJr>" prompt on the working one)

Things to note...

Same exact hardware shows a bit different init screen... DRAM size.

Working PE:

Quote:

U-Boot 2009.01-rc1-svn1084 (Feb 15 2011 - 12:04:39)
Marvell version: 1.1.1.1 PXAxxx

ESI version: 2.0.3 (1) <<EdgeJr>>

MARVELL PXAXXX series.
Based on 88SV331xV5 Core with ARM926 LE CPU.
Code original base is u-boot-arm 2009.01-rc1.

DRAM: 512 MB
NAND: detect chip id d7ec on cs 0, Samsung 32Gibx8
SPI NOR: SF: Got idcode c2 20 17 c2 20
SF: Detected MX25L6405D with page size 256, total 8388608 bytes
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
Net: u2o-eth
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 3 0
EdgeJr>>

vs borken PE (with EE firmware):

Quote:

U-Boot 2009.01-rc1-svn4081 (Sep 27 2010 - 18:49:17)
Marvell version: 1.1.1.1 PXAxxx

ESI version: 1.0.9 (1)

MARVELL PXAXXX series.
Based on 88SV331xV5 Core with ARM926 LE CPU.
Code original base is u-boot-arm 2009.01-rc1.

DRAM: 128 MB
NAND: detect chip id d7ec on cs 0, Samsung 32Gibx8
SPI NOR: SF: Got idcode c2 20 17 c2 20
SF: Detected MX25L6405D with page size 256, total 8388608 bytes
In: serial
Out: serial
Err: serial
Net: u2o-eth
Hit any key to stop autoboot: 3 0
Edge>>

Where to go from here? I'm not an android hacker (yet), lots of u-boot options, like Solaris OpenBoot... so I imagine something looks here to try to force a firmware/rom flash. I'm open to suggestions?!

Quote:

Edge>> help
? - alias for 'help'
base - print or set address offset
bbt - Bad Block Management
bootz - boot zImge from memory
cmp - memory compare
cp - memory copy
crc32 - checksum calculation
help - print online help
hi - put system into hibernate mode
i2cbase - i2cbase i2c_base_addr (I2C: 0xd4011000, PI2C: 0xd4025000)
i2cinit - initialize i2c bus
i2cr - read I2C device (byte)
i2cw - write I2C device (byte)
i2cwa - write addr to I2C device (byte)
inislp - initialize for system sleep mode
loop - infinite loop on address range
md - memory display
mm - memory modify (auto-incrementing)
mtest - simple RAM test
mw - memory write (fill)
nand - NAND sub-system
nm - memory modify (constant address)
op - operating change
ping - send ICMP ECHO_REQUEST to network host
printenv- print environment variables
relcp - release seagull image at 0x18000
run - run commands in an environment variable
saveenv - save environment variables to persistent storage
setalarm- set rtc alarm
setenv - set environment variables
sf - SPI flash sub-system
switch -switch the download by USB or Ethernet, and config conresponsed IP
tftpboot -download image via network using TFTP protocol
timeout - set timeout for the system
version - print monitor version

ee-on-pe-to-hang.txt shows the failed boot of EE firmware on PE.

nikkie · 10-09-2011, 05:07 PM

Hey toys, thanks for the tip about the parity bit! I've got it booting over serial now, and my output looks EXACTLY the same as yours. I note that the non-broken one says edgejr in the ESI version, while the broken one doesn't. I suspect what we have is a link somewhere here on the forum labelled incorrectly. I've checked all of mine, and the links all indicate that the versions I've downloaded are for the PE. Therefore, at least one of the links is wrong. What do you think? I'm thinking we should put out a PSA with a moratorium until we figure out what the bad download link is.

The line:

Quote:

wait_for_ready: I/F busy bit stuck

Seems to indicate the actual problem. The solution mentioned above by Envo doesn't seem to help for this situation.

10-09-2011, 03:50 PM	#73
toyz Member Posts: 23 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Idaho USA Device: Pocket Edge	I've attached 3 pictures of opening the PE and finding the serial connector. Attached Thumbnails

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10-02-2011, 04:19 AM	#61
inbred.farmer Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Kent, WA Device: Entourage Pocket eDGe	I couldn't get the serial connection to recognize anything I sent to it. In fact, both of the non-ground pins seemed to be sending the same data. Wouldn't it suck if there were two outputs and no input? I also happen to not know what I am doing, so hopefully I am just wrong. Otherwise, serial recovery might not be an option.

10-05-2011, 07:33 AM	#62
EnvO Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2011 Device: edge, kindle	Here is how it works - it been given to me by Entourageedge support, and I promissed to not share that, but now - once they do not exist anymore - it might be helpful for all. ================ The pin out from DB-9 -> 3-pin connector is: Pin 2 -> Pin 1 Pin 5 -> Pin 2 Pin 3 -> Pin 3 This is a common pin-out for many console interfaces so most likely your cable should work. We can use any terminal software for the PC such as Procomm or Hyperterm for a Windows system or Minicom on Linux. Our communications settings are: 115200 Odd parity 1 stop bit hardware flow control off software flow control off The 3 pins come out of the board but are bent to face the top edge of the device in the same direction as the mini-USB port. Pin 1 will be the leftmost pin but the serial connection will not be damaged if you accidentally plug the serial cable in the wrong orientation. ==================== And short procedure to repair Edge bricked during update (I don't know if it works with PE): ===================== Reconnect AC power to the eDGe and press the power button. Check to see if any text is displayed in your terminal software. If you do see text you should see a prompt to 'hit any key to stop autoboot'. Press any key to drop into the boot prompt. From here we can enter the following two commands: >> setenv reboot_cmd >> saveenv At this point we can power off the eDGe and it should start normally at the next boot.

10-05-2011, 10:56 AM	#63
vicinc Guru Posts: 733 Karma: 443 Join Date: May 2011 Location: UK Device: Pocket Edgex2(1unborked), Alex, Nook B&W, Nook Color, Nook STR	are those commands restoring the edge to a previous (default) firmware? any luck any of those will allow creation of proper recovery procedure?

10-05-2011, 11:18 AM	#64
ktwombley Connoisseur Posts: 51 Karma: 32 Join Date: Sep 2011 Device: pocket edge	I think that will just restore the bootloader to boot the default android partition. So if you were stuck in the reboot loop, that'd get you out. If you're bricked beyond that, you'll have to upload a good ROM image via u-boot and flash it.

10-05-2011, 02:06 PM	#66
EnvO Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2011 Device: edge, kindle	Like ktwombley said - it's just to restore the bootloader to boot the default partition. So if you were stuck in the reboot loop, that'd get you out. And no - thats all I had from them. No more tricks. All my problem was in update.

10-05-2011, 03:55 PM	#67
vicinc Guru Posts: 733 Karma: 443 Join Date: May 2011 Location: UK Device: Pocket Edgex2(1unborked), Alex, Nook B&W, Nook Color, Nook STR	envo> mine boot fine android but the eink does not work and also the golden update or menu /rotate. any idea on how to write an image via serial interface?

10-08-2011, 03:05 AM	#68
ATFmac Connoisseur Posts: 65 Karma: 1006 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: Pocket Edge, Ermine 0.9, Rooted, Market Enabled	I don't know if they're already posted somewhere, but found a photo dump of inside the PE. http://s280.photobucket.com/albums/k...Pocket%20eDGe/

10-08-2011, 08:36 PM	#69
nikkie Guru Posts: 614 Karma: 73700 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: WA, USA Device: Android, Kindle Paperwhite, lots of ancient readers	Hey Envo, I've got my edge set up as you discussed, and I'm using termite, since I don't see any legit downloads of procomm or hyperterm that work on Windows 7. (I wasn't able to find drivers for the USB-rs232 cable for OSX that work). When I use termite and boot the edge, a lot of text scrolls by, but it's all garbage text. It looks like the baudrate is wrong, but I've tried several others with no luck. Any ideas? Thanks!

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