Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 13049 Location: Behind The Reset Button
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2012 19:02 Post subject:
illiac4 wrote:
Well this will not work because the cfe is defect. I can not get to cfe> because the cfe is constantly resetting/rebooting. So the jtag is the only option to flash CFE and this is what I need. The serial will not help me.
Well you do as you choose. Unless you deliberately did something to the cfe, it is next to impossible to harm it. The fact that you are getting serial output tells me that the cfe is probably intact.
Because you can not stop the boot, does not mean the cfe is bad. It could be your adapter, it could be you are not fast enough, it could be something bad in nvram (yes, the cfe reads it), or it could be the device has suffered a hardware failure and when the failed component (switch, one of the radios, etc) gets initialized, that causes the reboot (a bad power supply will do the same thing).
I can only suggest you post the serial output. Maybe someone like LOM will see your post. He is one of the best I have seen at interpreting the boot log when there is problems.. He has helped me out several times. _________________ [Moderator Deleted]
Interestingly I did another hard reset on the router and the wireless came up. I was able to connect to the wireless with my laptop and even get to the firmware upgrade screen. I tried to reflash DD-WRT and it gave me "upgrade successful" so I waited but I couldn't reconnect to the router by any means and a power cycle just put me back to a flashing power light.
Not to keep spamming posts but I'm learning as I go. My CA-42 cable has 5 wires: red, yellow, white, blue and black. I have no idea which is which. The colors seem to mean pretty much nothing. I've found varying accounts that GND is blue, black or orange/red. Hopefully I don't fry something.
I can't get the CFE prompt to come up but the serial is working which was a huge triumph for me. What should I do? How can I check to see if I have the right Tx..obviously Rx is working.
CFE version 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,LE)
Build Date: Mon Dec 21 13:21:59 CST 2009 (ljh@team2-complier)
Copyright (C) 2000-2008 Broadcom Corporation.
Init Arena
Init Devs.
No DPN
This is a Parallel Flash
Boot partition size = 262144(0x40000)
et0: Broadcom BCM47XX 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Controller 5.10.56.51
CPU type 0x8: 480MHz
Tot mem: 65536 KBytes
You have to be faster than a human to get the cfe prompt. You almost have to break it before you power it. Get help to do this. Only non-humans like Barryware can do it solo.
That CFE output looks bad to me, but someone like LOM or BW will know better. Compare it to other CFE outputs that are posted in threads on the forum. _________________ SIG:
I'm trying to teach you to fish, not give you a fish. If you just want a fish, wait for a fisherman who hands them out. I'm more of a fishing instructor.
LOM: "If you show that you have not bothered to read the forum announcements or to follow the advices in them then the level of help available for you will drop substantially, also known as Murrkf's law.."
it's not throwing that error all the time. If I hold down CTL-C and then boot the router it only gets to here:
CFE version 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,LE)
Build Date: Mon Dec 21 13:21:59 CST 2009 (ljh@team2-complier)
Copyright (C) 2000-2008 Broadcom Corporation.
Init Arena
Init Devs.
No DPN
This is a Parallel Flash
Boot partition size = 262144(0x40000)
It never gets past the exception 8 table. However it never gets to this stage (taken from antoher page):
mac_init(): Find mac [00:16:B6:28:7D:4F] in location 0
Nothing...
eou_key_init(): Find key pair in location 0
The eou device id is same
The eou public key is same
The eou private key is same
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-16-B6-28-7D-4F, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Reading :: Failed.: Interrupted
CFE> ^C
CFE>
Last edited by wats6831 on Fri Mar 16, 2012 20:50; edited 1 time in total
Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 13049 Location: Behind The Reset Button
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 20:40 Post subject:
you have stopped the boot..
now at the cfe prompt, erase nvram:
nvram erase [enter]
then.. power cycle it.. if it still does not boot, erase nvram again then force the flash of stock firmware at the cfe prompt via tftp _________________ [Moderator Deleted]
then.. power cycle it.. if it still does not boot, erase nvram again then force the flash of stock firmware at the cfe prompt via tftp
I get I'm stopping the boot sometimes but I never get a CFE prompt. I get nothing it just stays where I break it.
This is where it either hangs or gives the Exception 8 error, it won't do anything past this. Are you supposed to hold CTL-C until the CFE prompt shows up? Does it take like a couple of mins?
CFE version 1.0.37 for BCM947XX (32bit,SP,LE)
Build Date: Mon Dec 21 13:21:59 CST 2009 (ljh@team2-complier)
Copyright (C) 2000-2008 Broadcom Corporation.
Init Arena
Init Devs.
No DPN
This is a Parallel Flash
Boot partition size = 262144(0x40000)
et0: Broadcom BCM47XX 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet Controller 5.10.56.51
CPU type 0x8: 480MHz
Tot mem: 65536 KBytes
Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 13049 Location: Behind The Reset Button
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 20:59 Post subject:
[quote="wats6831"]
barryware wrote:
wats6831 wrote:
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-16-B6-28-7D-4F, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Reading :: Failed.: Interrupted
CFE> ^C
CFE>
I took that from another page to show I'm never getting to that stage.
understood.... We need to wait for LOM to evaluate the error's you posted. Last time he gave me a hand, it was an either / or.. either the flash chip has failed or bad nvram.. turned out to be bad nvram. using jtag, I erased nvram & kernel.. the router was saved..
another instance, it was a bad switch chip.. that router was not saved. _________________ [Moderator Deleted]
Device eth0: hwaddr 00-16-B6-28-7D-4F, ipaddr 192.168.1.1, mask 255.255.255.0
gateway not set, nameserver not set
Reading :: Failed.: Interrupted
CFE> ^C
CFE>
I took that from another page to show I'm never getting to that stage.
understood.... We need to wait for LOM to evaluate the error's you posted. Last time he gave me a hand, it was an either / or.. either the flash chip has failed or bad nvram.. turned out to be bad nvram. using jtag, I erased nvram & kernel.. the router was saved..
another instance, it was a bad switch chip.. that router was not saved.
based on it's prior behavior I wouldn't be suprised if the switch chip was bad.
I get I'm stopping the boot sometimes but I never get a CFE prompt. I get nothing it just stays where I break it.
Your crash is before the command interpreter is activated so there is no chance to break into the cfe.
I can't say exactly what the cfe is doing when it crashes cause neither I nor barryware has this version but I guess that it is an nvram problem. _________________ Kernel panic: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!
Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 13049 Location: Behind The Reset Button
Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 3:04 Post subject:
wats6831 wrote:
Ok so then what's my next course of action? JTAG?
Yep.. use jtag to erase nvram & kernel. The router will either let you tftp firmware to it, or if you see the same errors at boot, it may be broke. _________________ [Moderator Deleted]