Troubleshooting

This page describes common problems that users of Debian on the SheevaPlug have run into. If you have any problems with your SheevaPlug, either while trying to install Debian or when running Debian, please look through this page carefully to see whether you can find a solution. If your problem is not covered here, feel free to contact the debian-arm list for help. Always include the full boot log as well as the output of printenv from U-Boot.

U-Boot

Error "Bad Magic Number" when loading image

Some users report that they get the following error when booting:

## Booting image at 00400000 ...
Bad Magic Number

In most cases, the problem is not with the image itself but with loading the image. Take a look at the whole boot log and you'll probably find an earlier error, typically related to loading the image (maybe you specified a wrong location for the boot image; maybe the TFTP server didn't respond; maybe U-Boot failed to load the image from your USB stick). Look for the first problem in your boot log and you'll probably be able to figure out the solution.

Output "T T T T" when loading via TFTP

Some users report that they get the following output when loading an image via TFTP:

T T T T

This means that the TFTP server doesn't respond. Ensure that you specified the right IP address of the TFTP server and location of the image.

Also note that resetting the U-Boot environment may cause the SheevaPlug to try to load an image via TFTP. If you unexpectedly see the T T T messages, check your U-Boot configuration with printenv to ensure it's loading the image from the right location.

Nothing happens after "Uncompressing Linux"

If you see:

Uncompressing Linux

but then nothing happens, it's possible that you didn't configure U-Boot correctly. In order to use Debian, you have make the following change:

setenv mainlineLinux yes
setenv arcNumber 2097
saveenv
reset

Please note that the variables mainlineLinux and arcNumber are case-sensitive and contain one upper-case letter each.

Another possibility is that U-Boot doesn't pass a proper console parameter to the kernel.

Loadting image from a USB stick with FAT fails

U-Boot may have problems loading an image from a FAT32 filesystem whereas FAT works. I believe you can make a FAT filesystem under Linux with the following command:

mkfs.vfat -F 16

Debian installer

Formating the disk is stuck at 33%

Formating the disk may take a long time, especially if you have a large disk. Unfortunately, the progress bar is not updated while the disk is being formated so you may think that it is stuck (at 33%). If this happens, just be patient. The installer is in fact formating your disk.

Debian

New kernel is not automatically activated

If you have installed a new kernel package but you still have the kernel after a reboot, please run:

flash-kernel

and then restart your machine again. This is a known issue.